Saturday, April 11, 1998 | 2:16 a.m.
Twelve minutes before school starts, several pupils outside Gragson Elementary School pound out a drum cadence to signal a new day.
About 850 pupils scramble from every corner of the playground and quickly fall into straight lines around the drummers. Then the beat halts and an eerie silence settles over what had been a blacktop sea of rowdy kids.
After the Pledge of Allegiance and an off-key but boisterous rendition of the school song, students file into their classrooms and are already beginning class work as the first bell rings.
It's a structured, highly disciplined learning environment at Gragson, an at-risk elementary school in eastern Las Vegas where chaotic classrooms and gang activity flourished just three years ago.
But Gragson's new principal and teachers have introduced rules and procedures. The orderly system is one reason test scores at the school have skyrocketed, they say.
"The effect on the whole school is that you have time to teach," first-grade teacher Kelly Adams said. "We've set the routines and procedures and the students have responded."
Clark County School District officials recently released test scores from the nationally standardized TerraNova test, taken by fourth-, eighth- and 10th-grade students in October. Overall, scores by county students hovered around average compared to students nationwide.
But 13 of the schools with the lowest scores in Clark County have been labeled "inadequate," according to a new state law. Those schools may qualify for additional state money and, if no progress is shown, may be subject to state takeover after three years.
The schools labeled inadequate are what officials often term at-risk schools -- schools with high percentages of poor students, some from troubled families, some who do not speak English. Teachers there say they struggle to teach children who face these obstacles.
But some at-risk schools manage to stay off the "inadequate" list despite their at-risk populations and may have lessons to teach the district's lowest-achieving schools.
A look at three of these schools which seem to be beating the odds offers a glimpse at what may be working in Clark County's public schools.
* At Gragson, where some students now voluntarily wear ties, introducing structure and order seems to be one key to learning.
* At John S. Park, in a poor neighborhood just a few blocks from the Stratosphere, teachers use several innovative approaches to teach English to their Spanish-speaking pupils, who represent 41 percent of the school.
* And at Whitney Elementary in southeast Las Vegas, teachers are using several innovative, phonics-heavy programs that spark student interest in reading.
"If our testing shows us a weakness, we're out trying to find something new to correct it," Whitney Assistant Principal Michael Bishop said. "That's part of the game, to find the right system to address the problem."
Gragson
Gragson Elementary was a different school when Principal Lee Douglass arrived three years ago, veteran teachers said. Gang activity regularly seeped inside the building from the neighborhood. Students flashed gang signs and ran through the halls, destroying student work hanging on the walls.
"We were dealing with many challenges," Douglass said in her sugary Atlanta accent, careful not dwell on any negative images of the school's neighborhood.
Now students learn the rules as soon as they enroll at Gragson. They slither silently in single-file lines through the hallways, arms folded -- the picture of discipline.
"Everything is a procedure here," Douglass said. "Students know exactly what to do when they are here. That stability is good for the students."
Other rules keep order in classrooms. In Adams' class, students know exactly what they are supposed to be working on when the first bell rings. Rules dictate that they fold their jackets neatly over the back of their chairs. Backpacks are carefully hung over the jackets.
"I don't see it as too strict," Douglass said. "The parameters are set. The children will tell you that we have brought order, a calmness, safety to the school. There is safety in knowing what to expect."
Douglass also has led the effort to re-decorate Gragson's interior. Student art work covers most of the hallway walls. Inside the school's front door, Douglass put a park bench under a giant paper tree, where Douglass reads to students while shod in her Cat In The Hat slippers.
"Environment is very important," Douglass said. "I've made the school look as warm and inviting as possible so kids and the community would want to be a part of it."
Douglass also replaced her office desk with a round kitchen table, surrounded by four chairs with puffy green cushions.
"I talk with people here," Douglass said. "It says we're doing this together."
A number of teachers left Gragson when Douglass took over, some uneasy about changes. Those who replaced them and the ones who stayed said the school has developed a new attitude. Students now focus on 19 "Skills for Life," such as patience, perseverance and honesty.
One day last week, second-grader Joe Paul brought a pencil he had found to his teacher, Debbie Curtis.
"It wasn't mine," Joe said. "Honesty means you care about other people."
Curtis said the school used to be a "cold place."
"There's been a culture change," Curtis said. "Now it's nice and warm."
Gragson staffers admit that life is not perfect there. Douglass still has about 40 students on a "contract" that students sign, promising to improve their behavior. Gragson last year still had more student suspensions than any other elementary school -- 24 of the 119 at all elementaries -- although Douglass said there have been just three this year.
And Gragson test scores are still below the 50 average, although they have improved this year -- scores were up from 34 to 47 in math, from 32 to 42 in reading and from 32 to 45 in science.
"We celebrate students' successes," teacher Leanne Magnotto said. "We don't make excuses."
Even several pupils who admitted they don't always like some of the rules at Gragson said rules are important.
"We would be bouncing off the walls," without rules, second-grader Matthew Garcia said. "Everybody would be hitting each other and they'd walk away like they didn't do it."
Gragson's day always begins with the Morning Opening ceremony. Teachers helped design the event to force students to focus on the day ahead.
"It sets the tone for the whole day," said music teacher Timothy Wiegand, who leads the student percussion group every morning. "Students come into the school ready to work."
