A Model for Success- Wells Academy, Steubenville, OH

The Challenge

School officials in Steubenville, Ohio, have learned that there are no shortcuts to transforming struggling schools into ones where high achievement is the rule and not the exception. But they’ve also learned that such progress is possible.

In 2000, the school district’s Wells Academy began partnering with Success for All to improve instruction and raise student achievement. Steubenville – which has 2,200 students, mostly from economically disadvantaged families – adopted SFA after receiving a grant to implement a school-improvement program. The district evaluated several options, but an ABC News special on SFA reading programs caught their eye.

The Results

Since implementing SFA, school improvement has been steady. The Education Trust picked Wells Academy as a winner of the Dispelling the Myth Award in 2008. The school was also a National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence for 2003–04 and 2004–05.

Recently Wells Academy was rated by the Ohio Department of Education as the state’s top public
elementary school. The number-one rating was based on the school’s state performance index, which is a weighted average that looks at a range of student performance indicators on state tests, including students who do not meet, meet, or exceed the standards.

The award is the result of the school’s sustained instructional focus and a commitment to high expectations. Wells Academy students have scored 100% at or above grade level on the Ohio Achievement Test in reading since 2005. Principal Joe Nocera explains it this way: “We don’t expect our students to be at level; we expect them to be above level.”

With SFA, the school has pushed through nearly every barrier – especially barriers associated with children from low-income families. “Before SFA, we heard the term ‘nonreader’,” says Diane Cassucio, Wells Academy facilitator, “but now we don’t hear it.”

“Cooperative learning pushed the students, and now we’ve started using the model beyond just reading and math,” says Melinda Young, programs director, Steubenville City Schools.

She adds, “By now [SFA] is second nature. The nice thing is you could take any teacher out of any classroom, even move them into another building, and they would know exactly where to pick up.
Everyone is on the same page, and everyone knows what is expected.”

Today, Steubenville’s two other elementary schools are enjoying similar progress as SFA partners, joining Wells Academy on the state’s most recent list of 122 Ohio Promise Schools based on their high achievement rates. While proud of such achievements, Nocera insists they are not the main point. “[The ranking] is not what we’re about. We’re trying to teach kids the best we can and have them prepared for the next level.”