Bessemer GroupClosing the Gap
By Samantha Stainburn

 





US NEWS & WORLD REPORT
March 22 / March 29, 2004

 

In March of 2004 US News & World Report published an issue dedicated to 50 years of education after Brown versus the Board of Education.  In this issue was a story dedicated to the success of our implementation at Beulah Heights Elementary School in Pueblo School District 60, Pueblo, Colorado.

Here are some of the highlights from that article:

“…With weak basic skills, just 13 percent of Latinos go on to college.  And schools in low-income areas are usually the least capable of turning these statistics around.

But with the right approach, those hurdles can be surmounted, say the educators at Beulah Heights.  The terrible test scores had shaken Pueblo school board members into action: They hired a new superintendent, hashed out a set of academic and social standards for which they could hold teachers and students accountable, and invested in the Lindamood-Bell Learning system, a sophisticated literacy program that helps teachers identify and treat reading problems.”

“Since Beulah Heights embarked on this program four years ago, the reading abilities of its students, as measured on the Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP), have improved dramatically.  For example, 86 percent of Beulah Heights’ fourth graders read at the proficient or advanced level versus only 63 percent of all fourth graders statewide.”

For more information on our school implementation projects, please visit our Learning Community in a School pages.