Among the Elite: How Corbett's Self-image is Changing over Time
By Bob Dunton, Superintendent

Many of you have doubtless already heard that Corbett High is sending two teams to represent the State of Oregon and Corbett Schools in national competitions during the next few weeks. The Academic WorldQuest team, comprised entirely of freshmen and coached by Susan Handy, qualified for nationals in the state competition at Lewis and Clark College. The Academic Decathlon team place 1st in their state tournament at Willamette University. Both competitions were open to schools of all sizes throughout the state. The Academic Decathlon curriculum was so daunting that most schools that started on that path dropped out along the way. There were only four schools left at the first scrimmage and only two made it to the state finals. These teams are just two more examples of what hard work can do. And they are examples of how Corbett's self-image has been changing over time.

It is no news to anyone who has been watchful that the reputation of Corbett School District has improved over time. Ten years ago, the district was under considerable stress, and this stress engendered two sorts of responses from parents: there were those who enrolled their children elsewhere, and there were those who demanded that the district improve. (Some, to be thorough and honest, did both).

By the time I arrived in Corbett, the impetus for change was already present on the Board and in the community, and I was encouraged to push some limits, change the culture, and (in an eloquent phrase at a Board meeting) to make Corbett a "destination district." At the time, I took that to mean that Corbett wanted to provide schooling of such remarkable quality that even those who lived outside the District would want to attend.

Quick Assessment of Campus
A quick assessment of the campus made it evident that there was a high degree of satisfaction with the elementary school and that parent confidence declined as one moved up through the grades. Parents of elementary students spoke openly of plans to transfer their children to a different middle or high school when the time came. Although the high school was (and always will be, since high school is 'crunch time') the focal point of the most public discontent, we focused our early change efforts on the elementary and middle schools. The history these changes is well-known to many, so here is just a brief list of the strategies that we put into place: restructuring the middle school from a junior high model to a multi-age middle school model, reconfiguring the elementary school along multi-age lines, adopting the Saxon Math program (which the Federal "What Works Clearinghouse" has designated as one of the only math programs in existence that is proven to improve math achievement), breaking away from basal readers and adopting the Guided Reading program, fostering vastly more inclusion of special needs students, eliminating letter grades at the middle school, creating a new grading structure at the high school, introducing and expanding the Advanced Placement program at the high school. All of these changed have been accomplished in an environment when budget cuts are always looming, resulting in significant reductions in staffing levels.

Throughout this process (and until the state changed the assessment system again) Corbett Elementary School, which had always been good, continued to improve in terms of measured student achievement. The school would have qualified for EXCEPTIONAL report card ratings for several years had it not been for a stubbornly low attendance rate...a measure that is largely beyond the ability of the staff to impact.

The middle school has improved dramatically and has attracted statewide and national notice. They have earned an EXCEPTIONAL rating from the State, several awards from statewide groups such as OSBA, OMLA and ODE, and they have, most recently, been recognized as Oregon's only School to Watch. Schools to Watch is a national program that recognizes the achievements and quality practice of middle schools throughout the county. Fewer than 150 middle schools in the nation have so far received this designation.

Corbett High School has received recognition in the form of two EXCEPTIONAL ratings from the State of Oregon and repeated rankings by Newsweek Magazine as one of the top high schools in America. Pretty heady stuff for a small, rural district that once considered sending high school students elsewhere for their education!

Low-Performing to High-Performing
It is well known that when an organization moves from low-performing to high-performing, people often hit what could be called a 'reset button': they wonder what the changes mean and question whether they are really a good thing. Our love for what is familiar tends to include even some negative aspects of whatever it was that we once got used to. In the case of exceptional academic achievement, it is typical for people to wonder whether their schools are becoming 'elitist', favoring only those who are the most academically talented at the expense of everyone else. (It is equally possible that when so many students are expected to work at such a high level, parents of Gifted Children are wondering whether their students shouldn't be getting something more!) Corbett School District is proud of the many ways in which we can demonstrate that exactly the opposite is true. We believe that we offer the most fully democratic educational opportunities that are available anywhere and that all of our students, whether academically gifted or academically disinclined, have access to an education that meets their needs.

For example, the reason for that national recognition (we believe that Corbett will be ranked among the top 80-or-so in the nation by Newsweek in May of this year) is critical to the point I want to make with today's communication: WE ARE RECOGNIZED FOR HAVING ONE OF THE MOST EGALITARIAN HIGH SCHOOLS IN THE NATION. This is the exact opposite of elitist. Let me expand on my meaning.

In Oregon last year, about 12% of high school seniors had the opportunity to earn a score of 3 or higher on at least one Advanced Placement Exam. In Corbett, that number was 65%, meaning that Corbett students had that opportunity at five times the rate of the average Oregon school. It is certainly hard to argue that 65% of the class was among the 'elite', unless 'elite' and 'average' have come to mean the same thing. (Corbett's Class of 2007, in fact, had 38% who had earned a 3 or better on at least three different AP Exams!) But there are other examples:

Corbett School District accepts transfer students from communities throughout the region. There are no prerequisites for attending, and students are allowed to enter on a first-come, first-served basis. Students who arrive in Corbett do not find themselves tracked into 'high', 'medium' and 'low' ability groups. On the contrary, and beginning in the elementary program, students are purposefully placed in mixed-ability groups. At the high school level, we have encouraged a broad common core, offering every student the strongest possible foundation for success after high school.

