SCHOOL AT GORDONVILLE EMPHASIZES SUCCESS

Gordonville Attendance Center in the Jackson School District is different in a lot of ways.

It's grade configuration is odd. Students attend kindergarten at the Primary Annex in Jackson, Mo., then go back out to their home area for first through third grade at the attendance center. Then they head off to West Lane or South elementary schools, decided by their addresses.

And, in an educational era where new schools with state-of-the-art technology are prized, the building that houses Gordonville Attendance Center is 50 years old and doesn't have any particularly flashy or expensive supplies and resources.

The students at Gordonville are different too. The school's third-graders consistently score at the top of the Missouri Assessment Program test in communications arts. Only one school in the state bested them in 1999. All of last year's third-graders at Gordonville tested in the top two levels of the science exam.

In January, Gordonville was listed on the state's top 10 schools list for its 2000 communications arts and science scores.

Now that's something to be proud of.

Admittedly, numbers are in the school's favor. Only 25 third-graders took the MAP test in 2000. There are only 65 kids in the entire school this year. That means peaks and valleys in performance are amplified because there aren't large numbers of students to absorb the success or failure of a few outside the norm. They rise and fall together.

Gordonville continues to rise.

That's not by accident. The success is the result of three teachers, one per grade, working together so that failure isn't an option.

Acting principal Fred Jones says Kathy Summers, Geri Beussink and Brenda Crain, who humorously note their first initials are KGB, are experienced educators who work as a team.

They plaster their walls with educational slogans. As students progress from one teacher to the next, the KGB shares tips for reaching individuals.

They aren't afraid to get a little messy if it means learning. One day last week, Crain's third-graders covered their desks in a thin layer of shaving cream and used their fingers to work addition problems. What child could resist that foamy approach to math?

There's a lesson to be learned when looking to Gordonville.

Yes, we want our children to have the best of everything, particularly when it comes to education.

But the most important thing is hiring expert teachers who care and giving them students who are willing to learn.