Becoming a Title I, Part A Distinguished School was seven years in the making for Evergreen Heights Elementary School.

Seven years from those disappointing results on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning that got the school a rap on the knuckles during the 2009-10 school year for failing to make Adequate Yearly Progress under No Child Left Behind.

That’s Principal Anne Gayman’s assessment, at any rate.

NCLB, enacted in 2001, required continual improvement on standardized tests until 100 percent of the country’s public-school children met or exceeded the proficiency level by the close of the 2013-14 school year. Evergreen Heights exited school improvement in 2010-11 when it met AYP in all areas of reading and mathematics. Last year, Congress replaced NCLB with the Every Student Succeeds Act, which returns more control to state and local school districts in setting standards.

“We came together as a staff and started implementing Professional Learning Communities and really looking at our student data and what we needed to do to bring those kids up to standard,” said Gayman.

Now in her 10th year as principal, Gayman was last year’s Washington State Regional Distinguished Principal for South King County.

Evergreen Heights also has been honored as a Washington School of Distinction award winner for three consecutive years. In 2014, the school was named a National Title I Distinguished School, which recognizes as many as 100 schools throughout the country for exceptional student achievement.

The latest laurel is the Title I, Part A Distinguished School. Since 1996 the honor has recognized schools that have at least 40 percent of the students eligible for free- and reduced-price lunch for “achieving high educational standards,” according to a news release.

“People ask me all of the time what contributes to my school doing so well,” said Gayman, whose school also was recognized as a 2015 Washington Achievement Award winner for High Progress. “It’s really the staff here. The teachers team really well together, and they support each other. It’s really a great place to be for students and staff.”

Gayman said that one of the first steps the staff took was transitioning Evergreen Heights at the time of the NCLB sanctions from a “Title I Targeted Assistance School” to a “Title I Schoolwide Program.”

“We assessed the kids, and we could only work with kids that were at a certain benchmark,” she said, noting that the school’s higher-achieving students also performed better on standardized tests after the transition. “When we switched to schoolwide, we could work with all kids. That helped us be more fluid and move kids in and out of groups. If kids were getting a skill, we wouldn’t have to work with them all year. We could put them back in the classroom and work with a different group of kids on a different skill. That allowed us to work with the higher-level kids that were above benchmark and needed to be challenged as well.”

Around the time the school transitioned to a Title I Schoolwide Program, Gayman said, the Auburn School District transitioned to a Professional Learning Community, where classes begin an hour late on several Mondays throughout the school year, and educators review student performance and make adjustments based on that information.

Through that, Evergreen Heights has implemented “Walk to Math” and “Walk to Read” groups.

“The kids that are really struggling work with teachers that are really skilled in that area – reading or math – and that teacher catches them up,” Gayman said. “Then we reassess to see whether they’re making the gains — do they get it or do they need more help?”

The school won $10,000 to be used for professional development, team building, additional research and developing new strategies. The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction chooses the recipients.

Along with Evergreen Heights, Gildo Rey and Hazelwood elementary schools, and Mt. Baker Middle School were named 2015 Washington Achievement Award recipients. Hazelwood was recognized for High Progress and English Language Acquisition, Gildo Rey for Math Growth, and Mt. Baker was honored for High Progress.