Despite its location---close to a run-down trailer park and
vacant-looking houses---the front doors of the Sunrise Elementary School
in Amarillo, Texas, are not locked. There are no metal detectors, no
resource officers. Inside, the windows are clean, the floors are
polished, the walls are brightly painted, and bulletin boards are
covered with examples of students' writing, science projects, and math
activities. Student restrooms gleam. The only sounds are soft chants
from a reading exercise in a bilingual classroom. Single files of quiet
children pass down the hallway behind their teachers on their way to
music class. The principal, Mrs. Rosemary Schultz, and Ms. Bea
(Enevoldsen, the assistant principal), are always on the move and in
classrooms, dispensing hugs and praise.

Sunrise embodies the classic definition of a community school. Parents
and family members feel welcome and comfortable in school, talking with
school staff as they wait for their children at day's end. As they
leave, smiling students spill out into the halls, their work in hand to
show other teachers and school staff.

![](media/image1.jpeg){width="2.732677165354331in"
height="2.3255905511811026in"}The whole staff takes pride in the
building. If something is in need of repair, it doesn't remain that way
long. The assistant principal admits (shyly) to being nicknamed the
"Tool -Time Girl." When a window needed to be caulked to keep out the
cold, she did it. When a room needed to be painted, she painted it. The
day before the Blue Ribbon School visit, the cot in the nurse's office
broke. Rather than spend \$300 of Title I money to replace it, she went
to the hardware store for a dollar's worth of screws and fixed the cot
herself.

The "we can do it" attitude extends beyond brick and mortar to a shared
responsibility for every child's success. The entire school staff, from
professionals to the custodian, has a shared vision of what they want to
accomplish, a shared responsibility for all students, and a shared
professionalism.

![](media/image2.jpeg){width="4.149212598425197in"
height="2.040944881889764in"}Sunrise is a neighborhood school in a
low-income section of town where 70 percent of the students are Hispanic
and 36 percent live in single-parent households or with grandparents.
Few students ride a bus to school; most live within a few blocks. A
number of students, particularly the older ones, are responsible for
their younger siblings after school and on weekends. Although 86 percent
of the students are eligible for free/reduced price meals and eight
students have parents currently serving time in the penal system,
Sunrise staff never blames the parents or their students' home
environments. But they don't make excuses for students, either. Teachers
accept the students as they are and hold high expectations for every one
of them. "These are our kids and our problems and we need to solve
them," says Principal Schultz. "We know we are poor, but the kids don't
know they are poor when they're at school," adds a Sunrise parent.

Sunrise students want to be successful, and work hard to achieve it.
When a second grade special education student recently completed his
task of writing three complete sentences after a long struggle, his
teacher was so proud of him and his high quality work that she sent him
to the office to be celebrated by the principal and assistant principal.

Staff members, from Principal Schultz to the food service workers, know
every one of the 379 students: not just their names and faces, but their
parents, their siblings, their home lives. When the father of two
students shipped out to Iraq while the family was expecting a little
brother, everyone in the school stepped forward; now staff members claim
the baby boy as one of their own, gathering him up with a squeeze and
showering him with kisses when he and his mother stop by the office to
say hello.

Sunrise teachers provide after-school tutoring two to four days per week
for their students identified as needing assistance beyond the regular
lessons. After a quick snack when school ends at 3 p.m., students at all
grade levels are tutored in their own classrooms in reading for 45
minutes. Many teachers stay for an additional hour after that to tutor
smaller groups of 6-8 students who need more intense instruction in
reading or math. "I tutor because this is my job. I choose to do it not
for the money but because I can't do it all during the day," says a
fifth grade teacher, "It's my responsibility." Kindergarten students can
opt for an extra 75 minutes of tutoring each day. Adds a fourth grade
teacher, "You have to be willing to do whatever it takes for kids to
make them successful. It's not an 8-4 job." "At Sunrise, it's a love,
not a job," says another fourth grade teacher

![](media/image3.jpeg){width="2.497244094488189in"
height="2.2311023622047244in"}Going the extra mile to address student
academic needs extends beyond the traditional classroom teachers, too.
When on-grade-level students begged to stay after school with the
tutoring group, even though they didn't "need" additional tutoring, the
school formed an after-school student book club. The school counselor,
the principal, the kindergarten teachers and others sponsor student
groups to read pleasure books together after the school day ends,
working on vocabulary development and comprehension.

Extra student support is available to all students. Any staff member
concerned about a student can convene an Intervention Assistance Team at
any time. Together, the grade level teacher, the counselor, a special
education teacher, the principal, and anyone else involved in the
student's well-being examine the scope of the problem, look for a
solution, and work out a plan using full staff resources. Whether the
difficulty is academic, behavioral, or involves the student's home life,
the team creates, then implements, a workable solution.

Sunrise has developed processes to encourage speedy solutions to meet
special needs and quickly transition students to mainstream classes. "We
start where they are and build on their strengths," explains a second
grade teacher. "We believe all children have special needs." The goal of
the Sunrise Special Education teachers is to work themselves out of a
job by the time their students reach fourth grade. Services for students
with special needs begin with a half-day preschool program for children
with disabilities. Pre-K and Kindergarten students who can function in
regular classrooms with support spend the other half day in regular
classrooms with their grade level. First- through third-grade special
education students receive small-group instruction, and those working
near grade level get special education services in the regular classroom
with modifications. By fourth and fifth grade, all former special
education students are in regular classrooms, supported as needed by an
inclusion teacher who helps out primarily in writing or science classes,
for example.

