Before Alma Walker-Brown's tenure as principal of Dr. Bernard Harris, Sr. Elementary School in Baltimore, the school's experienced and dedicated faculty had worked hard but in isolation. Teamwork and cooperation have transformed the climate of a school where once teachers and students felt they had "belonged to a class but not to a school." Using the cooperative-learning Success for All reading program, Ms. Walker-Brown restructured both learning and teaching by creating a system that is based on cross-grade staff teams and mixed-ability learning groups. Academic achievement and a school-wide sense of community have been the most direct benefits of the strategy she implemented. In response to the problems facing the economically disadvantaged community served by the school, Ms. Walker-Brown helped establish the Oliver Community School-Based Asthma Program, a health care program that targets the major cause of health-related absenteeism among children enrolled at the school.
