Carson Junior High School sits in a corner of an aging northwest Mesa community. Enrollment has dropped continually over the past few years, as it has across many Mesa schools.
More than 80 percent of the school's 800 students qualify for the federal free and reduced-price lunch program. In the diverse population, about 60 percent of the students come from families where English is the primary language.
Arizona lists Carson as a "performing" school. But Carson - according to the federal government - is failing, and has been for more than half a decade.
With AIMS scores failing to improve, the district is required to make drastic changes at the low-income Title I school.
So earlier this year, Mesa leadership sought a "turnaround" principal for the school, and next week, all certificated staff - teachers, counselors, administrators - must re-interview for their jobs.
"Staff at the school have known for years that Carson is in a failing status and this year, they knew changing the staff was an option outlined by the state," said Kathy Bareiss, spokeswoman for the Mesa Unified School District.
The federal law, known as the No Child Left Behind Act, requires states to dictate steps schools must take if they end up in "corrective action," a label slapped on when test scores fail to improve for any one group of students. Test results are examined for each ethnic group, for special education students, for students in low socio-economic situations, for entire grade levels, for English language learners and more.
Last year's AIMS scores rank Carson among the lowest junior highs in Mesa. Seventy percent of seventh-graders and 60 percent of eighth-graders passed the reading portion. Fewer - 61 percent and 40 percent respectively - passed the writing portion.
Less than 50 percent of the students in both grades passed the math test.
For years, the district has been working to get Carson out of its "needs improvement" status - but it requires two years of adequate progress for that to happen. Even if intervention worked, and scores from AIMS tests taken earlier this month show improvement, the school would remain in corrective action next year.
In Carson's case, the federal warning came when test scores for English language learners failed to move forward. Most recently, test scores for the school's special education population came under scrutiny.
"Carson is in restructure implementation this year. Last year, they were in restructure planning. They're kind of the end of the labeling list," said district assistant superintendent Suzie DePrez.
So the next step, DePrez said, is "taking our cue from the federal guidance."
That means following the guidelines of creating a "turnaround school," DePrez said, which includes hiring new leadership - Ray Chavez starts as principal in July - and making staff changes.
To address the academic issues at Carson, consultants were brought in this year. Staff increased the school day and examined special education procedures and processes. The improvement plan includes parent education, common planning time for teachers and new teacher mentoring.
"We're trying to make sure we're doing the best for Carson," DePrez said.
Those changes are sparking excitement, said counselor Cliff Moon, who has been at Carson for two years.
"With Mr. Chavez coming and the newfound knowledge (from the consultants), we're just excited to create a school that we hope will be successful based upon the state and federal standards," Moon said. "We have lots of confidence going into the new year."
Carson is the only Mesa district school in restructure status. Last year, Powell Junior High School was in that situation. The school board closed Powell as it dealt with budget and enrollment issues.
Currently, there are nine Mesa district campuses in "school improvement," meaning one or more categories of students failed to improve test scores from one year to the next. Besides Carson, the others are Emerson and Hawthorne elementary schools and Brimhall, Kino, Mesa, Smith and Taylor junior highs. Fremont Junior High School is "frozen" in year one of school improvement, meaning it made necessary academic progress last year and can get out of "school improvement" status if test scores improve again.
Leon Ceniceros posted at 2:30 pm on Thu, Apr 21, 2011.
YOU MEAN THE OBAMA/DEMOCRAT............"NO ANCHOR BABY LEFT BEHIND" ....ACT.
mesateacher posted at 4:03 pm on Thu, Apr 21, 2011.
If anyone has failed Carson over the years, it's the Mesa School Board and the superintendency. They're in charge of Mesa's incoherent, worthless curriculum and the ones who "encourage" teachers to pass students along year after year who don't know the basics. Notice the locations of the schools that are failing? This is no mystery. Test scores just tell you where the rich kids live. No mention of Stapley or Rhodes, or the Mesa Academy. If Cowan and DePrez had any cajones, what they should do is take 10-20 teachers from the top rated Jr Highs and put them at Carson and see what happens. And DePrez should be the principal and show us how it's done. And the School Board should send their kids/grandkids to school there.
alancook posted at 8:06 am on Sat, Apr 23, 2011.
