Elgin's Tefft school to show off success to country

Tefft Middle School in Elgin Area District U-46 has been selected to share its success story at next year's School Showcase as part of the National Association of Secondary School Principals Breaking Ranks K-12 Conference.

The conference is from March 8 to 10 in Tampa, Fla. Tefft is one of 17 middle and high schools from across the country chosen to present at the conference.

NASSP is the leading organization for middle level and high school principals, assistant principals, and all school leaders from across the United States and more than 45 countries around the world. The association provides research-based professional development and resources, networking, and advocacy to build the capacity of middle level and high school leaders to continually improve student performance, according to its website.

Representatives from Tefft will share how their school moved from the state's watch list to a school with more than 90 percent of the students meeting or exceeding standards. In a news release, Tefft Principal Lavonne Smiley said the school has introduced a number of practices that have worked in improving student achievement.

Smiley said students chart their own scores, analyze their strengths and weaknesses and from the analysis establish personal learning goals.

“Kids show accountability for their own growth and we expect them to take ownership of their own learning,” Smiley said. “It gives them the motivation to succeed.”

Smiley said if you tell a student that they are reading at the fourth-grade level and they are in the seventh grade, children will want to learn.

It took the school a few years to reach the standards it has achieved. Smiley said in 2003, only 56 percent of students met standards. The first time the school passed a state test was in 2006. In the 2010-2011 school year, 92 percent of students met or exceeded standards on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test.

“You can have a great school and great teachers but ultimately students are responsible for their own education,” Smiley said.

Another central component of the school's formula are the student-driven parent-teacher conferences. Instead of parents and teachers talking about a student's progress, the students tell their parents what their strengths and weaknesses are, how they did on a test and what they need to improve upon.

Last year, 100 percent of parents participated in the conferences.

“It is the student driving the conversation, not the parent and the teacher,” Smiley said. “They are there, but the parents are hearing it from the student. That's a very powerful thing.”