Improving Groton Schools: Charles Barnum Elementary

Chances are, if there’s a student at Charles Barnum Elementary who's moving near the Naval Station in Norfolk, Virginia, there’s another student at the school who used to live there.

Barnum is a made up of predominantly military families – 85 to 90 percent of students have parents in the military - and because of this, new faces are the norm. So are new parents.

Yet the school has attained a 100 percent proficiency in math among students in each of the last two years, and has 70 to 80 parents who volunteer, even if they can’t leave their house.

“You cannot improve a school without parental involvement,” said Catherine Hanson, the school's community coordinator, who serves as a point of contact for parents.

Student turnover

In a typical year, as many as half the students at Charles Barnum will move in or leave the school. Of the 41 students in fifth grade, 8 started kindergarten there.

To deal with the rapidly changing population, the school created a system to draw in children and parents quickly.

Teachers leave their classrooms to greet new children and parents when they arrive. The school gives new parents a calendar with stickers that explain all of the year’s activities.

At the start of the school year, the school invites parents in on the first day to spend 45 minutes in their child’s classroom. They follow it with a family picnic and a curriculum night where babysitting is provided.

“We have to provide babysitting because we have so many moms whose husbands are out to sea or on active duty,” Principal Valerie Nelson said.

Learning from parents

The school's goal for the future is 40 percent attendance by parents at every activity. Sometimes, the school meets this goal and then some; the family picnic drew 75 percent. Cookies and pajama night brought in 25 percent.

Nelson believes more personal contact will give the school the boost it needs. But in case she needs more ideas, she has a survey to help her.

Every year around this time, the school sends home a questionnaire asking parents about everything from the dismissal procedure to teacher communication. Parents fill it out, then drop it in a box in the front hall.

Solving problems

Nelson said she distributes the survey in late February so parents have experience at Barnum and the school has time to get feedback and turn it into solutions.

Sometimes, parents provide the idea that solves a problem.

One such instance was the gridlock during school dismissal. The elementary is on a dead end street, and has two large buses that transport students, as well as a large number of parents who pick up their children.

Nelson said 150 cars were backing up during dismissal time, and parents suggested carpools. Parents organized the carpools themselves, and the school helped by lining up children by carpool group.  Today, children are organized into as many as 50 carpools.

“It’s a fine-oiled machine, and it works well,” Nelson said.

'Deployment Club'

Last year, the school started a “deployment club” for students to share their feelings about parents who may be going overseas or returning from active duty. It meets every other Tuesday, said Amanda Giorno, school psychologist.

Hanson also has reached out to parents who want to volunteer but can't leave the house because they have young children.

She gives them jobs, like cutting out geometric shapes for math night; if the parents can't pick up the material at school, she drives it to their house.

For the school’s recent reading challenge, 30 parents at home assembled the material for 400 students and faculty.

“They are thrilled to have at home projects because they feel a part of a school and event,” Hanson said.

“When parents feel welcome in the school, participate in the school helping teacher with projects, it gives them a sense of ownership.”

The improvement plan

Charles Barnum's school improvement plan focuses on boosting reading and math scores, reducing office referrals for discipline and increasing parental involvement.

The goals for the next three years are listed below:

•  Increase reading proficiency for K-5 students receiving free and reduced lunch by a minimum of 15 percent, while accelerating student achievement for all subgroups

•  Increase math proficiency for K-5 students receiving free and reduced lunch by a minimum of 20 percent, while accelerating student achievement for all subgroups.

•  Reduce office referrals for discipline by 50 percent.

•  School events will be attended by a minimum of 40 percent of parents of students in participating classes. 

The Targets

Below are the percentage of third, fourth and fifth graders at Charles Barnum Elementary School who demonstrated proficiency or better in reading and math on the Connecticut Mastery Tests.  The federal goal for 2011 was 89 percent in reading and 91 percent in math.

Test results for specific groups of students, such as black students, Hispanic students or those receiving free or reduced lunch were not listed if there were fewer than 40 students in those categories.