By Linda Conner Lambeck

It's nearly century-old ceilings are covered with chipping paint and it's hardwood floors are warped. No matter that its tattered home dates to 1914, Hall School has something to celebrate.

Among elementary schools in the state where at least three-quarters of the student body has low-income or minority background, Hall students ranked first last year when it came to overall improvement on the Connecticut Mastery Test.

Hall is one of three Bridgeport schools and 16 statewide to be honored by the Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now, an education advocacy group. Multicultural Magnet School is cited by the organization as ranking first in African-American middle school student achievement and High Horizons Magnet School for ranking third in low-income elementary school student achievement.

Unlike Multicultural and High Horizons, which have won citations for educational achievement previously, Hall plans to celebrate this singular honor with a program set for 9:30 a.m. Friday to officially receive its plaque as a 2010 ConnCAN Success Story school from Ronald Jarrett, a ConnCAN vice president.

"They need a celebration," said Hall Principal Veronica Thomas, who is ordering enough cake and ice cream to serve the school's 306 students.

"And balloons. There will be lots of balloons," she added.

Thomas said the award came as a surprise. It wasn't something she applied for or even knew existed. She said the school worked hard to make sure students made adequate yearly progress on the CMTs after spending one year in a category called "in need of improvement," meaning not enough students in grades three through six scored in the proficient range on reading and writing to suit the federal No Child Left Behind law. 

"We turned it around. We didn't want to be on that list," said Thomas. She credits the return of an after-school program and a new math program. During every school break, students went home with homework packets.

She said Hall School also benefits from its small size. "We work hard here. It's a neighborhood school. We know all the families, the siblings, the grandmothers, the aunts and uncles. We have excellent teachers and a dedicated staff," said Thomas.

Alex Johnston, director of ConnCAN, said Hall students showed healthy performance gains across the board, improving by 21 percentage points in the fourth grade.

"We spend a lot of time talking about the state's achievement gap and that we have the biggest in the country. It's equally important to show the schools that are closing that achievement gap because it's absolutely possible to do that," Johnston.

Johnston said schools that are narrowing the gap don't all look alike, but do have similar traits.

"Usually, the adults in the school have come together in a collaborative way to focus on student achievement. Usually that means they are using data to come up with individualized instructional plans for each child and making sure kids who fall behind have a chance to catch up," he said. "That may seem like common sense. It doesn't happen in every school."

Far less important, he added, is the physical condition of a school.

"We have found that fancy bears little relationship to kind of learning going on in school," Johnston said.

Thomas can attest to that.

"Every day, we tell our students they are the smartest kids in Bridgeport," she said. "The goal is to always instill pride. It works."