Orem school is example of NCLB success

OREM — Eight-year-old Ismael Cabadas isn't quite sure how to spell "addition." Is it A-D-D-E-T-I-O-N or A-D-D-I-T-I-O-N?

"It's a hard one," said the Sharon Elementary third-grader, clutching his head with pencil-smeared fingers.

But Ismael, who is learning English as a second language, doesn't have to wait long — or go far — to get the help he needs. He, like all of the students at his Orem elementary school (gifted and remedial alike), shares the attention of a teacher with only a few other students every morning or afternoon.

It could be this one-on-one attention that makes Sharon Elementary, which has managed to achieve adequate yearly progress every year since No Child Left Behind was instituted, such a successful school. Or maybe, said principal Linda Anderson, it's her dedicated staff, the teacher development program, and the school's innovative math and language arts curriculums — she can't decide.

"We just do whatever it takes," Anderson said — but she's not talking about passing AYP. The federal government's mark of approval is just a byproduct, she said, of "doing what's best for kids."

Anderson had her work cut out for her when she took over Sharon Elementary 10 years ago. Fifty percent of the school's students are English-language learners, and 80 percent come from low-income families.

"A lot of our families are just struggling for survival," she said. "Parents who are working two or three jobs to make ends meet just don't have as much time to spend reading with their kids and helping with homework."

Because the school's boundaries include several apartment complexes, students move in and out frequently, she said, often showing up at school with no idea how to say "hi" in English.

Anderson's solution was to rearrange the school's schedule. Half of the student body attends class from 8 a.m. to 2:20 p.m. The other half comes at 9:15 a.m. and stays until 3:30 p.m.

The result? For the first hour and last hour of every day, teachers have only six to eight children in the classroom. This gives children lots of extra "talking time," Anderson said.

"If these kids aren't speaking English at home, if they aren't reading at home, we make up for that time here," Anderson said.

Sharon Elementary was quiet Tuesday morning, before the second wave of students showed up for class.

"You get to know the children better (in small groups), get to know their reading style," Carrie Cross said, as she led four of her fifth-graders through a discussion of a novel. "I know who needs help, because I hear them read every day."

For their part, the children seem to be engaged.

"Reading is kind of easy now," said Ismael, as he went over his spelling test with a teacher's aide, "because my teacher teaches me all the words."

e-mail: estuart@desnews.com