[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 67 (Thursday, May 25, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E841-E843]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




HONORING THE INGLEWOOD UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT OF INGLEWOOD, CALIFORNIA

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. MAXINE WATERS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 24, 2000

  Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, it is with extreme pride that I come to the 
floor of the House of Representatives today. I want to share the 
fantastic accomplishments of some of my constituents--the students, 
parents, teachers, administrators and school board representatives of 
the Inglewood Unified School District in Inglewood, California.
  A recent Los Angeles Times article, ``Inglewood Writes the Book on 
Success: It's Elementary Schools Draw Experts Studying How Poor, 
Minority Kids Get Test Scores as High as Beverly Hills': Keys Include 
Phonics, Constant Testing, Intensive Teacher Training'' by Duke Helfand 
highlights the phenomenal educational achievements by Inglewood's 
students. The article extensively chronicles the success of this urban 
school district.
  The article explains that Inglewood's Elementary school students, 98% 
of whom are African-American and Latino, have scores on the Stanford 9 
educational test in the top half of the list of all California school 
districts. These students are not considered the ``norm,'' the majority 
qualify for school lunch programs, have learned English as a second 
language and are being taught by a 45% uncredentialed elementary school 
teacher force. These students are defying all of the rules governing 
poverty, parental achievement and educational attainment.
  An educational environment exists where the administrator defied the 
state educational guidelines and stuck to the basics--phonics drills, 
writing exercises and children's literature. The schools did not follow 
the move toward bilingual education and continued teaching in English 
only, according to the article. The administrators involved the parents 
in their child's education, keeping in mind the parent is a child's 
first educator.
  Inglewood elementary schools have shattered the myths about poverty 
and education. I an excited to be here today to share that fact with my 
colleagues. Public schools work. The level they have reached is the 
level we expect from all our children regardless of where it is they 
happen to live. In Inglewood, educational excellence is the norm.
  In today's news, we usually only hear about problem situations with 
our young people. We often do not hear enough about the hard work of 
the majority of our own constituents. We do not hear the success 
stories of the young people, their parents, teachers and 
administrators. I am pleased to be able to share this exciting success 
story with you. I thank Mr. Helfand, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, 
for writing this informative article. I have attached a copy of the 
complete article for inclusion at this time.
  Congratulations, Inglewood Unified School District! You have made us 
all proud. Continue to keep up the excellent academic achievements you 
have begun. We are a better community for your accomplishments.

              [From the Los Angeles Times, April 30, 2000]

   Inglewood Writes the Book on Success; Its Elementary Schools Draw 
  Experts Studying How Poor, Minority Kids get Test Scores as High as 
   Beverly Hills': Keys Include Phonics, Constant Testing, Intensive 
                            Teacher Training

                           (By Duke Helfand)

       It is an axiom of education that the best public schools 
     are found in affluent suburbs. Parents shopping for a top-
     tier campus, however, might want to take note of a more urban 
     exception--Inglewood.
       The city's elementary schools, many located under the 
     landing path of Los Angeles International Airport, are filled 
     with poor students who qualify for free lunches and who learn 
     English as their second language. Yet they have leaped to the 
     top ranks of California's new Academic Performance Index, 
     defying the rule that equates poverty and minority status 
     with low achievement in the classroom.
       Inglewood's elementary students--virtually all Latino or 
     African American--have produced Stanford 9 test scores that 
     equal levels found in more upscale cities. In some cases, the 
     Inglewood schools register math scores surpassing those in 
     largely white enclaves of affluence such as Irvine, Malibu 
     and Beverly Hills.
       That success seems attributable to reforms that feature an 
     intensive focus on basic reading skills, constant testing to 
     detect students who fall behind and relentless teacher 
     training. The model was perfected at two campuses that 
     eschewed bilingual education and social promotion when both 
     were popular, and that stuck with basic phonics when the rest 
     of the state turned to a ``whole language'' approach to 
     reading.
       ``You don't have to be white and rich to learn,'' said 
     Nancy Ichinaga, principal at Bennett-Kew

[[Page E842]]

