Arturo Salazar Elementary School

 

School Information

School Name:  Arturo Salazar Elementary School
School Address: 1120 S. Ravinia Dallas, TX 75211
School Phone: (972) 502-1800
School Fax: (972) 502-1801
Principal: Juan G. Herrera
Principal email: juherrera@dallasisd.org
Web Address: http://www.dallasisd.org/schools/realtor_new.cfm?id_con=252

2010 Demographics

Number of Students: 912
Percent Eligible for Free and Reduced Lunch: 94%
Percent of Limited English Proficient: 53%
Percent of Special Education: 3.4%
Racial/Ethnic Percentages:

• White: 0.9%
• Black: 1.2%
• Hispanic: 97.6%
• Other: 0.1%

 

Student Achievement Data:

Percent of Students Passing Statewide Assessment

Table 1 - percentage meeting standard

WRITING, grade 4	2008	2009	2010
Hispanic	94	93	91
Economic Disadvantage	94	92	91
LEP	89	87	75
Salazar	94	93	92
District	87	87	90
State	91	91	92

Table 2 - percentage meeting standard

SCIENCE, grade 5	2008	2009	2010
Hispanic	73	76	76
Economic Disadvantage	72	77	75
LEP	56	41	66
Salazar	73	77	76
District	72	75	81
State	81	84	88

Table 3 - percentage meeting standard

READING, grade 3	2008	2009	2010
Hispanic	81	89	96
Economic Disadvantage	81	91	96
LEP	81	88	96
Salazar	81	89	96
District	85	89	85
State	82	83	85

Table 4 - percentage meeting standard

WRITING, grade 4	2008	2009	2010
Hispanic	-	-	98
Economic Disadvantage	-	-	98
LEP	-	-	98
Salazar	-	-	98
District	82	87	94
State	90	91	94

Please comment on any aspect of the data that you believe is particularly significant.

Table 1: TAKS Writing [% meeting standards]

• Met standard scores above the District and State for all years
• Commended scores are slightly lower than District
• LEP met standards and commended scores decreased

Table 2: TAKS Science [% meeting standards]

• 25 points gain for LEP met standard for 2010
• 11 points gain for LEP commended for 2010

Table 3: Spanish TAKS Reading [% meeting standards]

• Grades 3-4 scores for met standard were above District and State
• Commended scores above District and State for 2010
• Scores on the rise for third grade

Table 4: Spanish TAKS Writing [% meeting standards]

• School scores for met standard and commended above District and State for 2010

 

Please present additional information that indicates your efforts to build a professional learning community have had a positive impact on students and/or teachers.

• THE BIG IDEAS OF A PLC

• Learning is the fundamental purpose of Salazar Elementary School and we are willing to examine all practices in light of their impact on learning.
• We are committed to working together to achieve our collective purpose.  We cultivate a collaborative culture through development of high-performing teams.
• We assess our effectiveness on the basis of results rather than intentions.  Individuals and teams seek relevant data and use that information to continuously improve.

 

• WORKING AS A PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY

• 2006-07 to Present                            CILT Strategic Planning
• 2006-07 to Present                            Horizontal PLC Collaboration
• 2007-08 to Present                            Training on Meyers-Briggs                                                                                                     Personality Inventory for CILT & Faculty
• 2007-08 to Present                       Leadership Development for CILT
• 2007-08 to Present                            Learning Walks
• 2007-08 to Present                            Article & Book Studies
• 2007-08 to Present                            Campus Professional Development
• 2007-08 to Present                            Vertical PLC Collaboration
• 2007-08 to Present                            Data Discussions
• 2007-08 to Present                            SMART Goal Development
• 2007-08 to Present                            Team Norms Development
• 2008-09 to Present                            Lesson Studies
• 2008-09 to Present                  Power SEs
• 2009-10                                   Power Academic Vocabulary
• 2009-10                                   Common Assessments
• 2009-10                                   Data Discussions and Action Planning
• 2009-10                                   Leadership Development of Team Leaders
• 2009-10                                   SPEEDY Interventions

 

Please elaborate strategies you have found to be effective in the following areas:

1. Monitoring student learning on a timely basis.

The collaborative development of common assessment by our grade level teams has given teachers the opportunity to assess students’ progress every three to four weeks. Some grade level teams assess students weekly due to the subject they teach, and/or of the Power SE (Student Expectation) teachers are addressing that week. Teachers have found this practice very useful since they can determine very quickly where their students need help.
This year we have added a second assessment to be administered after our interventions. This will determine the effectiveness of the intervention and allow for specificity in further intervention, in that our data will indicate which students and which needs for the more intense intervention in Tier II.

