Author: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Wednesday, October 14, 2009

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Lab teacher Josh Radner leads an after-school science club at Yates Elementary, where students have access to high-tech equipment, including digital microscopes.

At Yates Elementary, students rarely use science books. In fact, fourth-graders gave theirs to another school last summer because the books were just taking up shelf space.

Still, Yates kids tallied the highest science scores in Fayette County and the eighth highest in Kentucky on the most recent state tests.

“Students cannot learn from a textbook the way they do from the hands-on, live experiences that we arrange for them as part of every investigation,” said science lab teacher Josh Radner. “We have to put materials in their hands or get them to a place where they can make direct observations before we take the next step and make them understand abstract ideas.”

It must be working because Yates posted a science index of 129.3 out of 140 on the test last spring.

Radner and his students are living proof that all students can learn at high levels. Nearly 70 percent of the children at Yates receive free or reduced-price meals, and the racial makeup of the student body is 55 percent white, 28 percent African-American, 11 percent Hispanic, 3 percent Asian and 3 percent other.

In science, 98 percent of the students earned proficient or distinguished scores. Perhaps more impressively, just over 74 percent scored distinguished.

“Nearly everything we teach is either directly applicable to students’ everyday lives or they can find examples of it if they know where to look. It’s very easy to show the relevance,” said Radner, who last week was named Kentucky’s 2009 Elementary Science Teacher of the Year.

So whether it’s exploring the forest at Raven Run, using digital microscopes in the after-school science club or making their own sundials, the children are soaking it all in.

Radner finds it gratifying to help kids look at their world more intelligently, through the lens of science, and he appreciates just how curious young children are – it’s a real asset that science teachers can tap into.

“We’ve had this great success teaching them to think and write like scientists, and they’ve proven that on the end-of-year tests,” said Radner, who is in his fifth year at Yates.

Just a few years ago, Yates was getting front-page attention for anemic test scores and failure to meet No Child Left Behind standards. In the fall of 2008, Yates topped the 100-point benchmark in state testing. And in the latest results, its score rose to 109.

“It’s not the kind of kids you have – it’s what you do with them,” said former principal Ketsy Fields, who is now a district elementary director.

Radner agreed, noting, “We’ve erased learning and performance gaps, in science in particular.”

Teachers at every grade level coordinate their instruction, which contributes to consistency in expectations and in grading. And on a day-to-day basis, team teaching works well at Yates.

In fourth-grade science and fifth-grade social studies, for instance, the lead teachers confer with others like the practical living teacher, the librarian and the lab instructor, who then come up with related hands-on activities.

For Radner, this team approach is crucial.

“Our expectations are aligned,” he said. “We know what we expect the kids to be learning down the hall in the other classroom. We’re sharing responsibility for making sure these kids learn.”