Open enrollment offered at Kaler

SOUTH PORTLAND —One year after South Portland’s Kaler Elementary School transformed into a “Community School of Exploration and Learning,” the three-year roll-out of new instruction methods appears to be working – so much so in fact that enrollment for next year has been opened to children citywide.

But it’s not just local administrators cheering the triumph of the “Kaler Renewal Project.” Federal officials also have given the school a thumbs-up. Last week, the school found out it made AYP, or adequate yearly progress, on testing standards set forth in the No Child Left Behind Act.

“It’s the best thing that could have happened,” said Principal Diane Lang, the day after learning the news. Making AYP, she noted, freezes Kaler’s status on a federal watch list of “Continuing Improvement Priority Schools.”

Last year, the federal designation meant Kaler had to let parents put their children in other city schools. About 40 did so, says Lang, dropping enrollment at the K-5 school to 176. Had the school continued to lag in student performance, the U.S. Department of Education could have forced a shake-up, up to demanding a turnover of building administration.

However, if the school can maintain the progress made last October on New England Common Assessment Program testing, it could come off the watch list entirely, Lang said.

Those results showed a modest gain in mathematics, with the number of students deemed to meet or exceed standards in the Maine Learning Results showing a modest gain, from 48 percent to 50 percent. More impressive, the number of students proficient in reading skills spiked 10 percent, to 60 percent of all Kaler students.

However, Lang is even more enthused about stemming the tide of absenteeism. Data collected in 2010 showed that 44 percent of Kaler students missed seven days or more during the preceding school year. That included 11 percent who missed at least 17 days.

Those numbers are down dramatically this year, said Superintendent Suzanne Godin, who, like Lang, attributes much of the apparent increase in interest to this year’s focus on “project-based learning,” which seeks to engage students through hands-on activities that make use of multiple disciplines.

Being able to learn actively, as opposed to the traditional, passive method of practicing rote memorization, seems to have captured the collective imaginations of Kaler children, Lang said.

According to Godin, early dismissals at Kaler fell this year by 34 percent, daylong absences dropped 20 percent and tardies decreased 24 percent.

“I am beyond pleased. It’s terrific,” said Lang, of the data.

Even better, she said, the number of students asking to visit the school nurse for unspecific maladies appears to have nosedived, at least according to anecdotal evidence.

Lang attributes that change to another new initiative at Kaler this year, in which all students get a free breakfast – 64 percent of Kaler kids already qualify for free or reduced-priced meals.

The idea of the breakfasts, Lang said, is to let children “ease into the day” by having time “15-20 minutes of quality time” with the adult staffers who sit in on the breakfasts.

“We think the kid are feeling very connected to the adults and their teachers” because of the new program, said Lang.

Lang said last week that since the May 25 distribution of letters announcing open enrollment at Kaler, “about a dozen” parents have expressed interest in having their children attend the school, while two who left last year have indicated a desire to return.

Kaler can “easily” accept as many as 60 new students for the 2012-2013 school year, said Lang.

Although both South Portland middle schools have launched specialized STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) programs similar in style to Kaler’s hands-on classes, Godin said there is no plan at this time to extend project-based learning to other elementary schools.

A CLOSER LOOK

Parents interested in Kaler can obtain copies of the May 25 school-choice letter and an enrollment form on the school district’s website, www.wpsd.org, with more information on the Kaler site, www.sites.google.com/a/spsdme.org/kaler.