As one visitor leaves her office and another enters, Jennifer Olson, the principal at the Irving School in Derby, clears piles of papers off a table.
She’s a ball of energy, anchored by walking sneakers at the bottom of business attire.
Now she’s wiping the table off with a disinfectant.
“There’s been a terrible stomach bug going around,” Olson explains, her voice sounding a bit hoarse.
If Olson seems a bit harried, she has every right to be. The first-year principal just concluded her first round of Connecticut Mastery Tests at Irving, an elementary school of 420 students on Garden Place in Derby.
Olson arrived in Derby in August on a self-made mission — reform the struggling school, which has a deep achievement gap. The school population has a high poverty rate. About 75 percent qualify for free or reduced lunches.
With the CMTs, instead of “teaching to the test,” Olson used the annual tests as a way to build school community and strengthen the “respect” model she brought to Derby from nationally recognized New Haven Public Schools, where she previously worked.
“To me, it was people taking care of each other. That’s what was evident. It was more than just a test,” Olson said.
‘Show What You Know’
Irving is pre‑k through fifth grade. CMTs covered the school’s third, fourth and fifth grades.
But the entire school community, including parents, got kids prepped for this year’s CMTs, Olson said. In addition, having the right attitude for the tests — “show what you know” is a mantra at Irving — was stressed.
Among the initiatives:
- “Buddy classrooms:” Younger students not taking the tests “adopted” older students, sending them notes of encouragements and over-sized posters wishing their peers well.
- Students taking the test wrote about their goals for the CMTs.
- A CMT “VIP Party” for Irving kids who had 100 percent attendance during the testing period
- Students decorated boxes for their teachers. The teachers used the boxes to pick up the testing materials from the front office (“There was glitter everywhere,” Olson remarked).
Why?
The initiatives served several functions.
First and foremost, they were designed to reduce CMT stress for staff and students.
“On that first Monday (March 4), there was no stress,” Olson said.
Secondly, the CMTs were used as an opportunity to build bonds within the school.
An Irving School “climate survey” last year revealed several disturbing results. A good portion of the young students reported that bullying happens at the school. Other students had concerns about safety.
Those survey results are some of the reasons why Olson’s first priority this year was to change the school’s culture.
Finally, the “VIP Party” was designed to get more kids in the building during the highly regulated CMT tests.
Olson said she heard stories from her staff saying that past CMTs were a headache for the school because so many kids had to make up the tests since they were absent the day the tests were given.
Tests makeups are an operational challenge for a small school and it takes time away from classroom learning.
This year, by creating a buzz in the school about the tests and providing an incentive for showing up, the school’s attendance rate for the kids taking the test reached 97 percent — and that’s with a stomach bug tearing through the populace.
“Of special note, grade four had 100 percent attendance on four days of testing,” the principal said.
Heather Lane has been teaching third-grade students at Irving for 14 years.
“This year it was great. The kids were all on board. They were all ready to take it, and they were all excited to take it,” she said of the CMTs.
“They really wanted to be here everyday. And they wanted to do their best — they wanted to show what they know,” she said.
OK, But What About Scores?
In the last few years, state education data shows Irving students haven’t been excelling on the CMTs.
The scores are especially troubling in reading, where the data showed Irving students lagging far behind the rest of the state.
In 2012, 21.2 percent of the 113 students who took the CMT reading test performed “below basic,” according to state data.
Olson expects Irving CMT scores to improve when the results are released — but it’s too early in the reform process to expect a giant improvement.
Her first year has been about righting the ship and setting Irving on a path toward academic advancement.
“I’m hopeful about CMT scores, but I think people recognize that change within a school takes three to five years,” Olson said. “Do I think we’ll see some improvement on test scores in year one? Yes, I think we’ll see some progress. But our focus this year was to really change our school climate. It’s an ongoing process.”
The ‘Alliance’ Lifeline
This school year, as part of Gov. Dannel Malloy’s controversial education reform initiative, Derby schools received $280,532 to make improvements in a plan approved by the state’s Department of Education.
The money — along with Title 1 grants — has been a lifeline to the Irving School, particularly in terms of technology.
When the Valley Indy visited the school Friday, March 15, Olson had just received a shipment of 65 new computers for the classrooms.
Every classroom has a “smart board” — that’s new this year.
Every classroom has at least one iPad — that’s new this year.
The building has WiFi — that’s new this year.
“It’s not just stuff. We used that money to hire a parent liaison and for teacher training,” Olson said. “It (the grants) was very, very important to us.”
The school used Alliance District money to hire three reading specialists. Those tutors just came on board and they’ll be used to help Irving kids who struggle the most with reading.
The work of those new tutors will, hopefully, be reflected in academics, such as the CMT reading test scores.
“We’ll have intervention in place,” Olson said.
The grant money allowed Olson to start her first year at Irving with a bang.
In addition to new philosophies, it’s hard to not get excited when your new boss dumps 65 new computers into your classroom.
“It helped me jump start the building. We needed some type of spark. People pay attention when you see materials coming in and stuff happening,” Olson said.
The Irving teachers, by the way, aren’t sitting around passively — and they’re not waiting on a handout from Derby government.
Want proof?
Visit DonorsChoose.org and type in Derby’s zip code (06418). What follows is a dizzying array of projects teachers are trying to get off the ground at Irving.
The website allows people to donate to the project they want to support.
