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After a change in leadership and an infusion of enthusiasm, the USF Patel Partnership School finds itself Marching to a new beat Drumming up success Marching to a new beat

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By ADAM EMERSON

aemerson@tampatrib.com

Published: July 7, 2009

TAMPA - Just a year ago, University of South Florida leaders handed their experiment in elementary education over to the Hillsborough County school district, with the university conceding failure.

The USF Patel Charter School had received an F on the state's report card, and the university said it didn't have the money to turn around its performance.

When the state released its latest report card in June, the newly renamed USF Patel Partnership School received an A, this time under the district's control.

It got there with mostly the same students, the majority of them poor and at-risk. In less than one year: F to A.

"We had a real sense of purpose," said Julie Moors, a fifth-grade teacher who has been with the school on the USF campus since 2000. "We knew we could succeed."

The momentum shifted after the first few weeks of classes, say the teachers who remained and the parents who kept faith.

The district infused the school with new technology, a new curriculum and a new principal.

Administrators delivered the specialized training they promised and made reading, math and science coaches available. They installed new classroom libraries and converted one unused room into a computer lab.

The teachers the district kept relished the new attention.

Fourth-grade teacher Joanna Schaal got to watch the changes in the third-graders she had taught last year at the charter school.

At 25, one of the younger teachers on the staff, she said she was eager for the district's professional development opportunities.

When it came to her lessons, she was encouraged to let students write with freedom, not with a formula. Let the students create, the coaches said.

When writing scores from the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test came out in May, USF Patel posted one of the largest year-to-year leaps of any Hillsborough County school. Ninety percent of its fourth-graders passed the test, compared with 45 percent last year.

"The teachers that were there prior, we had each other, but you need a lot more than that," Schaal said. "It finally felt like it was led by a community of shared beliefs."

Before that, Schaal and others say, that support and those opportunities had been lacking.

Spiral ends with 'F'

The school's troubles reached their peak last summer when the state gave USF Patel Charter its "failing" mark. USF was suffering its own budget cuts, and its leaders said they recognized the charter school students needed more support than the university could afford.

The move angered the school's founders, who, while at the College of Education in 1998, got the school up and running at the urging of then-USF President Betty Castor. Their goal was to reach out to the poor neighborhoods that bordered their campus and encourage researchers to discover the best ways to educate an at-risk population.

The school, however, destabilized, with high turnover among teachers and principals.

When it was first graded by the state, in 2005, it received a D. The next year, Hillsborough Superintendent of Schools MaryEllen Elia threatened to end the charter contract with USF but renewed it after the school raised its grade to a C.

When the school received an F one year ago this month, the charter school board, which included the university provost and USF's education college dean, voted to turn the school over to the district.

USF officials said they still wanted to be a partner and promised more involvement with the school than in years past. As the school year progressed, however, the district asked the university to hold off while administrators overhauled the school and trained their staff, said Barbara Hancock, the school district's general director of elementary education.

Meanwhile, school leaders have been meeting with administrators and faculty in the College of Education to plan for a stronger partnership, Hancock said.

USF College of Education Dean Colleen Kennedy declined to speak with a reporter. Her spokeswoman, Kim Tucker, said Kennedy had a "full calendar."

Tucker released only a written statement from Roger Brindley, chairman of the college's childhood education department, who said he was proud of the school's new principal and pleased with her results.

First step was talking

In one of her first conversations with a staff member, new Principal Lynn Roberts learned that students were talking about their status as an "F" school. To turn that around, she said, she wanted to get to know the children and encourage their parents to get more involved.

The school soon relaunched a PTA that had been dissolved. Roberts wanted the group to begin raising money to develop awards ceremonies for the children. The school would pass out honors recognizing their attendance and citizenship.

Getting to know the students was important, Roberts said, "because I knew what was ahead of them and knew what work we had to do."

Sunshine Sanders, who leads the school's PTA and has two children enrolled there, said membership and participation in the organization increased, and the Hillsborough County PTA offered guidance.

Resurrecting the PTA was an "excellent decision," Sanders said. "I honestly believe it takes a village to raise a child."

Roberts said she is particularly proud of another decision: getting the children involved in a drumline.

At her previous school, Lomax Elementary, a musician started a drumline to build confidence and school pride among the students. That musician, Mark Jenkins, thought the concept would work at Patel as well, and offered to volunteer his time.

Jenkins didn't start teaching the Patel students until April, but by the end of the school year, he said, the children had been performing at a level shown by students he had taught all year at other schools.

"When you bring confidence out in a student, they can achieve whatever they want," Jenkins said.

Roberts knows that other schools have the same challenges but don't experience the same achievement gains.

At Patel, "there was only one way up," she said, but acknowledges there's no magic formula for other schools to follow.

"This professionally for me was a challenge I wanted to take on," she said.

Reporter Adam Emerson can be reached at (813) 259-8285.

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