Medford, Ore.– A year after an abrupt resignation by the principal of Kids Unlimited Academy in November 2016 – leaving the school scrambling to find a replacement – major improvements have now been made leading to an increase in student performance.
Principal Jani Hale, who stepped out of retirement to take over in December 2016, described how they began a restructuring of the school to help students.
“By looking at our current practices,” said Hale. “We’ve made some shifts in how we teach, how fast we teach, what we say to our kids and I’m really excited about what’s going to happen by the end of this year.”
As a Title I charter school, this improvement is significant as the school has some of the highest numbers of impoverished, migrant and Latino students comparatively to similar schools in the Medford School District. In it’s annual report from the 2016-17 school year, KUA student population is 90 percent economically disadvantaged, 58 percent Latino and is 41 percent English language learners. Comparatively, Medford School District’s average is 77 percent, 24 percent and 14/15 percent, respectively.
So when the school received it’s test scores from the state regarding the year’s performance, Principal Hale said she was thrilled.
“The growth that we saw last spring that’s included in the Medford summary,” said Hale. “We were dancing in the streets.”
In 2016, KUA showed high numbers of Level 1 or ‘below standard’ reading performances among it’s students, especially in it’s 6th grade class. In 2017, however, as the class moved up to the 7th grade, the number of Level 1 students decreased and Level 3 or “meeting standard” performances increased. The school also saw portions of it’s migrant and Latino populations meet the state reading test standards, exceeding performance numbers of comparative schools across the state by nearly 10 percentage points.
“I think the people that have lived here a long time are very aware of the difference in the schools,” said Hale. “I think the entire community of Medford celebrates our success and they celebrate any school that is working hard like we are.”
The Medford School District does commend KUA for it’s many improvements over the year. In a work session Monday evening, the district board of directors viewed the annual report of the charter school and outlined everything they saw the school performing well at. Items listed such as supporting English language learners, recruiting and maintaining bilingual staff and maintaining high attendance rates were some of the many positive reviews the board gave to the school.
Prinicpal Hale says KUA is proud of it’s students and faculty and are happy for the recognition. She expects to see similar improvements for the 2017 – 18 school year.
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