Evergreen Elementary joins network that pitches college to students as soon as they begin school

When Principal Brad Graham arrived at Evergreen Elementary School in Spanaway five years ago, test scores were bouncing along the bottom of the rankings among schools in the Bethel School District.

Not only were scores low, so was morale among staff.

“There were a lot of excuses about why students were not performing,” Graham said. “The school was in trouble.”

He set out to learn what was broken at Evergreen so that he and his staff could try to fix it.

An outside consultant painted a school profile that shocked Graham and his teachers. The report pointed to problems among staff in resolving conflicts, a lack of understanding of their diverse student body, problems with discipline and failure to use available data to help improve teaching.

“The staff was pretty stunned,” Graham said. “I was, too. I took it much too personally.”

He went searching for a lifeline – a model that could bond teachers and rescue Evergreen. What he found was an idea called No Excuses University.

Founded by a San Diego educator in 2004, it taps into a network of more than 70 schools across the country that promotes the goal of attending college to kids from the moment they begin elementary school.

Graham had his staff read books published by the network, and said he got 100-percent support for making Evergreen a No Excuses University school – one of four in Pierce County.

While there are no annual dues or application fees to join the network, schools must send a principal and teachers to a training institute to launch the process. Graham and members of his teaching team attended their first institute last year, then shared what they learned with the rest of the school before the start of the 2010-11 school year.

His goal was to make sure every staff member – from teachers to lunch ladies – understands that poverty or language barriers shouldn’t be excuses for students not learning, or their teachers failing to teach them.

“Test scores are one thing,” Graham said. “But I was interested in changing the culture of the school.”

Many obstacles

About half of Evergreen’s kids come from families with incomes low enough to qualify for free or reduced-price school lunches, a frequently used gauge of student poverty.

More than half are minority kids, and the school also has many students whose first language is Russian or Spanish.

One goal for No Excuses University schools is to create an environment of achievement. Instead of intervening after students fail, their goal is to assess what kind of help kids need, and offer it up front. At the other end of the learning spectrum, students who excel are offered activities that extend their learning.

There are visible signs of the culture shift in every hallway and classroom at Evergreen. Every classroom “adopts” a different university and its mascot. University posters and pennants hang everywhere.

At Evergreen, there are little Huskies and Cougars, Loggers and Lutes, Ducks and Wolverines, as well as classrooms attached to other universities from around the country.

During morning announcements, kids lead college cheers. One mom reported to the principal that her kids were at play one day, packing suitcases. When she asked what they were doing, they replied, “We’re packing for college.”

Kids earn “degrees” in reading, based on how much they read and how challenging the material is. They start with an “associate’s degree” and can work their way up to a “doctoral degree.”

Teachers inspired

Other signs of a change in attitude come from teachers.

Sixth-grade teacher Lynn Taylor has been at Evergreen 19 years, and she said many colleagues also are Evergreen veterans.

“For a long time, we did struggle,” she said. She said teachers felt frustrated when faced with kids who didn’t have strong support at home.

But she said attending a No Excuses conference in San Diego helped she and her colleagues understand how to reach out to those families. She remembers teachers so inspired that they were making plans as they sat in the airport preparing to return home.

“In all the years I had taught at Evergreen, I don’t think I talked a lot about college,” she said. Once they were back at school, teachers started reinforcing the higher-education message, putting up signs and symbols of universities.

“Once we started talking about it with our students, they were like sponges,” she said. “They wanted to know more.”

She said she tells students about scholarships and grants, and about the importance of getting good grades in high school.

Kindergarten teacher Jennifer Hardie and her team-teaching partner, Thu Ulloa, teach a combined class that includes 46 students.

Why talk about college to kindergartners?

“It’s putting that thought out there that they can do it,” Hardie said. “For us as kindergarten teachers, we are setting the foundation for them. We let them know that this is the start. And this is where you can go.”

Parent involvement

Teachers also host Parent Academy nights. The first, in November, focused on how parents can help their child become a successful reader. The next, in January, will teach parents how to help their children learn math. The school will celebrate in June with a parent-appreciation dinner and award night. Graham said the goal is to eventually talk about college financial aid and financial planning with parents.

Last school year’s state test scores showed enough progress to qualify Evergreen as a School of Distinction – a program that recognizes schools around the state for consistently improving scores.

Graham said transforming Evergreen has been a labor of love that involves the entire staff.

“It starts with the belief by everyone in the building that all our children – without exception – have an opportunity to go to college after they graduate from high school,” Graham said. “We tell our students that every day.”

Debbie Cafazzo: 253-597-8635

debbie.cafazzo@thenewstribune.com