The Miracle Worker

Leadership fuels change at Sanders-Clyde, Fraser

Grace Beahm
The Post and Courier

As Sanders-Clyde Elementary students file in to take their tests, Moore encourages them to do well so they can get their names on the wall to show off their improvement.

MiShawna Moore won't want you to read this story, not if it's about her.

The spotlight? Shine it on her poor, inner-city students who had the worst test scores in the county, the ones who others had written off as failures, the ones who now outscore county and state averages.

Shine it on the dedicated teachers, involved parents and active community members.

Shine it on everyone but Moore, the principal who sparked the metamorphosis. Moore doesn't want the attention, but she can't escape the spotlight because of what she did, and what she's doing now.

Moore agreed to become the principal for two downtown schools: Sanders-Clyde Elementary, the success story, and Fraser Elementary, a school with a woeful tale of low test scores and high poverty.

Her job is difficult. No other county principal is responsible for continuing improvements at one school while turning around a second.

If Moore can do it, her leadership will be a model for others.

Can she do it, or is the job too much for any one person?

'Bedrock of the school'

Educators say a principal can make a huge difference in a school's performance. When average principals improve their leadership in 21 areas, researchers have found a 10 percent increase in student test scores.

It takes a skilled principal to set the tone for a school, leverage its strengths and eliminate its weaknesses.

"In my view, the principal is the bedrock of the school," Charleston schools Superintendent Nancy McGinley said. "There are several things that make a school work well, but by far, the most important is having an excellent leader."

Strong principals typically are seasoned administrators. Moore didn't have any experience as a principal, but she had a passion for Sanders-Clyde. She grew up in Atlanta and moved here for a College of Charleston minority fellowship to earn her master's in education.

Moore taught at Sanders-Clyde for four years before moving up to a lead teacher position. She left Sanders-Clyde to work as a master teacher, and for the next few years, she helped low-performing schools across the district improve.

When Sanders-Clyde's principal retired, Moore applied for the job. Even when she was a teacher at Sanders-Clyde, she knew she wanted to be its principal. It was a small, 200-student school, and she felt connected to the parents and community. She understood what it would take to help its children. It was the only school where she applied for a principal job.

By most every measure, Sanders-Clyde was struggling in 2003 when Moore became its leader.

It was so bad that more than 60 percent of its students weren't ready for the next grade in English and math. None of its students scored at the highest possible level on the state's standardized tests.

Its student enrollment dwindled as families abandoned the school. All but a few of Moore's students lived in nearby government-funded housing.

Despite those challenges, Moore refused to accept that her students couldn't score as well as the wealthier ones across the Cooper River.

She got to know each of her students, their test scores and their families, and she expected the same of her faculty. She mopped floors, served lunches and did bus duty. She helped parents read their mail, pay their bills and fill out job applications. She washed students' clothes, gave them coats and sent them home with food on the weekends. She kept the school building open longer on school days and began opening it on Saturdays.

When one mother avoided the school, Moore went to her home, listened to her concerns and encouraged her to be part of the school. That same parent began volunteering and spending time in her children's classes. Her kids' scores shot up.

It took a few years, but now Sanders-Clyde is a different school. Its rating on the state report card skyrocketed from unsatisfactory to good, which is as good as some of the schools across the Cooper River. A majority of its students are academically ready for the next grade.

The story made the front page, and the community celebrated. The school that was synonymous with failure had become an example of excellence.

Word spread that Moore was responsible for the school's newfound success.

Added responsibility

While Sanders-Clyde was getting better, less than a mile away, Fraser was getting worse. Its overall test scores were lower than just a few years ago, and the small, 200-student school languished among the lowest-achieving schools in the district.

Former Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson saw Moore's success at Sanders-Clyde and asked her to lead two schools.

"One of the things we haven't done a lot of is duplicate success, and what (Moore) does works," Goodloe- Johnson said last year of her decision. "Fraser has gone backward for five years. Isn't it time to try something new, and try something new with someone who has been extremely successful?"

