OLIVE HILL —
The change started five years ago.
Teachers at West Carter Middle School tightened their focus on reading and math. Principal Sherry Horsley organized faculty into departments and grade level teams. Teachers renewed their dual commitment to the school as a whole and the success of each child enrolled there.
The result, five years later — what was a low-performing school now is among the top 15 percent of Kentucky middle schools. West Carter was named a School to Watch earlier this year and the U.S. Department of Education has designated it a Turnaround School and featured it in a video on the department web site.
“It’s wonderful and inspiring ... The designation means we’re a school where all students can learn and we put a lot of effort into ensuring their success,” Horsley said Tuesday. Horsley was speaking from Washington D.C. She and Carter County Superintendent Darlene Gee were guests of U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan at the National Press Club, where he was announcing finalists in round two of the Race to the Top competition.
Before 2005, West Carter’s accountability test scores were stagnant, said Teena Liles, who teaches eighth-grade reading. The school lacked a true reading program, combining it with language arts.
Horsley focused on reading throughout the school, with separate reading classes. The other focus was math: two teachers per grade level. The math teachers would split the core content subjects between them so that one, for example, would teach fractions and the other would teach equations, Liles said.
Liles, by the way, was not in Washington Tuesday. She was in her classroom getting it ready for orientation that night, even though the first day of school for teachers is a week away. “The teachers in this building have such high expectations for themselves, and mad love for the kids,” she said.
“We also focus on each individual student,” Liles said. “Not just the school but the individual child.”
The education department sent a production team in April to make the video, which it has posted on its website.
It is one of several made around the country to illustrate schools that have made significant progress in student achievement. West Carter was chosen as a rural school.
Horsley, Liles and two other teachers were interviewed on the piece, which can be viewed on the education department’s website at http://www.ed.gov/blog/2010/07/illuminating-positive-change-rural-transformation-at-west-carter-middle-school/.
The producers also interviewed three students, among them Megan Burge, who was an eighth-grader at the time.
West Carter is an exemplary school because there is help for all students, Megan believes. “They offer such a variety of ways to assist kids. There are remedial classes for kids who need help and there are ways to help students who excel or who can do high school level work,” she said.
Also the teachers are friendly and approachable, either for academic or personal counseling. “Any problem, you can talk to them.”
MIKE JAMES can be reached at mjames@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2652.
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