 Rural Kentucky District Shows SFA Approach Works in
Small Places
This month’s success story takes us to Knox County, KY. Tucked away in the southeastern part of Kentucky near the Tennessee border, this tiny county of 31,000 people boasts seven SFA elementary schools. Despite a high free- and reduced-price lunch population, Knox County SFA schools have enjoyed continuous improvement during the past couple years because of efforts from the district to unify each school around a streamlined SFA implementation and instill the use of consistent data-analysis methods. The results prove that SFA helps struggling readers, regardless of their geography and economic status.
|
“Success for some means nothing, it has to be about success for all." – Wes Moore, keynote speaker.
|
SFA Celebrates 25th Anniversary at ESC
The annual Experienced Sites Conference was held on February 6–8, 2012 in San Antonio, TX. This year, the conference celebrated Success for All’s 25th anniversary, and the foundation ramped up its efforts to engage delegates more than any previous ESC. Here are some of the highlights from the conference:
Wes Moore, author of the best-selling book The Other Wes Moore, gave an inspiring keynote address. Moore talked about the challenges he overcame during his difficult upbringing, from nearly failing out of school and becoming a petty criminal on the streets of the Bronx, to eventually becoming a Rhodes Scholar, a U.S. Army captain in the 82nd Airborne Division, and an economic advisor to the White House. Moore’s speech touched on the thin line in a child’s life that separates him or her from success or failure; a concept that everyone involved with SFA understands.
The Conference Resource Center was transformed into an interactive hub in celebration of the foundation’s 25th anniversary. Attendees were presented with an interactive historical timeline featuring materials from SFA past and present, while live Twitter and Facebook feeds were projected on the big screen to encourage social-media interaction during the sessions.
One of the hot topics at this year’s ESC was the Common Core State Standards. As states begin to phase in the standards for instruction, it is essential that district leaders, principals, and teachers implement programs that are aligned to these standards. Fortunately, the instructional components of SFA, which have been in place for twenty-five years, are aligned to the common core, or as Bob put it during his keynote address: “Success for All was common core before common core was cool.”
163 attendees successfully completed this year’s Star Challenge. We would like to congratulate Ralph Carreathers, facilitator from Barton Elementary in Detroit, for winning the grand prize: free registration for ESC 2013 in Orlando!
|
|
Virginia SFA School Earns State Excellence Award
Glade Hill Elementary in Franklin County, VA, was recently awarded a Virginia Board of Education Excellence Award. This award is given to schools and divisions that meet accountability benchmarks and make strides toward goals for increased achievement and expanded educational offerings. Glade Hill was one of just fourteen schools in Virginia to win this award. It’s a well-deserved honor for a longtime SFA school. Glade Hill started using SFA in 1998 and has been on a steady path of continuous improvement ever since: The school went from 47 percent of third graders meeting reading standards in 1998 to 96 percent in 2008. Most importantly, the students continue to maintain that level. Congratulations to everyone involved!
Click here to read more about Virginia’s Board of Education Excellence Awards.
|
|
|
|
Edward Hynes Elementary Hits 100% on Reading; Returns to New Campus
After a six-year exile faced with obstacles and hardship, the resilient school community of Edward Hynes Elementary finally returned to their home campus in January. The former building, which was destroyed during Hurricane Katrina, has been replaced by a brand-new, state-of-the-art campus. The new facility has three computer labs, a 12,000-book library, and a multipurpose gymnasium. It took seven years of maneuvering with FEMA to procure the funds to build the new campus, leaving the Hynes community without a permanent home. But challenges did not stop the staff and students at this SFA school from reaching a high level of achievement: 100 percent of third graders met reading standards in 2011. Now, with the comforts of a new home, the school community is expected to reach even greater heights.
Click here to read more about Hynes’s new campus, or here for a profile of Hynes on SFAF’s website.
|
|
Amber Charter Principal Talks About Her School’s Improvement in a
New York Times Interview
From PS65Q to Harlem Success Academy, SFA schools in New York City have a history of receiving positive coverage in the local media for their achievements. The Foundation can now officially add Amber Charter School in Manhattan to this list. The New York Times affiliate website SchoolBook recently published an interview with Amber Charter School Principal Vashti Acosta. She came to Amber Charter in 2007 as the director of curriculum and instruction, one year after the SFA program was integrated into the school, and was promoted to principal in 2008. Under her watch, the percentage of students in grades 3–5 who are meeting or exceeding standards on New York State ELA tests has risen from 69 to 88 percent. Amber Charter performs at a high standard despite facing the challenges of a 72 percent poverty level among the student population. The Foundation is thrilled that the spotlight has been placed on Acosta, not just for the students’ good reading performance but also for the positive school culture that she has helped shape at the school.
Follow the Success for All Foundation on Twitter and Facebook!
Follow us on Twitter! Like us on Facebook!
 
|
SFAF Upcoming Conferences
2012 New Leaders Conference
July 16–20, 2012 or
September 24–28, 2012
Four Seasons Hotel Baltimore Baltimore, MD
At the New Leaders Conference, new administrators have the opportunity to prepare for their roles as leaders of Success for All Foundation schools, plan with other leaders from their school, and network with other educators from SFAF sites all over the country. The brochure and registration will be available
this spring.
Questions
If you have any questions about SFAF conferences, please call our Conference Department at (800) 548-4998.
|
Regional & National Conferences
Invite your colleagues to visit
the SFAF exhibit booth at the following conferences this winter:
American Association of School Administrators National Conference on Education
February 16–19, 2012
Houston, TX
Booth 335
March 24–26, 2012
Philadelphia, PA
Booth 1155
|
Recent Posts from
Robert Slavin’s Blog,
Sputnik: Advancing Education Through Innovation and Evidence
Teachers: "We Don't Do Programs"
A Finnish Model Worth Replicating
Newsletter Archives
|