Foundation leaves mark on schools in Paterson
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
By DANIELLE SHAPIRO
HERALD NEWS
PATERSON – In 2004 a foundation dedicated to improving
education for inner-city children made a commitment to work
with district administrators, principals, teachers and community
members.
After three years, about $2 million and countless hours of
training, the Stupski Foundation has achieved some, if not most,
of its goals to improve teaching and learning throughout the
city's schools.
Several educators and Stupski staff said the foundation has left
behind a more focused and collaborative school staff, improved
results on standardized tests and increased involvement of the
community.
June Rimmer, program manager at Stupski who led the work in
Paterson, said district leaders now are working more as a team
and staff members are increasingly using hard facts including
data from regular student assessments to guide instruction. She
also said the community is "committed and passionate" about its
children. "It's reaffirmed my opinion of what's possible in urban
school districts," Rimmer said.
In the past five years, Stupski, established in 1996, has worked
with 17 school districts across the country. Those districts are
predominantly in urban areas and have large percentages of
minority and low-income students as well as students for whom
English is a second language. With an annual budget of $20
million, the foundation spends $1.4 million to $1.7 million on
average in the school districts, said Ann Wallace, foundation
spokeswoman. The focus of the work is on organizational and
leadership development and improving instruction for students.
Brenda Patterson, the district's assistant superintendent of
curriculum and instruction, said that as a state-operated district
since 1991, the collaboration with education experts who were
unaffiliated with Trenton was important.
"We now had a partner that had no interest other than us
becoming a stronger educational community," Patterson said.
Some of the significant changes in Paterson since Stupski's
collaboration include 90-minute literacy and math teaching blocks
for kindergarten through eighth-grade students, improved
community involvement, enhanced administrative leadership, and
a uniform curriculum for the entire district approved by the
Board of Education in March.
Every year the foundation completes an "Organizational
Assessment" of the school districts in which it works, including
strategic planning, curriculum and instruction. According to the
assessment report, Paterson has improved in five of the seven
categories reviewed since last year and in six of the seven since
2004.
Districtwide preliminary results from 2007 state assessments
show improvements in 72 percent of tests taken, according to a
district statement from last month. Some school officials
attribute some of these gains to Stupski's work.
Derrick Hoff, principal at School 6, said he can see the results of
the foundation's work at his school in test scores.
He said 2006 state test results improved enough to avoid further
sanctions this year as a "school in need of improvement" under
the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2002.
The stress Stupski placed on working with academic results was
key, Hoff said. "Now people are starting to have intelligent
conversations about data," he said. "Now we are talking a
common language, and it's not opinion."
But challenges, especially financial ones, remain for the district
as it moves into the next school year without Stupski's support,
said Joseph S. Fulmore, assistant superintendent for community
services. He is concerned budget constraints might prevent the
district from continuing some innovations implemented with
Stupski's assistance, such as the use of academic-support
teachers who provide students with extra help.
"But now we don't have the resources," he said. "So what do we
do?"
Reach Danielle Shapiro at 973-569-7153 or shapiro@northjersey.
com.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
By DANIELLE SHAPIRO
HERALD NEWS
PATERSON – In 2004 a foundation dedicated to improving
education for inner-city children made a commitment to work
with district administrators, principals, teachers and community
members.
After three years, about $2 million and countless hours of
training, the Stupski Foundation has achieved some, if not most,
of its goals to improve teaching and learning throughout the
city's schools.
Several educators and Stupski staff said the foundation has left
behind a more focused and collaborative school staff, improved
results on standardized tests and increased involvement of the
community.
June Rimmer, program manager at Stupski who led the work in
Paterson, said district leaders now are working more as a team
and staff members are increasingly using hard facts including
data from regular student assessments to guide instruction. She
also said the community is "committed and passionate" about its
children. "It's reaffirmed my opinion of what's possible in urban
school districts," Rimmer said.
In the past five years, Stupski, established in 1996, has worked
with 17 school districts across the country. Those districts are
predominantly in urban areas and have large percentages of
minority and low-income students as well as students for whom
English is a second language. With an annual budget of $20
million, the foundation spends $1.4 million to $1.7 million on
average in the school districts, said Ann Wallace, foundation
spokeswoman. The focus of the work is on organizational and
leadership development and improving instruction for students.
Brenda Patterson, the district's assistant superintendent of
curriculum and instruction, said that as a state-operated district
since 1991, the collaboration with education experts who were
unaffiliated with Trenton was important.
"We now had a partner that had no interest other than us
becoming a stronger educational community," Patterson said.
Some of the significant changes in Paterson since Stupski's
collaboration include 90-minute literacy and math teaching blocks
for kindergarten through eighth-grade students, improved
community involvement, enhanced administrative leadership, and
a uniform curriculum for the entire district approved by the
Board of Education in March.
Every year the foundation completes an "Organizational
Assessment" of the school districts in which it works, including
strategic planning, curriculum and instruction. According to the
assessment report, Paterson has improved in five of the seven
categories reviewed since last year and in six of the seven since
2004.
Districtwide preliminary results from 2007 state assessments
show improvements in 72 percent of tests taken, according to a
district statement from last month. Some school officials
attribute some of these gains to Stupski's work.
Derrick Hoff, principal at School 6, said he can see the results of
the foundation's work at his school in test scores.
He said 2006 state test results improved enough to avoid further
sanctions this year as a "school in need of improvement" under
the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2002.
The stress Stupski placed on working with academic results was
key, Hoff said. "Now people are starting to have intelligent
conversations about data," he said. "Now we are talking a
common language, and it's not opinion."
But challenges, especially financial ones, remain for the district
as it moves into the next school year without Stupski's support,
said Joseph S. Fulmore, assistant superintendent for community
services. He is concerned budget constraints might prevent the
district from continuing some innovations implemented with
Stupski's assistance, such as the use of academic-support
teachers who provide students with extra help.
"But now we don't have the resources," he said. "So what do we
do?"
Reach Danielle Shapiro at 973-569-7153 or shapiro@northjersey.
com.
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