       Kelso earned a 10 and Bennett-Kew a 9 on the state's new 
     accountability index, which ranks schools from 1 to 10 on the 
     basis of their Stanford 9 test scores. In all, eight of the 
     district's 13 elementary schools ranked among the top half of 
     campuses in the state, shattering the crippling link between 
     poverty and low academic performance.
       Decades of research have shown that income and family 
     background are the surest predictors of academic achievement. 
     Students from low-income homes where parents have limited 
     education consistently earn lower grades and test scores. 
     Race and ethnicity are also closely associated with 
     performance, with black and Latino students lagging well 
     behind whites and Asians.
       The achievement gap between poor and affluent, as well as 
     white and minority, has long been the glaring failure of 
     public education. Since President Lyndon Johnson launched his 
     Great Society programs in the 1960s, the federal government 
     has pumped billions of dollars into schools that serve the 
     poorest children. Nonetheless, the gulf has persisted.
       Inglewood's campuses fit the profile of schools that 
     usually fail. They are among the most disadvantaged in the 
     state when it comes to student poverty, lack of English 
     skills, numbers of uncredentialed teachers and other 
     obstacles associated with low performance, a Times study of 
     state data shows.
       Nearly three-fourths of Inglewood elementary students 
     qualify for subsidized lunches, the leading measure of 
     poverty among schoolchildren. More than one-third are not 
     fluent in English. Latinos and African Americans account for 
     98% of the students. Forty-five percent of the elementary 
     school teachers have not completed their training and hold 
     emergency credentials.
       But the elementary schools earned an average rank of 6.2 on 
     the state's accountability scale and an average raw score of 
     654--exceeding the state median of 630. Districts with 
     similar socioeconomic characteristics earned far lower 
     scores. For example, El Monte's elementary schools scored an 
     average 125 points lower on the accountability index and 
     Montebello schools trailed by 166 points.
       ``It's impressive that virtually all of Inglewood's 
     elementary schools performed better than expected,'' said Kim 
     Rueben, a research fellow at the Public Policy Institute of 
     California who reviewed the test scores as part of a broader 
     statewide study of academic achievement. ``I think we should 
     try to take lessons from the district.''
       Inglewood's middle and high schools do not show the same 
     level of success. The city's two middle schools registered 3s 
     on the accountability index, with an average score of 526, 
     well below the state median. Its two high schools bottomed 
     out with 1s, with an average score of 441. Officials say that 
     the bulk of recent reforms have concentrated on the primary 
     grades and that students who benefited from those measures 
     are just now moving into the middle schools.
       Those reforms began to take root in the district three 
     years ago under the late Supt. McKinley M. Nash. Wanting to 
     duplicate the success of Kelso and Bennett-Kew, he pressed 
     the other elementary schools to embrace their techniques and 
     programs.


