Executive Summary
Jones Elementary School Springdale School District
Mrs. Melissa Fink, Principal 900 South Powell Springdale, AR 72764
Document Generated On October 30, 2014
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
1
Description of the School
2
School's Purpose
3
Notable Achievements and Areas of Improvement
5
Additional Information
9
Executive Summary Jones Elementary School
Introduction Every school has its own story to tell. The context in which teaching and learning takes place influences the processes and procedures by which the school makes decisions around curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The context also impacts the way a school stays faithful to its vision. Many factors contribute to the overall narrative such as an identification of stakeholders, a description of stakeholder engagement, the trends and issues affecting the school, and the kinds of programs and services that a school implements to support student learning.
The purpose of the Executive Summary (ES) is to provide a school with an opportunity to describe in narrative form the strengths and challenges it encounters. By doing so, the public and members of the school community will have a more complete picture of how the school perceives itself and the process of self-reflection for continuous improvement. This summary is structured for the school to reflect on how it provides teaching and learning on a day to day basis.
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Executive Summary Jones Elementary School
Description of the School
Describe the school's size, community/communities, location, and changes it has experienced in the last three years. Include demographic information about the students, staff, and community at large. What unique features and challenges are associated with the community/communities the school serves?
Jones Elementary School is located in Springdale, Arkansas. The total student population is 633. The demographics of Jones Elementary School could cause some educators to fear the many challenges they might face in the classroom; however, the faculty and staff of Jones Elementary School view students' rich ethnicities as opportunities to educate and encompass the whole child. Jones Elementary serves students preschool through fifth grade. The student population is comprised of 77% English Language Learners, 83% Hispanic, 7% Caucasian, 9% Marshallese, and 1% African American. 96.5% of the student population also lives in poverty, which is based on the free and reduced lunch rates. Teachers at Jones Elementary are 100% certified with 40% having earned bachelor's degrees and 60% having earned master's degrees or beyond. Five certified teachers are National Board Certified.
Jones Elementary has transformed itself from a traditional neighborhood school to an innovative community based school that serves students and their families in countless ways. We offer various health and wellness services, educational opportunities for families, enrichment opportunities for students, and outreach support. Jones Elementary is considered a neighborhood school. All families live within a 2 mile walking distance of the school. The poverty and language barriers often hinder students from accessing extra-curricular activities in the community. The teachers and staff of Jones Elementary volunteer their skills and numerous hours to provide these activities to students. Sports are one of the most popular enrichment activities. Students have the opportunity to learn to play football, soccer, basketball, and volleyball through intramural sports. The after school sports program helps students learn team building skills, collaboration skills, sportsmanship, and self-confidence. Through the JUA grant, tennis equipment was purchased to teach lessons to students and families. A teacher volunteers her time to work with children and their families on the art of playing tennis. The families are able to check out the tennis equipment during afterschool hours to practice tennis skills with their children. The addition of the Frisbee golf course allows families to check out equipment to play Frisbee golf after school hours. In addition to sports, we offer many fine arts activities as well. The school choir meets weekly to practice skills that are showcased during musical performances throughout the school year. Guitar and drum lessons are provided to students interested in playing instruments. Instruments are available at no charge for the students to use. Students show off their new skills during various school performances. Our newest enrichment activity is the Girls on the Run Program. The program is sponsored by the staff of "The Wellness Clinic at Jones." The goal of the program is to get girls moving while building motivation and self-confidence.
Teachers at Jones Elementary are 100% certified with 40% having earned bachelor's degrees and 60% having earned master's degrees or beyond. Five certified teachers are National Board Certified.
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Executive Summary Jones Elementary School
School's Purpose
Provide the school's purpose statement and ancillary content such as mission, vision, values, and/or beliefs. Describe how the school embodies its purpose through its program offerings and expectations for students.
