The former assistant superintendent for business and finance was indicted. Two referendums and a budget have failed within the past three months. The district seems to be regularly criticized for its per pupil spending. This is life these days at the Mineola School District. But, the district has gotten some good news. The Hampton Street School was recognized recently by the New York State Department of Education as one of the top most improved schools in the state.

While the Mineola schools' test scores have been criticized in recent years, a plan for continuous improvement and individual school improvement plans have been put into place in the hope of seeing some results on the state's standardized test scores. At the Hampton Street School, a major improvement has been shown on the state's fourth grade English Language Arts (ELA) tests.

In 2002-2003, the Hampton Street School saw 68 percent of its fourth grade students meeting or exceeding state standards on the ELA exam. In 2003-2004, that number dipped to 66 percent. However, for the results that were just released in May, Hampton fourth graders jumped to 93 percent meeting or exceeding state standards on the fourth grade ELA exam.

Hampton Street School Principal Danielle Kaminsky said the most important ingredient in the turnaround was the total involvement of everyone on the staff for meeting the school improvement plan goals. "The whole [school] community took ownership to ensure that every student would be successful in reaching their maximum potential," she said.

The Hampton Street School has an ongoing school improvement plan but the latest version was worked on over the summer. "Starting in 2002, we've been trying to implement different goals, many of them have been carried over from one year to the next," said Kaminsky.

The Hampton principal said there are many aspects of the school improvement plan that contributed to the improvement. She mentioned staff development for all teachers on all of the state assessments. "In the past, only our fourth grade teachers were really aware of what the tests looked like. Now, all of our teachers from first grade all the way up including our special area teachers are familiar with the exam," said Kaminsky.

The principal also cited the use of the BOCES data warehouse to do in depth analysis to target areas that the school was weak in and strengthen the curriculum in those areas. "We noticed a pattern in the multiple choice. Our kids were having difficulty with multiple choice questions early on so we developed a lot of strategies and went to a lot of workshops together," Kaminsky said.

The principal also said a plan was developed for each individual child, focusing on their strengths and weaknesses and then the children were grouped together according to the skill work they needed. "Every member of my staff was involved with that because it was before and after school," Kaminsky said.

Kaminsky also said staff studies the testing language that was being used over and over on state tests. "We actually developed a glossary. We worked very hard to integrate that into our instruction. A lot of our students are English language learners. They get used to hearing that testing language so it doesn't throw them when they have a question on the exam," she said.

According to a letter by the board of education to parents and guardians of the district, the Hampton Street School is the latest example of the district's journey of continuous improvement. The board also cited the Meadow Drive School being named a Blue Ribbon School for 2004 by the U.S. Department of Education.

"Continuous improvement is something that obviously you're always continuing to work on. It's obviously satisfying when you make steps in the right direction, but you have to keep on board. You're constantly looking at doing better and maintaining good results," said assistant superintendent for elementary education Sherri Goffman.

Goffman also points out that next year, there will be a new group of fourth graders taking the state ELA exams so it's important that students continue to achieve from year to year. "One of the things I find extremely exciting about working in the school district is that what you really start to see is that although you are looking every year at fourth grade and eighth grade results, what we see is the work that is being done in pre-kindergarten, through third grade. Even though you don't see the results publicly, we see the results in our day-to-day work," she said.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Lorenzo Licopoli has said that there is more to a school than test scores. The district though will celebrate the accomplishments of the Hampton Street School and perhaps use some aspects of it as a model for improvement.

"We're very proud of the students and they're very proud of themselves," Kaminsky said.