TEAM Charter Schools

Here is evidence that TEAM is having a direct and important impact even in one of the remotest areas of the world. Some deserving kids thousands of miles away are benefiting from what our teachers are doing every day in their classrooms. Ali, a fifth grade reading teacher at TEAM and founder of the TEAM in Africa project received this letter from Jane, the Kenyan school’s founder complimenting notable change:

Ali,

Here are photos of the students wearing TEAM t shirts. There are several in the school who have them but I could only find 4 on the afternoon I took them. We gave 2015 t shirts to the top performing students in standard 6 who will be going (hopefully!) to university in 2015 and 2014 tshirts to the top students in standard 7 last year since they will be going to University in 2014. They loved the slogans ” no short cuts, no excuses” and “lead by example.” They loved the t shirts — so cool and so new!

Our program of trying to improve the quality of education at NDW is going really well. We have “borrowed” so many ideas from TEAM that have worked so well. All the teachers there know about you and TEAM Newark. I say to them if they can do it in Newark we can do it in Ndonyo Wasin.

Please note that in 2007 we were in the bottom 10% of the Samburu District and Samburu District is in the bottom 10% of the country so we had real task to try and turn things around. But we have started to succeed and here are some of the things we have been doing that helped us get there.

1. Good teachers teaching longer hours. Teachers are our biggest investment . The government supplies only 3 teachers for the 250 students and 8 classes at Ndonyo Wasin which is typical in rural Kenya. We give the school 3 nursery school teachers for class 1 as it is divided up into three different levels of ability and then 6 other fully qualified teachers who are just out of teachers training college and who performed at the top of their classes. (Typically it will take several years for the government to hire these new teachers so we have them for about 4 or 5 years.) One of these teachers runs the library and after-school reading program. The teachers cost us $2,000 a year each and they represent about 40% of our expenditure on the school. We have added extra teaching hours. All the students are borders (nomadic families) which helps here. Preps are from 6:30am to 7:30am. Classes 1, 2 and 3 start at 8am and finish at 1pm but classes 4 to 8 are from 8am to 4pm. (In most government schools the older classes in Kenya finish at 3:15 so we have added and extra lesson at the end of the day.) Evening preps are from 7pm to 9pm. They also all work Saturday morning 8am untill 1pm (Again this is not the case with other government schools) They usually use the Saturday lessons to recap the work from the previous week.The students like that a lot as they get a chance to learn the stuff they didn’t really get the first time. Teachers attend preps am and pm to answer any questions.

2. After school reading program. EVERY class has 1 hour of reading in English in the library after their classes finish. It starts at 2pm for classes 1 and 2 and finishes at 6pm for class 6 and 7. There are 7 teachers in the library reading with them helping them along. They sit at tables with 6 to 12 students at each table and the students are classed according to reading ability. There is always a remedial group in each year. The younger ones get half an hour of Sesame Street as well. Books include recommended fiction to go with the English text books, Kenya fiction, US compendium fiction, National Geographic magazines and science based encyclopedias. We make it fun with lots of prizes for achievement and bits of edutainment TV thrown in. (This year they are trying different ways of teaching using the books you recommended — eg getting the students to act out the story they have just read, small reading groups and experimenting with the older students reading to the younger students for half an hour a day.)

3. Earned Rewards — hard work pays off. As you know there is no discipline problem in Kenya schools but there is a motivation problem so we don’t really penalize the students or withdraw privelages for disobedience but we do go out of our way to reward good work and to make it competitive. We give lots of cheap prizes. We give prizes for the top 3 students in each class after the exams. We give gold stars to students who get 60% or more in English and silver stars to students who get 60% or more in Maths — they sew them on the shirts of their school uniforms. All students who get 300 or more on their exams get to have a goat down in the river bed together on their own with one of the teachers ( a huge hit!). In the library tons of 5 cent prizes like lolipops and pencil shapeners and pencils are given out for progress and hard work . Also in the library, we give out a brand new bright red Tshirt with “Top reader” on one side and “and Ndonyo Wasin #1″ on the other for students who read 35 or books a year and write a book report on each one. We gave out 50 last year and it was first come first served.

4. Getting the students to focus on their goals and to have a vision of where they want to go. Last year we took all standard 8 students on a school trip to visit universities and secondary schools as well as visiting some different work places and the National museum. Just like TEAM! It was very motivating and inspiring. Most of them had never seen tarmac before or a two story building. They had a very clear idea of where eduction could take them. This year we will do standard 6, 7 and 8. And standard 5 (like you) next year. The earlier the better.

Also in 2008 we developed the sixty by five program (60 X 5) as a goal for the students and the school. The goal is for every student in the school to get at least 60% in all 5 subjects. This way they will get marks of 300 or more in their final exams and be assured of a full scholarship to secondary and tertiary education. You have to understand that we were starting from virtually nothing as far as grades were concerned. We give them the best outside national exams we can buy twice a term — mid term and end of term for the three terms. The exam results are published after every exam on the wall by the library and the students will pour over them for days seeing how they are doing relative to everyone else. I think this is not PC in the USA but for us the exams create competitiveness, a sense of accomplishment and an understanding of what is expected of them as well as a very personal academic goal. And they really like them!

So results!! 2008 was a great year. You could literally see things turning around on a day by day basis. Reading and composition have improved dramatically. Grades in the lower classes were up by 40% and in the older age groups up by 22%. Our Headmaster Paul Lepartingat provided great leadership. But the main thing though is that the teachers and students love it. They are all so much happier. And it was such a success that we have extended it to two other primary schools at Sereolipi and Lerata.

So Ali you can see how we have plagurised so many of your ideas. Thank goodness I met you!!!! Thank you Whitney for introducing us! We couldn’t have done his without all your ideas. Thank you for all your help and advice. I am hoping if you come over in June that you can get up to NDW to see it all and critique what we are doing and suggest more things. I am sure we are using some of your tools in totally the wrong way — if you come you can help us do better.

Thanks for the CDs of the songs by the way. We looked at them with the teachers and they loved them. They could see instantly that they would work!! Long division and borrowing subtraction particularly. We couldn’t understand all the words though. They were going to show it to their classes anyway and try and work out the words with the students but do you have them written down? If so please send them to me if it is easy. And send me anything else you have song wise.

THANK YOU Ali and TEAM you are our heros.