Rigor and Relevance, Not Frills and Fads Make Better Schools

Don Gaetz 
05/23/05

This past week brought no little satisfaction to parents, students and educators in Okaloosa Schools. They learned that, for the third year in a row, Okaloosa achieved the highest rating on the state's comprehensive assessment of academic performance.

It's been pretty hard to keep the smiles off our faces.

First in math, first in reading, first in science, and tied with our close colleagues and neighbors in Santa Rosa County in writing.

Even more encouraging, this year's scores were higher than last year's which were higher than those earned the year before. In other words, not only are Okaloosa students the best in the state; they're getting better every year. Frankly, it's not our relative rank compared to other counties that is most important - what's most crucial is that we're getting better each year.

And that's remarkable, in and of itself, considering that five years ago most Okaloosa schools were C schools and the district's academic standing had declined far below the top tier of Florida districts and was falling fast.

So it was inevitable that, over the last few days, I would be asked again and again to name the "program" we're using in order to achieve historic learning gains. Which new computer software is Okaloosa employing, which national educational experts had we brought in to train our teachers, what seminars had we sent our people to in order to learn the "in" methods? Had I, myself, been part of this or that special symposium or cutting edge conclave?

Over and over again, I gave the same answer that raised eyebrows, created puzzled looks, and courted disbelief among writers of educational journals.

"What we did in Okaloosa Schools," I repeated, "is to clear out the underbrush of educational fashions and learning fads that have cluttered our schools, muddled our teaching, and disserved our children for too long."

Out the schoolhouse door went "open court reading" and "round robin reading," which substitute group growth for individual achievement. "Pull out classes," which remove students with learning deficiencies from the regular classroom, were themselves removed. "Creative spelling," which allows students to write words as they sound instead of how they're spelled, was dumped. Bunches and bunches of "curriculum lite" textbooks were rolled out the backdoor. And the speed dials were disconnected to professional seminar presenters, educational leadership gurus and national and state convention travel agents.

Our principals re-instituted the basics of reading: phonics, fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary. Our teachers, their minds cleared from the fog of educational frills, built reading stamina into their lessons. Our students were required to communicate with lengthy written passages - using the classic methods of expository, descriptive, and persuasive writing.

Teachers were shown that state assessments weren't inventions of the devil but contained a treasure trove of diagnostic information useful in determining students' learning problems and potentials. And if we did anything at all trendy, it was to understand how to dissect test results and then change teaching methods to better help struggling students and challenge those who can go further, faster.

We junked exclusive reliance on dry and dumbed-down science texts in favor of a more rigorous, demanding science curriculum written by - wait for it - real scientists. Then we partnered with local private sector groups such as the Emerald Coast Science Museum to teach our teachers how to teach science. Our schools looked around themselves and found they are located in the midst of a military community peopled by hundreds and hundreds of physicists, engineers, chemists, and other scientists. And we began to leverage their skills directly into our classrooms.

Over the course of five years Okaloosa Schools have disenthralled themselves of educational frills, eliminated social promotions, raised academic standards, ended the segregation of students with learning disabilities and let most of the air out of grade inflation.

We've stayed home from the conclaves and conventions. We throw away the mail from the experts with newest programmed learning solutions. Unless forced, we don't pay a lot of attention to federal education bureaucrats.

Our School Board agreed to cut $6 million out of administrative overhead over the last four years and the savings went into paying teachers and providing students with more one-on-one help.

Do we have a long, long way to go and much left to learn? Of course.

Are others - notably Santa Rosa Schools - doing extraordinary things which, with their approval, we shamelessly borrow and adapt to our own use? Absolutely.

But, at bottom, the reason Okaloosa students did better than anyone else in the state again this year is because we drilled down to the basic truth of how students really learn: effective, individualized teaching with frequent, valid assessments.

To learn more about specific results, learning gains year-to-year, and comparisons with other school districts, go to www.okaloosaschools.com.

The credit goes to a School Board that raised standards despite criticism, educators who stepped up to the challenge of real teaching, parents who supported more rigor, and students whose performance rose to meet and exceed expectations.

It's an honor to work alongside such people.

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