“Don’t be nervous,” principal Tricia McManus at Just Elementary School in West Tampa, Florida tells Kaleion Francis. “We’re going to have a data chat.”
She searches for the fifth-grader’s name on a wall of brightly colored Post-its. Each one sums up a student’s academic performance in a two-inch square. McManus finds Kaleion’s name on a purple sticky, near the bottom of the bulletin board. “Let’s look at reading. You went from a 1 to a 2. Do you think it’s hard?” McManus asks. “I think you’re capable of at least a 3. Do you? Can you read the words? Can you understand the words?” She asks Kaleion how she handles frustration on the FCAT. The 11-year-old places her face in her hands.
The principal reassures the child that she is improving, then helps her set goals for the next round of testing. “Three, five, five. I’m going to hold you to those,” she tells Kaleion, sending her back to class with a box of Hot Tamales candies. “I want you to do your very best when it comes time.”
The scene is from an article by reporter Letitia Stein of the St. Petersburg Times, who looks at a low-SES school struggling mightily to right itself after years of persistent failure. But whether you find this story inspiring or disquieting probably says a lot about you. Stein describes a sign in the school’s office that reads Success for every student is the only option. “It is as much a threat as a vision,” she notes.
No more promoting third-graders who can’t read. No more putting up with bad teachers. No more complaining about how hard it is to teach children who come to school unprepared, or tired, or hungry. As in many experiments, this one has consequences. Students are no longer simply children. At Just, each one represents at least two points, per subject, on the school’s annual grade. Their progress is tracked meticulously on a remorseless rainbow wall of Post-it’s, stickers and silver stars. Students know precisely where they stand in this world, and sometimes the truth hurts.
As a parent and a teacher,” says a letter writer in today’s St. Petersburg Times, ”I wonder why principal McManus has set the burden of raising Just Elementary’s ranking so heavily on the shoulders of the children.” Others disagree. ”This principal is dedicated to helping kids,” writes a commenter on the paper’s message board. ”The FCAT tests the ability to think critically and solve problems. It assesses the standards that everyone agrees should be taught.”
Last spring, Just Elementary was just four points from earning a “C” on its annual report card, Stein notes, meaning if even one more child had passed the FCAT in reading and math, Just would have made it. “Close doesn’t count in hand grenades or FCATs,” concludes Stein, in her next piece will profile a Tampa Bay school that has made the journey from F to A.
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