Efforts to improve school hit home

Valerie Miller

Wednesday, May 31, 2000 | 11:26 a.m.

His school is making strides in turning around test scores that remain among the lowest in the state, but Principal Leary Adams nevertheless knows he must do better.

In the lunchroom, as he walks around, he greets the kids by their first names and in return he is called "Mr. Adams." It's a start.

Adams says the students at Fitzgerald Elementary School first need to learn social skills. Then they can focus on the three "R's."

"Don't bother other people for their food," Adams tells one student. "Don't touch other people's stuff," he tells another.

Fitzgerald, at 2651 N. Revere St. in North Las Vegas, has ranked consistently near the bottom in statewide standardized tests scores over the past three years. Adams was singled out by a state panel as needing a mentor, someone who has experience in dealing with "at-risk" students. He was the first to be assigned a mentor in Clark County under a 1997 law that labels schools by their test scores.

Adams said the recommendation that he have a mentor "stung," because he has been working "in inner-city and urban schools my entire career except for one year." Adams' first job as principal was at Fitzgerald, where he took the reins in 1997 after a teaching career that included a year at Fitzgerald.

"I have a problem with this. It is so unfair," Adams said. "As principals, we can always call on each other for help if we need to, but this is a professional vote of no confidence."

Despite Adams' sense of hurt, a mentor is scheduled to begin working with him in the fall.

The school is under the scrutiny of the state panel -- composed of parents, educators and business people -- as a result of Fitzgerald being listed by the state Board of Education as being "in need of improvement."

To be considered "in need of improvement," a school must have more than 40 percent of its students score in the bottom 25 percent in the country on the TerraNova standardized test. The yearly test is taken in October by fourth, eighth and 10th graders.

Schools listed as in need of improvement receive extra funding and remain eligible for the additional funding for one year after they are taken off the list.

They also are subject to state control after three years on the list. This was Fitzgerald's third year to make the list.

Leadership is not the problem, Adams says. Those who want to improve the scores should look at improving the students' home lives.

"We have students who come to school Monday and tell us how a relative was shot over the weekend, or how they had to visit their mother or father in jail," Adams said.

Part of the North Las Vegas neighborhood where most Fitzgerald students live ranks fourth in the city in the number of violent crimes, according to North Las Vegas Police crime statistics.

"A portion of the area, Carey Arms North, has one of the highest levels of gang activity, where narcotics and weapons arrests and shootings are common." North Las Vegas Police Officer J. Ryan said. "It's a bad neighborhood."

"Students move around a lot," Adams added. "Some leave and never come back, others go to another school. Some just show up again one day."

Adams said that with many of his students, he must first instill in them the values that will inspire them to learn.

"We try to teach these kids social skills. Things like cooperation and manners," he said. "These are skills they may not learn at home, but will need to succeed in life. These kids here sometimes need more guidance than other kids."

Adams appears to be making progress in teaching social skills as he leads a tour of his school. He is like a father to many students, who run up to him and clamor for attention.

He knows that these are some of the students who need his attention the most. They come from an area where unemployment and crime are high and many businesses are out of business, boarded up.

Two-parent homes and stable home lives are more the exception than the rule, Adams said.

"We have close to a 60 percent transiency rate, which means close to two-thirds of our students leave Fitzgerald during the school year," Adams said.

About 75 percent of Fitzgerald's approximately 550 students receive lunch subsidies, Adams said. The percentage is an indicator of how many Fitzgerald students are from low-income families. The Clark County Department of Finance shows 33 percent of the population in the neighborhood fall below the federal poverty level.

"Here at Fitzgerald, we try to help kids succeed in spite of their economic status," Adams said.

An analysis released earlier this month of the Clark County test scores showed that students from poorer homes scored considerably lower on the tests than students from wealthier families.

"Students from poorer backgrounds just don't have the advantages that children from wealthier families do," Superintendent Brian Cram said. "It's not that poor students can't achieve, it's just that they can't afford tutors, going to museums and summer school like more privileged kids are exposed to."

Cram said the district may propose to the 2001 Legislature a bill to provide funding for summer school, so that it would be free to all students.

Assemblyman Wendell Williams, who chairs the Assembly's Education Committee, has vowed to support funding for free summer school. He said the Legislature needs to devote more time to at-risk students.

"We spent a lot of time in the last session talking about the Millennium Scholarships for 'A' and 'B' students," Williams said. "Now we need to concentrate on the children who are at the bottom."

State educational consultant Terry Owens, who presented the state panel's recommendations about Fitzgerald to the School Board last month, acknowledges that the school has improved over the past two years.

"They are on the right path, but they have a long way to go," Owens said. "They are not out of the woods yet."

There are bright spots on the horizon for Fitzgerald Elementary, Adams said. Besides the increases in test scores, the coming change to a nine-month schedule -- after two years as a year-round school -- is a major plus for his school, he said.

After the announcement was made in 1997 about the pending 12-month schedule, more than 60 percent of his teachers left, Adams said. But now teachers are calling him, wanting to teach at Fitzgerald.

"These are good, experienced teachers who want to work here," Adams said. "I don't care if they are coming here because we'll be a nine-month school again, or for some other reason. I'm just grateful to have them for the students."