Juniper, Hollyvale Elementary Schools honored

Tuesday night, State Superintendent of Schools Jack O'Connell will honor Juniper and Hollyvale Elementary Schools for their service to "economically challenged" students.

At a ceremony in Costa Mesa, O'Connell will present Principals Stephanie Poindexter of Juniper and Matthew Fedders of Hollyvale with Title 1 Academic Achievement Awards.

This is the fourth time Juniper has received the award and Hollyvale's first time.

Poindexter credits her staff's focus on student needs for the award.

"I think it's the fact that we address the needs of all students. What this award focuses on is that we've improved scores for all students," she said Friday. "They are making twice the growth that is required by the state."

"I would say a dedicated staff is the number one reason that we have this. Just the teachers that are committed to helping every student achieve," Fedders said Friday. "We do use a lot of the programs that other schools use and collaborate weekly and we use the Excel process, but ultimately I think we have an exceptional staff that tries to meet the needs of every student."

The ExCEL model -- short for Excellence: A Commitment to Every Learner -- was originally developed for special education students, but was later rolled out to the general student body in Hesperia elementary and middle schools. The teaching model features instruction plans where students receive targeted extra help in areas where they most need it. The program also includes extra reviews of state standards in language arts and math, along with educating teachers how to use test results to improve learning. The program also groups students together who have similar needs for part of the day.

"I think it's just a matter of continuing with the Excel model and moving on, and holding each other accountable," Poindexter said. "If we have students who aren't progressing, we're asking why."

The 2001 federal No Child Left Behind Act required states receiving Title I educational funds to establish programs that recognize Title I schools that exceed the law's benchmarks for two or more consecutive years or significantly narrow the achievement gap between student subgroups. California's program also identifies and honors schools that have doubled their Academic Performance Index test score growth targets for two consecutive years and that meet a median API score in both English-language arts and mathematics.

"I think No Child Left Behind is recognizing what we've already been doing, meeting the needs of all kids, but now we're putting more awareness on it," Poindexter said.

The actual impetus for Hollyvale's success came several years earlier and from Hesperia, rather than Washington.

"When the state of California [mandated] a 20-1 [teacher-to-student ratio] the previous superintendent [Dick Bray] set his goal of 800 [average API scores] by 2010," Fedders said. "Every school in the district had the Excel program [which] the state is calling a 'response to intervention' model. ... We had an hour of the day that was truly to meet the students' needs at their level. Part of the day is standards-based and we are teaching to the standards, and part of the day is set aside to really meet the needs of the students. I think, at least in Hesperia, it would be done without No Child Left Behind."

Scott Stephens also contributed to this story.

Beau Yarbrough can be reached at 956-7108 or at beau@hesperiastar.com.