While their bosses were back in their home states in early January, senior congressional staff members who work for Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY)—the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee—visited Woodbridge (VA) Middle School. Recently recognized as a 2012 MetLife Foundation-NASSP Breakthrough School, the high-poverty, high-achieving school was chosen for the visit because of its documented successes in meeting the needs of each and every student.

The rare act of bipartisanship from Republican and Democratic staff members offers us all a glimmer of hope, as both groups will be responsible for writing legislation to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and other federal laws affecting the day-to-day activities in our nation’s schools.

During their day at Woodbridge, the congressional staff sat in on seventh-grade personal learning community (PLC) meetings, visited a mix of single-sex and coed classes, and met with the school’s leadership team and a group of teachers, parents, and students. As one of the congressional staff members explained to the larger group, the visit was an opportunity for them to see what’s working in high-achieving schools and help others replicate those activities through the development of federal legislation.

Principal Skyles Calhoun was pleased to share Woodbridge’s success with the congressional staff. “The media is full of coverage about the low performance of some public schools, but it’s a rare occasion to be able to showcase what’s going right in public education,” he said. “I would encourage all principals to invite their members of Congress and staff to visit their schools in order to gain a more accurate picture of our challenges and successes.”

Leading a middle school of more than 1,000 majority low-income and diverse students is no easy task. As they explained to the representatives, Calhoun and his two assistant principals are each predominately responsible for one grade as well as the content areas, special education, and “encore” or elective classes. The school leaders make a concerted effort to be visible to students and teachers: they sit in desks conspicuously placed in the hallways, frequently visit classrooms, and cover cafeteria duty each day.

Teachers also spend a lot of their time in meetings, talking about data, instruction, and how they can improve the performance of individual students. To give extra assistance to struggling students who are not able to attend afterschool tutoring sessions, the school employs a modified schedule on Fridays.

Calhoun disclosed that one of the school’s major strategies to motivate and engage students is their rewards program, “Very Important Students Academically” or “VISA.” Students who make all As or Bs during the previous grading period receive a VISA card with a red lanyard to wear to school. The card allows them to go to the front of the line in the cafeteria and to be the first ones to get on the buses in the afternoon. As one teacher noted, the program is of little-to-no cost for the school, but its perks mean a lot to the students who agreed that it’s a great motivator to perform better academically.

Classroom visits highlighted the exemplary teaching that contributes to the success of the school. In a same-sex math class for seventh-grade girls, students played the role of teacher and used the Smartboard to present lessons while their peers calculated answers on their personalized whiteboards. In a same-sex English class for eighth-grade boys, students were being taught how to express tone by writing letters to the school janitor after taking part in an imaginary cafeteria food fight. Posted in each classroom was the lesson objective along with friendly reminders about assignments, field trip dues, and upcoming projects.  

The visit ended with a question and answer session attended by the school leadership team, teachers, parents, and students. Much of the conversation focused on Woodbridge’s same-sex education program where students can participate in all-boy or all-girl math, science, language arts, and history classes. Parents can opt-in to have their children participate in the program, and because it’s the only same-sex education program in Prince William County, the school serves 100 out-of-district students.

Students participating in the program raved about their classes, describing how in the all-boys class the teacher may throw a football to an individual student before he answers a question, but in the all-girls’ class the students may work more collaboratively and pass each other notes with the answer. One parent whose son was enrolled in the program said that he seemed to enjoy middle school more than elementary school. On the other hand, another parent explained that because her son is autistic, he prefers the more structured environment of the co-ed classes. One congressional representative, in particular, expressed concern that the program was reinforcing gender stereotypes, but Calhoun and his team defended the same-sex strategy, citing the academic success of the students participating in the program and noting that the girls seemed more empowered and confident.

The congressional staff members were also interested in learning about the parental engagement of low-income parents and non-English speakers, how sixth graders felt about their transition from elementary to middle school, professional development opportunities for teachers and school leaders, bullying, and the students’ career aspirations. They also tried to “recruit” the aspiring lawyers in the room to instead consider a profession on Capitol Hill.