Jones Elementary's Vision of Learning is Empowering 21st Century Learners. Jones Elementary's Mission is to cultivate life-long learners through rigorous learning experiences and support for the whole child. Jones Elementary Core Beliefs 1. The school community will be life-long learners who can apply essential understandings in an ever changing world. 2. Teachers facilitate rigorous learning experiences using best practices to ensure all students achieve personalized goals and master grade level standards. 3. Administrators, teachers, and students use formative assessment data to design, drive, and personalize instruction. 4. Jones Faculty will support the whole child and provide a safe learning environment. 5. The school community will engage families in supporting their student's educational journey to live the life they dream. By forming several partnerships at the local, state, and national level, Jones Elementary has transformed itself from a traditional neighborhood school to an innovative community based school that serves students and their families in countless ways. We offer various health and wellness services, educational opportunities for families, enrichment opportunities for students, and outreach support. Jones Elementary School offers full medical and mental health services to students and families. In 2009, Jones Elementary School was the recipient of a $500,000 grant through the Arkansas Department of Health and Coordinated School Health to open a school based health and wellness center. Through partnerships with state agencies, Community Clinic, and Ozark Guidance Center, "The Wellness Clinic at Jones Elementary" which was established in 2010 is staffed with a full time physician's assistant, licensed clinical social worker, and medical assistant. We are able to provide free medical care (chronic care, acute care, immunizations, and well child checkups) and free mental health services to students. Families may also use the clinic and pay for services based on a sliding scale fee. In addition to our clinic, The Ronald McDonald Dental Truck visits Jones Elementary School on a bi-annual basis to provide free dental work to uninsured students. Family outreach allows Jones Elementary to support children and families beyond academics. The school partners with many community organizations to provide food, clothing, and Christmas help. Each Friday, the Samaritan Community Center provides 105 snack packs. The food bags have snacks for the children to eat over the weekend, so they will not go hungry. Jones Elementary also partners with the Community Kids Closet to provide clothing for 50 students during the course of the school year. The students are identified based on need, and parents give permission for the children to participate. The largest and most successful annual outreach program at Jones is "The Angel Tree that Wasn't." The poverty rate at Jones Elementary makes it impossible to have an Angel Tree to help families in need. Prior to the program beginning, parents were referred to other community organizations for Christmas help. "The Angel Tree that Wasn't" provides Christmas gifts to all students at Jones Elementary School. Through various partnerships with local businesses, churches, non-profit organizations, and private donations, the school is able to give toys, games, books, hygiene items, socks, mittens, hats, and a food pack to each child at Jones Elementary. Every year the program grows larger and the school is able to provide more help for families during Christmas time. In addition to before and after school extra-curricular activities, Jones Elementary School partners with Arvest Bank to provide services to students. Employees from Arvest Bank volunteer weekly to mentor students, read to students, volunteer in classrooms, and safely help students cross the street. They also help Jones Elementary by donating money and supplies to help support the students and families at Jones.
S.O.A.R (Service, Opportunity, Academics, Recreation) is the Camp War Eagle After School Program hosted at The Jones Center for Families. In partnership with The Jones Center and Jones Elementary School, CWE invites 2nd-6th grade students from Jones Elementary Page 3 © 2014 Advance Education, Inc. All rights reserved unless otherwise granted by written agreement.
Executive Summary Jones Elementary School
School to attend our daily activities. The S.O.A.R. After School Program includes fun recreation and games, educational activities and homework help, exciting arts projects and rewarding community service opportunities. Breakfast in the Classroom was launched at Jones Elementary Schools in Springdale through a grant from the Walmart Foundation. All students, not just those who qualify for free and reduced meals, are given a nutritious breakfast before the opening bell rings. They take the breakfast to their classroom and eat with each other as well as their teacher. By 8:10 they are ready to begin their learning activities. A parent/student/teacher compact is used to communicate and share student achievement responsibility. Ongoing communication with parents is provided through Parent Link and monthly newsletters in Spanish and English.
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Executive Summary Jones Elementary School
Notable Achievements and Areas of Improvement
Describe the school's notable achievements and areas of improvement in the last three years. Additionally, describe areas for improvement that the school is striving to achieve in the next three years.
