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Our Story - Where We Have Come From #It'sComeBackTime

Added Sep 18, 2019 •

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The journey of the last six years - when I arrived here six years ago the McComb School District was on a downward spiral as it relates to academic achievement. One of the main pieces was at the McComb High School was it had been rated an F school for two consecutive years and it was about to be taken over by the state if that school did not come out of falling status and everybody at that school would have been replaced; everybody from custodial staff up to the principal. So when I came on board that is one of the things that I was faced with so it was urgent. I had to act with a sense of urgency and although there were other things in the district that we had to pay close attention to that was the most pressing and the most urgent thing; rolled up our sleeves, met with the principal. We developed a plan together; of course that was not something that the principal wanted but this is what we have to do in order to bring the school out of failing status. So we moved that school from F to C in one year. No State take over; moved the school from F to C in one year and that school, McComb High School, has not revisited that again. Over the course of time we knew that in order for us to have sustainable progress, looking at the academic achievement of students then we had to do something. We thought that we had to allow our scholars, our students, to see success and we embarked upon personalized learning. And so we knew if we could get those scholars to see some success by meeting them where they were, then the McComb School District will be on this upward trajectory of increasing student achievement that would be sustainable over time. They wanted something different than a system, an antiquated system, that wasn't getting us anywhere. They didn't know what it would produce but they took a chance on us. We asked them to take a chance on us and they did. Over the course of these five years it appeared as though student-centered teaching and learning was not working. It appeared as though this was an experiment that had failed. They believed in us five years ago when they wanted something different but over the course of time because it wasn't happening as quick as a community wanted it to happen, some of them gave up on that promise. We are not there yet however, we are getting there. When we looked at where we were and when we look at where we are now, there has been progress that has been made, and every year we have progressed. And I would like to use that analogy of a battleship. A battleship just doesn't turn very quickly; that battleship turns very slowly, very slowly incrementally, but eventually that battleship turns and so where we are academically and where we are at the school district is that we have to take these small increments of success and celebrate those because there is progress that's being made. And so that is what we've been over the last six years. We're rolling student-centered teaching and learning out to the rest of our schools because we know now that it works but we have to start very small. We could not do this district wide; if we did it district wide it would have been a disaster because what we're doing is that we're changing the mind set of educators. This was a totally new approach and of course during the process they're going to be setbacks because this is a new philosophical approach to educators. Educators have not normally met students where they are. We've said we've done this but we have not done it; we have not really met the student where the student is and so it was a mindset shift, a mindset shift, so the traditional way of doing things we had unpack that messy process so there setbacks. There were setbacks; we had to even change products that were using because some of those products were not giving us the results that we needed and so we had to change. We also listened to our practitioners about what was working, what wasn't working, because the other practitioners; we listened to them and we made those adjustments. If you stick with the process you begin to build; you begin to look at the setbacks that you had and you build upon those setbacks so that the setbacks now set you up for a comeback. And, that is, that is what we do. In the end, the results of this process will be sustainable results that will last beyond me and that is what we want. We want to develop a culture of learning; we want to develop a culture of learning that surpasses my tenure here as superintendent; that surpasses everything here and we we build this, when we build this, this is not for me; this is not for Cederick Ellis, this is for this community. We want to build something that this community's proud of. We want to develop an educational system where people from around the world are coming to see what's happening in the McComb School District. Don't give up on us. What we need is that we need you to believe in us; we need to believe in our scholars. This is very important for us because the odds, the odds have been stacked against the McComb School District since I got here. But the successes that we've seen tell us that we can get there. So what I'm asking you, is that I'm asking you to trust the process; to believe in us; to believe that we can get there. Again, we are right on the verge of becoming a successful school district. Now is the time that we need all community folk to press in; we need you to be there for us. We need you to pour into our scholars; we need you to pour into the community. We need you to talk positive about the successes that we have and we know, we know that when we do this, the successes will continue to happen. Success breeds success, and I am confident when the odds are stacked against us what we do is that we rally together; we pull our sleeves up. We come together to say that this school district can become a great school district and now I truly believe that because we're on the verge that this school district is set and is poised for a great comeback. So don't give up on us; believe in us; rally around us and join us as we begin to develop one of the best comeback stories that you'll ever imagine.

Uploaded by Sue Jarvis.

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