JACKSON, TN – Typically students change teachers when they move on to a new grade, but one elementary school in Jackson, Tennessee, is trying something different. When first-graders in Mia Neely's class moved to the second grade, she moved with them.
"They're like my babies now, because I've had them for two years,” said Neely, who has spent the past seven years working at Arlington International Leadership Magnet School. “I know what I need to say to them to get them to understand what I’m teaching."
The school’s principal, Jimmy Bailey, said that's the point of the program, which started this fall.
“What we're seeing is that students that work with the same teacher tend to score higher and achieve more because that teacher knows their strengths and weaknesses,” he said. “I want to look at this particular group of children and see how they did. I know where they were at the beginning of first grade, I know where they were at the end of first grade, and then I'll be able to test and see where they are at the end of second grade. And we should see a good progression in the growth of those children.”
Neely said she has already seen the payoff.
“I didn’t have to train a new group,” she said. “They know what I expected when they worked with a partner, they already knew how to work the technology, because I did all the training last year."
Bailey said that relationship between teacher and student makes a difference.
“For instance, if you're reading on a first-grade level and the teacher already knows that, then she can focus on the particular skills that you’re lacking and work on those particular skills to bring you up to the next level,” he pointed out.
Neely said the teacher/student relationship also makes a difference with parents.
“I know every little thing, I know parents!” Neely said. “I know that I can call this mom and tell her what’s going on and she'll handle it right then. And I can call this dad and tell him what’s going on and he'll handle it right then.”
Bailey said the program “is not for everybody.”
“There are some teachers that may not do well with it, and there are some students that may not do well with it,” Bailey said. “It’s a relationship you build with each other that’s the key to the whole thing.
Neely’s class is the only one involved in the pilot program this year, but Bailey said he is interested in expanding.
“We're not sure what we're going to do here at Arlington yet,” he explained. “We want to look at this first and see how this works, but my inclination is I'd like to see us move some classes from first grade all the way through fourth grade.”
Arlington International is not the only school in Jackson that's trying out the program. Nova Elementary started the program six years ago.
