BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
Telegraph Editor
STARKE — While the correlation between discipline problems and academic deficiencies may not be surprising, an ongoing project is looking at how deeply the relationship is affecting Bradford Middle School and making suggestions for improvement.
Superintendent of Schools Will Hartley asked leaders at each school to take on a school improvement project, and BMS Principal Ben Hawkins and Assistant Principal Amy Newman delivered their project to the school board last week.
Hawkins said the middle school has processed 837 discipline referrals so far this year involving 253 students. Of those, 91% were Level 1 or 2 readers. Level 2 is below satisfactory, while Level 1 is inadequate. In both cases, these students are likely to need substantial support if promoted to the next grade.
By and large, Hawkins said, proficient readers are not the students who are getting in trouble.
“They’re in class. They’re primarily focused on academics,” he said.
Seeing the degree of the problem, they have set goals next year that include increase reading comprehension levels by one and a half years in order to decrease disciplinary incidents by 25%.
It’s an attainable goal, Hawkins said, because of cause and effect. If, through remediation, students become better readers, they should be better students all around.
“If we can increase those reading levels, that means those students are more comfortable in the classroom and are not using it as an escape technique, because the vast majority of them are getting in trouble because they don’t want to be in the classroom. If I can’t read, I don’t want to be embarrassed by my peers. So, the best way to do that is I become a distraction, or I put on antics so I still can save face and look cool to my peers, but I also get to escape from that environment,” he said.
They acknowledged several obstacles, including attendance. Lately, attendance is fluctuating between 85% and 88%, which is down from the low 90s at the beginning of the school year.
Also, out of the school’s 656 students, 67% of students are Level 1 or 2 readers in need of significant remediation. Hawkins said many are behind several grade levels. There is also a large age disparity among students, with the population ranging from 11 to 17 years old.
Hawkins said he and Newnan must be creative with the assistance of their hard-working staff.
“We will get the ship right in one way or another — push, pull or drag,” he said.
With only one certified intensive reading teacher on staff, they will need to work on staffing, because you can’t filter that many students through a single teacher in a seven-period day while meeting class-size requirements and providing individual and small-group instruction.
Newman continued, saying they must also identify an instructional coach who can help facilitate reading improvement strategies across the curriculum. When a student cannot read, it is as much a problem in math, science and social studies as in language arts.
“We are going to identify someone who can help us build the capacity of our teachers, and work with our students,” she said.
Strategies include the small group interventions, which began this year in the intensive reading classroom. Newman said they’ve seen “tremendous gains” among the Level 1 students, including a student who began with a pre-K reading level and has progressed to first grade within six months. Some students taking the FAST exam at beginning and middle of the year raised their scores 15 to 20 points.
Strategic scheduling and positive behavior support are additional approaches, as is afterschool tutoring, which began this year. Grant-funded transportation is provided. It is open to all grades and all subject areas.
“Some of our students that won’t work during the day have been at afterschool tutoring every single day and have really made a lot of progress,” Newman said.
To help implement interventions and hire additional support, Hartley announced federal Title I funding, typically shared by the elementary schools, will be split among all the schools.
School Board Member Cheryl Canova asked if moving sixth grade to the elementary schools will be better or worse for the middle school next year. Hartley said, he thinks it will be better, but they will see.
School Board Member Sheila Cummings asked about mentoring. Hawkins said they want to get more mentors in to the school, but most mentoring now takes place because of the staff.
“We have made some tremendous strides,” Hawkins said. “They aren’t so much being academically successful, but socially, they’re being extremely successful. Where back in August in September they were ‘blow it up and burn it down,’ now they have to have a hug every day.”
