Steal These Ideas: Our 20 Schools of Distinction Winners Share Their Best Advice

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Ok, "steal" might be too strong a word for some of you. How about "copy"? Or "replicate"?

Whatever it is, you should certainly do something with the priceless advice and strategies described here. Here, the principals of this year's 20 Intel Scholastic Schools of Distinction share with readers a total of 47 of their best practices. If you have time to read only one story in this issue of Scholastic Administr@tor, make it this one. You'd be hard-pressed to find an article in any publication anywhere that's as chock-full of good educational ideas.

Now start reading-and then start replicating your favorites!

Dos and Don'ts of Construction

Designing a new school requires so much attention to detail that it's easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. Ed Bernetich, principal of Beachwood Middle School in Beachwood, Ohio, oversaw construction of his $15 million school, which opened last year. He says the key to building a school that supports a full range of teaching and learning styles is to stay focused on instruction instead of construction. Here's what he learned during the building process:

1. DO allow everyone to think out of the box before making decisions. Setting the tone for an open and collaborative dialogue, the architect asked staff and administrators to describe the perfect school. "He really got us thinking about what this could be," Bernetich says. One decision the team made was to lease laptops for every student rather than build computer labs or set up areas for computers in each classroom.

2. DON'T stick to one teaching philosophy. The new school replaced a 1969 school building that was designed around the Open Space philosophy of teaching, with no interior walls for separate classrooms. Bernetich says the structural components of any building should be adaptable to all sorts of teaching and learning styles and to any new philosophies that may develop.

3. DO build teaching flexibility into the plan. The architect held six separate meetings with teachers to discuss what they wanted to see in their classrooms. Because teachers had very different teaching styles and needs, Bernetich purchased portable furniture and set up white boards on two sides of each classroom, giving teachers greater freedom in arranging their own rooms. "Structurally, the classrooms are identical, but they [can] look completely different, depending on how teachers set them up," he says.

4. DO share with the voting public. Bernetich wanted to share the school with the community and create multipurpose spaces. The school's state-of-the-art
theater hosts plays by the local theater group, screenings of old movies, and town meetings. The gym is open from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. to accommodate youth and adult basketball leagues. Senior citizen luncheons take place in the commons area, which doubles as the school's entrance. "The commons area was initially going to be a library, but we wanted to create a space for people to gather," Bernetich says.

5. DO create spaces that acknowledge how much you value staff. The staff lounge is double the size of a traditional teachers' lounge and "really encourages the open exchange of ideas," says Bernetich. Providing teachers with a well-appointed space makes them feel valued as professionals. The lounge is so popular, in fact, that the rest of the district uses it for meetings and events. According to Bernetich, "It's booked more than our theater."

How to Foster a College-Bound Attitude

Here we look at the ways three schools motivate more students to apply to college-and to be successful once they get there.

1. Abraham Lincoln High School in San Jose, California, created the Gear-Up program, which links high-school students with student mentors from nearby San Jose State University. The goal is to get 80 percent of its teens attending four-year colleges. The program gives students one-on-one tutoring, academic guidance, and a taste of college life. Workshops are conducted for parents who might never have dreamed their children would attend college.

2. Administrators at Gretchen Whitney High School in Cerritos, California, help graduates transition from high school to college through a three-day mountain retreat, in which students discuss the issues they'll face as college freshmen.

3. KIPP Academy Charter School in the Bronx, New York, has created the KIPP to College (KTC) program, a scholarship fund founded in 2000 to ensure that its students reach their goals of higher education. In a school where 91 percent of students receive free or reduced lunch, an impressive 85 percent are expected to go on to four-year colleges.

Five Ways to Welcome Parents

Summit Elementary School in Ashland, Kentucky, draws parents to the school in record numbers. If Summit can do it, so can you. Here are some ideas:

1. Start a Parent-Volunteer Training Program. Parents at Summit Elementary are considered part of the professional staff, and each year they receive training prior to working in the school. A wide range of parent-based professional development events, workshops, and conferences get everyone on the same page. More than 800 volunteers have signed up this year.

2. Hold a Parent Conference. Summit Elementary is now in its eighth year of hosting an annual parent conference, run in the same way as a professional meeting. It's held each year at the local community college and attracts more than 300 attendees. Parents hear a keynote speaker and attend various workshops.

3. Open a Parent University.
Think about offering parents school-related training on such topics as homework help, bullying, and the physical and cognitive health of children. At Summit Elementary, an average of 85 participants attend such sessions!

