2013 Pathways to the Prize - School Winners

Pathways to the Prize Lessons from the 2011 SCORE Prize School Winners Taking her time and listening enabled Ms. Cupples to achieve significant faculty buy-in and commitment to change since the school community had collectively identified areas of need. The small size of the school and the closeness of its staff allowed Ms. Cupples to execute changes quickly. Fairview has 24 teachers serving approximately 278 students. Each class has between 16 and 22 students. The teaching staff has a wide range of experience. About 40 percent of teachers have taught for more than 20 years, while 33 percent of the teaching staff has five years of experience or less. Two full-time Reading Recovery teachers, one full-time literacy coach, a special education teacher, and interns complete the instructional staff. Additionally, the school has three educational assistants and access to several professionals who provide service to schools throughout the county, including two physical therapists, four occupational therapists, one school psychologist, and one speech/language specialist, ensuring that all students have access to needed support services. The following sections highlight the successful approaches used by Fairview Elementary to embrace high standards, cultivate strong leaders, ensure excellent teachers, and use data to enhance student learning. Embracing high standards Fairview adopted the theme Expect More/Achieve More, and both teachers and parents have rallied around this theme and use it to inform their own practices. Teachers discussed and analyzed performance standards to be sure they had a clear understanding of them. Then the school developed approaches that led to intensified focus and coherence. The school defined and embraced high standards for all students through differentiated instruction and targeted interventions. Ms. Cupples encouraged administrators, coaches, teachers, students, and parents to focus on standards and achievement by helping them understand data that showed each student’s progress and identified the precise skills they needed to advance to the next level. “It is my personal goal to provide a top-notch educational program for the students of Fairview Elementary School,” Ms. Cupples said during a presentation to her faculty. “Most of this rests on you. Your abilities and your attitude will make a difference in these young children’s lives. You should strive to be the best, expect the best, and accept only the best from your students.” Understanding the standards and translating them into lessons. As Tennessee moved to adopt Common Core State Standards, Fairview took action. All teachers received in-depth professional development to help them understand and adapt their lessons to align with the Common Core State Standards within the district’s literacy framework. Teachers took time to understand exactly which areas of knowledge and skills the standards addressed. They based their instructional planning not on the textbook, but on the standards. The textbook became one of many sources used for instructional planning. Many teachers chose supplemental materials from the resource room and the book room to ensure they could teach each standard in a variety of ways. Aligning all systems to the standards. Staff members at Fairview recognize that all stakeholders – administrators, teachers, and students – need to share the same understanding of standards and that various strategies could be aligned to provide coherence and focus in standards-based instruction. At the beginning of each lesson, teachers present the standards for the upcoming lesson in student-friendly language. They post the standards and often review them verbally so that students have clear expectations for their learning. To reinforce the idea that standards drive all teaching and learning, the school implemented standards-based report cards and data tracking of standards mastery. Student knowledge of the standards and learning expectations in addition to the use of standards-based report cards provide focus for teachers, students, and parents. Pathways to the Prize Lessons from the 2011 SCORE Prize School Winners sure that all students were being engaged at appropriate levels. Most teachers now introduce a lesson to all students but quickly divide them into three groups and teach to each group’s level of competence. Before this approach could occur, though, the students needed to understand why the groups had different assignments. For example, teachers needed to explain why some students received homework with five math problems while others received 10. Teachers explained that everyone needs to grow and, for some students, that means doing more problems and that some students need more or different types of practice that day or week. Interventions. The implementation of Tennessee’s new teacher evaluation system complemented the focus on standards. Teachers knew that they were responsible and would be assessed on their ability to improve student learning outcomes. They wanted to be effective in raising the achievement of all children, but they struggled to find the time for interventions during the regular school day. The principal stepped in to address this challenge and asked the teachers for input. Together, they chose to revise the schedule to implement a daily intervention block. Interventions for remediation and enrichment are standards-based, specifically tied to the needs of individual students for improving their knowledge and skills in particular areas identified in advance by the teachers and academic coaches. This is protected time – no arts or recess takes place during this 30-minute intervention block dedicated to remediation or enrichment. Teachers spend significant time diagnosing student needs and designing interventions that occur during the 30-minute intervention block, differentiation in the classroom, and after-school tutoring, which is funded by extended contract opportunities by the district. All interventions focus on the specific skills that the student needs to acquire. Teachers re-teach in a different way, either through compu ѕȵ

2013 Pathways to the Prize - School Winners | Page 8