Empowered schools score higher marks

Emily Richmond, Las Vegas Sun

Thursday, June 14, 2007 | 8:03 a.m.

Even as the Clark County School District's plans to expand its empowerment schools program seemed uncertain Wednesday, Culley Elementary School Principal Lisa Primas was ready to celebrate.

The campus showed the most dramatic improvement on standardized test scores of the four empowerment schools.

"This is the result of tremendous hard work by the entire school community," Primas said. "We are ecstatic."

The district's third, fourth and fifth graders are tested annually in reading and math , and the results are part of the formula used to determine "Adequate Yearly Progress," as mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Results for all district schools will be released this summer.

The tests are just one indicator and not a final measure of success, said Karlene McCormick-Lee, the associate superintendent who oversees the empowerment schools program.

"I would like to call this is the baseline year," McCormick-Lee said.

However, the four campuses must still meet the progress requirements set by state and the federal laws, despite having undergone dramatic changes in their programs and staff.

The test results showed:

At the four empowerment schools, test performance appears to correlate to how many staff members were replaced for the start of the academic year, McCormick-Lee said. The district required all of the school's employees, from the principal to the custodian, to reapply for their jobs.

Antonello Elementary School kept the highest percentage of its original staff, including the principal, and also showed significant improvement in test scores. Culley Elementary School had a new principal in Primas, but she brought a number of teachers and administrators who had worked with her in the past.

Adams Elementary School hired 14 new staff members. And at Rose Warren Elementary School, Rosanna Gallagher took over as principal and retained just two teachers. The school also overhauled its instructional program, pulling students from different grades together for group lessons.

McCormick-Lee said she wasn't surprised by Warren's test scores, given the drastic changes at the school. She has already met with Gallagher to discuss plans for next year, including rearranging staffing to provide more support to students with limited English proficiency, who showed the steepest drop in test performance.

"I fully expect scores to improve next year," McCormick-Lee said.