4. Initiate a Bring-Your-Parent-to-School Night. Some schools like Summit Elementary have taken the concept of "Bring Your Sons and Daughters to Work Day" and turned it on its head. Why not host evenings in which parents participate in such classes as math, science, and writing while children play in the school's gym? As an added incentive, the school provides free child care for preschoolers.

5. Create Parent Leadership Teams. These teams can meet monthly or bimonthly to review school improvement plans, assessment scores, policies, and procedures, and make recommendations. Summit Elementary invites all parents to join its leadership team, and each year at least one or two of its members participate in Kentucky's Commonwealth Institute for Parent Leadership.

Find Great Partners

Robert Frost wrote that good fences make good neighbors. But innovative schools know that breaking down barriers in their community can build invaluable partnerships.

Partner with the local police department. The best neighborhood-watch group in Dallas is the Bishop Dunne Catholic School. The school originally joined up with the Dallas Police Department to study crime in the neighborhood around the school by using the school's high-powered geographic information system (GIS). Students analyzed crime data provided by the police, then produced monthly maps for apartment managers and store owners.

Partner with a college. Located on the campus of Queens College in New York City, Townsend Harris High School regularly collaborates with the college. Seniors take courses at the college for credit, and the two schools have also joined forces to improve the quality of education long-term. Faculty from both schools work in a laboratory setting, developing, implementing, and evaluating innovative learning projects. What's more, Townsend Harris serves as an ongoing training institute for student teachers and counseling interns.

Partner with a state government agency. New Albany High School in New Albany, Ohio, forged a partnership with Ohio State University and the Office of Environmental Services at the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) that gave environmental-studies students a chance to help develop and monitor rare wetlands on property near the school. The students did such an outstanding job that ODOT transferred the deed for the wetlands to the school. From now on, the students will act as stewards for the land.

Become A Team

Until four years ago, Kendale Elementary School in Miami was a typical school, with primary leadership responsibility firmly in the hands of the principal and assistant principal. "The mind-set had to change," remembers teacher Elizabeth Webster. "The administration had to let go of power and learn there are many leaders in this building."

Kendale's principal, Kristine Dittmar, did make it her mission to let go. The school moved away from its silo system, in which teachers met with teachers, custodians with custodians, and parents with other parents-with little communication among these groups. Today, the school has switched to a cascading leadership system, using quality-improvement teams made up of students and representatives from instructional, clerical, cafeteria, and plant operations. Every staff member is required to participate on a team, all of which recommend actions and plan school improvements. The result is extraordinary interdepartmental communication, with everyone up-to-date on the issues at hand.

And Dittmar no longer feels as though she is pressing new ideas on her staff. Instead, the staff brings solutions and ideas to the principal. Says Dittmar, "The team approach is one of the most rewarding things to happen
to me as an administrator."

Eight Lessons We've Learned About Professional Development

Teacher quality has always been important to administrators. Now that it's mandated by law, it's more important than ever. The principals at Sherman Oaks Community Charter School in San Jose, California, and Deer Creek Prairie Vale Elementary School in Edmond, Oklahoma, have made it their missions to grow their professional staff.

1. Don't change your long-term goals from year to year. Strategies change according to teacher and student needs. Always keep in mind that it can take a few years to reach more complex goals.

2. Remember that personal choice is the key motivator in all learning. Adults learn no differently than children. Let teachers have some choice within a framework of defined expectations. Provide resources and then get out of the way. Teachers' creativity will flow and their energy will soar.

3. Create a system that lets new teachers succeed. Before teachers are hired at Prairie Vale Elementary, they must undergo a team interview that helps Principal Toni Jones determine if the candidate will be a good fit with the staff. New teachers arrive at school a week early for a mini-institute that reviews many of the school's unique or complicated academic programs. Each new teacher meets with a mentor at the same time every day for regular planning.

4. Broaden the definition of staff development to include playing together. Teamwork is instrumental in nurturing a strong school culture. Teachers at Sherman Oaks get together for hiking, camping, kayaking, surfing, sailing, and cheering on the home team at sporting events. Staff members cook family-style meals for one another every week and kick off the year with a retreat at a beach resort.

5. Create a process for teachers to thrive with technology. In one pilot program at Prairie Vale, veteran teachers videotape themselves and assess their performances against district standards. Veteran teachers at Sherman Oaks take one-week mini-sabbaticals to attend various media programs. They then mentor their colleagues on applying these program skills in the classroom.

