Sanger Unified school earns Blue Ribbon honor

Published online on Monday, Sep. 21, 2009

By Tracy Correa / The Fresno Bee

Wesley Sever, principal at John S. Wash Elementary School, hasn’t been able to stop smiling since learning his school was chosen as a national Blue Ribbon School — a rare honor bestowed on schools that demonstrate academic excellence.

“This smile might not ever go away,” he said last week.

He has every reason to smile: the Sanger Unified school between Fresno and Sanger achieved academic success even with a huge spike in English-learners and so many low-income students that the entire school now qualifies for free or reduced-price lunches.

Most schools with similar demographics typically have far lower test scores.

John S. Wash has a history of academic success, and school officials were determined to keep it that way. The school has managed to thrive and post academic gains even while undergoing dramatic demographic changes.

Four Fresno County schools were given the Blue Ribbon School distinction last week out of 25 in the state and 314 nationwide. The honor is for public and private schools that are either academically superior or have made dramatic gains in student testing to help close achievement gaps among minority and disadvantaged students.

All of the Blue Ribbon schools will be honored at an awards ceremony in Washington, D.C., in November.

Unlike the county’s other three winning schools — Bullard TALENT, Edison Computech and Manchester GATE, all in Fresno Unified School District — John S. Wash is not a magnet school. Magnet schools are designed to attract certain students who are generally required to meet entry requirements.

By contrast, John S. Wash Elementary’s nearly 400 students come from a neighborhood in southeast Fresno that has significantly changed in several ways: from middle-class to poor, from largely white and Hispanic to a high number of Southeast Asian families. Now, one-third of the school’s students come from homes where English is not the first language — up from 6% five years ago.

Sever said he and his staff didn’t want the school’s changing demographics to become an excuse for low test scores, so they pushed all students to succeed. They were out to debunk the theory that English-learners will struggle academically.

They did it by assessing students often, intervening early and making everyone — from teachers to students and families — aware of the goals everyone was expected to meet.

The school had a reputation for academic success to uphold: John S. Wash always has done well on state testing. The school’s Academic Performance Index scores, a measure of student achievement based on state standardized testing, always has been better than most Valley schools. And it got better as the school became more diverse.

John S. Wash had a 786 API score in 2004 — out of the 800 minimum target score schools are encouraged to reach. It steadily climbed to reach 892 on the API this year.

School leaders have set 900, out of a maximum possible score of 1,000, as the API goal for 2010.

The school is part of Sanger Unified School District which, as a district, scored 796 on the API. Twelve of the district’s 13 elementary schools — where nearly 25% of students live in poverty — have scores over 800, but only John S. Wash has ever achieved Blue Ribbon status.

“You have got to believe in your kids, which we do,” said Marcus Johnson, Sanger Unified’s superintendent.

John S. Wash is a small school in the growing district. It is named after a longtime principal in the Lone Star School District — a one-school district now part of Sanger Unified.

The school is tucked between southeast Fresno’s affluent Sunnyside community and what used to be vineyards near Sanger. In recent years, single-family homes have replaced vineyards.

But remnants of the rural school still remain — such as the horse farm next door to the playground.

Part of the school’s success is that it never has dropped its high standards, even as students faced greater challenges, said Donna Vicenti, who oversees curriculum.

When the school had an influx of English-learners five years ago, it set out to help them achieve. “We had to become culturally aware,” she said.

The school quickly figured out problem areas for English-learners — primarily language arts — and set out to help them early on. For 40 minutes a day, these students were “deployed” during class time for extra intervention and tutoring.

The intervention eventually was spread out to all students at the school who struggled.

Most of the help is provided during class time instead of after school because teachers realized not all students could stay late, but additional after-school help is available for those who need it.

Students are encouraged to help other students, part of a successful peer-assisted learning program. And a substantial part of in-class learning is with small washable whiteboards that students hold up with their answers so teachers can quickly identify those who don’t understand the work and can pull those children aside for additional help.

The school has hired two part-time intervention specialists — credentialed teachers who specialize in bringing students up to grade level — with the help of an additional $42,000 in federal funding.

Two years ago, John S. Wash became eligible for the funding because of its changing demographics under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Mao Her, a kindergarten teacher for 10 years, said teachers communicate often, share strategies for what works and are encouraged to take responsibility for all students’ learning. She serves as a Hmong liaison for the growing number of Southeast Asian families whose children attend the school and urges them to get involved with school functions.

Larry Powell, superintendent for the Fresno County Office of Education, said what John S. Wash has managed to do is nothing short of incredible.

“They set out to be a top school,” he said.

Powell said some might think it’s easier getting results on a smaller campus, but that’s not necessarily true because people in small schools can be more entrenched in doing things the way they always have.

“They could have said, ‘We have got good scores, why should we work harder?’ But they didn’t,” he said. “They saw the changes coming to their school and set the same high expectations for all the students.”