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Centennial Place Elementary School Centennial
Place Elementary School, in the heart of Atlanta, has about 520 students,
90 percent of whom are African American and almost 65 percent of whom qualify
for free or reduced-price meals. Two nearby homeless shelters provide a
steady stream of new children, many of whom have been badly served by other
schools.
Many people would expect such a school to perform at low levels, but at Centennial Place all but a very small handful of children have met state standards for the past few years. In fact, says the principal, Cynthia Kuhlman, “It’s just not enough to meet state standards.” She wants all her children to exceed standards. In 2005, almost half of her students did just that in reading and 20 percent exceeded standards in math, meaning that Centennial Place is one of the top schools in the state. Centennial Place blows past AYP targets – the targets set by the state in order to meet federal accountability requirements known as Adequate Yearly Progress. Kuhlman hardly even thinks about AYP. “We would never be happy meeting that,” she says. “AYP is not good enough for us.” But scores on state assessments – although they hint at the kind of school Centennial Place is – only begin to tell the story of the school, which is filled with art, music, Spanish instruction, and hands-on projects tied to school-wide science themes selected by teachers. Although Centennial spends some concentrated time each
year helping students in prepare to take state and nationally-normed tests,
the school doesn’t focus on test prep. “The best way to do
well on the test is to teach the standards in an exciting way,”
Kuhlman says. Children learn through doing projects at Centennial Place.
One project was to organize a “trip to Africa,” where one
of the classrooms was set up as an airplane, staffed by a parent who is
a flight attendant. Students “traveled” to Africa where they
went on a safari, learning geography, history, and some biology. Another
project was building a “tundra” out of layers of cake, ice
cream and other foodstuffs that then got eaten at a big party. Through
partnerships with Georgia Institute of Technology, which is across the
street, students have been able to meet with artists and musicians and
go to concerts. In one memorable afternoon, school band and orchestra
members met with world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who put them to work
helping him assess the acoustics of the Georgia Tech concert hall. Centennial Place proves that schools do not have to sacrifice creativity and imagination in order to achieve high test scores. |
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