U-46 principal to lobby for slow change

Lavonne Smiley knows success has been a long time coming for Tefft Middle School in Streamwood.

A decade ago, the long-serving principal said, Tefft had roughly 100 of its 700 students flunk because of missing homework assignments.

School report cards in 2002 showed just 56 percent of students were meeting benchmarks in reading and math on standardized tests.

But now, after implementing - and sticking with - a string of innovative reforms, the school stands at the head of its class.

Last fall, Tefft was named by the National Association of Secondary School Principals one of the country's top 10 "Breakthrough Schools" for its work raising academic performance and closing the achievement gap for minority students.

Today, 86.7 percent of students are meeting or exceeding standards. Smiley's students run their own parent-teacher conferences and chart their own test scores.

But with components of the federal Race to the Top education stimulus competition rewarding short-term success, Smiley is concerned that other school principals won't get the same chance she had to turn a campus around.

"It's taken me a total of 10 years," Smiley said. "Steps we took over the course of time that led to closing the gap can't just be done in one or two years."

Smiley will take that message to Capitol Hill when she testifies July 15 at a national policy forum sponsored by the National Association of Secondary School Principals and the Alliance for Excellent Education. The event will focus on the perils of dismissing principals who don't see dramatic test score gains immediately.

Race to the Top, which aims to reward states that implement innovative education reform plans, is centered around several components, including tying teacher and principal evaluations to student achievement, and turning around the lowest-performing schools.

Illinois lawmakers and state board officials have spent the past several months changing education legislation and policies in the hope of winning a portion of $3.5 billion available during the program's second round of funding. The state was beaten out by Delaware and Tennessee in round one.

Among the changes are tying teacher and principal evaluations to student performance by 2012. The state's application for second-round funds notes those evaluations will be used in deciding whether to retain and grant tenure or remove teachers and principals.

"If principals are going to be released from their positions, why would you want to work up to that level?" Smiley asked. "They're under a lot of pressure. No one wants to be the principal of a failing school."

Smiley's presentation, she said, will reflect on Tefft's long road to success.

"We didn't take on four or five strategies all at once but took one or two things. Did them with fidelity and did them well," she said.

Smiley "remembers like it was yesterday" the school's first strategy, designed to get more students completing homework assignments. Tefft instituted a homework policy where, after three missing assignments, students were forced to stay after school and work.

After that, she said, the school began aligning its curriculum with Illinois Learning Standards, which define what each student should know at various grade levels.

"Our changes became systemic, a part of the school culture," she said. "We didn't try something and abandon it and replace it with something else. Everything we did 10 years ago is still in place today."

Along with the presentation, Smiley will have the opportunity to meet with local legislators at the Capitol.

"I can't leave there without having a discussion about school funding," she said. "We're in crisis mode here."