Executive Summary

Nashville Elementary School Nashville School District

Mr. Latito Williams, Principal 200 Immanuel Street Nashville, AR 71852

Document Generated On December 12, 2014

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

1

Description of the School

2

School's Purpose

3

Notable Achievements and Areas of Improvement

5

Additional Information

6

Executive Summary Nashville 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.

Page 1 © 2014 Advance Education, Inc. All rights reserved unless otherwise granted by written agreement.

Executive Summary Nashville 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?

Nashville Elementary School is located at 200 Immanuel Street in Nashville, Arkansas. We are located in the rural setting of Southwest Arkansas with a population of 4,878. Nashville offers the community many resources. We have a newly built hospital and industries including Tyson, Husqvarna, Mission Plastics and Pilgrim's Pride. Nashville citizens also enjoy a 165-acre park housing an amphitheater, softball, baseball, and soccer fields, playgrounds, and pavilions.

We currently serve 137 fourth graders, 148 fifth graders and 159 sixth graders for a total of 444 students. The population of Nashville Elementary School consists of 57.6% female and 48.4% male students. There has been a gradual change in our demographics. We have seen a steady increase in the number of families qualifying for free and reduced lunches. Currently, we are at 71% and we expect the number to increase over time. Our district race percentages have also changed in the last few years. Of our population, we now have 21.4% listed as Hispanic, while 23.4% are black, and the white population is the largest, at 52.7%. We also have 1.4% American Indian, .7% Asian, and .2% Native Hawaiian and .2% of two or more races. Our curriculum percentages include 14% Special Education, 5.2% Gifted and Talented, and 1.5% Alternative Learning Environment, and 18% ELL/LEP. We have 30 certified classroom teachers, with 18 holding a Master's Degree and 100% are Highly Qualified Teachers. There are also 7 teachers with an ELL Certification and 1 National Board Teacher.

Page 2 © 2014 Advance Education, Inc. All rights reserved unless otherwise granted by written agreement.

Executive Summary Nashville 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.

The mission of Nashville Elementary School is to promote the opportunity for all students to be proficient in literacy and mathematics while working with parents, staff, and community to develop respectful, resourceful, responsible, and successful citizens. At Nashville Elementary we offer an abundance of programs to ensure we are meeting the needs of our students. We are achieving this goal by offering the students educational tools such as Math Computer Lab and Star Math, Keyboarding, Reading Plus, My Reading Coach, Learning Tools, Accelerated Reader, and after school tutoring. Our students also have the opportunity to participate in art, music, library, and physical education classes. We offer an Alternative Learning Environment, a Self-Contained Special Needs classroom, ESL services, and a Gifted and Talented Program. Nashville Elementary School believes in developing the whole child and so we offer many enrichment activities such as Character Education, Drug Awareness, Career Orientation, Fire Prevention, Relay for Life, Flu Shot Clinic, and Dental Health. We coordinate with Nashville High School EAST Lab to ensure our students understanding of Heart Health, Flu Awareness, and Seat Belt Safety. We have high expectations for all students and we reward students routinely for good grades with our Scrapper Star Program. We work well with our community and they support our students by providing free meals and desserts for our honor and merit list students. Nashville Elementary School is committed to enabling our students to become college and career ready through the implementation of Common Core State Standards.

Nashville Elementary School strives to be an educational forerunner in Arkansas. Our efforts to raise test scores paid off during the last three years, as we were awarded an Act 35 Reward School Top 20% by the Governor of Arkansas. The reward came with a check in the amount of $18,819.52 which was spent on much-needed technology. This year, we were also awarded the Dollar General Literacy Grant in the amount of $2,500.00 and the Weyerhaeuser Giving Grant in the amount of $12,500.00. These monies purchased a cart and laptops for student use. Fourth grade teachers wrote a grant to the Arkansas Humanities Council to implement a unit on the Revolutionary War. They were awarded $1,573.00 which was used to purchase books, photographs, and other needed materials. Fifth grade teachers also wrote an Arkansas Humanities Council grant and were awarded $1885.00 which has been spent on materials for their unit on The Dust Bowl and The Great Depression.

Nashville Elementary has many short and long term goals. One of our long term goals is to increase the use of technology. We are working toward this goal through grant writing and developing our keyboarding class. Another goal is to continue to improve student performance in math, science, and literacy in order to meet or exceed the Annual Measurable Objectives, as set by the state of Arkansas. Developing Common Core State Standard units/modules for Language Arts and Mathematics in grades 4-6, which are aligned to the new PARCC assessment is an on-going process that we are dedicated to accomplishing. Student health and wellness is important to the staff of Nashville Elementary. We are dedicated to adding additional student equipment and increasing physical education time for all students. Beginning this year, an additional 45 minutes per week, per grade level has been added to the schedule. New equipment has also been purchased.

At the beginning of the 2014-2015 school year, team teaching was implemented at the 5th grade level. This is already in place for our 4th grade students. Keyboarding class was also instituted with instruction twice per week for a semester. The hallways were all freshly painted prior to the start of this school year. Our cafeteria began the offer versus serve lunch format, which gives our students two lunch menu choices daily.

Nashville Elementary strives to be a place where children feel safe and cared for, as well as educated. We are committed to educating each Page 3 © 2014 Advance Education, Inc. All rights reserved unless otherwise granted by written agreement.

Executive Summary Nashville Elementary School

child every day to help our students become respectful, resourceful, responsible, and successful citizens.

Page 4 © 2014 Advance Education, Inc. All rights reserved unless otherwise granted by written agreement.

Executive Summary Nashville 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.

2012-13

- Act 35 Reward School Top 20% by the Governor of Arkansas - $18,819.52 check

- Top 25 Middle Schools in Arkansas Based on Benchmark Math Achievement - #23

- Beating the Odds - High Achieving Schools Serving Low Income Communities (Office for Education Policy) - #2 in the category of "HighPoverty" Middle Schools in Arkansas based on 2013 Benchmark Math Achievement

- Top 5 Overall Middle Schools in Southwest Arkansas based on 2014 Benchmark Math Achievement - #4

2013-14

- Beating the Odds - High Achieving Schools Serving Low Income Communities (Office for Education Policy) - #2 in the category of Top 5 "High-Poverty" Middle Schools in Southwest Arkansas based on 2014 Benchmark Math Achievement.

- Beating the Odds - High Achieving Schools Serving Low Income Communities (Office for Education Policy) - #4 in the category of Top 5 "High-Poverty" Middle Schools in Southwest Arkansas based on 2014 Benchmark Literacy Achievement.

- Beating the Odds - High Achieving Schools Serving Low Income Communities (Office for Education Policy) - #6 in the category of Top 10 Arkansas "High-Poverty" Middle Schools overall based on 2014 Benchmark Math Achievement.

Page 5 © 2014 Advance Education, Inc. All rights reserved unless otherwise granted by written agreement.

Executive Summary Nashville 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.

Page 6 © 2014 Advance Education, Inc. All rights reserved unless otherwise granted by written agreement.