This was the first time in recent school district history that one principal had been asked to turn around one high-poverty school while maintaining improvements at a second.

Moore does not receive the pay of two principals, but does receive a stipend for also serving as principal of Fraser.

It's a situation that's unusual in this state and in this nation. No one tracks the number of schools that have shared principals because it has rarely been done.

In some ways Moore had it a little easier this past fall when she started at Fraser. Most of Fraser students' basic needs, such as clothes and food, were being met while that wasn't the case at Sanders-Clyde.

On one cold morning this year, 14 Sanders-Clyde students showed up without coats and three showed up in flip-flops; two Fraser students needed coats that morning. Moore found students the clothes they needed.

In other ways, Fraser needed just as much help.

Almost 200 Fraser students were coming to school 45 minutes late daily at the beginning of this school year. Every morning for more than a month, Moore stood outside the school and told parents what time school started.

Fraser teachers didn't trust Moore or buy in to what she was doing. They didn't want the multiple principal changes that high-level officials had mandated, and they felt hurt and angry about what happened.

Moore had to prove herself. She kept an open-door policy and showed them she would do what she promised. She recognized their achievements and encouraged them to work harder for kids.

Moore's goal this year is for Fraser to receive a below average rating on the state report card. It might sound as if she set her sights low, but more than half of her students' scores would have to improve for that to happen, and none could worsen.

Progress already seen

Research shows it takes three to five years to turn a school around, and Moore has been at Fraser less than a year.

But school officials already are calculating students' progress. They studied scores from the spring of this year compared with last school year.

How did Fraser do?

Preliminary scores show the percentage of students prepared for the next grade in English growing from 43 percent to 72 percent and from 49 to 63 percent in math.

Downtown residents and Fraser Elementary parents initially feared Moore would be a part-time principal.

They obviously didn't know Moore.

"I'm not going to allow either school to be short-changed," Moore said. "If I can't do both, I'm going to give it up."

The superintendent plans to meet with Moore at the end of the year to see whether she's interested in continuing to oversee both schools. Moore is up for the challenge and says she doesn't want to leave Fraser in its infancy of improvement.

In the meantime, Johngra Brown, a reading recovery teacher at Fraser, said Moore has kept her promises. She's visible in the school, hasn't missed any meetings and talks with teachers regularly about children and their test scores

"I don't know how she does it," she said. "How is she there, and how is she here? She is a full-time principal here, and I would imagine the teachers at Sanders-Clyde would say the same."

Worst-case scenario

Moore's nightmare would be both schools failing to make the progress she expects. She obsesses about the possibility of Sanders-Clyde's scores dropping while Fraser's improve or of Fraser getting only slightly better while Sanders-Clyde's scores worsen. That thought makes her sit in her office on weekends and cry. Last year, she cried for four days when she realized Sanders-Clyde missed an excellent rating by just 33 students.

She fears what the media and community will say about the schools, and she sees any blame as resting squarely on her shoulders. She worries about teachers feeling disappointed because they already have suffered so much scrutiny and criticism.

She hangs posters to remind herself of the school's goals. She prays daily that she's given the job her best. She studies students' test scores as if preparing for a final exam. She memorizes their scores, reviews their past performance and tries to figure out what she could do differently to make them better.

"I don't have time to get my hair and nails done," she said. "We've got to close the gaps."

She works twice as much as most people — 14-hour weekdays and eight-hour days on Saturdays and Sundays are the norm. She goes home and finishes the work she didn't get done during the day. She sometimes wakes in the middle of the night to send e-mails. Four hours is a full night's sleep.

She talks about being single and not having kids or a significant other, and she says she gave her beloved Shih Tzu dog to her mother last year because she didn't have enough time to take care of her.

But, she insists, "this shouldn't be about me. You should focus on the children. I don't do much."

Reach Diette Courrégé at 937-5546 or dcourrege@postandcourier.com.