Glencoe-Silver Lake Lakeside Elementary School is celebrating academic achievement after finding it has been designated as a “celebration school” following MMR (multiple measurements rating) results.
Assistant Principal Diane Schultz said Lakeside Elementary was designated a “focus school” in 2011 and received Title 1 funding with the goal of “attacking the achievement gap” in the school.
“We were in the bottom 10 percent of Title 1 schools with the lowest focus rating. And so our goal was to work on closing the school’s achievement gap for students of color, special education students, students of poverty and English learners,” Schultz said.
To “attack” the achievement gap issues, Schultz and her team at Lakeside implemented a school improvement plan to address academic areas that need improvement and other issues that caused Lakeside to be considered a “focus school.”
A site leadership team was created of staff who meets for a half day, once a month, and assesses the needs of students, looks at best teaching practices and works on connecting with other administrators in the junior high and high schools.
“We used to meet for one-hour sessions but found that wasn’t enough to do what we wanted to do. Now, we spend half a day planning and that has made a huge difference. We have the time to really work on assessing students’ achievements and successes and look at what we need to improve on, so that the students are learning,” Schultz said.
For more, see the Oct. 29 print edition of The Chronicle.
Links:
[1] http://www.glencoenews.com/category/byline/alyssa-schauer
[2] http://www.glencoenews.com/category/section/news