L
os Niños Elementary School celebrated their fourth straight year as a performing-plus school. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne visited the school in early November to give them a plaque.
In 2001, former Arizona Governor Jane Hull signed into law Arizona LEARNS, a bill that defined standards for schools and has held them accountable for not meeting those standards and for making progress.
The legislature and state board of education made labels for schools. These labels are “excelling,” “high performing,” “performing plus,” “performing,” “underperforming” and “failing to meet academic standards,” depending a school's baseline level of achievement. They are re-determined every year. It also includes the amount of improvement over time on the AIMS test and the progress on Stanford 9 test over the course of one year.
Not only was Los Niños labeled noteworthy, but special education students saw increases in reading across the board for third-through-fifth-grade. Third-and-fourth-graders saw increases in math scores.
English-language learners saw increases in reading for third-and-fifth-graders, and an increase in math scores for fifth graders.
Principal Herb Springs says these scores come as a direct result of assimilating special education and English-language learners with the general student body, rather than having their own separate classes.
Brenda Quihuis-Ortega, a reading coach at Los Niños, said the “Success for All” program has “done wonders for English-language learners.”
The “Success for All” program encourages students to go beyond the level of reading comprehension they tested at and take on more challenging books.
“Students are pushed. They are not reading at their comfort level,” Quihuis-Ortega said.
Students read for an hour and a half uninterrupted. They get an additional 30 minutes to spend more time perfecting their skills if they haven’t mastered a certain concept.
“We also exposed them (special education students and English-language learners) to grade-level material, so when they took the test they could be successful,” said Elaine Upham, a special education resource teacher at Los Niños.
In the past, these students were doing work below their grade-level.
Jean Olson, a math coach at Los Niños, said their expectations are high for all students.
“If a kid is meeting standards it’s not good enough,” Olson said. “We want them to exceed.”
Olson explained that the school has what they call “Test Talks,” which means teachers go over district benchmarks with students so they know what they need to get to advance to the next level. She said fourth-and-fifth-graders even calculate their points and figure out how many they are away from the next level.
Third, fourth-and-fifth-grade special education and English-language learners in the past were treated differently. Springs said some teachers would go slower with them. When they were put into normal classrooms however, they were pushed at the same level as other students of their grade level.
“They stepped up,” Springs said. “We had the same expectations for them as everybody else.”
The faculty thought some might give up because it was too hard, but just the opposite happened and the students surprised everyone. Springs said in the past, fourth-grade special education students and English-language learners, for example, would only be required to learn second-grade material and were tested accordingly to the level they were being taught. The state board of education now mandates that the AIMS test and Stanford 9 must be administered to all students at their particular grade-level.
“We spend a lot of time talking about our students to help each other and get ideas,” Upham said.
Quihuis-Ortega said she was honored to be recognized by Superintendent Horne.
“All their (teachers) hard work paid off,” Quihuis-Ortega said. “It’s all for the kids.”
Achievements by grade at Los Niños
Third grade:
Special education students
• 23 percent increase in reading scores.
• 18 percent increase in math scores.
English-language learners
• 14 percent growth in reading scores.
• 16 percent decrease in math scores.
Fourth-grade:
Special education students
• 2 percent increase in scores in reading scores.
• 6 percent increase in math scores.
English-language learners
• 10 percent decrease in reading scores
• 1 percent decrease in math scores.
Fifth-grade:
Special education students
• 17 percent growth in reading scores.
• 2 percent decrease in math scores.
English-language learners
• 3 percent growth in reading scores.
• 17 percent growth in math scores.
2009 AZ LEARNS Achievement Profiles by district
In Sunnyside Unified School District (22 schools):
Excelling – 0
High Performing – 2
Performing Plus – 9
Performing – 10
Underperforming – 1
Failing – 0
In Tucson Unified School District (120 schools):
Excelling – 11
High Performing – 0
Performing Plus – 45
Performing – 61
Underperforming – 2
Failing – 1
