MCCAMMON

Fife School District WOW program serves as model

By Jamie Forsythe

It is a simple idea: working on the work, or WOW, as the Fife School District (FSD) refers to it. Educators coming together to review their lesson plans to ensure they are appealing to a wide range of students and will be engaging for them. These WOW academies have proven successful with FSD students posting high scores on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning. “We believe test scores are an end result of the hard work we do,” commented FSD Superintendent Steve McCammon.

The FSD uses a model based on the work of the Schlechty Center for Leadership in School Reform, located in Kentucky. The district has had such success it has been recruited to be used a model. The school board recently unanimously approved an agreement that permits the superintendent, the district’s new WOW coordinator Elaine Smith, a former teacher, and others including school board members to work with other districts in upcoming conferences, serving in a facilitator capacity.

Instead of the district paying to attend the conferences, McCammon said the attendance and the travel will be provided free of charge, and the district will be compensated an amount not to exceed $75,000 a year for the center to use FSD as a resource.

It is ironic, according to McCammon, that the Schlechty Center is now paying the school district, when it paid the center the first year for its resources. He described that as the “ultimate compliment.”

McCammon emphasized any compensation will go back to the district and not any individuals involved in the work. “We are excited that this additional resource, in a time of tight finances, will more than pay for the addition of our WOW coordinator,” he stated. The WOW coordinator’s job is to help teachers, according to McCammon, to “develop more and more engaging lessons” for Fife students.

In addition to compensation, McCammon said the opportunity to attend more conferences will allow district staff to continue to bring back “cutting-edge learning,” which will aid the district as it continues to improve. “Our commitment is not to rest on these laurels and recognition, but to use them to continue to grow and to improve,” he said. “It is truly satisfying that the very work that has helped our district improve in so many ways is now providing the opportunity to take our work to the next level.”

According to the agreement with the Schlechty Center, the district will also host teams of visitors from other school districts to see firsthand the WOW model. McCammon noted FSD has been doing this for several years. “[We] have found that this assists our own district in its educational mission by continuing to provide access to, and the implementation of, a cutting edge reform framework and tools that have been largely responsible for establishing the district as a nationally recognized model for the Standard Bearer work,” he said.

FSD was also honored with being the focus of a national case study titled “Changing the Quality of Student Experiences; the Fife Way.” An early draft of this 32-page case study is available on the district’s web site at www.fifeschools.com. McCammon explained the case study chronicles FSD’s work over the past seven years in the National Standard Bearer Network and the work done with the Schlechty Center.

The founder and author of the center, Phil Schlechty, according to McCammon, is one of the “leading school reform voices in the nation.” Schlechty has plans to embed the study in an upcoming book or publish it nationally as part of a research article. “We, of course, are very proud of this distinction as it recognizes the very hard work of everyone in our organization to improve the school system and ultimately the work we design to help our students to become more engaged and more successful in their studies,” McCammon said.

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