                   Schools Adopt Same Reading Program

       Officials say a crucial reform had each school adopt the 
     Open Court reading program, which uses heavily scripted 
     lessons that combine phonics drills, writing exercises and 
     children's literature. The lessons dictate virtually every 
     detail of daily instruction.
       Some teachers complained that Open Court robbed them of 
     creativity in the classroom. Others protested what they 
     believed was a one-size fits-all approach for children with a 
     range of abilities. They argued that it was particularly 
     unsuitable for students new to English.
       But the schools pushed ahead, significantly boosting 
     training for teachers in Open Court. Each campus
       The coaches have helped solidify the new reading program in 
     Inglewood's elementary classrooms, where nearly one in two 
     instructors holds an emergency credential.
       Ingelwood educators also introduced ``pacing schedules'' in 
     the primary grades to ensure that teachers in every class 
     covered the same reading lessons at about the same time. The 
     idea, patterned after the practice at Kelso and Bennett-Kew, 
     was to ensure that students at every school consistently 
     acquired the same skills.
       Schools also began testing their students every six to 
     eight weeks in spelling, vocabulary and other skills in the 
     same way that Kelso and Bennett-Kew had done for several 
     years. Teachers began poring over the data together to 
     identify lagging students and to refine their practices.
       ``There's little wiggle room to fall through the cracks,'' 
     said Betty Jo Steward, principal of Highland Elementary 
     School, which earned a rank of 8 on the state index, even 
     though more than two-thirds of its teachers are 
     uncredentialed. Highland switched to Open Court five years 
     ago, ahead of the other campuses. ``It's made a tremendous 
     differences,'' Steward said.
       Inglewood's elementary schools have become urban 
     laboratories for educators and researchers. Several of the 
     state's largest urban school systems--including those in 
     Burbank, Riverside and Oakland--have sent delegations to 
     study Ingelwood's classrooms.
       The Los Angeles Unified School District is among the latest 
     to send observers. In July, the district will begin 
     introducing Open Court and reading coaches in most of its 
     elementary schools.
       ``Anything Inglewood can do, Compton or Los Angeles can 
     do--we are not unique,'' said Marge Thompson, Kelso's 
     principal of 25 years until her retirement in February. She 
     still visits regularly to help train teachers.
       Ingelwood's schools are among a group of campuses around 
     the country that are gaining attention in education ranks for 
     producing solid results with low-income and minority 
     students.
       ``People need to make the study of schools like those in 
     Ingelwood the single highest priority in the country,'' said 
     Samuel Casey Carter, a researcher at the Heritage Foundation 
     in Washington, D.C., who included Bennett-Kew in a new book 
     about 21 impressive campuses that serve low-income children.
       Carter found that the successful schools shared common 
     practices and features such as an emphasis on basic skills, 
     strong principals, frequent testing and assessment, and 
     continuous teacher training.
       ``There is nothing these schools do that is beyond the 
     reach of any school in America,'' he said.
       What Carter found at Bennett-Kew were students like Omir 
     Perez.
       Omir's first language is Spanish; both of his parents were 
     born in Belize. His family lives on about $18,000 a year. Yet 
     the Bennett-Kew fifth-grader has produced Stanford 9 test 
     scores that would please any parent: the 73rd percentile in 
     math, the 80th in reading, the 97th in spelling.
       ``Education gets you a good job sooner or later,'' said 
     Omir, who wants to be an airline pilot.
       Omir's record already is paying dividends. He won a 
     scholarship next year to the exclusive Chadwick School on the 
     Palos Verdes Peninsula, along with four other Bennett-Kew 
     students who had equally high marks.
       The $11,600 tuition is nearly two-thirds of what Omir's 
     father, a machinist, earns in a year.
       ``We had a lot of people praying for this,'' said Omir's 
     mother, Isabel, who like her husband speaks English and is a 
     naturalized U.S. citizen. ``It's a blessing.''
       Omir is bright and studious, and his parents make his 
     education their top priority. But his marks are hardly 
     exceptional. ``We have 20 kids in the fifth grade like 
     Omir,'' Ichinaga said.


                   Closing a Stubborn Achievement Gap

       Ingelwood's schools are succeeding at closing a stubborn 
     achievement gap that emerges as early as age 3--even before 
     children enter school. Children from poor families arrive in 
     the classroom with less exposure to books and smaller 
     vocabularies than their more affluent peers.
       That gap widens the most during the elementary years but 
     persists through high school and college--showing up in 
     grades, test scores, graduation rates and other measures of 
     achievement.
       Ultimately, it affects students' earning power as adults.
       The most recent round of national tests--in 1998--
     demonstrated the scope of the divide.
       Among fourth-graders 39% of whites and 37% of Asians met 
     the ``proficient'' level in reading on the National 
     Assessment of Educational Progress. That meant that the 
     students demonstrated competence over challenging subject 
     matter.
       By contrast, just 13% of Latinos and 10% of African 
     Americans met the proficiency standard.
       African American and Latino 12th-graders had fallen so far 
     behind by the end of high school that they performed at about 
     the same level in reading as white and Asian eighth-graders, 
     the nationwide test scores revealed.
       A growing number of experts argue that more experienced and 
     qualified teachers are the key to reversing the trend.
       Studies in Texas, North Carolina and other states have 
     found that competent teachers--those who earn high test 
     scores themselves and have a deep knowledge of the subjects 
     they teach--produce higher-achieving students.
       ``If we took the simple step of assuring that poor and 
     minority children had teachers of the same quality as other 
     children, about half of the achievement gap would 
     disappear,'' said Kati Haycock, director of the Education 
     Trust, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that monitors 
     student achievement in low-income communities.
       ``If we went further and assigned our best teachers to the 
     students who most need them, there's persuasive evidence to 
     suggest that we could entirely close the gap,'' Haycock 
     added.
       But the reality is that urban schools serving the neediest 
     students tend to have the greatest proportion of novices 
     leading their classrooms.
       Ingelwood fits the pattern: 45% of its elementary school 
     teachers hold emergency credentials. Only six of California's 
     1,000 school districts have higher percentages of teachers 
     without full credentials. But Inglewood has overcome 
     inexperience by literally molding its own talent and taking 
     the guesswork out of teaching.

