PORT ARTHUR — Theresa Lacy, fifth grade science teacher at Travis Elementary School in Port Arthur, said she was so impressed with the EXCEL Teacher Implementation Initiative, she teaches it in other schools. She’s even using the methods to rebuild her Hurricane Ike-ravaged Bridge City home.

“This is the second year for us to use it and it took off,” Lacy said. “I’ve gone to different places to teach this. I went to Lee Elementary last year.”

The Port Arthur ISD implemented EXCEL in 2007 from pre-K to 12th grade as a vertically aligned teaching and learning philosophy. The program uses thinking maps, teaching maps, circle maps and bubble maps, journaling and flow maps with sequencing — cause and effect, etc.

According to the PAISD Web site, EXCEL was adopted in order to re-engineeer for academic excellence after various constituencies identified areas of greatest need. The literacy — across all content and elective areas with a prioritized focus in English language arts and social studies — numeracy and science plan immersed with technology in an aggressive collaborative initiative to improve student learning.

“The teaching maps tell you who, what, where, when, why and how. We used the circle maps on our Travis family. And we do journals of thinking maps. For instance, tomorrow we’re doing a study of animals who live in the desert and those who live in a water habitat,” she said.

Lacy said answers are composed on the computers and then cut and pasted to a poster board to give her the answer and the students call follow.

“They know it in their sleep,” she said. “It (EXCEL) can be used across curriculum. The world of full of graphs. It helps kids who need the hands-on (approach). Make it concrete for them, and they’ll buy it.”

Ali VanKleeck is a third grade science teacher at Travis. She called thinking maps a research-based program.

“It’s highly researched and highly effective,” VanKleeck said. “They record their thinking and use TEKS (for the TAKS test) each day. It’s all higher order.”

VanKleeck’s class was using rulers, tape measures and yardsticks to measure different objects. Students would journal comparing the two. They then take notes and write a summary. All of the maps are implemented at the same time.

“I didn’t know (how effective) it was just looking at it. It’s a powerful tool that can be used in every subject. It’s megacognitive — what we know about the subject,” VanKleeck said. “It’s taught in excellent schools and this impresses me. It tells them how to do it. The steps are checked to see if they were successful.

She added EXCEL has been distributed across Texas school districts in addition to PAISD.

“There’s no downside to it. The only thing I could see are teachers not initiating it. The administration wants to see it used and it’s part of the teacher evaluation. I love the positive things going on in the district,” VanKleeck said.

Morcease Beasley, deputy superintendent for curriculum and instruction, said they implemented this teaching strategy after feedback of instruction in the district, the classroom and auditors.

“We were doing too many worksheets in the district, and we wanted strategies engaged at high levels. Specific strategies. It’s not a program; it’s an approach,” he said. “It focuses on several things — math, science and language arts.”

Beasley said since EXCEL, the district has seen improvements in several subjects with the exception of writing which slipped somewhat but remained high. Otherwise, students are learning at a higher level and performing at a higher level.

Students will be surveyed in January, and Beasley said he believes the results will be “very encouraging.” Parents are surveyed in January, too, and he said he has been receiving excellent feedback from them.

“Parents say they have been seeing their child do more homework and more projects. At our first science fair in a long time, parents were helped bring in projects.

“It’s catching on. We’re changing the culture. Port Arthur is achieving with high levels of instruction and our teachers are teaching at higher levels. I commend them for the improvements. I’m pleased with our direction,” Beasley said.