When a Teacher of the Year takes on a failing school

Yet at this time last year, when Rogers evaluated student progress, things didn't look good. "We were pretty panicked," she says.

The school district dispatched subject specialists from the central office to team-teach in Brighton's classrooms for six weeks. "We wanted to make sure that no child was ever surprised [by] what they had to learn, and that every teacher knew what they were expected to teach," says Joan Buckley, federal programs supervisor for Jefferson County schools.

Other resources have been available at Brighton, too. The No Child Left Behind law requires the district to provide services like tutoring, and more than 130 students have taken advantage of that after school. Brighton also receives federal dollars to reduce class size and train teachers. Two consultants provide such training, and the state's Department of Education has also sent a peer assistant.

Overall, the district spent $7,032 per Brighton pupil in the 2003-04 academic year, according to a Jefferson County schools spokeswoman, using the most recent data available. "There's no doubt that Brighton has more per-pupil resources than most schools in the district," Ms. Buckley says.

Finally, last academic year, a breakthrough occurred. The school improved not only on the Alabama Reading and Mathematics Test, which is the state accountability measure, but also on benchmark tests throughout the year. Eighty-two percent of last year's fourth-graders, for example, couldn't read. This year, 73 percent of that same group are reading proficiently.

"People are really pulling for us," Rogers says. "I have faith in us."

And the crucial players, she contends, are the teachers: "Bottom line in all of this is that teacher quality makes the difference."

One parent who gives the teachers good marks is Marie Lipscomb, whose two daughters, Shantoria Lipscomb and Willisha Holmes, are tutored in reading three afternoons a week. "The teachers are one on one with the students," Ms. Lipscomb says. "They're not just about a paycheck."

Of course, Rogers's work is hardly over. On a recent afternoon, she spent several minutes thumbing through a thick stack of papers with colorful bar graphs, and not so colorful results. Her grim conclusion: The students have a lot to learn before the next Alabama Reading and Mathematics Test.

"It's kind of discouraging, but I know it's December, and I guess we have until April," she says.

Another way the school is trying to improve results is by focusing on parents' involvement. From 7:20 a.m. to 7:55 a.m. once a month, parents pay $1.50 to gather in the school library over sausage biscuits, toast, milk, and juice. They watch a short parenting video, and a school counselor talks to them about the importance of reading to their children and knowing what's going on in their lives.

Patricia Minniefield, mother of two daughters in first and second grades, attends every breakfast, though her parents never did anything of the sort. "I'm trying to be better than my parents," she says.

For Rogers, the pull to teach herself is still great, and ideally, she says, she'd be doing that at Brighton. "I would go back in a heartbeat," she says. "I just love being in a room with kids all day."

But these days, she is fighting new battles. Foremost among them is getting the district to build a school that would house K-5. Under this plan, Rogers says, Brighton's sixth- through eighth-graders would attend one of two nearby middle schools, both of which have things that Brighton lacks: sports teams (Brighton offers only basketball), honors classes, and band. "That's my biggest concern – what's not being provided for these kids," she says.

While the board plans to build a school in Brighton, it hasn't yet determined the configuration of the new school, says district superintendent Phil Hammonds.

In the meantime, Rogers agreed this year to take on the role of school improvement specialist for the district, because it would offer her more training so she can better help Brighton. Periodically, she makes rounds at other struggling county schools.

She agreed to the job change on one condition: Brighton remains her home base. "I've learned more here in the last three years than I have in forever," she notes.

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