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Foothills Elementary School

 

School Information

School Name: Foothills Elementary School
School District: White River School District
School Address: 10621 234th Ave E., Buckley, WA, 98321
School Phone: 360.829.3355
School Fax: 360.829.3381
Principal: Mark Cushman
Principal email: mcushman@whiteriver.wednet.edu
Web Address: http://www.whiteriver.wednet.edu/default.asp?page=SCHOOLS/FHE/default.asp

Demographics

Number of Students: 504
Percent Eligible for Free and Reduced Lunch: 34.4%
Percent of Limited English Proficient: 2%
Percent of Special Education: 13.2%
Racial/Ethnic Percentages:

  • White: 87.7%
  • Black: 0.8%
  • Hispanic: 7.1%
  • Asian/Pacific Island: 1.4%
  • Other (American Indian/Alaskan Native): 1.4%

Percentage of students passing: School Scores/State Scores

Grade 3
Math
Reading
2005-2006
42.5/64.2
60.3/68.3
2006-2007
76.8/69.6
76.8/70.9
2007-2008
90/68.6
85.2/70.7
2008-2009
96.1/66.3
89.5/71.4
2009-2010**
86.8/61.8
85.7/72.1

 

Grade 4
Math
Reading
Writing
2005-2006
50.5/58.9
75.7/81.2
54.7/60.4
2006-2007
47.6/58.1
69.5/76.6
43.8/60.2
2007-2008
64.1/53.6
89.1/72.6
68.5/62.3
2008-2009
72.1/52.3
91.9/73.6
75.6/60.4
2009-2010**
81.3/53.7
84/67.2
78.7/61.1

 

Grade 5
Math
Reading
Science
2005-2006
44.7/55.8
77.1/76.3
22.8/35.7
2006-2007
60.7/59.5
70.5/71.9
39.3/36.5
2007-2008
68.4/61.2
80/75.6
42.1/43
2008-2009**
71.7/53.6
73.7/69.6
33.3/34

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

Every score in every subject area assessed, except fifth grade science are above state averages.

Fourth and fifth grades have maintained a positive growth trend for five consecutive years in the area of math achievement.


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

While Foothills’ journey as a professional learning community is never “finished” each staff member and student within the school is fully committed to producing quality work that is reflective of our best efforts. For example, the staff decided to tackle the idea of teaching/producing quality work in art. Teachers met as grade level teams, identified critical skills in visual art and then identified lessons to support these. Now, each November we host an Art Walk at our school during parent/teacher conference week. The quality of student work is amazing to behold. While not a core academic subject this example is reflective of our belief all learning should be meaningful and done well.

Over the past three years Foothills has had at least one, if not more, teachers take on the challenge of earning their National Board Certification. Currently we have one first grade teacher, one fifth grade teacher and one school counselor who have all earned this distinction. Three of Foothills’ third grade teachers as well as our librarian have now earned their National Board Certification as well. This means that one-third of Foothills’ certificated staff are now National Board Certified.

While I cannot quantify this statement I would share that as Foothills academic performance has improved on our state assessments a momentum has built within the school to continue pushing the limits of what we thought was possible. Teachers and students have internalized the reality that their effort does make a difference.

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

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

Foothills grade level teams work together each August to examine student learning data from the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL). Based on this examination building and grade level SMART goals are written for each subject area assessed. These areas are reading, math, writing, and science.

Each grade level team has developed spreadsheets used to track student learning on the common assessments that they have developed. These spreadsheets are used to identify students in need of additional time and support either for meeting the standard or because they have already demonstrated that they have mastered the specific standard being assessed.

Grade level teams identify a high, medium and low student whose work they turn in to the building administrator along with their grade level spreadsheets.

For the 09/10 school year each grade level team is developing SMART goals specific to critical learnings in each math and writing unit. The data reflecting whether these goals have been met or not are turned in to the building administrator at the completion of each unit.

2. Building the capacity of teachers to work as members of high performing collaborative teams who focus the efforts of their team on improved learning for students.

Forty-five minutes each day is set aside in the building master schedule to provide additional time and support for students. This support may be targeted for students that need to meet the standard or for those who have already met the standard. Kindergarten thru second grade students receive this time for reading whereas third thru fifth grade students receive this time in mathematics. Teachers take turns teaching skill groups that are either exceeding benchmark, benchmark, or below benchmark. The staff member with the below benchmark group is assigned an instructional para-educator to assist them.

Grade level teams also identify critical understandings in each core subject area that is not supported directly through our scheduled intervention time and skill group kids within their regular day to provide additional assistance in getting to standard. For example students in grades 3-5 work in leveled skill groups for reading. This process reflects the commitment of staff to the concept of “collective responsibility”. In other words living the idea that “these are our kids versus my kids.”

Response to Intervention provides one of the critical frameworks around which we address the unique learning needs of our students. We have developed a detailed pyramid of interventions for our reading program that covers students K-5. Universal screening tools are in place for math and reading along with common prompts and rubrics for writing K – 5. Students who enroll late in the year are assessed immediately with our universal screeners and the information gained from them is used to make their transition to our school successful.

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

The White River School District demonstrated its commitment to providing teachers time within their school day to meet as grade level teams by implementing a late start Monday program. Teacher teams meet every Monday morning from 8:40 – 9:40 and work through a menu of collaborative activities that are supportive of the district and buildings learning improvement plans. Monthly calendars are provided that list a variety of activities that teams may focus on during this valuable time.

Collaborative Analysis of Student Learning is used to monitor student writing and provide teams with a means for identifying areas in which the team may grow professionally in order to better meet the needs of their students. This occurs monthly during Monday morning late starts.

Team leader training occurs at the district level several times throughout the school year in order to better prepare our team leaders to have a significant impact on their grade level teams.

Foothills has a leadership team made up of each team leader whose focus is to monitor student learning. This is done by looking at team data at the end of each unit of  instruction.

Forty-five hours of compensated time has been provided outside of the school day to support activities that are tied directly to the learning improvement plan. Twenty-two and a half hours are directed by the building administrator and the other twenty-two and a half hours are guided by the team with administrator approval of how they would like to use them. All of these hours are dedicated to activities that will directly improve student learning.

Rewards and Recognition
Academic Improvement Award (Washington State)

2004-2005 4th grade reading*
2005-2006 4th grade writing*
2007-2008 4th grade reading, writing, and math*

2009-2010       Washington State School of Distinction

*This award is only given at fourth grade and was discontinued after 2008.

**Washington changed to a new assessment tool for the 09-10 school year. Now called Measurement of Student Progress.