2. Creating systems of intervention to provide students with additional time and support for learning.

Teachers have the choice to set a time that fit their schedule best to help students who struggle as well as students who had learned. This practice in turn helps teachers to have ownership and control over the process, making the system of interventions more efficient and effective. Teachers also came to realize that behavior support was needed to create a positive environment where students who struggled academically could experience success.

We have developed a pyramid of intervention for academic and behavior support that includes three tiers.

Academic RTI: Tier 1 includes: quality initial instruction with the management system of The Daily 5 and Writer’s Workshop for Language Arts; a focus on small group instruction in most of our Math classes; quality instruction including manipulatives in most lessons in Science, and quality instruction in Social Studies. We also include one or two sessions for each student in our intervention sessions in Tier 1 as we believe this does not demonstrate a pattern of difficulty in learning. Our Tier 2 interventions include: repeated small group instruction or intervention using research-based instructional methods/techniques. These interventions increase in intensity and frequency dictated by the degree of the students’ need and the related rate of progress. Tier 3 Interventions involve our intervention team and the use of research based techniques/methods with very small groups or one-on-one with increasing intensity and frequency based on students’ need and the related rate of progress.

Behavior RTI: During the summer of 2010, teachers read Discipline with Dignity, Never Work Harder Than your Students, and Pyramid Response to Interventions to prepare and develop a Pyramid of interventions for behavior support. Tier 1 includes interventions that teachers will try first with all students and for almost all offenses (fighting, bullying, drugs, etc. are consider T3 offenses). T2 interventions are more targeted, individualized, and intense. These interventions are provided by teacher, administrator or outside authority. T3 interventions are highly intense and provided by a team (Student Support Team, grade level team, administrative team, or family services). Please referred to documents attached for samples of both pyramids.

3. Building teacher capacity to work as members of high performing collaborative teams that focus efforts on improved learning for all students.

At first, we needed to structure our meetings to get the most out of our time. Teachers were given sample agendas, for instance, to make meetings time bound and with a purpose. Teachers were also supported and guided to develop team norms to keep members of the team engaged and accountable to each other. Teachers were provided with materials and other resources to focus meetings on what has more academic impact. For instance, teachers meet to analyze lessons and students work to improve teacher’s practice and make student’s task more rigorous. Also, time was provided for teachers to meet and analyze student’s data as well as to observe each other teach.

Teachers were also participating in Learning Walks, a “snapshot” of teaching and learning. The learning walk follows a set protocol:

• Orientation of School Staff. Teachers are informed that a learning walk will take place; the focus is described and in most instances is related to professional development that has been offer to teachers. Teachers are told what the participants of the learning walk will be observing.
• Orientation of Walkers.  Immediately before the learning walk, walkers meet in a quiet room to discuss focus of the walk, and teachers they will be observing.
• Classroom Visits. Walkers visit several classrooms for approximately 5 to 10 minutes. Walkers may engage in:  a) examination of the walls, look at the walls for evidence of student’s work, b) discussion with students, if the activity students are engage in allows it, walkers may ask –“What are you learning?” “How might you use this learning?” “How do you know if you are doing a good work in this class?” “If you need help, where can you go?”-, c) examination of the arrangement of the classroom, walkers may be interested if the arrangement of the classroom support group work or accountable talk.
• Hall Talk. After each classroom visit, walkers meet outside the classroom to discuss evidence they have gathered. This evidence is discussed and expressed in terms of what was observed the teacher and students doing. Walkers are encouraged to craft thought-provoking questions or wonderings that further the teacher and/or building to the next level of practice.
• Debrief. After all the classrooms have been visited, the walkers reconvene for a debriefing session. They review the evidence and questions raised during the walk. They look through their observations for any patterns that may have emerged in a number of rooms. They consider these observations in light of other data and discuss professional development needs of the teachers and of the principal. A final task of the debrief is to help the principal set the focus for the next Learning Walk.
• Reflection to Staff. The principal communicates the observations of the Learning Walk team to the staff through a feedback letter or through discussion at staff meeting.

 

List awards and recognitions your school has achieved

--Arturo Salazar Elementary School has achieved recognized status by the Texas Education Agency for the last three years.

Other Information

Arturo Salazar's Pyramid (PDF)

Mike Mattos' Pyramid for Arturo Salazar (PDF)

6th Grade Meeting Norms (PDF)

2010 Tentative Kindergarten Curriculum (PDF)