In Keri Huesdens’ classroom, Charles Scott doesn’t miss the chalk dust.

And he can send text messages in his math class.

Needless to say, he is liking math a lot better this year.

This semester, the McKinley Middle School sixth-grader is earning a solid B, Huesdens said.

During a recent class, the students were studying number theory with the help of a Promethean Board, a virtual interactive learning screen. They drew Venn diagrams to chart the similarities between the factors used to arrive at the products of 24 and 36.

Students can use the special pen to write their answers on the screen. But if Huesdens wants to know whether the class understood the assignment, such as in a multiple choice quiz, students can text their answers. The answers are then immediately charted showing the percentage of students who answered a certain way.

For Huesdens it is a way to immediately assess whether the class should spend more time on a topic, or to pinpoint individuals having trouble grasping a concept.

“It’s fun,” said Charles, who along with his classmates took turns using the board to give answers. “I like it. It gets my attention.”

That’s half the battle, said McKinley Principal Sharon Miller, whose school was one of two in the Kenosha Unified School District honored with the state’s Promise Schools of Recognition awards. The other is Washington Middle School. Earlier this fall, each received plaques and $2,000 grants to further their respective educational missions.

The two are also among 138 schools with high poverty yet high achievement compared with their peers in the state. Each school honored made adequate yearly progress over the last two years under the federal No Child Left Behind law. This is the first time either McKinley or Washington has won the award.

Gap closing

Two years ago, both schools were among those not meeting No Child Left Behind standards because of low reading scores, according to a Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction report.

Just five years ago the gap was especially pronounced at McKinley, as only 56 percent of eighth-graders scored proficient or above in math and 71 percent proficient or better in reading.

Last year, however, 76 percent of McKinley eighth-graders registered scores of proficient or better in math, and 80 percent registered scores of proficient or better in reading.

“These were our highest math scores — ever,” Miller said. “We are making significant progress.”

Minorities make up 43 percent of the school population, and 54 percent of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a measure of poverty under federal guidelines.

Marked improvement

Among the reasons McKinley’s scores rose last year is the progress made by African-American students, and the gap is closing quickly.

In less than three years, the percentage of black students scoring proficient or better in math grew 17 percentage points. By comparison, white students from sixth to eighth grade saw only a couple of percentage points of improvement. By the eighth grade, only six points separated white and black students in math — or 80 percent vs. 74 percent, respectively.

In reading, fewer than half of black students in the sixth grade, or 46 percent, scored proficient or better in 2006. By comparison, 80 percent of their white peers scored proficient or above. By the eighth grade, however, African-American students scored only 3 percentage points below their white counterparts.

“The gap has closed, and what is amazing is that it has happened in such short time,” Miller said.

On the same page

Although McKinley is the only school in Unified that uses the Promethean Boards in every classroom, it takes more than capturing the attention of teenagers with technology to sustain positive results.

Teachers had to be on the same page, too, Miller said. To accelerate student achievement, teachers also improved their instructional delivery, working to make sure each section in a grade level was concurrently learning the same concepts and that what was being taught also was aligned with state standards.

Washington success

Similar progress is being made at Washington Middle School, according to Principal Nancy Weirick, who this year succeeded retiring Principal Beth Sabo.

Sabo is credited with instituting the school’s “1:1 Laptop Project” in which each student receives an Apple laptop computer to use free of charge. The middle school was the first in the state with the program.

And use of the technology at Washington is beginning to bear fruit as it makes strides to close its achievement gap.

Minority enrollment represents 53.1 percent of the student population at Washington, and 60.1 percent are eligible for federally subsidized lunches, according the latest data available from the state.

Like McKinley, the most improved scores also came from African-American students who in 2006, as sixth-graders, showed proficiency ratings of 63.4 percent in reading and 56.1 percent in math.

By the time they graduated two years later as eighth-graders, their proficiency ratings improved to 83.3 percent and 63.9 percent in reading and math, respectively.

‘Data driven’

While the technology plays a part in engaging students in classroom learning, taking ownership of their achievements and responsibility for improvement plays an important part in Washington’s overall improvement, Weirick said.

It isn’t just the teachers, but every student keeps track of his or her scores in class or on standardized tests. Whether math, reading, language arts, social studies or science, students are required to keep records that show areas of growth and areas that need work.

“We are very data driven here,” Weirick said. “But it’s not whether we have the beautiful computers to use. It’s the people, the teachers and the students. The students love knowing how they’re doing, getting the pieces and using them to improve. They get it.”