Moreno Elementary School

School Information

School Name:  Moreno Elementary School
School Address:  26700 Cottonwood Ave., Moreno Valley, CA  92555

School Phone:  (951) 571-4620
School Fax:  (951) 571-4625
Principal:  Jeffrey P. Jones
Principal email:  jjones@mvusd.k12.ca.us

Demographics

Number of Students: 579
Number Eligible for Free and Reduced Lunch: 76%
Percent of Limited English Proficient:  34%
Percent of Special Education:  20%
Racial/Ethnic Percentages:

• White  11%
• Black  20%
• Hispanic  59%
• Asian/Pacific Island  7%
• Other  3%

 

Student Achievement Data:

Comparison Data: Moreno % / California STAR % of Enrollment Proficient or Above

Grade 2	Math	Reading
2005-06	47/59	42/47
2006-07	54/59	44/48
2007-08	59/59	56/48

 

Grade 4	Math	Reading	Writing
2005-06	46/54	37/49	9/NA
2006-07	71/56	52/51	24/NA
2007-08	58/61	43/55	50/NA

 

Grade 5	Math	Reading	Science
2005-06	42/50	33/47	18/32
2006-07	57/54	33/49	20/37
2007-08	50/56	41/51	35/46

 

Please feel free to comment on any aspect of the data that you feel is particularly significant:

- Moreno Elementary is most proud of our dramatic closing of the achievement gap over the past three years as a professional learning community. Earlier this year, California State Superintendent of Schools O’Connell said, “Our future success requires us to close the achievement gap that exists between our white students and our students of color, as well as gaps with our English learners,” and Moreno Elementary School has done this exceedingly well, as evidenced in the chart below graphing the dramatic gains of our African American and English Learner students:





- From schoolwide API ranking 6th just three years ago to 2nd in 2008 out of 23 elementary schools.
- Highest API performing Title I school in Moreno Valley Unified School District from 2006-2008.
- State AYP writing proficiency test growth from 3% of our 4th graders in 2005 up to 50% in 2008.

 

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

- Moreno Elementary has demonstrated the highest sustained API growth in our school district over the last four years, as seen below in our school’s Academic Performance Index results since 2004. This growth is a direct result from our school’s implementation of the six characteristics of a professional learning community, and has produced a contagious confidence among our staff, students and community toward even greater learning success.



 

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

1. Monitoring student learning on a timely basis.

- “Articulation Tuesdays”- Each grade level team meets in 45 minute sessions, within the school day, to monitor monthly common assessment results for the purpose of improving the learning of all students in our school, including the 63 students in our five Basic Skills/Learning Handicapped Special Day classrooms.


Week 1: Reading essential standards focus
Week 2: Math essential standards focus
Week 3: Writing strategies focus

Grade level teams identify the students who need focused support, as well as those students proficient, then share instructional strategies that target every student’s success. Trimester district benchmark assessments are also used for pre- and post-test analysis, again, with a focus on improving instruction to meet student learning needs.

- Staff Meetings - We also collaborate across grade levels during our regular after school staff meetings, which have transformed into staff development days
- District PLC – Administrators articulate horizontally with other elementary school staff and administrators regarding school-to-school data, along with vertical collaboration with our feeder middle schools.

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

- We have expanded each year our “during the school day”, targeted interventions and have increasingly seen significant proficiency growth among our lowest performing students, primarily because of our focused learning strategies, along with our reduced ratio of students to teacher in the classrooms during language arts time.
- Our after school math tutoring program has also seen dramatic student proficiency improvement, with a 15 to 1 student/teacher ratio. We utilize our computer lab for optimizing technology as a tool for monitoring student growth.
- After our Curriculum Leadership Team participated in the Solution Tree two day PLC workshops for building “Common Assessments” and a “Pyramid of Interventions”, we embarked on developing and implementing both at Moreno Elementary School. Below is our school’s intervention pyramid:

 



 

3. 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.

Every teacher is involved on one of our five leadership teams: Governance, Grade Level, Technology, Special Education or Curriculum. Each grade level team collaborates and identifies SMART goals that are aligned with our school mission, vision and values, as well as with targeted essential state standards and our district curriculum pacing guides. The grade level SMART goals focus on student learning and are monitored for evidence of improved student learning. Our staff leadership teams, along with other faculty members, have participated in the following professional learning community trainings in order to continue to grow in building our capacity in assuring that all our students learn and succeed in school:

- 2004 Professional Learning Communities at Work – Riverside, CA
- 2004-06 RCAT School Leadership Teams Program - Riverside County Department of Ed.
- 2006 Solution Tree Summit / On Common Ground – Scottsdale, Arizona
- 2007 Solution Tree Summit / Learning by Doing – Scottsdale, Arizona
- 2007 Solution Tree Workshop / Building Common Assessments – San Diego, CA
- 2007 Solution Tree Workshop / Pyramid of Interventions – San Diego, CA

Awards and Recognition:

Our school has been recognized with a growing number of honors, including the following:

- Top API Similar Schools Ranking of 10 out of 10
- One of 126 schools statewide, and only district school, recognized by California Business for Education Excellence as “Honor Roll Star” school for making tremendous progress bringing students to grade level proficiency and closing achievement gaps
- EDEquity Award for “On-going Pursuit of High Achievement for African American Students”
- California Distinguished School Honorable Mention in 2006
- 2008 Solution Tree Pyramid of Interventions
- Exited Program Improvement status just three years ago