Inside Syracuse's Delaware Academy, educators gathered in a stuffy cafeteria to hear Dick Lewis of the Success For All program stress the right way to organize tutoring. "Despite the fact that it is the most expensive way you can do it, it is far and away the best way you can do it," said Lewis.

Outside the classroom, it was the warmest day of the year. The streets were loud with kids hollering to friends, riding bikes and skateboards.

One was Oscar Ortiz, a Delaware second-grader who speaks English and Spanish. His mother, Maria Serrant, agreed with Lewis' point about tutoring - Oscar's reading skill and attitude had improved. "My Oscar works better one on one," she said, keeping an eye on her son's bike-riding antics in the street. "If he has more distractions, he's not going to retain anything."

Tutoring is one of many facets in the research-based Success For All program, which is being implemented at more than 1,000 schools - many of them high-poverty, urban elementary schools in New York and 44 other states. SFA organizers try for a ratio of tutoring that declines as students progress: aiming for 30 percent in first grade; 20 percent in second grade; 10 percent in third grade. It's the type of early intervention for struggling readers that New York State United Teachers has sought for years to get the state to endorse.

Success for All details were dissected earlier this month by more than 120 teachers, paraprofessionals and administrators, who gathered at a conference at the site of one of the newest SFA programs.

The conference was co-sponsored by the Syracuse Teachers Association and NYSUT, which has been at the forefront in introducing the comprehensive program, according to SFA founder Robert Slavin. The conference included SFA teachers from Albany, Newburgh, New Rochelle, New York City, Niagara Falls, Rochester and Syracuse.

Teachers and learners

"Today we're all teachers and learners," STA President Kate McKenna told the educators gathered at Delaware Academy.

Reading instruction is the cornerstone of Success for All, but many other elements are blended for comprehensive school reform - teaching kids to resolve their own conflicts, quick-intervention teams to work with parents on home problems and respect for teachers. Some New York schools complement with a sister program for math, science and social studies - Roots and Wings.

Success for All started in 1987 in one Baltimore school. It is a detailed blueprint for school reform, based on intensive reading instruction. Every certified teacher in the building - including librarians and music teachers -reads out loud to students. Listening comprehension is stressed every day - an emphasis that dovetailed nicely with preparation for the state's fourth-grade English Language Arts test launched earlier this year, noted Lynn Miller, an SFA teacher at the 66th Street school in Niagara Falls.

Slavin insists the program not be shoved down the throats of school staff - before implementation, it must be approved by at least 80 percent of staff in a secret ballot.

Making a difference

When Slavin, formerly a Johns Hopkins University researcher before directing SFA became a full-time job, heard about the Syracuse gathering, he asked if he could come. "I thank NYSUT for setting this up," said Slavin. "We have had a very good relationship with AFT (American Federation of Teachers, NYSUT's national affiliate), and that connection is so important for our program and for AFT's larger goals, as well as local unions.

"You're making a difference with your own children, showing something of great importance - that public school teachers can solve the problems of urban education," Slavin said to great applause.

Teachers make SFA work. "There's nothing in Success For All that's new on the face of the earth," said Slavin. "Most of it, we've stolen from you."

McKenna said, "Success For All is a teacher-enhanced program, not a teacher-proof program."

Studies in academic journals generally have found that SFA students, at the end of first grade, have average reading scores almost three months ahead of those in matching control schools. By the end of fifth grade, students read more than a year ahead of control peers, according to studies surveyed by Teacher magazine.

In Modesto, Calif., a study of an SFA program found that 62 of 64 students who stayed in the program three years were reading at or above grade level, according to the superintendent of schools.

Enthusiastic readers

In small group sessions, educators went over the successes and glitches of SFA at their schools. Delaware Academy librarian Jim Shults marveled at improvements by some children who have had less than a full year of SFA. "Kindergartners and first-graders are more articulate," said Shults. "When I'm reading them books, more kids are raising their hands and bringing their own experiences to the book."

Initially, said Patty Brody of Delaware Academy, there's a lot of prep time but, she added, "There's less teacher planning time once you learn the program."

At several sites, educators noted how a tutoring program that seemed comprehensive in September had splintered by spring into too few tutors seeing too few kids.

NYSUT First Vice President Antonia Cortese praised SFA practitioners for their persistence. "Sometimes we meet with some resistance from the State Education Department or someone else," said Cortese. "Maybe some educators feel the program doesn't allow enough autonomy. But I say we have to focus in on the results it achieves. If it works for kids, that's what we're about."

For more information, write Success For All Foundation, 200 W. Towsontown Blvd., Baltimore MD 21204-5200; or call (800) 548-4998. The Web site is at www.successforall.net.

- Howland

SCHOOL-RELATED PERSONNEL

In addition to his maintenance responsibilities, custodian Linnane has an informal but significant role as a caring presence in the school community. 'If kids have problems in the classroom, the teacher might send one of them around with me for awhile and they think they're helping me out,' he says. During his break, he enjoys listening to students read aloud.

'Every day is a different thing for the kids,' says Linnane, who has worked at the 66th Street school for three years. 'They make my job interesting - I enjoy it.' He likes to greet children in the hall as they come to school. 'If I see something brewing, if kids are not quite getting along, then I'll bring it up to the principal.'

Linnane appreciates the effectiveness of Success for All, and the way the staff has pulled together. 'If it keeps up the way it's going, it will really work."

Teaching assistant Watson tutors children one on one for 20 minutes a day. Since the school launched Success for All in September, students are reading more fluently, he says. 'They're sounding out words,' says Watson, a member of Niagara Falls Teachers. 'The skills that we teach in this program are making them read better and sound out words better.'

Watson also values the way SFA brings together home and school. 'The parents are much more involved,' he says. 'We get feedback from the parents as well.' - Butler