Dower Elementary School Clover Park School District Lakewood, Washington

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Dower Elementary SchoolClover Park School
DistrictLakewood, Washington
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(No Transcript)
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Location

• Lakewood, Washington
• Suburban/Urban Area
• South of Tacoma
• Serves Fort Lewis Army Post
• and McChord Airforce Base

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Imagine a school..

• In which all children achieve
• That treats all children as gifted
• In which a whole school community develops a
  vision of its ideal school
• In which all members of the school community
  collaborate
• Where ideas count

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Demographics

• Population
• 298
• Grades
• ECEAP Five
• Gender
• Male 58.1
• Female 41.8
• Free/Reduced
• 72.2

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Demographics, contd.

• Ethnicity
• - American Indian 1.5
• - Asian 9.0
• - Black 29.1
• - Hispanic 10.8
• - White 49.6

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Demographics, contd.

• Special Education
• - Self Contained EBD 4.3
• - Resource 12.2
• ELL
• - 10

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Why Change?

• Our students needed help
• Community was changing rapidly
• We needed a way to involve our parents
• We needed to increase student achievement in
  math, reading, language arts
• In the last 9 years, we went from a community of
  homes to a community of apartments.
• In the last 9 years, we went from less than 12
  low income to over 70 low income.

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What we did

• Ran a comprehensive needs assessment that
  involved staff, parents, community and students
• Analyzed data and developed a school plan to
  address the identified needs
• Researched best practices and developed a
  Locally Developed Model to address the specific
  needs of our learning community

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Locally Developed Model Focus

• Increase Student Achievement in Math
• Increase Student Achievement in Reading
• Increase Student Achievement in Language Arts
• Increase Student Achievement in Technology
• Increase Student Achievement through increased
  Parent Involvement

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School Plan Goal

• By June, 2007, students will achieve annual
  yearly progress as measured by the WASL
  (Washington Assessment of Student Learning)

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Strategies

• ReadingComprehensive program K-5
• Walk to Read 1-5
• Small group instruction
• Read Well K-1
• Trophies K, 2-5
• Read Naturally 2-5
• Scholastic Reading Counts

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Strategies, contd.

• Math
• Comprehensive program K-5
• Small group instruction
• Investigations K-5
• Accelerated Math 1-5
• Math Facts in a Flash
• Extended Response Math

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Strategies, contd.

• WritingComprehensive writing program
• 61 Trait Writing
• School-wide writing prompts 4 times/year
• Peer editing through use of rubrics
• School-wide journaling 1-5

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Strategies, contd.

• Technology Comprehensive technology plan
• Accelerated Math
• Kidspiration/Inspiration 1-5
• Alpha smart
• Type to Learn
• Computer pods in every room

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• Parent Involvement
• Full time parent involvement coordinator
• Parenting Classes
• Attendance
• Family Nights
• Community Liaison (i.e. food, clothing, power,
  homeless)
• Tutor Training

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Strategies, contd.

• Instructional Facilitator
• Staff development on on-going basis
• Support in reading, language arts and math
• Data analysis on-going

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Strategies, contd.

• Interventions
• Extended day program grades 2-5
• Individual Goal Plans for regular ed. students
  that are below grade level
• Summer school K-5
• Student Assistance Teams
• Homework Club

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Strategies, contd.

• Interventions
• Good Morning Club
• WASL/ITBS (Iowa Test of Basic Skills) Club
• Parenting classes
• All staff training in Ruby Payne
• School Improvement Plan teams through
  Site-council for constant revision/data
  assessment

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Assessments

• Read Well
• - All first graders and struggling second
  graders
• DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment)
• - All first through third graders
• WASL (Washington Assessment of Student
  Learning)- All third graders in reading and
  math - All fourth graders in reading, writing,
  and math - All fifth graders in reading, math
  and science

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Assessments, contd.

• STAR Math
• All second through fifth graders every six to
  eight weeks
• STAR Reading
• All second through fifth graders every six to
  eight weeks
• Investigations
• All students

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Assessments, contd.

• Trophies
• - All students
• Running Recordsa
• - All students
• Math Facts in a Flash- All first through fifth
• School-wide writing prompts- four times per year

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Assessments, contd.

• In 2002-2003, Dower was ranked number 1 out of 10
  for comparable schools in WASL Math and 4 out of
  10 in WASL reading based on 68.7 Free and
  Reduced information.

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Data AnalysisWASL Trends
Grade 4 1998-99 1999-00 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05
Math 32.6 9.1 32.6 37.0 85.7 83.9 64.1
Reading 6.5 52.3 53.5 69.1 77.8 80.6 82.1
Writing 16.3 29.5 44.2 57.4 60.0 67.7 56.4
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ITBS Trends
Grade 3 1998-99 1999-00 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05
Reading 46 49 51 47 47 58 49
Math 46 44 58 54 53 66 61
Reading/Math Com-posite 46 47 55 51 50 62 55
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Data Analysis

• Monthly site-council, staff and group meetings
• Quarterly parent nights for data sharing
• Parent conferences
• Student assistant meetings twice a month
• School Improvement Plan teams (one for each
  strategy)

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Why It Works For Us

• Teacher commitment to increasing achievement for
  all students
• Teachers trained in working with children in
  poverty
• Data-driven school plan
• Staff longevity
• Principal longevity

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Why It Works For Us, contd.

• On-going staff development
• Community Involvement
• Site-based Management
• - Shared Decision Making
• - Resource Allocation

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Lessons Learned

• Everyone has to be committed to the notion that
  Everything we do is for the kids
• It takes time to grow staff and programs
• Parents need to be involved and understand
  programs

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Lessons Learned, contd.

• Dont get discouraged when you dont see
  immediate results
• When scores fluctuate, know you have to change
  your strategies.

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Questions?