Because many students enter Sunrise with no English, Pre-K and grades
1-3 are taught bilingually. Through Kindergarten, instruction is
primarily in Spanish; English is introduced as an oral language through
shared reading, big books, and nursery rhymes. Students entering first
grade are expected to be reading at grade level in their native language
and have a basic understanding of English. Instruction continues
primarily in Spanish in first grade, but by second grade students are
gradually transitioned to full English. Interactive writing, for
example, is in Spanish with oral elaboration in English. Third grade
instruction for bilingual students is entirely in English with minimal
Spanish support so all students are ready to be mainstreamed into
regular fourth grade classrooms. This level of proficiency may work
against the school's overall AYP goal, since these students are no
longer considered bilingual and are tested alongside students who have
been speaking English all of their lives. But staff members say
transitioning by third grade works best for the students.

![](media/image4.jpeg){width="2.802755905511811in"
height="2.4173228346456694in"}Perhaps because the faculty has been a
team for so long, teachers are not shy about working together for the
benefit of students. If a student is not performing well in an area,
teachers confer on a strategy, perhaps deciding to co-teach the student
until he or she is up to speed. Teachers believe that all the students,
not just those in their own classrooms at present, are their
responsibilities. For example, a second grade student (perhaps
bilingual) reading at a kindergarten level might spend the morning in a
kindergarten class, returning to the second grade in the afternoon, then
receive additional tutoring in the after-school program. Other students,
reading ahead of their peers, participate in a higher grade for a
portion of the day to encourage their academic achievement. These are
not isolated events and teachers are genuinely open to receiving
additional students for portions of the day when it best meets that
student's learning needs.

This shared responsibility extends to students' families as well.
Recently, a group of Hispanic mothers asked the principal for help
learning English so that they could help their children with their
homework. Although ESL classes were already being offered by the local
Regional Service Center and other potential resources, the mothers felt
more comfortable coming to "their" school, where they always feel
welcome. So the Sunrise administration developed a curriculum that will
be taught by a fourth-grade English-only teacher and supplemented
computer software, which parents can access on the schools' computer lab
computers any weekday afternoon. "They have a true sincere caring for
these children, their parents, and grandparents," observed a Sunrise
grandparent.

Teachers involve parents in helping students learn. Fifth grade students
are encouraged to read aloud to their parents for 20 minutes every day
"even on weekends, even on holidays, even when we are on vacation!"
according to the students. Parents sign that students have done their
reading and students are rewarded at the end of each semester.

![](media/image5.jpeg){width="3.958267716535433in"
height="2.372047244094488in"}Because staff members know that summer
learning loss is real, they have organized to create a summer school
opportunity at Sunrise independent of the district's summer school.
Funded through Title I and open to a targeted group of Sunrise students,
the program comprises three 2-3 week sessions. ELL students are required
to attend and instruction is focused on reading and English language
development. The half-day classes allow teachers to become familiar with
and work with the students they will have in September while still
allowing families lots of opportunities for time together.

The work ethic at Sunrise is strong. Book clubs are popular for both
students and teachers, and teachers are unafraid to admit something is
not working. The Sunrise faculty knows it needs to refresh its own
learning also, so faculty members meet as an adult learning community
once or twice over the summer and monthly during the school year. Using
a book club format, faculty members read and discuss professional books;
anyone can suggest a title. Recent books have included *Classrooms that
Work*, *What Really Matters for Struggling Readers, The Energy to Teach,
Beyond Leveled Books,* and *Good Questions for Math Teaching.* Explains
a fifth grade teacher, Principal Schultz "instills in us the power to
know what to teach. I teach harder concepts at the beginning (of the
year) to be able to spend more time on that."

Shared discussion of the books' main concepts and their implications for
Sunrise and their own instruction provide opportunities for teachers to
explore and understand their own and others' underlying beliefs about
quality teaching and responsiveness to student needs. When teachers
participate in conferences or workshops, they are expected to present
what they learned at staff meetings so all can take advantage of the
learning.

![](media/image6.jpeg){width="3.1834645669291337in"
height="2.4929133858267716in"}The school doesn't wait until formal test
scores confirm a need before developing an action plan. Although
students' overall math scores were "not bad," many teachers thought
their math curriculum was not meeting the needs of the students.
"Children have an untapped potential in math," Principal Schultz says,
"but we have to work and work and work too hard at it." Sunrise is now
in its first year of a staggered implementation of a new math
curriculum. The primary teachers initiated the project and one grade
level each year is added each year, though teachers still look for
materials to supplement what they perceive as weak spots in the new
curriculum. When implementing the new curriculum, a couple of teachers
were struggling to make the changes effectively for their students,
admitting that to the rest of faculty and asking for help. Colleagues
who had already made the change came to their aid and mentored the
teachers through some difficult areas until they were all "on the same
page."

Sunrise Elementary School may be unique in its shared vision, shared
responsibility for all students, shared professionalism, and in working
together to do what's right for the children regardless of what it
takes: teachers who accept other students into their class for part of
the day because it makes educational sense, teachers who stay after
school on a regular basis to work with kids who need more time and
individual instruction, teachers who still enjoy the invigorating fun of
learning as adults.

Does this make the school special? The teachers don't think so: they're
just doing what's right for their kids.

  -------------------- ------------- ------------- ----------- -----------
  Sunrise Elementary                                           **TEXAS
  School TAKS Results                                          STATE
                                                               AVERAGE**

  **Grade 5**          **2003**      **2004**      **2005**    **2005**

  Reading              93%           100%          100%        75%

  Math                 100%          100%          100%        79%
  -------------------- ------------- ------------- ----------- -----------

Scale: % meeting or exceeding standards

Source: TX Education Agency, 2004-2005