School makes cut for honors
By Andrew Shaw, Greenwich Times, February 24, 2007

As Hamilton Avenue School officials prepare for a future as an expanded magnet program, they are hoping their recent history of improving student performance will earn them an honor by a state education organization next month.

Hamilton Avenue will be visited by officials from the Connecticut Vanguard Schools Initiative, which honors a select group of schools that either show significant student academic improvement or have sustained excellence for at least two years.

After evaluating Hamilton Avenue and other schools around the state, Vanguard officials will name winners near the end of March. The organization is a collaborative effort of the state Department of Education, the State Education Resource Center and Connecticut's Business and Industry Association.

Principal Damaris Rau said being named a Vanguard School would be a boost for the Hamilton Avenue community as it awaits the opening of the new building this fall. Rau said the stream of applications to the Hamilton Avenue school has been steady, but being honored by the state can only help attract students from across the district.

"Just the fact that we've been selected for the first cut is exciting. It's an opportunity to showcase the school," Rau said. She added that the honor would be special for teachers who have helped the elementary school improve student scores on state tests since 2004. "It would really affirm to the teachers all the hard work they are doing."

Six schools were named Vanguard Schools in the past two years, according to Connecticut's Business and Industry Association Web site. Vanguard officials visit the school and interview educators, parents and students to decide if the school's application is accurate and if the school is promoting values that increase student achievement. Hamilton Avenue gets its visit Thursday.

The honor includes a $15,000 monetary award and distinction around the state, including formal recognition by the state Board of Education. Vanguard Schools also are given $5,000 to help share their educational practices with a school in need of improvement.

Superintendent of Schools Betty Sternberg agreed with Rau that being chosen for an evaluation is, in itself, an honor. She credits the faculty and staff for putting the students in a position to succeed. "They've been able to do it with a relentless focus on student achievement," she said. "They significantly increased the scores of youngsters who have been chronically underachieving. That's really what those Vanguard Schools are all about."

Rau said she was excited to fill out the application, which gave her the opportunity to highlight the school's recent academic progress on state tests. Forty-seven percent of Hamilton Avenue fourth-graders taking the Connecticut Mastery Test in the fall of 2004 met state goals. When fourth-graders took the test in the spring of 2006, the number meeting those goals jumped to 71 percent. The fourth-graders in 2004 also made a 17-percentage-point increase in performance on the test when they took the CMT as fifth-graders in the spring of 2006.

It was the third highest increase in fourth-grade student scores in Connecticut during that time, according to ConnCan, a New Haven nonprofit organization that studies and advocates for schools closing the achievement gap.

Rau credits part of the improvement to flexible teacher scheduling, allowing teachers to come in early to work with students before the regular school day. Those teachers are then allowed to leave earlier, giving them a chance to get home sooner while providing an opportunity for students to get a jump-start on skills needed to be successful, such as learning English as a second language.

"We're really proud of how our students have progressed in all areas," Rau said.