The students in Kathleen Poole鈥檚 school face different challenges than their peers at some of the other elementary schools in the Bellevue School District.
There are at least 18 different languages spoken at Ardmore Elementary School, which is nestled at the end of a long winding road in a quiet wooded neighborhood just east of the Microsoft campus. Forty-two percent of students in the school are on free and reduced lunch programs. The school qualifies for additional federal funding under Title I. Its parent teacher association raises less than $10,000 annually, compared to the hundreds of thousands that other PTAs in the district can muster.
No matter how you slice it, Ardmore and the four other Title I schools in the Bellevue district, exemplify the so-called achievement gap that persists in America鈥檚 classrooms. Students from families with money and power 鈥� usually whites and Asian Americans 鈥� are doing better in school. Other minority students and those from low-income families, meanwhile, are too often left behind.
But thanks to the UW鈥檚 Experienced School Leaders Program and some willing colleagues in her district, Poole, the principal at Ardmore, says her school will enter the upcoming academic year with at least one advantage over its Bellevue counterparts. Smaller class sizes.
鈥淵ou can鈥檛 do it with 1 to 29 the same way you can do it with 1 to 18,鈥� Poole said from her office at the school.
Poole was one of 11 people from the Bellevue School District who participated in ESLP, a program operated by the Center for Educational Leadership. Among those 11 were seven principals from the district鈥檚 16 elementary schools.
Their goal during the course of the yearlong program became to help elementary school students in the district鈥檚 five Title I schools achieve at the same level as their peers attending schools in more affluent neighborhoods. That jibed nicely with the district鈥檚 mission to get every student prepared for success in high school advance placement courses and, ultimately, college.
One of the best ways, the principals thought, to help students would be to give them more individualized attention. That could only be done with smaller class sizes.
鈥淲e got to playing around with the numbers and then realized, 鈥榃ait a minute, we can do this,鈥� 鈥� Poole said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a difference of one or two kids, not 10. If it had been much larger I don鈥檛 think anybody would have felt good about it.鈥�
And according to one of the 91探花instructors for the ESLP, shifting resources to the at-risk schools is simply the right thing to do.
鈥淜ids who have less need more, from my point of view,鈥� said Mike Copland, who co-taught the course with John Morefield. 鈥淭here clearly is a tradeoff. There鈥檚 going to be a bump in some of the class sizes in some of these schools. But on par, the help that can be given to the kids who really need it the most, with additional teachers in each of these schools, far outweighs the concerns in the other schools.鈥�
Eleven elementary schools will reduce their staff by two full-time equivalent employees. Those resources will be shifted to the five Title I schools. On the one hand the plan is just simple math. On the other hand, it鈥檚 a major shift.
鈥淭his is so atypical and so laudable,鈥� Copland said. 鈥淭hese principals came together and said, 鈥榃e recognize these disparities exist in our own system and here鈥檚 one way we can make a little bit of headway in closing that gap.鈥� 鈥�
What happened with the Bellevue principals is an exception in the sense that teamwork doesn鈥檛 generally span an entire school district. Usually educators think provincially, in terms of the building they鈥檙e working in every day, according to Poole.
鈥淢y first concern has always been the kids at Ardmore,鈥� she said. 鈥淲ell, that has shifted. The district is now my concern. So if kids aren鈥檛 doing well at Ardmore, it鈥檚 as big a problem for the other principals as it is for me. Principals and school buildings tend to operate as islands within a larger whole, so that has been an extraordinary shift.鈥�
And one that鈥檚 necessary given the contrasting backgrounds of the students, Copland and Poole agree. In the more affluent schools most students grow up with economic resources that allow them to attend the Seattle Children鈥檚 Theater, play on soccer teams, go to museums and much more.
鈥淲ith my kids, that鈥檚 not true,鈥� Poole said. 鈥淚f education doesn鈥檛 get in the middle of them, their chances of realizing their dreams are very limited because they鈥檙e already three laps behind the kids in Medina.鈥�
Poole said she looks at the project on a three-year timetable. Currently about 60 percent of the students at Ardmore are performing at grade level. She鈥檇 like to see that jump to 75 percent next year and at the end of three years she鈥檇 like to see 90 percent of Ardmore students performing at grade level.
If that goal is met it will be satisfying not only to Poole and her colleagues in Bellevue.
鈥淥ne of the things that Center for Educational Leadership Director Steve Fink and Mike Copland both said at the beginning of the course was, 鈥業t isn鈥檛 enough for us that this course makes a difference to you. It has to make a difference to kids and to learning,鈥� 鈥� Poole said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what we鈥檙e after 鈥� an influence on the greater good.鈥� They really did live that mission in this district, I think.鈥