National math test scores continue to be disappointing. This poor trend persists in spite of new texts, standardized tests with attached implied threats, or laptops in the class. At some point, maybe we should admit that math, as it is taught currently and in the recent past, seems irrelevant to a large percentage of grade school kids.
Why blame a sixth grade student or teacher trapped by meaningless lessons? Teachers are frustrated. Students check out.
The missing element is reality. Instead of insisting that students learn another sixteen formulae, we need to involve them in tangible life projects. And the task must be interesting.
A Trip To The Number Yard is a math book focusing on the building of a bungalow. Odd numbered chapters cover the phases of the project: lot layout, foundation, framing, all the way through until the trim out. The even numbered chapters introduce the math needed for the next stage of building and/or reviews the previous lessons.
This type of project-oriented math engages kids. It is fun. They have a reason to learn the math they may have ignored in the standard lecture format of a class room.
If we really want kids to learn math and to have the lessons be valuable, we need to change the mode of teaching. Our kids can master the math that most adults need. We can’t continue to have class rooms full of math drudges. Instead, we need to change our teaching tactics with real life projects.
Alan Cook
info@thenumberyard.com
www.thenumberyard.com
quietgardens posted at 7:18 am on Sun, Apr 24, 2011.
Whoa! I have taught 3 types of students over the years.
The first are students whose parents entire goal is education. They go to school everyday. They learn the langugage (if they don't already know it). They do all of their classwork/homework EVERY day. They read every night (I taught Kindergarten). These are the dream students for teachers. We mostly direct them, and the parents provide the motivation and the effort.
The second are students whose parents entire goal is to get the kids out of the house. Go to school, okay (when they feel like it). Sit and socialize with kids all day, because school is all fun, fun, fun (no work, in other words). They do their class/homework when the mood strikes them. They hardly read outside of class (and hardly read inside class). But when vacation hits (and many times it is during the school year), it is time to spend "family time" and pull them out, even though their child is struggling to keep up with the class. Many times their behavior is atrocious and frequently interrupt instruction during each day. And many times these same parents are complaining to administration about some hokus story about how their little precious isn't the teachers favorite.
Then there are those in between. They could really go far, but parents sometimes push their kids in school. They are sometimes challenged, sometimes not, usually show up to school, and do okay, but not great.
The silly thing is that ALL of these types of kids are bright, can learn tons, and it doesn't matter if they know English or not. Their progress is all based on the parents. And that is one thing the school district can't do a darn thing about. That is the one thing the journalists never talk about in their articls. And the one thing the President never addresses in his speeches.
Changes do need to be made. But firing the teachers of this underperforming class was the wrong strategy. The next round won't do any better, and you will have severely affected the future of all these teachers' careers you just fired.
Science Teacher posted at 9:37 pm on Sun, May 15, 2011.
As a soon to be former teacher at Carson, I hope all the best for the future of Carson and its students. Something needs to be done.
The article states that part of our "fix" was common planning time. That's funny because we had only a couple of days TOTAL all year for common planning time. Instead our PLC time was used as weekly inservice PD.
I am excited to see a new principal come in. To hear that he will demand hard work is encouraging. I am used to hard work. I arrive 7:30-8 and leave between 5-8pm. I am used to hard work and am very dedicated to pursueing better methods and techniqes. But, I am no longer wanted at Carson. I choose to believe that will be a blessing for me.
many or our students have been permitted to are lazy. They argue when I expect them to learn. I can't tell you how many whined about having to write "soooo much" when I expect 2-3 sentences from them. We have excused so much because of their lives that they expect to get away with skimming by. First of all, they know they will still move on to the next grade regardless of their effort.
I really hope the best for Carson. The students deserve a good education. The teachers have a right to expect that in their classroom they will teach and no student will be permitted to prevent that from happening. Teachers also need to know that they work for an administrator that behaves in a professional manner, is not constantly ridiculing teachers that they NEVER had students steal from them, destroy things, nor be so disruptive. To actually blame a teacher because it must be there lack of management that a student would be defiant right in front of the principal. Could never be the student's fault nor fault of a system that has permitted students to get away with so much that they know they can and don't care.
I want the best for Carson. I won't let their not wanting me anymore knock me down. I am a good teacher. I care for my students. I want them to want to do their best. I will be a good teacher for students elsewhere.