School's focus on writing helps improve test score

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By MARGARET REIST / Lincoln Journal Star

Culler Middle School eighth-graders whooped and hollered and clapped at their recognition celebration last May — and not just because they were moving on to high school.

Some of those whoops and hollers were reserved for an accomplishment, a goal set and met, a collective academic achievement.

The school’s English teachers had set the goal: To raise the percent of students testing proficient on the statewide writing exam to 88 percent.

They made it a schoolwide goal, which meant every teacher —  from physical education to science — focused on writing.

The students came through, and then some. The final score: 95 percent testing proficient.

“We were overjoyed,” said Sharon Phillips, one of three eighth-grade English teachers.

Culler has shown a 26 percent  increase in those writing scores since the state began the test in 2003. Last year, 81 percent of eighth-graders tested proficient.

Overall, the percentage of Lincoln Public Schools students who tested proficient on the writing exam continued to increase.

The test is given to fourth, eighth and eleventh-graders every year.

Districtwide, 94 percent of fourth-graders tested proficient; 95 percent of eigth-graders and 89 percent of eleventh-graders.

LPS fourth- and eighth- graders did slightly better than the statewide average for those agegroups. LPS eleventh-graders fell slightly behind the statewide average.

Marilyn Moore, associate superintendent for instruction, speculated that LPS’s high school students lag slightly behind the state average because they’re more focused on the writing portion of the graduation demonstration exam, which they have to pass to graduate.

“I don’t think our kids become poorer writers (as they get older),” she said. “I think it’s probably the attitude of students that contributes.”

And Moore said she was pleased to see the eleventh-grade average had risen from 84 percent proficiency last year to 89 percent this year.

Another high point: Six elementary schools scored 100 percent proficient.

“That’s a cause for celebration, that’s what that is,” Moore said. Each school, she said, would have  a different story about how they reached that goal, but all of them  made writing a priority.

That’s what happened at Culler.

Principal Dan Larson credited the district’s emphasis on Professional Learning Communities for helping the school zero in on  writing skills.

PLCs are groups of teachers who meet regularly and set specific goals, work together on teaching strategies and monitor individual progress of students.

At Culler, the fact that improving writing scores was a buildingwide goal meant that in P.E., if students were learning how to serve a volleyball, they not only served the volleyball, they described in writing how to do it.

“The fact that they were doing it every classroom gave them that repetition that they needed,” Phillips said. “We don’t take credit for their success. This was schoolwide.”

That’s not to say students didn’t work hard in English class. Teachers focused on breaking writing down, concentrating on specific skills, everything from writing introductions to paragraph form, to description.

“It was a long process,” Phillips said. “It was having kids do a lot of writing every week.”

Terri Vensky, another eighth-grade English teacher, said they started the year with small writing assignments, and doing those assignments within a certain amount of time.

Some parents bristled last year when news stories pointed out that Culler hadn’t met the No Child Left Behind targets for some groups of students in reading and math.  

They certainly weren’t alone, but as a Title I school, they faced sanctions.

Writing scores aren’t a specific target of NCLB, but teachers want to keep raising the bar.

Although the goal is  to become better writers, students know those scores reflect on their school and they want their school to look good, the teachers said.

And it worked.  

They were beaming,” Phillips said of the eighth-graders when they found out how they’d done. “They were very proud of themselves.”

Reach Margaret Reist at 473-7226 or mreist@journalstar.com