Carver Middle School wins national honor

Don Ashburn, principal of G.W. Carver Middle School, walked into the school's dark lobby five years ago and noticed burned-out bulbs, a dusty floor, and neglected trophy cases.

"It was like nobody cared. We've got to do something about that," the first-time principal recalled thinking.

As he explored further, he found even deeper problems in the brick building on Cougar Trail, along Harrowgate Road in Chester.

Up to about half of the 80 or so teachers were leaving every year. Conflicts among the diverse student population of about 1,300 generated hundreds of fights in the crowded halls. Test scores were low.

Carver Middle has been transformed from a failing school, one that couldn't meet state accreditation or federal No Child Left Behind standards, to an exemplary one.

And today the school will be honored by the New York-based National Principals Leadership Institute. Carver Middle is one of six schools across the nation being honored with the annual Panasonic National School Change Awards.

The awards are given to schools that have undergone substantial systematic and student-oriented change. The school will receive national recognition, $5,000 and a chance for a staff team to tell the story during a principal conference in New York this summer.

This is the fourth Chesterfield County school to be honored with this award. Harrowgate, Chalkley and Bensley elementary schools received the award in 2008, 2006 and 2002, respectively.

"To think about our being one school out of six to get this award is extraordinary, but to think about three Chesterfield schools getting it in three years, it's remarkable," Ashburn said.

"I think it really does show the commitment of the leadership in Chesterfield County, from the superintendent's office all the way to the building principal."

. . .

The change has taken major collaborative work, Ashburn said. He started a dialogue with his staff because he believed he needed the consensus of those implementing the initiatives, he said.

Teachers were used to being told what to do, shut themselves in their rooms, and did things the best way they knew how, he said. He wanted collaboration among teachers.

"The first thing I said was, 'You have to leave your ego at the door,'" he said. "It took a while for the faculty to understand that my administrative staff wasn't paying lip service to collaborative leadership."

Ashburn got tough on discipline by enforcing the rules and addressing behavioral problems no matter how small, he said. In his first year, the school had about 200 fights, he said.

The school then had about 1,300 students. Last year, many of those students transferred to the new Elizabeth Davis Middle School, leaving about 830 at Carver Middle. This school year, he has dealt with only 10 fights, he said.

After-school remediation efforts were ineffective, Ashburn said. Some students with disabilities were performing around the 29th percentile, while the whole school was achieving around 80 percent.

Low-income students were 25 to 30 percentage points behind the whole school, and black students, who make up 46 percent of enrollment, were lagging 15 to 20 percentage points behind white students.

Two years ago, teachers and administration came up with their biggest program yet. Carver Activities Remediation & Enrichment Period was offered two hours a week during the last hour of the school day.

Students who needed to catch up on class or homework or test material are required to attend remediation. In addition to the intervention, the program expanded extracurricular activities to about 70 clubs, which range from cross-stitching to yoga, film and archery.

"The clubs act as a motivator for students to complete their work on-time during the school day," Ashburn said.

"If you don't do your homework, or if you're behind in your class, you're going to be assigned to the remediation portion of CARE, and you're going to miss your club. It has had a real impact on our test scores over the last few years."

. . .

The school now is fully accredited under the state and federal No Child Left Behind standards.

Valerie Smith, an English teacher who also teaches remediation classes, said the key to success is that the school focuses on students individually.

"I think each child has an opportunity to succeed if they want to succeed, and even if they don't want to succeed, we take all the steps to make them succeed," she said.

As an example, Smith said, the school has a no-zero policy, under which if a student doesn't do his homework, he is required to attend the CARE remediation and phone calls are made to parents.

Shawn Ondrish has been teaching social studies at the school for six years and leads the school-improvement teacher cadre, one of four groups who meet regularly to come up with ideas to improve things.

The administration is a perfect fit for the teachers who are willing to do whatever it takes for students to succeed, he said.

"They basically let us do our thing," Ondrish said. "They have faith in us and trust in us to do what we need to do."

And the school has improved every year since Ashburn got there, Ondrish said.

Ashburn, who was named the 2008 Outstanding Middle School Principal of Virginia by the National Association of Secondary School Principals, credits his staff for the success.

"The principal is just a PR guy," he said. "You certainly got to set the tone in the building, but it's your assistant principals and teachers and staff who carry that."

Contact Juan Antonio Lizama at (804) 649-6513 or jlizama@timesdispatch.com.