What does berry picking at Arctic Valley have to do with math?
Children at a public charter school on Muldoon Road know the answer -- they've sorted berries by color, size and shape, measured and weighed them, and figured out how many there are per square foot of ground.
Turning berry picking into a math lesson is one example of an approach that is helping students at the Alaska Native Cultural Charter School make remarkable gains in achievement scores.
The school is grounded in Native values and activities; it strives to make students proud of their heritage. That's coupled with a strong academic program. The result: In just two years, scores for students' performance on statewide tests have risen significantly, in some cases dramatically.
An impressive 95 percent of the school's third-graders reached proficiency on state reading tests in the 2010-2011 school year, compared to 59 percent in 2009. Proficiency rates in reading, writing and math for the whole school climbed by more than 10 points over 2009.
The school is an Anchorage public school for preschoolers through seventh graders. It is open to all students but 90 percent of those enrolled are Alaska Natives. Probably a third of the 207 kindergarten-through-seventh grade students came straight from rural Alaska, said Elizabeth Hancock, the school's administrative assistant and a founder and member of the Academic Policy Committee that helps govern the school.
School District Superintendent Carol Comeau describes the school as "one of our major success stories." The Alaska Department of Education recently named it one of two distinguished Title I schools -- those with mostly low-income students -- in Alaska. Alaska Native Cultural Charter won the award for closing the achievement gap for students who as a group generally score lower than average on tests.
AN OLD FURNITURE STORE
As a charter school, Alaska Native Cultural Charter had to find and rent its own space. The school building is a remodeled furniture store that anchors a shopping mall near the north end of Muldoon Road, just before the Glenn Highway. Among the neighbors are a pawn shop, a Kentucky Fried Chicken, a pizza place and a sandwich shop.
One advantage of the location is that the Alaska Native Heritage Center is nearby. The center sends over educators two days a week to teach subjects like Native dancing and music.
Another benefit is that the old furniture showroom is large enough to hold the entire student body, 15 teachers and principal and eight other staff.
Because it's a small school, the adults and children all know one another other in a way that's not possible in larger schools, Hancock said. You know a child's siblings and parents, she said.
Every morning, the whole school gathers to hear a message from an elder, talk about expectations, recognize birthdays, say the Pledge of Allegiance, hear what's new in the library.
Then it's off to class.
On a Friday morning, kindergartners in a classroom off the big gathering space studied reading. Upstairs, where the older grades hold classes, students trained for the stick pull and weight carry -- skills for the Native Youth Olympics. Students in another room carved soapstone.
Fifth grader Annabelle Snyder was creating a soapstone pyramid. She wants to stay at the school because it's fun, she said. Meanwhile, she said, she's really improved in reading since moving from a church school to the charter school.
CHARTER SCHOOLS
Alaska Native Cultural Charter School is one of eight charter schools in the Anchorage School District. In Alaska, charter schools are alternative public schools that are authorized by both the state Board of Education and a local school board and operate under contracts with local school boards.
They are mostly paid for through state funding, said Mary Meade, charter schools supervisor for the district.
They are more independent than other public schools. For example, charter schools in Anchorage don't have to use the same curriculum or teaching methods as neighborhood schools. And charter schools are governed by academic policy committees, which choose the principal.
In most states, charter schools are even more independent and are not under contract with local boards.
Among the other charter schools in Anchorage are Rilkle Schule, a German language immersion program serving students in kindergarten through eighth grade; Winterberry K-8, inspired by an arts-centered philosophy known as Waldorf; Aquarian K-6, which uses theme-based curriculum; Eagle Academy K-6, in which students are grouped by achievement level rather than grade; Highland Tech 6-12, which features standards-based instruction instead of grades-based; and two K-12 schools that build on home-schooling: Family Partnership and Frontier. Both use online classes, college classes and other community sources to supplement home-schooling.
A HARD START
Though Alaska Native Cultural Charter is winning acclaim now, it got off to a challenging start in 2008.
It didn't get as many kids as expected, which meant it received less state money than budgeted. The building wasn't ready for the first six months, so the school had to meet in a church.
The cultural emphasis the school sought was in place and continues today, but the academic curriculum wasn't fully developed at the start.
Diane Hoffbauer took over as principal in the fall of 2010 and bore down on the academics.
The math and reading programs were incomplete when she arrived, Hoffbauer said. She made sure all the materials were ordered, upped the staff training on teaching math, reading and writing, and set up monthly sessions to review students' progress.
There's still a strong emphasis on culture, seventh grade teacher Danielle Riha said. "We have to work extra hard to have both."
"I think our success is from a purposeful balance of academics and culture," Hoffbauer said.
Hoffbauer had lived in Barrow -- she was director of curriculum and assessment for the North Slope Borough School District from 2000 to 2004 -- and she knew how hard it is for rural children to come into a large urban school, she said. She was attracted to Alaska Native Cultural Charter as a way to address that problem.
Hoffbauer just won an award from the School District for her leadership at the school.
Assistant Superintendent Ed Graff said the school always had a vision of what it wanted to accomplish.
"They just fine-tuned that," he said. "It's taken off."
Reach Rosemary Shinohara at rshinohara@adn.com or 257-4340.
By ROSEMARY SHINOHARA
Anchorage Daily News