[[Page E843]]

                  Making Newcomers Competent Teachers

       The district has found a way to turn green newcomers such 
     as Andrew Gin into competent instructors.
       At Payne, Gin was handed the Open Court reading program and 
     a thick teacher's manual that told him what skills to teach 
     every day, even when to praise his second-graders. ``It was a 
     godsend,'' he said, ``like a huge outline.''
       Meanwhile, Gin became a student in this own school. Payne's 
     teachers became his mentors.
       Principal Georgia Leynaert began visiting Gin's classroom 
     regularly to teach him techniques for engaging students. Two 
     senior teachers met with Gin at lunch and after school, 
     showing him how to design lesson plans and giving him tips on 
     games that encourage learning, such as math bingo. A reading 
     coach helped demonstrate Open Court.
       ``Whenever I need something clarified or explained, I know 
     where to go,'' said Gin, 33, who is working toward his 
     credential at Cal State L.A.
       More than half of Payne's teachers have emergency 
     credentials. Still, in a school where 87% of the students 
     qualify for subsidized lunches and 72% speak limited English, 
     Payne earned a rank of 7 on the state's new accountability 
     index, placing it among the top third of elementary schools 
     in California.
       ``If you hire right, then inexperience doesn't have to be a 
     negative,'' Leynaert said. ``You hire people who are going to 
     be good. Then you give them structure so that no teacher is 
     left out there alone.''


                      Driven by High Expectations

       Payne and the other schools also are driven by high 
     expectations, an intangible quality that shapes the culture 
     of their campuses.
       Teachers reject the idea that their students are destined 
     for mediocrity because they are poor or speak limited 
     English. Instead, they demand that students meet the state's 
     academic standards.
       ``If you set high expectations for children, they generally 
     rise to the occasion,'' said Norma Baker, principal of 
     Hudnall Elementary School, which earned a state rank of 8 
     with nearly half the students still learning to speak 
     English. ``You get what you expect.''
       That message literally surrounds the students in Barbra 
     Williams' fourth-grade classroom at Hudnall.
       Mock graduation caps with black tassels hang from the 
     ceiling. Each has the name of an elite university scrawled in 
     white letters on the back: Stanford, Harvard, Yale, 
     Princeton.
       The walls carry similar messages. A sign on one wall ways, 
     ``ENGLISH MAJORS EXCEL,'' in big black letters, with student 
     reports stapled to the wall. A sign on another wall ways, 
     ``MATH MASTERS''; the wall features colored pictures of 
     sliced pizzas that the students created to demonstrate 
     fractions. The banner on a third wall ways, ``SOCIAL STUDIES 
     SCHOLARS.''
       Williams requires all of her students to write essays at 
     the end of the year about universities they will attend, and 
     to select majors they plan to study. Students are encouraged 
     to collect admissions packets in the course of their 
     research.
       ``I tell them. `You have to go to a really good college. 
     You have to get good grades, good test scores. You have to 
     get in the habit of taking it seriously,' '' said Williams, 
     25, a graduate of UC Irvine. ``I want to instill in them that 
     these universities are out there. Some of these students 
     don't hear that or haven't thought about it. When I ask them 
     about colleges, they mention El Camino or Southwest two local 
     community colleges.''
       Nine-year-old La Tijera Avery has already picked her 
     university. It's Stanford.
       ``I want to grow up to be a great doctor who helps people 
     who get stick,'' said La Tijera, who earns mostly as an 
     impressive Standard 9 test scores--the 62nd percentile in 
     reading and the 85 percentile in math.
       La Tijera's mothers, La Tasha Holden, is thrilled with her 
     daughter's progress. When the family moved across Inglewood a 
     few years ago, Holden purposely kept La Tijera at Hudnall. 
     The philosophy of the school, she believed, reflected the 
     values she teaches at home.
       ``My kids are going to college if I have to give every 
     penny I have or sell my house,'' Holden said.