As a result of the literacy initiative called the "1,000 Books Project," young students were given books to create home libraries to promote and improve their reading and comprehension skills. Through this program, which was recognized by President Barack Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Minkel and Stout saw their students become better readers, thinkers and more productive young citizens. Home libraries were an initiative during the 2013-2014 school year. Justin Minkel and Amber Stout wrote a proposal to enter into Farmer's Insurance Company to be awarded $100,000 to go toward purchasing books for home libraries school wide. These teachers are among the top 15 national finalists for the Dream Big Teacher Challenge to take the project to scale to provide 25,000 ebooks for 1,000 children. The Fountas & Pinnell Leveled Literacy Intervention System (LLI) is a small-group, supplementary literacy intervention designed to help teachers provide powerful, daily, small-group instruction for the lowest achieving students at their grade level through daily intervention. Through systematically designed lessons and original, engaging leveled books, LLI supports learning in both reading and writing, helps students expand their knowledge of language and words and how they work. The goal of LLI is to bring students to grade level achievement in read. In order to increase our English Language Learners proficiency levels and literacy skills, Jones Elementary is piloting the E. L. Achieve's Systematic ELD program. Systematic ELD is a dedicated instructional block that is driven by students' assessed English proficiency levels. Systematic ELD builds a solid foundation in English by teaching language that English learners. To close the experience gap, we will support parents as partners in the educational process and increase access to technology and integrate the use of technology into classroom instruction. The school is striving to achieve and Implement the use of Personal Learning Plans within the Student-led Conferencing system. Chromebooks will be provided for students in grades 3-5 and iPad Minis for will be provided for students in grades K-2. Two eMINTS classrooms(enhancing Missouri's Instructional Networked Teaching Strategies) have been added in fifth grade. According to Measures of Academic Progress (MAP), 61% of Jones Elementary Kindergarten through 5th grade students met their literacy growth goals. 71.4% of Jones Elementary Kindergarten through 5th grade students met their math growth goals. Summary of Data (Literacy) Data Grows Data Glows ·
56% of 3rd grade students were proficient/advanced on the benchmark assessment
·
5th grade decreased by 4% the number of students proficient/advanced on the Benchmark assessment
·
40% of students are on grade level in reading according to the NWEA MAP assessment. An additional 6% of our students were within
3 points of being on grade level. ·
7 classes made below the building average growth in reading according to NWEA MAP assessment
·
10% increase in the number of students that met their growth goal (set by NWEA MAP) in reading from Spring 2013 to Spring 2014.
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8% increase in the number of students on grade level in reading K-5 as identified by NWEA MAP from Spring 2013 to Spring 2014.
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95% of K-5 students made growth in their RIT score according to NWEA MAP
·
4th grade students made a 15% increase in proficient/advanced from 3rd to 4th grade
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78% of 4th and 5th grade students met their growth trajectory according to the Benchmark assessment
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75% of 4th grade students were proficient/advanced on the Benchmark Assessment
·
74% of 5th grade students were proficient/advanced on the Benchmark Assessment Page 5
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Executive Summary Jones Elementary School
Summary of Data (Math) Data Grows Data Glows ·
40% of 4th and 5th students met their growth trajectory on the Benchmark Assessment (low across the district).
·
10 classes made below the building average growth in reading according to NWEA MAP assessment
·
According to NWEA MAP assessment, 44% of our students were on grade level in math. An additional 6% were within 3 points of
being on grade level in MAP. ·
5th grade students decreased 10% the number of students proficient/advanced on the Benchmark from 4th grade
·
4th grade students decreased 13% the number of students proficient/advanced in 3rd grade.
·
75% of our 3rd grade students were proficient/advanced on the Benchmark Assessment
·
70% of our 4th grade students were proficient/advanced on the Benchmark Assessment.
·
According to NWEA MAP, 71% of K-5 students met their growth goals.
·
8% increase in the number of students on grade level according to NWEA MAP assessment
·
12% increase in the number of students meeting their growth target according to NWEA MAP assessment
·
97% of K-5 students made growth in their RIT score according to NWEA MAP
Identified Problems and Plan of Action Identified Problem Plan of Action Resources Needed Administrators were not always able to attend PLC's; they were held on Wednesday afternoons during faculty meeting. We were able to attend only two per week Schedule 2 half day PLC's per grade level per month. The principal and/or assistant principal will attend all PLC's. We will set part of the agenda to examine the data. Title 1 funds Instructional Facilitators PLC Symposium PLC's were released to teachers to do independently too soon. Attend the PLC symposium with assistant principal, grade level teachers, and instructional facilitators. The PLC team will come back and provide professional development for the leadership committee. The leadership committee will be responsible for setting PLC agendas and leading the meetings. PLC Symposium Leadership Committee Rick DuFour Materials PLC Templates Our system of being systematic is in the process of changing with the new common core state standards. Teachers gathered data and recorded it on the lesson plan template and used the data to inform their instruction; however, I do not believe we were consistent in how we collected the data. Systems for gathering and monitoring data will be implemented ASAP. We will review guided reading norms and make adjustments as needed. An online data wall will be created for teachers, instructional facilitators, and principals to monitor student data. We will use the half day PLC's to monitor student progress to create a plan of action for struggling students. PLC's IF's Page 6 © 2014 Advance Education, Inc. All rights reserved unless otherwise granted by written agreement.
