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Sanchez was one of 16 schoolwide projects that Austin Independent Schools initiated in 1988 to reduce the amount of instructional time students lost when they left their regular classes for Chapter 1 services. Initially, a 30-person districtwide planning committee established a district-based "Priority Schools Plan," outlining the requirements for all schools' Chapter 1 schoolwide projects. Austin's Chapter 1 director reports that approximately 90 percent of the district's schoolwide resources now finance school-site staff, and the remainder supports professional development, instructional materials, and specialized services for at-risk students.
Today, Sanchez adheres to the district's basic curriculum but the schoolwide project enables faculty members to make their own decisions about how to improve teaching for students most at risk. Several teachers wanted to strengthen students' science learning by instituting discovery teaching--learning through projects and experiments. Recognizing the unique needs of their bilingual population, they turned to a discovery-based bilingual science program called Finding Out/ Descubrimiento. The teachers used schoolwide project funds to participate in a staff development program to learn these new discovery and hands-on strategies, and later shared their knowledge with other interested staff.
Before the schoolwide project began, students' Chapter 1 reading took place in a pullout program. Now, in addition to their regular classroom learning time, low-achieving students receive small-group tutoring for at least one hour per week. Still more instructional focus occurs in two computer laboratories for students in grades 2-5. In one lab, offered twice each week, students develop writing skills; in the other, offered for a half- day each week, students use computers to improve higher-order thinking in reading and mathematics.
Students with limited English proficiency are grouped in separate classes with bilingual teachers. Most bilingual education is conducted during the language arts instructional block; English as a Second Language is offered during science and social studies.
Planning, design, and management. Reducing class size, a central goal of the district plan, became the starting point of the Sanchez schoolwide project. The school added four teachers and lowered the student-teacher ratio to 15:1 in prekindergarten though grade two, 18:1 in grades 3 and 4, and 20:1 in grades 5 and 6. Sanchez expanded its schoolwide activities beyond the minimum district requirements, however, and included the following additional components: a short-term, accelerated mathematics program; small-group tutoring; a take-home library of books and videos for kindergartners and their parents; professional development for teachers; and a school-based management system. In 1992-93, the school adopted a year-round schedule that provides 12 additional weeks of class for all students and, during vacation, an intensive mathematics "academy" for students scoring below the 30th percentile.
Austin's schoolwide projects are directed by "campus leadership teams," and at Sanchez, this team follows the principal's counsel: "Work closely with faculty and parents and move in their direction, embracing their ideas.... Take advantage of their input, and keep them involved." To achieve this goal, the Sanchez leadership team--including teachers and other school staff, parents, and district representatives--meets monthly to plan, monitor, and direct the Chapter 1 schoolwide project in coordination with the school's other programs.
Professional environment. The site-based management team identifies and addresses staff development needs. Topics vary from year to year, but they include science discovery strategies, hands-on and manipulative-based mathematics, whole language approaches, and cooperative learning. Several teachers are now learning to use Reading Recovery to target intervention to the lowest-achieving readers in first grade, who will receive 30 minutes of daily individual instruction that emphasizes strategies for understanding written language.
Staff development has shifted recently from the Lezotte model to a more school-determined, eclectic approach. In some cases, one teacher may learn an instructional technique and share it with others; in other cases, the entire staff might investigate a particular technique. The Chapter 1 office supports this effort by helping schools locate experts in strategies of interest. An instructional coordinator from the Chapter 1 district office works closely with the school to support the staff's professional interests, seeking out the most highly recommended programs and notifying the staff of programs or strategies that are consistent with their overall philosophy and goals.
Parent and community involvement. Sanchez's schoolwide project uses a parent educator to increase parent involvement in the school through parent education, a newsletter, and volunteer work. The effort has been so successful that the principal now explains, "We were able to get parents involved so that now it is their PTA--but previously, I was the PTA." The PTA sets its own budget and agenda.
Sanchez Elementary School
73 San Marcos Street
Austin, Tx 78802
Phone: (512) 478-6617
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[Creating "The Ultimate Community School"]