Journal Profiles Brighton Middle School

Faculty, students buckle down to maintain momentum

Just call Brighton Middle School the little engine that could. Four years ago, the school was high on the list of 50 lowest performing schools in the state.

Today, under the leadership of Principal Margie Curry and School Improvement Specialist Betsy Rogers, the 2003 National Teacher of the Year, the school is out from under the shadow of "school improvement." In fact, Brighton has met its performance goals, known as Adequate Yearly Progress or AYP, for two years in a row.

The school’s success is profiled in the most recent edition of the Working Toward Excellence journal. It took blood, sweat and more than a few tears, but the students and faculty rose to the challenge put before them by the new school leaders. And while they are quick to say that the school still has miles to go to reach its goal of 100 percent literacy, much has been achieved.

"Brighton School's recent success shows what can happen when educators become more focused on improving student learning," says Cathy Gassenheimer, president of the Alabama Best Practices Center.

Working Toward Excellence, the journal of the Alabama Best Practices Center, is published to help professional educators adopt the best ways to teach. The fall 2007 edition, "Bridging the Learning Gap," focuses on three Alabama schools that prove all children can learn at high levels when taught at high levels.

Brighton Middle School serves 350 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. Ninety-five percent qualify for free or reduced lunch. Eighty percent of the student population is black, 14 percent are Hispanic, and 6 percent are white. Students and teachers are housed in two buildings that are spaced far apart, which often deters collaboration and joint learning among faculty members. The school has often been in the spotlight, but in years past it was mostly a glaring, unpleasant experience, with negative media attention focused on the school's failure to "do the right thing" by its students.

With the introduction of a structured reading program, the primary grades have seen marked gains. The middle school is beginning to experience success as elementary students who have been exposed to Alabama Reading Initiative strategies reach the upper grades.

Its involvement in the Alabama Reading Initiative led Brighton Middle School to move away from the old style of professional development – things like half-day seminars on CPR or two-day offsite workshops on instructional strategies that may or may not be implemented correctly once teachers return to school. Now the school faculty members regularly examine student data to determine areas of weakness in instruction. The school then employs on-site “just in time” professional development that meets the need so that both teaching and learning improve.

While Curry and Rogers are thrilled that the school is out from under the yoke of school improvement, Rogers readily admits she’s anxious. “Now we have to prove we can sustain this momentum. While we did make AYP, we did not make the gains we’d hoped. We can’t let up.”

Despite the odds, change is happening at Brighton School. Plans are in place for the construction of a new facility where all grades will be housed in the one building. Curry and Rogers believe having all faculty members together will promote an even greater spirit of unity and teamwork among all faculty members that will help them improve and then sustain the learning of all of their students.

The A+ Education Foundation in Montgomery is home of the Alabama Best Practices Center, which receives major support from Microsoft Corp. and the Wachovia Foundation. Since 1991, A+ has advanced policies, programs and initiatives that result in high achievement by every child in Alabama's K-12 education system. A+ believes Alabama's economic future depends on strong public schools.

KEY LINK
PDF (449 Kb) of the Working Toward Excellence journal's 16-page print edition, www.bestpracticescenter.org

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