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.  The success (academic improvements) hasn’t come easily to this Pre-K-8 Cincinnati Public school of 568 students.
.  Roll-Hill carries all the challenges associated with inner-schools – a 94 percent poverty rate, a 28 percent mobility rate (students who transfer into or out of the school mid-year), hunger and family instability. More than half of the kindergarten students are behind academically when they enroll.
.  After more than a decade as teacher or administrator, Graves-Hill took the helm of the troubled school in 2005 because she felt she could make a difference.
.  At that time, Roll Hill was academically rated among the worst of the district’s then 66 schools. Only 16.4 percent of Roll Hill sixth-graders and 26.2 percent of eight-grades were proficient in math. By 2009-10, those numbers had risen to 50 percent and 45 percent, respectively.
.  That was also the year the school rose out of Academic Emergency, the state’s lowest academic rating, for the first time. It jumped two reports card categories to Continuous Improvement. That’s a major achievement for this district of 33,000 students, which is working to overcome a longtime reputation for mediocrity.
.  Following years of declining enrollment and poor academic ratings, the district is crediting schools like Roll Hill and leaders like Graves-Hill for helping it rise to Effective, its highest grade since the state began rating school districts in 1998.
. Graves-Hill attributes the improvement to training and teamwork. Others attribute it to Grave-Hill’s strong, steady leadership.
.  If students fall behind she sets up meetings with the teachers immediately.
.  Her work ethic comes from her upbringing. The youngest of three, Graves-Hill was raised in College Hill by a single mother who had a high school degree and a cosmetology certificate. She owned her own business and sent all three kids to college.
.  GH is driven by a never-ending fear of failure. “I just don’t want to let them down,”  G-H said. “I don’t want to fail.”(She likes challenging issues.) She wanted to find ways to reduce the number of disciplinary actions for male students after noticing the large number of boys kicked out for misbehaving.
.  Signs throughout the school reflect Graves-Hill’s philosophy
      “Kids at work”
      “Check your attitude”
…   ”Excuse limit: 0”
.    
Working to provide for a challenging community
.  Graves-Hill stepped into a job with myriad problems. Kids’ were hungry. She brought in community partners she leans on to help feed the kids.
.  About 60 percent of the students live in the Villages, a community of about 900 apartments with a high crime rate. During the 2010-11 school year, 200 crimes were reported in the project – in about five weeks.
.  Since Graves-Hill started, the school has formed a Very Important Parents (VIP) group and has partnered with organizations that provide mental health support to family counseling to school supplies. In the office sits a ready supply of snacks, and a washing machine and dryer. Sometimes a lack of clean clothes is the only thing preventing a child from coming to school.
.  “We adopted a new culture when we moved into Roll Hill,” said Jackson, the lead teacher. “We were able to have more services. She was able to say, ‘Hey, this is needed. We’ll go out and get it.”
.  A typical day finds Graves-Hill walking the halls, popping into classrooms or out on the playground at recess. “I don’t know what’s going on in my building if I stay in the office all day,” she said.
.  Lately Graves-Hill has been even more preoccupied with her work. The next round of Ohio Report Card Ratings will be out this month. The scores will show whether Roll Hill was able to achieve improvement a second straight year.
.  She’s nervous, but is “optimistic” that her school will remain at least its Continuous Improvement rating. If scores improve enough, the school could finally rise out of federal School Improvement status this year – a designation for low-performing schools that can require drastic restructuring.
..”I feel good,” she said. “I really do.”

Source: excerpts from
‘I just don’t want to let them down. I don’t want to fail.’
No one undervalues this principal’s kids.
She embraces success – firmly and gently
By Jessica Brown, The Enquirer. FORUM. EDITOR: JULIE ENGELBRECHT. August 14, 2011 F1 and F4

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 Raising academics at a struggling school doesn’t happen by magic.
.  At Roll Hill Academy, it’s happening through a combination of training for the school leaders, long days by the teachers and regular testing of the students.
.  It also takes constant data analysis.

.  Here’s how they’re getting it done.

• Training: The district sent the Elementary Initiative principals and their teachers to school turnaround training at the University of Virginia. The training taught how to apply business practices to their schools and how to use data to improve achievement.
• Individual attention: The teachers create success plans for each student. They figure out what the particular child needs, such as homework help or extra attention in the classroom.
• Indicators: In the classroom, teachers focus on certain key “indicators” – things that kids are supposed to know when they finish that grade. The indicators show whether that child can read and comprehend a paragraph or understand a math problem. Teachers designate corners or desks in each classroom as stations where students can practice their indicators. If children are having trouble, the teacher sends them to a station where they practice by doing a fun project.
• Testing: In addition to the statewide standardized tests, kids at CPS are assessed regularly through “short cycle assessments” – smaller tests that kids take every few weeks to see if they know their indicators. The assessments let teachers know if they can move on to the next subject or if they need to spend more time teaching that indicator.
• The data room: A key element of the Elementary Initiative is to focus on data. At Roll Hill, a classroom has been turned into the “data room” – a war room for academic strategizing. Its walls are covered with neat rows of color-coded folders – one for every child in the school. Inside are results of their latest assessments. The colors – green, yellow and red – indicate whether the student is on track. Principal Vicki Graves-Hill holds “data meetings every Tuesday with her staff. They focus on the red and yellow students. The child may have distractions at home, or may need extra help with the lesson. Graves-Hill and the teachers form an action plan to get that particular student out of the red.
• Sharing the results: The teachers share data with the students, making them active stakeholders in their progress. Graves-Hill said it makes a big difference when the students know exactly how they’re doing and what they need to do to improve.

Source: excerpts of Data analysis aids in rebirth By Jessica Brown, The Enquirer August 14, 2011, F4