While Andrew Davis was the lone parent to attend the first “Community Meeting” at the Irving School back in September, he was not discouraged.
There was an energy in the gym among the students and staff that was contagious.
“I was very excited to see it,” Davis said. “That’s why I haven’t missed once since.”
The Irving get-together happens every Wednesday at 2 p.m. — and now lots of parents are joining Davis in the bleachers.
On Nov. 28, there were about 60 parents at the kindergarten through fifth-grade school.
They came to watch their kids dance, give book reports, honor the school’s student “VIPs,” listen to speakers from Derby Public Library, cheer on the new appointees to the school’s ‘safety patrol,’ and see which classes earned the all-important “Golden Broom” and “Golden Torch” awards.
Check out the video for a few highlights from the weekly event.
On the surface it looks sounds like a typical school assembly. And, to the 400 happy kids on hand, it was.
But the weekly “Community Meetings” are also part of a reform initiative to overhaul the school, which faces serious and systemic hurdles in its bid to improve academic performance and create a culture that promotes learning.
The Valley Indy first checked in with new Irving School principal Jennifer Olson in September, just before school started. She outlined the “respect model” aimed at changing the atmosphere in the school.
It’s a highly structured system aimed at improving behaviors and academics in struggling schools such as Irving.
Click here to read the earlier story.
Parents say the changes in the school are obvious. First and foremost, parents are being brought into the fold.
“When you walk in the hallways, the students look you in the eye and say hello to you,” said Stacey Whelan, a co-founder of the school’s Parent Teacher Association and mom to a fourth-grade son.
When the Valley Indy first chatted with Olson in early September, the school district was applying for $280,532 in extra funding as part of Connecticut’s highly-publicized education reform initiative.
Derby qualified for the extra state funding because it is among the most “under-performing” school districts in Connecticut.
The Challenge
Derby’s funding application was approved in October and was made public on the state education department’s website shortly thereafter.
The 65-page document, posted below, has a number of eye-opening statements describing the underlying issues in the school district — and Irving in particular.
It indicates that Derby, despite being the smallest city in the state, has a two-tier — or “bad school/good school” — system at the elementary school level.
Many children at Irving come from low-income families. Children from families with more money tend to go the Bradley School on the east side of Derby.
From the Derby school application to the state:
- 67 percent of the students at Irving qualify for free or reduced-price lunches
- 57 percent are members of minority groups
- 14 percent are in special education
- 8 percent are English language learners
There is a substantial achievement gap, in general, within Derby Public Schools.
From the application:
- “31.6 percent of Derby’s low-income students scored at or above goal in the fourth grade scores in reading compared to 68 percent of non-low income students… “
- “ …This gap is not only between the ‘haves and have nots,’ but, in Derby, it’s also geographical. Irving School reports that 67 percent of their students are eligible for free or reduced lunches, while at Bradley, only 23 percent of children are eligible.”
Compounding the problem — Derby’s data to the state indicates some parents simply aren’t equipped to provide an educational foundation at home.
In 2000, 22 percent of Derby adults did not have a high school diploma. That percentage now hovers at about 15 percent.
“While the figures have improved in the past 10 years (15 percent), they are still reflective of a resident population that may not value education or have the skills necessary to assist their children,” Derby’s application for state funding reads.
Also, the Irving School neighborhoods on Derby’s west side have transformed, the application notes, from white, owner-occupied housing to “a more transient, diverse population.”
For various reasons, including a lack of teacher training due to budget woes, instructors at Irving haven’t been able to adjust to the new demographics.
“As the community changed, there has been little work done to support teachers in addressing the specific needs of minority students,” Derby’s application states.
As a result, an unspecified number of Irving families in recent years have fought to have their children transferred to Derby’s Bradley School, which was allowed under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
Finally, in past years, students at Irving just didn’t safe in the school, according to Derby’s application.
Fifty percent of them reported that students are bullied in school, according to a “school climate” survey of students.
Rising To The Challenge
A number of initiatives are happening in Derby schools and in Irving in particular to address the issues described above.