Executive Summary Jones Elementary School
Google Docs Running Records MAP Data Reading Benchmark Assessment We are not calibrated in using the Develomental Reading Assessment. We are transitioning this year to Fountis and Pinnel's Reading Benchmark Assessment. We have done research and worked with George Elementary to learn more about the assessment. We feel it aligns better with the new CCSS and will give a more accurate picture of where our kids are in their reading. We will provide half day trainings to our teachers on the administration of the assessment. Time will also be given for teachers to work alongside instructional facilitators to calibrate assessment results. We will continue to calibrate the assessment throughout the year. Reading Benchmark Assessment Instructional Facilitators Title 1 funds
7 teachers fell below the building average of students making growth according to NWEA MAP Assessment in reading. I will work with each individual teacher to develop a Professional Growth Plan in the area of literacy. The growth plan will include SMART goals, personalized professional development, and coaching cycles to increase student achievement. Instructional Facilitators MAP data PGP/TESS Reading Benchmark Assessment In the past, we have been very systematic in conducting Classroom Walkthroughs. Although we were in classrooms a significant amount of time doing formal and informal observations, we were not able to systematically collect building wide data for teachers to analyze and reflect on. The Teachscape CWT protocol did not align well with the TESS system. On Monday, June 9, a committee of teachers and administrators from Jones Elementary and George Elementary will meet to create a CWT protocol that aligns with TESS. We will be able to collect building wide data to analyze and reflect on during PLC's. It will also dually serve as teacher evidence for the TESS evaluation system. CWT protocol TESS rubric
In our efforts to do close, analytical reading and text dependent questioning with our students, we did not get to the independent level enough. Build a system for how we assess if students can read complex texts at an independent level. Classroom teachers Instructional Facilitators Carrie Bradow Administrators Difficult to juggle CCSS and old standards There will no longer be a need to teach the old standards.
Parent Involvement We will work to strengthen the current SFLP program. In addition, we will create "University of Jones" for parents. Classess will meet twice a month and may offer GED preparation, Neighborhood Watch program, Home Library Project, banking, resume building, English classes, basic technology classes, parenting classes, reading workshops, writing workshops, math workshops, etc. Parents will earn "college credit" Page 7 © 2014 Advance Education, Inc. All rights reserved unless otherwise granted by written agreement.
Executive Summary Jones Elementary School
for attending classes. At the end of the year, we will celebrate their success by hosting a graduation program for them. MAT interns Title 1 funds Community Partners Classroom teachers Parents Administrators Teachers at varying levels in their implementation of CGI Continue to work with math instructional facilitator to strengthen implementation of CGI instruction and it's alignment with CCSS. IF CGI Pedagogy Sheet MAP data Fact Fluency Data Limited English of our students We will pilot the English Language Development through EL Achieve. EL Achieve ESL Office
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Executive Summary Jones Elementary School
Additional Information
Provide any additional information you would like to share with the public and community that were not prompted in the previous sections.
Through partnerships with the Arkansas Department of Health, Coordinated School Health, and Springdale Parks and Recreation Department, enhancements were made to the playground to allow families healthy after school activities which include a paved running/walking trail, Frisbee golf course, updated tennis court, updated basketball court, and updated soccer goals. A fence was added to the perimeter of the playground to make it a safe, enjoyable place for children and families. For the past seven years, Jones Elementary has offered an adult ed class for parents to attend to strengthen their knowledge along with their child's education. While attending this class, parents receive ideas on how to help their children with their homework, how to access help through agencies in the community and become familiar with the school structure in general.
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