George Hall Elementary School is located in the Maysville neighborhood, one of the poorest parts of Mobile County, AL, one of the poorest states in America. In 2004, the Mobiile County Public School System, as part of its Transformed Schools Initiative, ordered that George Hall be reorganized and re-staffed. Terri Tomlinson, a principal of another turn-around school in Maysville took over as the head of George Hall and began one of the nation’s most highly regarded transformed schools efforts.
In 2004, George Hall was among the worst-performing schools in the state, with fewer than 50 percent of the schools fourth-graders performing at grade level in reading or mathematics. Today, George Hall has become one of the highest performing schools in all of Alabama, with 95 percent of more of its students meeting grade-level standards in reading and mathematics.
In addition to recognition from the DOE on Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s bus trip across America, George Hall is also a 2009 winner of the Education Trust’s Dispelling the Myth Award, one of four schools recognized for their significant changes in student academic performance.
Key to the transformation was principal leadership, led by Terri Tomlinson, who replaced all but four of the existing teachers at George Hall and hand-picked a team with shared values about their beliefs about the ability of poor children to learn at high levels. “Our children were sponges for education,” Tomlinson told Education Secretary Duncan. “I have kept stories these children have written about the transformation. Some of them said that teachers don’t sleep in the class any more, there are no more fights in halls, teachers teach every day. I’m always humbled by what our children do. And I ask my teachers: Whatever your expectations are for these kids, triple them today. They’re not high enough.”
The physical school went through a transformation as well. Trashed by the previous administration, Tomlinson and her assistant principal spent the first weeks hauling out debris into dumpsters and painting every hallway and room in the school.
Still, parents and neighbors of the school weren’t exactly excited to see a new regime take over the school. The assistant principal was threatened in a drive-by, large knives were found repeatedly stabbed into the ground around the school property. Dead cats were hung around the school. But the leadership and new team at George Hall persevered, starting by walking home every single child in the school, to ensure that these children made it home safely through a rough neighborhood, a practice that continues five years later.
Broad-based community engagement was also key. Collaborative has a longstanding relationship with the Mobile Area Education Foundation, which has led community engagement throughout the county that has galvanized all neighborhoods and sectors of the community around key performance indicators that are showing similar gains across the schools in the district.
Watch the Department's profile of George Hall Elementary School.
Learn more about the Mobile Area Education Foundation.
