Stephensville school receives honor for bridging achievement gap

Stephensville Elementary may be small in numbers, but the Lower St. Martin Parish school is doing big things on the state and national level.
Last week, the school was named one of 10 Louisiana schools that have won 2020 National Blue Ribbon Schools awards.
Stephensville was one of three Louisiana public schools recognized as “Exemplary Achievement Gap Closing Schools,” the U.S. Department of Education announced Thursday. These schools rank among Louisiana’s highest in narrowing achievement gaps between a school’s student groups and all students.
Principal Chris Shirley said it is “an extremely rare honor” to receive this national recognition. Less than 400 schools nationwide were named Blue Ribbon schools this year.
He deflected any praise for the honor, giving it all to his teachers.
“The teachers are really the ones who are pulling the majority of the weight,” Shirley said. “They’re the ones who are coming to school prepared every day. They’re the ones who are with the students for seven and a half hours a day, making sure they get what they need, teaching to a very high level of rigor, and it’s because of that and their dedication that the students are succeeding.”
Stephensville Elem-entary has a student population of 117 in grades prekindergarten through 8th grade. Data for the award was based on the 2018-19 school year when enrollment was around 125.
As for their award, Stephensville was recognized for its work to bring economically disadvantaged students up to par with their peers, Shirley said.
“Students who are economically disadvantaged or in impoverished situations tend to do more poorly than peers who are from homes who make a higher mean income,” Shirley said. “That’s just a sad fact of the world.”
He said more than half of Stephensville Elementary’s students are classified as economically disadvantaged, but the school still is excelling, as evident by the National Blue Ribbon honor.
“Basically, we are bringing up the kids who typically struggle the most at a rate that is better than the national average,” Shirley said.
He said the key to that has been two fold.
The first factor is the teachers’ work ethic, Shirley said, noting that even though they work from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., their job goes beyond those hours.
“It’s really an endless, tireless profession that when done correctly, you see amazing results, but when done correctly, it takes up an immense amount of time,” he said.
The second aspect is a sense of community.
“We don’t have a lot of issues because our community is supportive of our school,” Shirley said. “They believe in us, and they know that we’re trying, so I think that goes a long way.”