January 2002

BACKGROUND: As a result of the Unsatisfactory rating issued by the Oregon Department of Education in its first Oregon School Report Cards in 2000, the school began a thorough and systematic review of its instructional programs. Starting in February 2000, staff began brainstorming ways to address student academic performance, behavior, and attendance. The school, district and board had the attitude of “what gets measured gets done.”

Willamina High School serves the communities of Willamina and Grand Ronde in the West Valley of Yamhill and Polk Counties. The school has 270 students and 30 staff members. Chief among local employers are the Spirit Mountain Casino, Willamina Lumber, and the Federal Correctional Institution in Sheridan.

PEOPLE INVOLVED: High School Principal Gary Anderson has worked with his licensed and classified staff over the past two years to raise the academic performance of his students and school. This has included schedule changes to a block format, raising academic standards for athletes, and embarking on a staff development program with his staff.

RESEARCH & PLANNING: The results of the initial report card came as an unpleasant shock to the staff and community. Nevertheless, the school and district addressed the issue head on and even welcomed the media in to look at the school. A series of meetings began with the principal, superintendent, and staff to review the data used as the basis of the rating. Resources from the state were sought and a great deal of time and effort went in to applying for grants to facilitate staff development activities. It must be added that this was occurring at the same time the Willamina School District was cutting 10 percent of its teaching staff due to financial problems.

As a result, the school received Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration Grants to allow for training and planning by school staff. School personnel overwhelmingly supported the reform efforts. The school set targets to address in academic areas and developed a plan and allocated staff to reach those targets.

At specific dates set by ODE resource staff, the school’s staff reaffirmed its commitment to improve the school for the benefit of students. The school tightened up its athletic eligibility standards. At the district level additional support for school programs was gained through a grant from the Spirit Mountain Community Fund to support textbooks and library books.

HOW THE PROGRAM WORKS: The Willamina High School Improvement Project has, with the support of CSRD funds, enabled the staff to meet on a regular basis to discuss school improvement efforts and to obtain training in skills and content to help students learn. Early meetings were focused on assessment of a variety of student performance indicators and gaining a clearer picture of student outcomes. In 2000-2001 the school changed to a trimester system to allow greater student contact time and fewer students per teacher each term. With the 2001-2002 school year additional staffing has been funded with the grant to assist the school with its ongoing staff development activities aligned with the Coalition of Essential Schools.

STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT: Data on student performance that gave the school its Unsatisfactory rating in 2000 have improved dramatically! Performance in mathematics (both multiple choice and problem-solving) and writing have improved during the past two testing years. The percentage of students meeting mastery on these tests has gone from 32% to 42% (math multiple choice), 43% to 56% (math problem-solving), and 64% to 79% (writing). Admittedly still low, reading scores have gone up from 14% to 26% since 1998.

• Student attendance has improved over the past three years from 86.3% to over 89%.
• The student dropout rate has been reduced from over 8% to below 4%.
• On a survey of students administered during the past two years, the number of students feeling safe at school has risen by 50% (40% to 60% of students reporting).
• During the fall 2001 athletics season, the schools three teams in football, cross country, and volleyball all finished in the top ten statewide academically in the OSAA/Oregon Dairy Council Academic All Star Program.

GIVING CREDIT: The results at Willamina High School are the due to the focus and hard work of the school’s staff and administration. Any school can achieve as much by facing up to problems, seeking additional resources, and paying attention to student outcome measures.

The growing success of Willamina High School to address a variety of systemic weaknesses that resulted in poor student performance was done during a period of severe budget reductions and teacher layoffs. Money helps, but good people devoted to students help even more!