PSU Magazine Spring 2004

share of the credit for the rising test scores are the product of former Portland State students who make up three-quarters of the DART program teaching staff. Some of them have simply attended classes at PSU. Others have graduated or earned advanced degrees through the Graduate School of Education. Together they make up the dominant force that is transforming the lives of young people who other– wise might have continued on a permanent downward spiral. ♦ A case in point is Dawn Jackson , a program chair at Rosemont. The daughter of two artists, Jackson came to Portland from the Southwest to attend Reed College. She later trans– ferred to PSU, where she earned a master's degree in special education in 1998. After working in the mental health field and at another special school, Jackson came to Rosemont and quickly realized that traditional teach– ing methods were inadequate to help this uniquely troubled set of students. Drawing on a combination of her own talents and instincts, as well as staying on top of the latest research, Jackson discovered that art was an answer. ♦ Not just using art in the teaching of art classes, but using art-including both visual art, creative writing and dance-to teach subjects as concrete as science and math. ♦ One reason why this approach is so effective, Jackson says, is that art helps young people make connections with the subject matter in a very personal way. ♦ ln biology class, for example, Rose– mont students are learning about the workings of cells by dancing as a group. As they move their bodies to and fro and around each other, they learn about concepts such as osmosis, the process by which cells absorb chemical ele– ments, and mitosis, the process a cell goes through when it divides. Creating visual and moving images helps con– cepts stick in these young minds, Jackson explains. It also helps students understand what happens to their bodies when they take drugs. ♦ In a recent math project, students painted big watercolor faces that showed how they felt about math. Along with the faces, they created graphs charting the individual "vari– ables" of their lives, such as their drug abuse, and indicated in what direction they wanted those variables to go. From this exercise, students learned about graphs and variables in an intensely personal way, at the same time forming strategies to improve their personal lives. "Everything they're learning they are relating to their physical and mental life," says Jackson. ♦ Since she introduced the arts program at Rosemont during the 2000- 2001 school year, the other DART schools have adopted it, and it has become a cornerstone in the entire DART program's success. ♦ "Our kids , who have failed and failed and failed, can, when given the right tools, blow people out of the water," Jackson says, adding that in many cases the DART schools perform better than conventional Portland high schools in their ability to produce students with high test scores. ♦ For example, only 7 percent of Rosemont students were passing at the pretest level of standardized writing tests at the beginning of the last school year. By the final test, 93 percent of the students met or exceeded state standards for 10th-, 11th-, and 12th– graders. In math, 11 percent were passing at the pretest level, but 87 percent met or exceeded the state standards after the final test. ♦ Test score improvements were just as impressive at DART's Breakthrough School, the educational component of the Morrison Treatment Center. The number of students last year meeting or exceeding state standards skyrock– eted 270 percent for writing and more than 800 percent for math. The two schools-Rosemont and Break– through-showed the biggest improve– ments; DART administrators are looking at how they can accomplish such high levels of success throughout the rest of the program. ♦ The most dramatic results have come in the last year, but DART educa– tors have been working for the last three years to revolutionize the pro– gram. One impetus for that change is the federal No Chi.Id Left Behind program, according to DART principal Bond. No Child Left Behind is contro– versial, she says, because of the stan– dardization it imposes on schools throughout the country. But it forced DART to take a fresh look at its students and teaching methods. ♦ The faculty are on the front lines to make sure the DART successes continue. Not surprisingly, it takes a special person to be a DART teacher. ♦ "They need to have the ability to develop rapport with kids who have had pretty poor experiences with adults. They also have to have a belief-a really strong belief-that these kids can learn and succeed," Bond says. ♦ Not all the teachers enter the DART program fresh from a master's degree. Many of the faculty got their start as chi.Id care workers and worked their way up the ladder, getting master's degrees and special education licenses from PSU along the way. ♦ Shawn Croteau received his master's in special education from PSU last year, and teaches math at Breakthrough School. He started working with kids about eight years ago, first in summer camps and then at a treatment center for children who had behavioral prob– lems. He also worked in mainstream education for a while- as an assistant at Lake Oswego Junior High-but decided that special education is his niche. ♦ "These kids have had a lot of nega– tives in their lives, so I give them plenty of praise and encouragement," he says. His methods have to be inven– tive, since many of his students can't even navigate a text book. So he con– centrates on teaching problem-solving strategies and instilling the attitude that it's okay to be wrong. "You have to have wrong answers every day in order to learn," he says. ♦ Taking what was wrong in their past experiences and learning how to set things right is what it's all about for DART students. Back at Rosemont, "Jennifer," 17, is the first one in her family to graduate from high school, and is now preparing to go to college. Not bad for someone who was in foster care since she was two , was sexually abused, and was in and out of public schools. With DART she found success. D SPRING 2004 PSU MAGAZINE 17