All Corbett 10th graders are given the opportunity to study Advanced Placement History. This course is, in most high schools, limited to only the elite few. A significant part of the reason that other schools limit access is that the course requires significantly more reading and writing than does a less rigorous course. In order to level the playing field for students whose reading and writing skills are not as advanced, Corbett rewrote its 10th grade English curriculum to add an entire hour each day in support of the World History curriculum. Expanding the time that is available each day to study the World History materials makes that class accessible to all students and not just to those who are already the most proficient readers and writers...the exact opposite of elitism.

All Corbett 11th and 12th graders are allowed to participate in Advanced Placement English. Access to these classes is limited to the top five or ten percent of students in many schools. (Many other schools don't offer the courses at all.) We believe that these classes contribute greatly to the readiness of all of our students to be successful in their careers after high school. Once again, students for whom the volume of work might be daunting are offered an additional hour each day (the language arts lab) during which they can read and get support from a licensed English teacher.

Students Grouped by Level of Mastery in Math
It is only in math that students are assigned according to their achievement levels, and those groups are flexible so that the same student can move from group to group mid-year based on achievement. Students are not grouped according to talent, but according to their level of mastery, and everyone who teaches these classes knows of cases where students with less innate ability are placed (because they have worked hard) at a level higher than another student who might have more talent but who has put less effort into their work. The math achievement levels are temporary, and students are re-grouped again when it is time to do other work. The result of Corbett's unique approach to math is that the number of students taking calculus at any given time is over five times what it was in 1999 and 2000.

So how are the kids doing? In addition to the highly publicized successes as reflected in passing rates on state assessments and on Advanced Placement exams, the Corbett administration spends considerable time combing our measures of 'risk'. We know who is absent and how often. We know who is not earning credit and why. We keep track of Incompletes in each grading period. One interesting result regarding Incompletes is that there are no more of them in Advanced Placement classes than there are in our 'regular' classes. This indicates that when Incompletes do occur, it is largely due to something other than the level of course difficulty. The strongest proof of this is that there were several semesters during which our Advisory classes (the classes with the very least academic content) had the very highest rates of Incomplete grades. So whatever causes Incompletes, it is rarely the course content. In the current school year, one of the areas with the fewest Incompletes is Advanced Placement math, while lower division math classes (where students are placed according to their readiness and are not 'forced' into AP classes) generate some of the highest Incomplete rates. Frankly, anyone who has had the experience of reminding a teenager to clean up his or her room only to find that it hasn't yet occurred has a deep understanding of where most Incompletes come from!

Throughout each student's high school career, Mr. Trani tracks their progress and schedules their classes (one student at a time) in such a way as to maximize their opportunity to graduate on time. Each Incomplete (the biggest barrier to graduation) generates a message to the student and parent that specifies what must be done to earn the missing credit. Several times during each student's senior year, Mr. Trani writes customized letters to their parents outlining precisely what requirements must be met in order to earn a diploma. I don't believe that any school does a better job of tracking and supporting those students who are not being successful along the way. So while much of Corbett's organizational energy goes into planning for success, among the vast majority of students, a tremendous amount of administrative time and effort is expended in support of those for whom success requires more individual attention. It goes without saying that in any organization (and in every school) the 90% of folks who are taking care of their business are always the easy part. The hard work goes into the 10% who need extra help. And extra help is how many of us spend most of our days at Corbett. Nobody falls through the cracks, nobody is left out or overlooked. Nobody is an after-thought. Frankly, the more a student struggles (whether they are struggling with us to achieve their goals or struggling against us because their goals are different than the goals and purposes of schooling) the more time and energy they receive from the administration and the teaching staff. In this regard, we are not particularly egalitarian. Those students who quietly take care of their business, completing three, four and (sometimes) five Advanced Placement classes along with a second language and art are the ones who might sometimes have a right to feel overlooked. There is only so much time in the day, and our time tends to go to those who seem to need it most.

SAT Test Scores
There is another measure of high school success that gets very little notice but can be extremely important to students: the Scholastic Aptitude Test. After several years (about 20) during which Corbett lagged far behind the state and national averages in both participation rates and average scores. It is only in the past three years that Corbett has exceeded State of Oregon averages in both participation and average scores. This is an extremely important benchmark, because it is highly influential as students compete for entry into selective colleges as well as for scholarships. And both the participation rates and the average scores are very difficult to influence. While Corbett does not have a particularly high rate of poverty, the vast majority of our students could not be described as 'affluent'. We are a middle class and working class district. For Corbett to score above average on the SAT's, which are notoriously sensitive to Socio-Economic Status, we have to perform beyond what our income levels would predict. And we are getting there, but we still have a way to go.

So Corbett is, by any reasonable definition, both highly successful and highly egalitarian. But we are not yet where we can be. If we could think of the past few years as a climb, then I believe that we have one hand over the top and that we have still before us the task of pulling ourselves up in order to secure the gains that all of our hard work has thus far produced. There is nothing elitist in this. There is, on the contrary, a belief that we ordinary people can accomplish extraordinary things if we pull together, expect to succeed, and never settle for less than our best effort.