School’s Secret for Success: Reading

Words are everywhere at Lambert Elementary School in Tustin. The classrooms, the school garden, the little paved paths leading to and from the cafeteria, all are decked with bright painted block letters spelling out vocabulary words.

Even physics is taught using poems, such as one about the scientific method second-graders were chanting last week: “Ask your questions. Find them out. Look for answers without a doubt.”

“This way, they can practice reading while they walk, while they do everything,” said Principal Karla Wells, who wears a brooch that spells out the word “READ” and jokes that her teachers are so practiced at making up rhymes that they can turn anything into a poem “in two minutes flat.”

This emphasis on literacy, Wells said, is responsible for Lambert’s giant gains on the Academic Performance Index. But it’s an emphasis that has taken unremitting work. Students are constantly tested; weekend time is spent on extra coaching and on teacher meetings at the principal’s house to discuss how they can help specific students even more.

The result: Lambert’s score jumped 102 points on the state’s new accountability index, which evaluates schools both on their actual scores each year and on whether they improve from year to year. For now, scores are based solely on students’ performance on the Stanford 9 tests. Lambert posted Orange County’s highest gain.

When parents and teachers found out, they dissolved into tears of joy. A neighbor donated ice cream to reward students. And the 717 students were glowing with pride last week.

“We did a really good job on the test,” said 7-year-old Diego Nunez. “We improved 100 points.”

A chorus of voices jumped in: “102 points. 102 points.”

The second-graders said they have vowed to push their scores even higher next year.

Even with the jump, Lambert still posted only 572 out of 1,000 points, significantly lower than the 800-point target state officials have set for all schools.

Looking at the demographics of Lambert’s students, improving scores might seem a daunting task. All of the children are poor enough to qualify for free or reduced-price lunches; 99% are not fluent in English.

Unlike many schools which posted big gains, Lambert’s teachers did not drill students on how to take standardized tests, Wells said.

Instead, everyone from the school aide to the lunch lady to every teacher has focused on improving reading. If students can read, they’ll do well on the test, Wells said.

The teachers use every trick they can think of--from the most cutting-edge diagnostic tests to the low-tech grace of a school garden.

Students, most of whom live in small apartments on Lyon Street in Santa Ana, come to school on Saturdays. They come during vacations. In the afternoons, many stay after school and work on reading. Once they go home, a local community grant has transformed an unused recreation room in one of the Lyon Street apartment buildings into a community education center.

Even the custodial staff is on board. Groundskeeper Bob Zanine helps teachers collect cans and other materials for recycling. He and Wells exchange them for cash and drive to a nursery to buy plants and fertilizer so students and their parents can learn about science in the school’s vegetable garden.

“I never knew my job would include hauling manure,” Wells joked.

Teachers have become expert at using new diagnostic techniques to figure out exactly where students are faltering and what can be done. At least one student in every class is tested every day; all students are tested at least once every 20 days.

The tests allow teachers to know the specific groups of vowel sounds a child is struggling with and indicate specific exercises to master them, said Jenni McGhay, a second-grade teacher.

“I just love being able to have the ability to know what my kids need and be able to give them that,” she said.

McGhay sets up special reading groups for students based on their abilities. But she doesn’t leave them in those groups for months at a time, as teachers may have done in years past. Instead, students are constantly moved around based on what skills they have mastered and what skills they need to work on.

“You have to be really flexible,” McGhay said. “And you have to be always aware of what’s going on in the classroom. But once you see the kids growing right before your eyes, it just feels so good.”

Such teaching can be tiring. McGhay, who is four months’ pregnant, said she rarely allows herself to sit down during the day. In the evenings, she returns home and collapses into bed.

It can also be a difficult adjustment for veteran teachers who may have developed other methods over the years.

That’s one reason the hard-working Wells, who typically puts in 14-hour days, sought teachers who said they were willing to work above and beyond the call of duty. Prospective instructors who raved in interviews about having two months of vacation did not get the job, Wells said. Instead, the school is full of idealistic instructors, who gather in the lounge over lunch and discuss phonics as happily as they do the latest movie. In the evenings, many teachers take courses in reading instruction at UC Irvine.

“The teachers who work here all have passion,” Wells said. “Teaching is your life. Everything you do, you see a potential to teach. You go on vacation, you see shells on the beach, and you think ‘Oh, this would be great for my classroom.’ ”

On weekends and in the evenings, Wells sends her husband, Richard, and her two Irish setters to the backyard to barbecue and gathers her staff together in her family room to read education manuals and discuss how to help specific students.

“The teachers are all young, and they have new ideas and a new vision,” said Jose Martinez, a member of the school’s Parent Teacher Organization.

Martinez has helped Wells in another of her projects at the school: getting immigrant parents, many of whom are often hesitant about getting involved, to feel comfortable at the school.

Each fall, Wells has organized a 10-week seminar for parents, teaching them how to help students with homework and how the American school system works. She even brings in a doctor who urges parents to send their children to school with a mild cold, but to keep them home if they come down with chicken pox.

Two years ago, when she first arrived at Lambert, there were two parents in the PTA. Last week, 150 parents showed up.

Martinez, who has been active in organizing parents, is not satisfied with that figure. He wants more parents to come to the meetings, and he wants the scores to go even higher.

“We want to create a new image of our community,” Martinez said. “We need to make the school even better.”

But even Martinez said he stopped for a day to celebrate when he found out about Lambert’s success on the API. “We were very happy about the scores,” he said. “We worked for this.”