TMAO's school's remarkable rebound

One of our favorite blogs is TMAO's Teaching in the 408. We've cited it often (here, here, and here for instance) and always look forward to his posts. Well, his last post of the school year was a rare chance to soak in some well-deserved praise from the SJ Merc, which wrote this editorial about his school: A school's remarkable rebound:

Others can learn from transformation of Alum Rock's Lee Mathson Middle School
Mercury News Editorial

Lee Mathson Middle School in East San Jose is proof that an ordinary public school can transform itself radically and rapidly. Its experience refutes the fatalistic notion that demographics -- poverty, ethnicity -- are destiny.

Three years ago, Mathson hit rock bottom in Alum Rock. Test scores were abysmal; staff morale was terrible; parents were concerned enough about safety in school that the district shipped sixth-graders back to the feeder elementary schools, leaving Mathson with only two grades.

Since then, Mathson has been a textbook case of change. With a 198-point rise in its Academic Performance Index, the state's primary test score, Mathson went from worst to first among the district's six neighborhood middle schools. (KIPP Heartwood, a charter middle school, and Renaissance Academy, a small school, actually had higher scores.)

Mathson twice earned the ``Mayor's Progress to Excellence'' award. After-school clubs, a sign that kids want to be on campus, are flourishing. Fights fell from dozens a year to two. In a district still hampered by high turnover, next year every Mathson teacher will be back. And in September, in a mark of confidence that the changes will last, the sixth grade will return.

A combination of factors led to Mathson's progress: extensive use of data to place students and monitor their progress, a constant effort by teachers to perfect methods of instruction, an extended school day, and high expectations. Then there was the leadership of Glenn Vander Zee, the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce's Principal of the Year and the driving force behind the changes.

The first step was to counter the myth that low-income students of immigrant parents cannot or do not want to learn. One strategy was enforcing rule

Congratulations to TMAO and all the educators, students, and families that are working so hard to turn that school around. Truly inspirational.

Of course, they are also caught on the horns of one of the nastier flaws of our ed funding machine:

Funding is an issue. As a low-performing school with a high proportion of children in poverty, Mathson was eligible for extra federal funds and special grants that paid for the extra academic periods. But it's a paradox of education that governments fund failure, not success. Now that Mathson has raised its scores, Vander Zee is scrambling for money to continue the programs. Under a better pay system, teachers would be getting big merit raises, too.

It is unconscionable that a school that has achieved so much, that has overcome so much should have to grovel to maintain funding and maintain programs. They should be getting a raise, not facing a penalty. This is nuts.