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Providence Middle School Told to Provide Same Curriculum to All Students


PROVIDENCE -- Many parents whose children attend the Nathanael Greene Middle School regard it as a cut above other middle schools in the city.

But a visting team from the state's school-improvement program, School Accountability for Learning and Teaching, recently found Nathanael Greene, with an enrollment of nearly 900, still has a long way to go before it provides a high-quality education to all its students.

The state has categorized Nathanael Greene as a low-performing, non-improving school. But the visiting team noted that a high percentage of students are nearly achieving standards in several test categories thus placing the school in a good position for improvements when 2003 scores are released later this year.

Nathanael Greene clearly labels students in three distinct programs -- academically advanced, general education, and special education -- and has different academic and behavioral expectations for each, according to the SALT team.

The finding runs contrary to the district's mandate that all children be provided a high-quality education and be challenged to do their best.

"Separating these programs does little to foster an environment of educational or social equity," according to the SALT team, which encouraged the school to decrease the emphasis on labels.

While the advanced academic program is seen as "rigorous and demanding" all students in the program are not challenged, the team said.

And special-education students are generally isolated, socially and academically, from the rest of the student body.

"This isolation greatly hinders the school's capacity to provide special-education students with the learning experiences or expectations that will help them meet standards," according to the report.

The SALT team, which visited the school in April, also urged that gaps in test scores among different racial and ethnic groups be addressed. The performance of whites exceeded that of students from minority backgrounds in all categories -- math, reading, and writing -- with the greatest disparity in math.

Overall in 2002 , 39 percent of eighth graders at Greene met or exceeded the standard in basic math skills, with levels of proficiency at 17 percent for math concepts and 18 percent for problem-solving.

In language arts, 43 percent of students met or surpassed the standard for basic reading comprehension, and 19 percent met or exceeded the standard for reading analysis and interpretation.

In writing effectiveness, the proficiency level was 44 percent, and in writing conventions, 40 percent met or exceeded standards.

The SALT team said Nathanael Greene could go much further in improving instruction and addressing students' social and emotional needs if teachers who share the same students had common planning time.

The absence of common planning time limits teachers' ability to create lessons that enable students to see the connections between subject areas. They also need time to discuss and evaluate students' academic performance and behavior, according to the SALT team.

Both the school and the district recognize the need for common planning time among teacher teams, according to Kate Carbone.

Although the problem is a financial one -- extra teachers would result in a more flexible schedule for all -- Carbone said Friday that it is probable Greene will have common planning time for teams of teachers once a week.

Carbone said she didn't disagree with a single finding in the SALT report.

Even though the visiting educators found a well-run school, saying that the "learning environment is comfortable and supportive," Carbone said she didn't believe the overall tone of the report captured the warmth at Greene.

She said the staff has already acted on some of the team's recommendations, particularly with its emphasis on professional development and reading instruction.

Some teachers use a variety of techniques that draw entire classes into the subject matter.

But most of the instruction is directed by the teacher and involves only one student at a time, with the rest of the class remaining mere observers, the SALT report said.

It said Greene needs to do a better job teaching reading, and noted that the texts provided to students do not always match their individual reading levels. Some students in the advanced academic program are not challenged by the texts given them, while other students may get books that are too difficult for them to grasp.

"We are aiming [for] a lot of professional development" in reading in the coming school year, Carbone said.

Rather than holding workshops after school, when some teachers have other obligations, she said, there will be demonstrations with actual classes during the school day and teachers will be freed up to observe a model lesson.

"We're on the brink of taking the school in a different direction with respect to professional development," Carbone said.

And new books have been ordered that deliver the same content at varying reading levels to meet the needs of both slow and advanced learners, Carbone said.


— Gine Macris
Greene school found lacking, report says
Providence Journal
2003-08-04
http://www.projo.com/education/content/projo_20030804_salt4.a1a80.html

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