Journal_2008._Coverpage._Final[1]


37 

Reflections from the Classroom 
 

It Used To Be a  
Nightmare on Elm Street 

 
By  

 
Art Barragan, Principal 

 
In 2004 I began my first assignment at Elm 
Street School in Oxnard, California.  I had 17 
years of administrative experience as an assistant 
principal at the high and middle school level and 
believed that I would be a successful elementary 
principal with ease.  Elm Street Elementary was 
the lowest performing school in Ventura County 
with only 9.6% of the students scoring at a 
proficient level in Language Arts.  After my first 
year at Elm, which was year round at the time, 
we only improved to 10.5% on the CST’s.  This 
was statistically insignificant.  It’s hard looking 
at oneself in the mirror every morning and 
thinking that I was “statistically insignificant.”  I 
knew we needed some kind of direction to 
improve our school.  
 
In the spring of 2005, Superintendent, Richard 
Miller, introduced me to the concepts of 
Professional Learning Communities by R. 
DuFour.  The implementation of this philosophy 
is directing us out of Program Improvement (PI) 
status. In addition, each member of the staff was 
given a copy of “Whatever it Takes,” and 
“Learning by Doing,” by R. DuFour.  The staff 
has worked diligently to incorporate the PLC 
concepts at Elm.  
 
During the summer of 2006, nine staff members 
and I attended a week-long training on the Sopris 
West Language Program.  This is a Language 
Arts intervention program that was instrumental 
in our dramatic increase in the 2007 California 

Standards Test.  Along with demonstrating 
fidelity to the Houghton Mifflin program and the 
implementation of our technology programs, 
Success Maker and Waterford, we had a 24.8% 
improvement in language arts.  
 
During the ACSA Leadership Academy at 
UCLA during the summer of 2007, the PLC 
concepts were reinforced throughout the week.  
In addition there were workshops covering 
curriculum development, data analysis, and 
school to home communication.  Teambuilding 
activities were introduced throughout the 
seminars; they were easily duplicated at Elm.      
 
It is fair to say that my personal leadership style 
has changed over the course of the last few 
years.   In my first year I was quite autocratic 
and directive.  I have learned to work collegially 
with my staff and increase communication.   At 
Elm we are taking the opportunity to learn from 
our experiences/mistakes to make our school 
better; it’s about developing positive 
relationships with all the stake holders at our 
school.   Armed with the mantra that at ELM, 
Every Learner Matters, the dedicated staff is 
looking forward to this years CSTs and moving 
out of Program Improvement.  Serving a 
population of over 97% Latinos, with the 
majority of them classified as socially 
economically disadvantaged, our staff takes great 
pride in the progress we have made and look 
forward to developing more success stories.  

 

 
 

Photo by: Jairo Sanchez 
Guggenheim Museum, New York