                   Strong Leadership Seen as Crucial

       When educators speak about school reform, they inevitably 
     seize on the issue of leadership. High-performing campuses, 
     the experts say, are led by able principals who firmly 
     manage, show a keen ability to motivate teachers, set 
     unambiguous goals and establish a serious academic tone.
       Two of the lowest-performing elementary schools in 
     Ingelwood have faced regular turnover among top 
     administrators. Lane, a kindergarten through eighth-grade 
     school that earned a 3 on the state's accountability index, 
     has had eight principals in 10 years, said the latest 
     administrator to hold that position.
       Since taking over at Lane 2\1/2\ years ago, Principal 
     Adrienne Jackson has replaced about half her staff and opened 
     a school library for the first time in years. Lane's reading 
     test scores have improved an average of eight point during 
     her tenure.
       None of the administrators has done the job as successfully 
     as Ichinaga and Thompson, the longtime principals of Bennett-
     Kew and Kelso, respectively
       Both have made careers of bucking the educational 
     establishment.
       Ichinaga and Thompson began using Open Court in the mid-
     1980s, and stuck with it even as phonics was being phased out 
     in California. They hewed to scripted math programs that 
     stressed basic computational skills, even as the state moved 
     to more experimental approaches.
       Both also required their teachers to give regular student 
     assessments, and they personally analyzed the results, a 
     previously unheard-of practice that is only now gaining 
     currency in schools.
       In addition, both long ago said no to social promotion, 
     holding back failing kindergartners in ``junior first'' 
     classes that provide an extra year of phonics practice.
       And both rejected bilingual education two decades before 
     California voters officially ended the practice in 1997.
       ``I didn't believe in bilingual education, and my parents 
     were dead set against it,'' said Thompson, a former first-
     grade teacher in Inglewood. ``I didn't need a job bad enough 
     to violate my ethics.''
       For Inchinaga, the decision grew out of personal 
     experience: She was reared in a Japanese-speaking home on a 
     Hawaiian sugar cane plantation but attended schools that 
     taught in English. ``My kids come to school much like I was, 
     with very little English,'' she said.
       These principals' methods, and the stability they brought, 
     are reflected in test scores.
       The average Kelso second-grader reached the 71st percentile 
     in reading and the 79th percentile in math on last year's 
     Stanford 9. The scores are comparable to the district average 
     for second-grader in Irvine
       The scores mean that the students were in the top echelons 
     of test-takers nationwide.
       Thompson and Ichinaga are a contrast in styles. While she 
     was principal, Thompson was a quiet force on campus, 
     personally training her teachers and parents while keeping a 
     low public profile. Ichinaga is an outspoken advocate for her 
     methods and a master at delegating authority to her best 
     teachers.
       ``I'm dismayed that so many people still believe if you're 
     a minority by color or language, you're at a disadvantage,'' 
     Ichinaga said. ``I don't believe that for a minute. We have 
     to get rid of that mentality.''
       Ichinaga's campus has drawn more attention in recent years 
     because of the visible role she has taken in education 
     reform. She sat on the task force that helped draft Gov. Gray 
     Davis' education agenda shortly after he was elected two 
     years ago, and she is regularly invited to speak at education 
     conferences. Davis appointed her this year to the State Board 
     of Education.
       Although Bennett-Kew has received more acclaim, Kelso, a 
     year-around school, has quietly assumed the top rank in the 
     district. One reason, Thompson and Kelso's teachers say, is 
     that all students are invited to take classes during their 
     vacation breaks for a few hours a day. Up to two-thirds of 
     her students return, meaning they literally attend school all 
     year long.
       ``We're committed to overturning perception in education--
     that so-called low socioeconomic children can't learn.'' said 
     Linda Stevenson, a longtime Kelso teacher who was the first 
     to use Open Court at school. ``Of course, they can learn. 
     We're here to prove it.''

     

                          ____________________