6. Don't waste teachers' time. Solve logistical questions and concerns via e-mail.

7. Inaugurate a top-down culture of professional development. Everyone needs continuing professional development. Prairie Vale's Principal Jones, for example, spent a month in Japan on a Fulbright Award studying math instruction. Her superintendent took over daily management of the school so Jones could grow professionally.

8. Carve out daily time for staff development. Sherman Oaks' schedule includes a daily 60-minute Mid-Day Block. This year, teachers dedicated three days a week to staff development and two days a week to lesson planning.

Train Your Parents to Teach

Many schools use parents as an extra pair of hands. At Cornerstone@Pedregal Charter School in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, parents are required to work 3.5 hours a week in their child's classroom. To assist the parents, Cornerstone gives them a crash course in student teaching. Here are a few of the tools they used:

• Pamphlet outlining guidelines for teaching parents
• Safety responsibility card
• Monthly in-service training sessions run by teachers
• Writing workshops
• Hands-on equation training for grades 3, 4, and 5
• Food allergy awareness training
• Science lab training sessions
• Standards-based report-card training
• Parenting seminars

An Elementary Tech-Support Idea

High-school kids manning help desks is nothing new, but it is for the K-5 set. At Talbot Hill Elementary School in Renton, Washington, a team of "Tech Kids" provides ongoing staff development in technology. It began in 2001 when two Talbot Hill teachers attended a training program run by a local nonprofit organization trying to bring together technologically capable students and educators. The teachers then trained 12 tech-savvy kids at Talbot who, in turn, mentor teachers on maintaining technology, using software, and creating integrated lessons. This young tech-support team also helps other classmates research projects online and create multimedia projects.

How to Bridge the Digital Divide

All it took was a trip to the local superstore for Beverly Miller, director of technology systems in Greeneville (TN) City Schools, to be reminded of the impact school programs are having on this rural community. As Miller was strolling the aisles earlier this year, a single father of three approached her. He said that if it hadn't been for Greeneville Middle School's effort to bridge the digital divide, his family wouldn't be where it is today. Through the middle school's Project HomeLink program, the man's sons received a computer, basic web training, and Internet access. Once the kids were up to speed on the technology, they taught their dad PowerPoint, and he used these new computer skills to land a better job.

Miller came up with the Project HomeLink idea when she arrived at the district eight years ago-after a decade in corporate high tech. She realized that many students lived out of town, far from library computers, and without the means to purchase computers of their own. "My philosophy is that no child should ever be deprived of technology due to cost," she says, and she set out to get these families computers. Miller knew the district purchased its computers through three rotating leases with the option to buy the computers for a dollar each when the lease ran out. The district consented to buy these and pass them on to needy families.

Next came the problem of Internet service. Miller approached the company that owned the local newspaper and ISP, XTN Corporation, which agreed to give the school 50 free Internet accounts for the kids. In fact, XTN was so enthused about the project, it also offered 75 56K modems that were no longer in use. Once the tech equipment was in hand, Miller's team pulled together a training program to teach kids about web resources and research and to bring parents up-to-date on Internet safety issues.

Finally, they resolved the issue of customer service. Greeneville students have spent the past three months going through a training and certification process. When they're through, one of their jobs will be to man a call-in "help desk" for the HomeLink families.

"Rural America may have a higher poverty level and fewer resources," Miller notes, "but through good partnerships and funding-and lots of creative thinking-we are able to solve our problems."

Small Administrative Changes That Make a Big Impact

Let people do what they're paid to do. That means letting teachers teach, rather than deal with "administrivia," says John Doherty, principal of Arthur W. Coolidge Middle School in Reading, Massachusetts. Doherty points to three small administrative changes that have made a difference at his school.

Getting rid of timed period bells. By eliminating the timed bells between classes, teachers control the environment, rather than the other way around. "It became less of a horse race and more of a flow," Doherty says.

Making homework mandatory. Five years ago, the Reading school district adopted a school-wide homework policy requiring completion of all the assignments. Now, teachers don't have to police students, and fewer than 5 percent of students neglect to hand in their work!

Taking class failure off the table. After attending a conference in which fellow School of Distinction recipient Beachwood Middle School presented its ABC Incomplete program, Doherty implemented a similar program at his school, eliminating the option to fail. Students who receive a grade below a C are required to take remedial classes to improve their performance. "Everything comes down to the success of our kids," says Doherty. Students and parents don't see the remediation as a punishment, he says. Instead, students see it as a way to catch up to the performance level of the rest of their class, as well as to fully reach their own potential.