They’re attacking the reading problem with programs such as “Literacy Now.”
At the end of the day at Irving, students and staff participate in “Drop Everything and Read.” It’s just what it sounds like. Everyone takes time out to read whatever they want.
Irving staff have also teamed with an array of local social service agencies — TEAM, Inc., Valley Kids Belong — to target and assist the youngest kids who need specialized help. The idea is to help those youngsters and set them up for future success.
According to the school’s district’s application for additional funding from the state, everything is on the table when it comes to improving Irving.
The district is in the process of deciding whether it should combine educational services with Ansonia.
There’s also the lingering long-term question — would reconfiguring the Bradley and Irving schools give the students a better crack at a good education?
Respect
The challenges Irving faces isn’t a new experience for Olson, the first-year principal. Before being hired by former Superintendent Stephen Tracy and the Derby Board of Education earlier this year, Olson worked as part of a nationally-recognized reform effort within public schools in New Haven.
The problems at Irving were similar to New Haven.
The “respect model” Olson introduced to students and faculty was seen in three dimension during the Nov. 28 assembly. Teachers even wore the T‑shirts touting it.
“This is building a culture in the school. It’s the respect model coming to life. We’re celebrating kids doing the right thing. We want kids to know that it’s OK to be polite. It’s OK to have good manners,” Olson said.
During the assembly, the kids bumped their thighs and clapped their hands to the beat of Queen’s “We Will Rock You.” But the 350 or so students immediately went silent when teachers held their fingers up, forming the peace sign.
It’s an example of what teachers and staff are doing at Irving to get kids to practice the behavior needed to learn in the classroom.
“We use that as a school-wide signal,” Olson said. “We don’t go ‘Shh,’ or yell ‘Quiet!’ Everyone uses the same language with the kids so it is not confusing. And the kids know what the expectation is.”
The kids cheered their classmates receiving awards. The place went bananas when Miss Lane’s class won the coveted “Golden Torch” for being so darn good.
Kids waved excitedly to their parents in the bleachers. There was a true sense of community.
Here is Irving’s latest newsletter. The article continues after the document.
Encouraging parents to get involved at Irving is one of the foundations of the new philosophies permeating the schools — and parental involvement in literacy and literacy programs was a stated goal in Derby’s application for additional state funding.
A few parents said the school simply wasn’t welcoming in the past.
“With the new principal, it is such a different dynamic,” said Stephanie Delvalle, parent of 6‑year-old first-grade student Atyana.
Delvalle was at the assembly Wednesday with her husband, Jesus, and her in-laws, Jesus and Carmen.
“Kids are more involved. Parents are more involved,” she said. “The school is improving so much.”
Davis, the parent who attended the very first weekly meeting at Irving in September, said Irving is a different school than it was a year ago.
“(Olson) has done a great job of getting people active. That didn’t happen before. It was discouraged,” Davis said.
He’s also seeing the new atmosphere at Irving reflected in his son.
“He’s more open. He’s excited. He never would have stood up and danced with his friends in something like this,” Davis said. “To see him in this environment, in this atmosphere, with encouragement, he’s thriving.”
Want more proof of the new Irving? The PTO recently held a walk-a-thon to raise money. The event raised about $4,000 — way beyond what the event organizer’s thought they could pull in.
Yet Stacey Whelan, the co-founder of the school’s PTO, said that while Irving is headed in the right direction — there is still a long way to go.
The 2011 – 2012 school year saw a 57 percent increase in “serious behavior infractions” from the prior school year at Irving. The 44 incidents in 2011 – 2012 included 17 fights and four weapons possessions, according to data from the school district.
Whelan said parents still get wind of police cars visiting the school on occasion.
“We don’t know how many times cops go to the school unless you happen to be there and see the police,” Whelan said.
But the PTO mom said she feels better with the new principal and philosophy at Irving.
“She communicates more with the parents. We know a little bit more about what’s going on,” she said. “And (Whelan’s son) Matthew just seems overall happy — and he was never happy in the past going into that school.”
This is the Derby Public Schools “Alliance District” approved application:
Derby Alliance Application
