Posted on: Thursday, January 6, 2005

School in Palolo proud of changes

By Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Education Writer

At Palolo Elementary School, the state's academic targets may be elusive, but the school has made great strides toward meeting them, missing the math standards by just one percentage point.

One positive step has been working with the Los Angeles County Department for Educational Reform, which serves as a consultant to struggling schools.

"They have really supported all the teachers and myself as principal in bringing about change and focusing on the areas we need to," said Ruth Silberstein.

The school is working toward creating standards-based classrooms that meet each individual student's needs as much as possible, Silberstein said.

What made the difference: An audit by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Los Angeles consultants have helped the "corrective action" school move in the right direction.

The consultants spent a lot of time at Palolo initially, observing the classes and helping the school plan its course of action. Now the consultants monitor the school from California through daily reports from the principal; they also spend a few days at the school each month.

How they do it: Teachers do formal assessments every week, and each quarter they take a deeper look at each student's proficiency and how the class is grouped. "They try to gear the teaching to meet the different groupings and the individual needs of the students," Silberstein said.

This "differentiated" instruction takes a lot of personnel, however, so the school constantly shuffles its resources to find the most effective way to meet students' needs.

Other factors: Grants and the federal No Child Left Behind Act have given the school extra financing, as well as access to consultants and academic coaches. "You need these professional-level people to come in and also assist the teachers," Silberstein said.

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8014.