New Franklin Elementary School

School Information

School Name:  New Franklin Elementary School
School District: Portsmouth School District
School Address:  1 Franklin Dr, Portsmouth, NH 03801                    
School Phone:  603.436.0910
School Fax:  603.427.2335
Principal:  George Shea
Principal E-Mail: gshea@portsmouth.k12.nh.us
Web Address: http://www.cityofportsmouth.com/school/newfrank/index.htm
                        http://newfranklin.wikispaces.com

Demographics

Number of Students:  277 (K-5)
Number eligible for Free and Reduced Lunch:  35%
Percent of Limited English Proficient:  1%
Percent of Special Education:  15%
Racial/Ethnic Percentages:

• White: 81%
• Black: 1%
• Hispanic: 10%
• Asian/Pacific Island: 3%
• Other: 5%

 

Student Achievement Data:

New Hampshire Test Scores - Percentage of students at proficiency

Grade 3	Math (School/State)	Reading (School/State)	Science (School/State)
2008-09	83/72	80/78	N/A
2009-10	80/76	88/80	N/A
2010-11	84/76	91/80	N/A

Grade 4	Math (School/State)	Reading (School/State)	Science (School/State)
2008-09	81/73	70/75	52/53
2009-10	81/75	85/75	66/54
2010-11	82/74	82/77	68/55

Grade 5	Math (School/State)	Reading (School/State)	Writing (School/State)
2008-09	74/73	75/76	61/60
2009-10	77/75	86/79	N/A
2010-11	85/73	85/78	78/56

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

Comparison data with the state of New Hampshire for academic subject areas only exists through the New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP) assessments.  These assessments exist for reading and math at grades 3-8,11.  Students are assessed in science at grades 4,8,11, and in writing at grades 5,8, 11.  Even though grade levels at New Franklin School typically contain around 50 or fewer students, and would be subject to more variability in the data, every grade level in every subject has seen an increase over the last three years.  Every subject area at grade level is also performing higher than the state average given our most recent scores when that was not the case three years ago.  In addition to scoring above the state average, as a school New Franklin scores are trending up at a far greater rate than the scores for the state. 

View more test scores and trends for New Franklin Elementary (PDF).

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

New Franklin started down the road of shifting the school culture from teaching and learning as an individual responsibility to a collective responsibility four years ago.  At that time, the district was starting to establish core student learning expectations or power standards at each grade level that would be consistent across all schools.  As these essential standards were being developed, a core group of New Franklin staff attended multiple PLC institutes and found that the work of establishing power standards was essentially answering the first fundamental question of PLCs.  Further, the philosophy and structure of PLCs fit perfectly into the already established goal of having all students learn at high levels and provided a clearer path on how to bring that goal to reality.

While all schools in Portsmouth were engaged in developing PLCs, New Franklin took the lead in building a successful model.  Three years ago teachers started developing common formative assessments to measure student success on the power standards.  They collected and collaboratively analyzed the data to share successful practices.  An intervention block was introduced the following year as a structure to help build a more coordinated approach to delivering tier two interventions.  PLC teams at each grade level engage now regularly in intervention cycles using common formative assessment data and structured interventions. 

As a district, PLC implementation has been monitored through the district administrative team giving its own formative assessment to all staff.  This assessment has been in the form of a PLC survey that measures staff beliefs, perceptions, and practices related to PLC work.  Administrators collaboratively reflect on the results across schools.  Teachers at New Franklin have consistently reported far greater levels of fidelity to PLC beliefs and practices and this data has been helpful across the administrative team to discuss successful PLC implementation in the district.

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

1. Monitoring student learning on a timely basis.

At the outset of our PLC work, grade level PLC teams asked for clear directions and support in effectively functioning as a PLC.  To put it another way, there was no patience for any wasted time or energy in team meetings.  Each team was supplied with a detailed PLC binder, which made all team products and timelines clear, while allowing the team to spend energy on important decisions, such as what to assess and when. 
 
These teams continue to work on creating common formative assessments by taking the existing power standards and unpacking them on a unit-by-unit basis.  This builds on already established agreements to core learning.  Teams create six-week cycles of assessment to monitor student progress.  Once the common formative assessment is administered, teams use the results to create SMART goals for each cycle.  These goals focus on a particular need evidenced from the assessment for each unit.  Teachers then plan intervention and enrichment in addition to differentiated classroom instruction.  Teams take time to celebrate the progress for students in each cycle.  The whole process from common formative assessment to SAMRT goals, to student data is recorded and captured in the team’s PLC binder, which becomes a piece of school-wide sharing of PLC work across teams.

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

Two years ago New Franklin instituted an intervention block for all students in grades 1-5, which has become a critical scheduling structure to provide consistent “just right” support for all students in their learning.  Although the primary area of focus during this time has been math, teachers have transferred many diagnostic skills to other areas, resulting in improvement across all subjects.

The intervention block now runs five days per week for 30 minutes.  It is scheduled at the beginning of the day at the same time across the whole school.  This allows the utilization of more school resources to create small groups for focused intervention.  Classroom teachers, specialists, special educators and paraprofessionals are all involved, with students grouped with a staff member who can best provide for their needs.  These groups are flexible between intervention cycles to allow for changes in student needs. 

As a way of communicating this work to students and parents, we have created a pyramid of interventions chart that communicates the purpose of the system and gives parents more awareness of how we are responding to student needs through PLC work. 

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

Perhaps the greatest strategy in building team capacity is to establish early on a cycle of success for students.  It has been tremendously motivating for staff to connect progress in student learning with team capacity.  The PLC binder each team keeps serves as a record of their success. 

The administratively developed PLC survey has also provided a point of reflection for team growth in PLC work.  This work has become embedded in how we operate as a school and has helped us filter all of the things we have to do as a school to what is most essential for student learning.

The strength of our team collaboration has also allowed us to continue to find new ways to operate collaboratively and effectively.  Teachers have expanded PLC work to a deeper level of collaborative planning through a process known as Japanese Lesson Study.  Through this process teachers went deeper into planning a model lesson, which would be differentiated effectively to reach all students and get them to high levels of learning.  In this way, teachers hone their skills in developing an effective tier 1. 

We continue to be engaged in learning even more effective ways to engage students and provide effective tier 2 interventions as well.  This past summer, New Franklin hosted the first Summer Learning Lab program in the district.  This program was a sustained effort to provide tier 2 interventions to students, while also engaging staff in professional learning to improve our practice in working with struggling students.  In this program, students attended for two 90-minute sessions for reading and math for four weeks, while each day teachers met collaboratively to look at student learning and share best practices.  The foundation of PLC work has helped create a norm of collaboration in the district and makes programs like this successful.  This program was a district-wide effort, and allowed for valuable sharing of practices among teachers from all of our elementary schools.

List awards and recognitions your school has achieved:

New Franklin has been recognized locally as a leader in PLC work.  Some evidence to support that can be found by looking at two local articles below:
http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20100513-NEWS-5130422?cid=sitesearch
http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20100321-NEWS-3210338?cid=sitesearch

The Summer Learning Lab is also described in the article below:
http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20110724-NEWS-107240322?cid=sitesearch