Edward Hynes Charter School

New Orleans, LA

When it came time for fourth graders at Edward Hynes Charter School to take the state reading test this year, the teachers knew the students were well prepared, perhaps more so than children in other grades at the New Orleans school. The students proved them right when 100 percent of the class met or exceeded the grade-level standard on the LEAP, the state reading test.

Those students got a solid foundation in reading when they entered Hynes as kindergartners. That’s when Hynes teachers adopted the instructional framework and materials provided by the Success for All whole-school improvement program. In 2006, when Hynes reopened as a charter school after Hurricane Katrina, the teachers agreed that Success for All, a rigorously evaluated program developed at Johns Hopkins University, would provide the structured curriculum, professional development, data tools, and intervention strategies required to meet their students’ needs.

“Success for All is a template for learning and teaching; in a ninety-minute lesson, it’s got all of the effective strategies for balanced delivery of a good reading lesson,” said Principal Michelle Douglas.
“We felt that with SFA, we were so well trained and moving on our way to reform. We couldn’t imagine teaching children the old way.”

The SFA approach prides itself on putting students on the path to success and on intervening as early as possible when a child’s reading development falters. Hynes’s recent test results reflect the effectiveness of the approach, according to the school’s SFA facilitator, Joan Reilly.

“The foundation offered in first grade and kindergarten is unbelievable,” she said. “It’s very rich in phonics and language development, which lead to later success.”

Students throughout the K–8 school have benefited, as demonstrated in the latest LEAP results: 91 percent of eighth graders met grade-level benchmarks, a significant improvement over previous scores.

The collaborative-learning model incorporates rich discussions of texts, writing, and other active-learning strategies to build vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. With the help of SFA trainers, the Hynes teachers improved students’ discussions and, ultimately, deepened their learning, according to Reilly.

The Hynes staff were confident that they could also help the parents of struggling students to provide more academic support at home. The SFA parental-involvement program provides gradual positive outreach to empower parents to nurture learning at home.

As part of that outreach, Hynes staff members coached parents to get the most out of SFA’s twenty-minute Read-and-Respond homework assignments, which require that both parent and child read together.

“We were helping the parents be more efficient with the kids,” said Douglas. “We ask them, ‘Who are they reading with, and how are they reading at home?’ and then we encourage them to read together and make sure they are using a higher-level book.”

This direct engagement of parents eventually brought struggling students back up to grade level. Nevertheless, Hynes remains focused on continuing the momentum; there is a tendency for scores to taper off as students progress to fifth grade, where the LEAP test carries less importance among educators, according to Douglas. Hynes remains determined, however, to build on the progress of its incoming fifth graders and to ensure that the next group of fourth graders continues the current level of achievement.

But Douglas downplays standardized tests as a true measure of success. What’s more important to her and the Hynes staff, and to the Success for All Foundation as well, is the creation of a learning environment where all students can succeed. 

“It’s not just about the test scores,” she said. “Success for All brought in the collegiality and the collaborative approach to instruction. And the foundation is always kicking it up a notch, making sure we sustain our growth, but always dig deeper to improve learning for all our kids.”