Articulate a Unifying Mission

The best schools have an overarching vision that all school constituents hold sacred. Administrators at Edith Scheuerman Elementary School in Garden City, Kansas, worked on the school's vision with a team of staff, parents, and business partners. After much deliberation, the team decided on the following: Becoming our best in a supportive environment by celebrating diversity, utilizing life experiences, and realizing the importance of partnerships in educating today's and tomorrow's youth-better known at the school as BOB SECURITY.

Use Technology to Close Gaps

Walnut Hill Elementary School in Dallas, Texas, earns high honors in its quest for excellence. Teachers and staff nurture 124 special needs students and 209 foreign-language pupils. Out of a student body of 473, one quarter are ESL students. All that diversity doesn't faze the staff at Walnut Hill. Their mission is to create an environment where all students are met "where they are" and immersed in a culture of excellence, tolerance, responsibility, and unity.

Walnut Hill offers traditional, mixed-age, looping, two-way Spanish/English immersion and departmentalized classes and is committed to embracing every special needs learner. The school has succeeded in using technology to close the gaps in kids' learning. For instance, to assess how well their ESL students are reading from the start of the year, K-2 teachers administer a state reading test on Palm handhelds and download results to a web site within minutes! Teachers throughout the school also use interactive white boards to create dynamic computer-based multimedia learning environments that accommodate different learning styles.

Create Individualized Learning Plans for Everyone

Tracie Fraley, principal at MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas, is motivated by a story her superintendent tells about a boy named Joey. When asked what makes America great, Joey answers that it's the only place in the world where everybody has a chance to become smart. "I take that message to heart. And I'll do whatever I can to give kids every resource possible to reach their highest potential," Fraley vows. As a result, the school has created individualized learning plans for each of its 2,000-plus students, customizing the learning process so that really no child is left behind.

Four Lessons Learned

Dr. Mike Hall has moved from the helm of Houston County High School in Georgia to a new role as Deputy Superintendent for Information Technology at the Georgia Department of Education. Hall is helping the DOE establish 12 pilot "model technology schools" this year to identify and develop successful technology programs in schools. We asked what he learned as the principal of Houston County High School that will help him make an impact at the state level.

1. Developing good leaders is critical, Hall says, and so the state is partnering with the Georgia Leadership Institute to train administrators on how to move their schools toward more technology solutions.

2. Realize that leaders may initiate change, but teachers actually make these changes. Hall learned at Houston that getting teachers to buy into what administrators are doing is the most difficult part of the process. What's more, many teachers are still resistant to the fact that technology has changed their role as the source of information to the facilitator of information. Therefore, once the Leadership Institute trainings are complete, Hall plans to work with teachers on new skills.

3. Recruit great people and start building a wave of technology. "Once you get new programs and projects happening," Hall says, "it begins to grow on its own-and then it takes off." But it's hard work getting started. He has already pulled Kim Quinn into the fold-she's a former Maine DOE staffer who ran the state's laptop program.

4. Understand that technology is everywhere. Hall says the superintendent of Houston County understood technology's impact and worked to make Houston the first wireless community in the country. Now, Georgia's governor is vowing to make the whole state wireless!

Reach Out to Families in Need

Schools today can be much more than just institutions where kids are taught to read and write-they can also be safe places for families to find help, particularly when so many human service programs are stretched thin. Irmo Elementary School in Irmo, South Carolina, is such a place. Irmo is one of only 17 schools in the nation to win a national Safe Schools Healthy Students grant in which social workers and counselors work with families on parenting and conflict-management skills. School leaders reach out to struggling families on a regular basis, with counseling services available to develop rapport and give parents a safe environment to discuss their needs. Going one step further, Irmo takes its outreach program on the road-hosting cookouts at nearby housing projects, providing food for Thanksgiving dinners and gifts for the holidays. Special contributions are collected for some students to use for book fairs and holiday shopping and to purchase school shirts and yearbooks. Parenting workshops are offered throughout the year, and a mentoring program provides caring adults to help students struggling with self-esteem issues or academics.

Pamela Wheaton Shorr is editor of The Heller Reports' Educational Sales and Marketing Insider, and is a frequent contributor to Scholastic Administr@tor.

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