Project "X" (Excellence): "Our Jacob" Became "Our Jesus"

Sacred Heart Community School, Regina

Sacred Heart is an inner-city elementary school within a separate school division that aims to provide a Catholic education focussing on high quality relationships and high quality student outcomes. It has approximately 350 students, the majority of them living in poverty. Over sixty per cent have Aboriginal ancestry. When principal Loretta Tetreault came there four years ago, she described the school as "one in great crisis, one that could not have gotten much worse."

There was a very high incidence of violence and a low academic success rate. The majority of students, teachers, and parents appeared frustrated and angry with one another. Parents and students blamed the teachers and the school for the violence and lack of success and the teachers blamed the results on the fact that the students lived in poverty, lacked experience, and came from unstable families with no parental support. It was obvious the delivery system was not working and that something had to be done.

Working with the school staff, Tetreault initiated a school renewal program that included establishing a safe and orderly environment, a responsibility plan, some unique grade combinations, an adjusted school day, a high quality physical education program, and an emphasis on academic success. Part of the program was the development of a McDowell Foundation research project to explore the implementation brain-based learning throughout the school.

Interested in the theories of Howard Gardner, the principal and vice-principal had invited staff members to join them on a team that would learn about brain-based learning and train colleagues in its application. Money had been raised the previous year to send six people for five days of intensive professional development in California. Then in 1998-99, in the first phase of the research project, professional development in the school was focussed on brain-based learning, multiple intelligences, and the accommodation of different learning styles, primarily in mathematics and language arts. Substitute teachers were provided so that teachers could visit one another's classrooms, observe the strategies and techniques being used, and apply the creativity and knowledge of their colleagues to planning their own units and lessons. Every teacher was teamed up with a teaching partner at or near the same grade level to try to lighten the teaching load by allowing partners to learn, plan, share and support one another. Again, fund-raising was undertaken to buy materials and equipment that would enable teachers to deliver instruction addressing the eight intelligences identified by Gardner.

Base-line testing was conducted so that teachers could see if their innovations were making a difference in students' academic achievement. The Canadian Test of Basic Skills was used to gather information on each child and help plan strategies to meet individual needs within the classroom. Over a seven-month period, the total composite school gain was 1.05 grade/year equivalents. During the same period, language increased .98 grade/year equivalents and mathematics skills increased 1.29 grade/year equivalents.

The brain-based learning research at Sacred Heart is entering its second phase in 1999-2000, when the emphasis will be on reading, the area in which test scores indicate students experienced the least growth. However, the many innovations introduced at Sacred Heart have already moved it from a violent, out-of-control school to one that is peaceful and child-centred. Academic results are also improving. Whereas Sacred Heart students were approximately two years behind grade level four years ago, they are now .78 grade/year equivalents behind the norm.

The school principal attributes this turn-around largely to the change in the school's culture, which focuses on "treating each child as the Christ-child". She tells the following story:

Jacob is one of our challenging students. He is attention deficit disordered and very verbally gifted. What goes into his head comes out of his mouth. He is demanding of the teacher's time and is rarely in the right place at the right time.

One day his teacher came into the staff room at noon, flopped down in a chair and said, "I've run out of ideas with Jacob, he's off the wall."

Another teacher said, "Now remember, Jacob is Jesus."

Jacob's teacher responded, "I know, I know, why do you think he's still alive?"

As the bell rang to end the lunch break, another teacher said, "Let me take Jesus for a while."

That's when we know we will be all right.

Above: Loretta Tetreault, Principal of Sacred Heart Community School