Ham Ave. sees big jump in fourth-grade test scores
By Keach Hagey, Greenwich Time, September 27, 2006

Hamilton Avenue School achieved the third highest increase in student scores in the state on the fourth-grade Connecticut Mastery Test over the last two years, according to a report released yesterday by an education advocacy group.

While 47 percent of fourth-graders met state goals on the test in 2004, by 2006 this number had climbed to 71 percent, the report noted. At the same time, the fourth-graders who took the test in the fall of 2004 secured a 17 percentage point increase in scores by the time they were tested again as fifth-graders in the spring of 2006.

"We were interested in looking at whether there were schools that were beating the odds," said Marc Porter Magee, director of communications and research for ConnCAN, a New Haven nonprofit organization formed in 2004 to study and advocate for closing the gap in achievement between certain groups of students, and other education issues.

"Hamilton Avenue was a pretty interesting story in terms of its ability to make tremendous gains over a relatively short period of time," Magee said.

Other schools singled out in the organization's Success Stories reports were Amistad Academy in New Haven, which made the most gains in performance, and Jumoke Academy in Hartford, which had the second most.

Hamilton Avenue School's gains came from Principal Damaris Rau's ability to "create collective commitment to increasing student performance among the school's staff," while expanding the use of direct instruction to teach fundamental skills and using student assessment data to drive decision-making, according to the report.

The school's staff tackled the challenge of reaching students who were falling behind with additional instructional time through before- and after-school programs and Saturday sessions, paid for in part with federal funds for high-poverty schools, according to the report.

Thirty-six percent of Hamilton Avenue School students come from low-income families, according to state data on eligibility for free and reduced priced lunches, according to state data.

Rau attributed the success to parents and teachers.

"I think what made the biggest difference was the commitment of the staff to take on this challenge," she said. "The teachers at Hamilton Avenue School work harder than any other teachers I've ever met in my 25 years in education."

More than half of the students at the school had Individual Student Intervention Plans, which are made for every district student who does not meet state goals on standardized tests. Teachers kept an eye on these students and their plans both during the normal school day and at the school's academically focused after- and before-school programs.

Seventy-five children participated in the school's after-school program, while 25 were enrolled in the Saturday program last year, she said.

"Our supplemental programs were very targeted at improving student achievement," she said. "They weren't fluff."

PTA Co-President Kerry Dunn said the school community was elated by the news.

"We knew that the teachers really have been concentrating with the students and all of the children have been working very hard in preparation for the CMT," she said. "We were ecstatic that it paid off."

Superintendent Betty Sternberg said one very telling factor contributing to the school's success was illustrated in the staff members' responses on a recent Harris Interactive Poll administered throughout the district. Hamilton Avenue School was the only school in which 100 percent of teachers said they took responsibility for their students' achievement.

"I think that's a significant correlation," she said. "In order to get this sort of achievement to happen ... the people who work in the school have to believe that they can make a difference in student achievement, and that it is their responsibility to make a difference."