Wiegand is one of the school's 17 male teachers, a high number for an elementary school. Nearly all wear ties and some students, as young as first-grade, now wear ties.
"I've found out how impressionable they are," Adams said. "If they are wearing a shirt and tie because I do, imagine how much they are paying attention to the other things I do in the classroom. Your mood makes or breaks these kids."
Park
At year-round Park Elementary, where teachers face a population of mostly Hispanic children, even the morning announcements are made in Spanish. About 46 percent of the pupils are designated English as a Second Language, which means they speak little to no English.
Park teachers have searched for new ways to teach pupils English so they can perform on the TerraNova test. Students who have no mastery of English -- 46 of 118 fourth-graders -- are exempt from taking the test, which is given only in English.
Teachers said they are trying several new ways to get all students prepared to take the test.
One method Park teachers adopted pairs one Hispanic bilingual teacher with a teacher who is not bilingual. In three such classes of second-graders, the team teachers split their classes of 32 in half -- those proficient in English in one and native Spanish speakers in another.
The teachers then give many lessons in both Spanish and English, often using two white boards, sometimes teaching both languages to all pupils.
Spanish speakers learn English grammar and usage. English speakers use their language skills to pick up Spanish vocabulary and sentence structure.
"My kids learn from her kids and her kids learn from my kids," said Alejandra Tovar, a bilingual teacher who team-teaches a second-grade class with Sheila Reid. "My kids are really becoming bilingual students. They are going to have more opportunities in the job market."
Pupils seem responsive.
"I like Spanish," said second-grader Lauren Correia, a native English speaker who was writing Spanish sentences during a recent morning. "I want to talk to people who don't know English."
Classmate Antonio Torres, who sits at a table with Lauren, said he was trying to learn English.
"I mess up a lot of words," he said.
Tovar and Reid use another technique at their year-round school to sharpen student skills. In "inter-session" classes, teachers and students who are supposed to be on a three-week vacation continue to hold classes.
During the school's most recent track break, the school had five inter-session classes going for nearly 100 pupils, more than most schools that also use inter-sessions. The district pays the teachers for the extra class time.
"At home, most of them don't speak English," Reid said. "It keeps their skills fresh."
Third-grade teachers at Park also make special efforts to coordinate what they teach. Students take the TerraNova in early fall. Since lawmakers are using fourth-grade TerraNova results to evaluate schools, third-grade is the school's last chance to prepare students for the test.
Park's third-grade teachers meet regularly to share ideas, often about different methods used to stress English vocabulary. Third-grade teacher Kelly Groenlykke said she introduces pupils to a few new words every day and the students keep track of them with files of index cards that sit on their desks.
"They know the content in math and science," Groenlykke said. "They can read and write. I just have to give them the English vocabulary so they can translate their skills onto the test. (The TerraNova) comes down to whether or not they are a good reader."
Whitney
Teachers at Whitney Elementary also stress reading and phonics to help raise test scores.
In one program that is rare in the district, older pupils tutor younger ones. The tutoring gives both the tutor and the learner reading practice, teachers said.
"You learn to read by reading," Whitney Principal Francine Mayfield said.
The program runs after school, four days a week for about 45 minutes a session. About 25 third-, fourth- and fifth-graders tutor first- and second-graders. The students huddle in pairs at lunch tables in the cafeteria.
Student tutors said they wanted to be role models and take responsibility for younger peers.
"It makes me feel good to teach the little kids," fifth-grader Shannon Gee said. "I know someone is looking up to me and listening to me -- like I'm a teacher."
Fifth-grader Brittany Gilmore said: "You respect the younger children. It makes me think back to when I was a little child. They're depending on you."
Teachers trained the student tutors for a week on how to help struggling readers sound out words and search for meanings.
In one corner of the cafeteria on a recent afternoon, fourth-grader Christopher Tokar and his "student," Daniel Ingram, lean over the book Ingram reads aloud.
Ingram pauses when he comes to the word "scissors." Christopher points to the word, finally saying it aloud.
"When he gets stuck like that, I wait three seconds and tell him what the word is," Christopher explains.
Later, Christopher explains more about his job.
"It gets frustrating sometimes," he said. "It can get complicated teaching reading."
After the tutoring sessions, the younger students take a book home to read with a parent. Parents are supposed to sign a sheet indicating the reading took place, although not all do.
Whitney teachers Phyllis Holdaway and Melissa Kitchen launched the program with a $1,000 grant after searching for new ways to spark student interest in reading.
"There are a lot of students that needed the opportunity to get more practice," Holdaway said. "This exposes them to vocabulary and reading strategies."
Teachers hope initiatives like the tutoring program will translate to higher test scores.
"All the students are building their fluency, and that can only help them with the test," Kitchen, an English language teacher and facilitator, said.
Education experts agree there are no easy ways to raise test scores. Some of the keys may lie in improving school facilities, getting more parents involved in their children's education and returning to teaching more basics, especially in reading and math.
The district's testing coordinator said she believes the answer may be rooted in a fundamental shift in how people view schools.
"This isn't an educational ill, it's a societal ill," testing coordinator Judy Costa said. "Education is not valued by our whole society. We need to educate parents and families about the importance of educating children."
Gragson teacher Kristie Rodeles agreed there are no quick fixes and no solutions that fit every school.
"This works for us," Rodeles said of the changes at Gragson. "It may not be right for everybody."
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