BY BOB GLISSMANN AND PAUL GOODSELL
Published October 14, 2003
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITERS

Editor's Note: Central Park Elementary School, cited below, uses Spalding Phonics and, 91% of its students are in the free and reduced lunch program.

Most Bancroft Elementary students come from low-income families. Many don't speak English at home.

But when students at the south Omaha school took the California Achievement Test last spring, they did surprisingly well.

The typical Bancroft student scored in the 73rd percentile, outscoring nearly three-fourths of the students in a national sample group and beating the average for Omaha Public Schools. And Bancroft did better than dozens of Omaha schools with fewer low-income students.

Bancroft's results were one of several bright spots in the latest round of CAT results, which were released Monday.

Yet the test scores also show that the Omaha district continues to struggle in many of its high-poverty schools. While Bancroft and some others beat the demographic odds, most of the inner-city schools ranked among the district's lowest.

School board President John Langan, who attended a presentation Monday on the district's scores on the CAT and other tests, said it's important to use the test results as a tool for making improvements.

The district gave the CAT last spring to 13,540 students in grades 2, 4, 5, 6 and 8. The test measures their skills in reading, language and math.

Overall, Omaha students continued to outscore the national sample group.

Scores were up for second-graders, especially in reading and language.

Fourth-graders' scores were mixed, with significant gains in reading but lower scores in language and math. Fifth- and sixth-graders showed no change overall.

Columbian, near West Dodge Road and 127th Street, did best among the 60 elementary schools, with the typical student ranking in the 95th percentile nationally. Kennedy, in temporary quarters near 30th Street and Ames Avenue, was the worst, with a median score in the 20th percentile.

Meanwhile, scores were down sharply among eighth-graders. Morton bucked the middle-school trend, improving to the 78th percentile. But Hale dropped to the 39th percentile, worst among the nine middle schools.

Educators say there's no single reason for the gaps in test results and no magic formula for improving scores.

But Bancroft Principal Bob Sortino can point to some key factors for his school's success: A dedicated staff, great parental support, a prekindergarten program, all-day kindergarten and paraprofessionals who work one-on-one with students who don't speak much English.

Those strengths helped Bancroft students overcome the negative effects of poverty, which tend to go hand-in-hand with lower test scores.

Another high-poverty school that did better than expected was Central Park Elementary, near 42nd Street and Grand Avenue. It had 91 percent of its students in the federally subsidized lunch program because of their families' low incomes.

Central Park Principal Mary Austin said the parents of her students support the work teachers do. Ninety-five percent of Central Park parents, she said, attend parent-teacher conferences.

Austin said she also has a motivated staff that respects the students and expects that in return.

"Teachers are teaching up until the final moment" of the school day, she said. "No sitting, no slacking. They are just totally serious."

The school emphasizes phonics to teach reading. Students also are urged to speak using complete sentences, to use correct pronouns and to spell correctly.

Central Park also emphasizes teacher training, with two sessions per month for the entire staff. New teachers meet weekly.

The school benefits from being in a fairly stable neighborhood. The number of children who move in or out of school during the year is only slightly above the district average.

In contrast, Kennedy, which has 98 percent of its students in the federal lunch program, has a mobility rate of more than double the district average.

Extra money sometimes helps schools improve.

Castelar Elementary, which shares temporary quarters with Kennedy, received a $1.4 million federal grant two years ago.

"The resources make a world of difference in our building," said Principal Bob Acamo.

The school, which has mostly Hispanic students, has a high rate of students who receive free or reduced-price lunches. Close to 60 percent of its students don't speak English as their first language.

The federal money allows Castelar to offer a prekindergarten program and an extended summer-school program.

It's also paying for every staff member to get the training needed to earn an endorsement in teaching English as a second language.

Scores have improved, Acamo said, "but we're nowhere near where we want to be."

OPS Superintendent John Mackiel said the CAT is just one measure of a school's performance, and not necessarily the best one. He noted that just 18 percent of the questions posed to sixth-graders on the CAT align with district standards.

He said the district gives other tests, such as its own assessment of third-graders' reading skills. "We put a lot of faith in the third-grade reading test," he said.

The most recent results of that test show 88.5 percent of OPS third-graders were reading at an acceptable level of proficiency.

Langan, the school board president, said some people may think that if only the district didn't have this or that low-scoring group of students, it would be better off. That idea, he said, is wrong.

"Because of those kids," he said, "we're richer as a school district."

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