The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has released the annual school report cards and Fort Zumwalt is among the tops in the region, with a 94.5 percent. Dr. Paul Myers, Superintendent, and Jennifer Waters, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, point to some important factors in the district’s strong performance:
A supportive Board of Education who understands the financial commitments required year over year.
Conscientious teachers.
Supportive families who send their students to school every day and work with us to equip them to excel.
A consistent administrative team that has a unified focus on the Continuous School Improvement Plan (CSIP).
“We have a very consistent, supportive school board, and I think we’re also beneficiaries of the fact that we have former educators on our board,” Myers says. “They understand the financial commitments year over year.”
“Fort Zumwalt has never been flashy,” Waters says. “We don’t move quickly. We try to be very intentional in the things that we do. We are a slow and steady district and these scores are the result of a lot of work that we have done over several years. It truly is a combination of a lot of things that work together because of the commitment of our teachers.”
The two emphasize that the score is the result of “living by our CSIP.” Its five priorities work together to lift student achievement.
The state scores schools and districts on two sets of standards, the Performance Standards (70 percent of points available) and the Continuous Improvement Standards (30 percent of points available). Fort Zumwalt earned 100% of the points possible for Academic Achievement Status for All Students in English Language Arts (ELA), Mathematics, Science and Social Studies, as well as for our Student Group in Social Studies. The Student Group is On Track in ELA, Math and Science according to state metrics.
In the areas of Academic Achievement Growth, Fort Zumwalt scored Above Average in Academic Achievement Growth for All Students in ELA, Math and Social Studies as well as for our Student Group in ELA and Social Studies. The district scored Average for All Students in Science and for our Student Group for Math. The District scored Below Average for our Student Group in Science. “Our goal now would be to maintain where we are and to improve in some areas,” Waters says. “Just because we have the score that we have doesn’t mean that we’re going to quit working at getting better. This will be a short lived celebration and then we’re back to work.”
Myers attributes the success to a team of highly qualified teachers. “For us, our CSIP has a specific focus on the issue of Recruitment and Retention and our school board lined up in terms of that being their priority.” In just the first year, certified staff departures dropped by 46 percent and support staff departures by 16 percent. “Just that issue alone,” Myers says, “Retaining 46 percent more of your certified staff creates this huge domino effect. Now, in curriculum, you have a baseline of knowledge for your teachers. You’re not starting from Square One. You’re already ahead of the curve. Our instructional coaches walk side-by-side with our teachers. People stay and they develop expertise.” He and Waters added that low turnover among the administrative team also lends a stability that has helped the district stay focused. “I think we are all on the same page as far as focus goes. And I think that can get very hard sometimes in a big district,” Waters says. “But we have truly lived by our CSIP and tried to achieve the goals that we have set out to achieve instead of veering off the path.”
When asked for illustrations of the Board’s support of programs and initiatives, Myers pointed to two prime examples in the eight years since voters approved Proposition K, a 48-cent tax increase. He illustrated how each example was scaled out over time to create the supports for educators and opportunities for students that the district provides now.
“We’ve scaled out our instructional coaches over a period of many years and the Board understands that value in professional development and growth for our faculty,” Myers says. Similarly, it’s taken about five years to build Fort Zumwalt’s United States Department of Labor Certified Apprenticeship Program.
“This is kind of characteristic of Fort Zumwalt in many ways,” Myers says. “To get to the point that we’re at now meant that, in years preceding, before we had a fulltime person and before we scaled out the program, a lot of that work was just additional work on our existing staff. So, that slow and steady approach. You have a staff committed to what's best for kids. They build out these programs and then, when the student population is large enough to support it, then you can add that additional financial level, so that you’re not spending before you have built the program.”
What it all comes down to, both Myers and Waters say, is the dedication and commitment of conscientious teachers.
“It has been very important that we are sure to impart value to our staff,” Myers says. “We’ve changed some little things. We’ve done some big things. But to show genuine care and concern and to be responsive to what your staff is telling you is important.”
He and Waters credit school administrators for their focus on climate and culture. “I think our principals especially, have really paid a lot of attention and done a lot of work to make our buildings places where people want to come to work. We try to be very supportive of teachers in any way that we can,” Waters says.
Another layer in the climate and culture of our schools is the additional support for students, teachers and families. “Our Board has done some things in recent years to add support at our elementary schools and kind of build out what we have available there so that we can more effectively intervene earlier with our elementary students,” Myers says. ”I think the easiest connection is that adding Mental Health Professionals at the elementary schools creates more support for administrators and faculty while helping promote connections with families. Again, that’s not just the Board understanding the financial commitment, it’s the Board understanding the specific impact of what we are asking and why it has that benefit.”