Sunrise Ridge Intermediate School

School Information

School Name:  Sunrise Ridge Intermediate School
School District: Washington County School District
School Address:  3167 South 2350 East, St George, UT 84790                    
School Phone:  435.652.4772
School Fax:  435.652.4777
Principal:  Sandy Ferrell
Principal E-Mail: sferrell@srithunderbolts.org
Web Address: http://sri.washk12.org/

Demographics

Number of Students:  758
Number eligible for Free and Reduced Lunch:  31%
Percent of Limited English Proficient:  2.6%
Percent of Special Education:  7%
Racial/Ethnic Percentages:

• White: 92%
• Black: 1%
• Hispanic: 4%
• Asian/Pacific Island: 1%
• Other: 1%

 

Student Achievement Data:

School Scores compared to all middle schools in Utah

Grade 6	Math (School/State)	Language Arts (School/State)	Science (School/State)
2008-09	86/69	85/81	91/72
2009-10	81/71	84/79	93/74
2010-11	93/76	86/81	88/74

Grade 7	Math (School/State)	Language Arts (School/State)	Science (School/State)
2008-09	94/76	89/82	86/70
2009-10	96/77	92/84	94/73
2010-11	96/79	94/73	94/73

Schoolwide	Math (School/State)	Language Arts (School/State)	Science (School/State)
2008-09	90/69	87/81	89/67
2009-10	88/68	88/81	94/70
2010-11	94/69	90/82	91/70

 

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

One of the things that is significant about the data is that we have demonstrated high scores in the areas of both proficiency and progress.  On the Utah State Office of Education website we are ranked number two of all middle schools in the state in Mathematics and number three in the state in Science, based on proficiency and progress scores for our students.  In a comparison of schools in the state with similar demographics, we are ranked number one in both Mathematics and Science. 

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

Sunrise Ridge opened up four years ago and many of the teachers who came to our school already had experience with Professional Learning Communities.  We noticed, however that implementation of PLC principles had varied from school to school, so our challenge was to come together as a school, develop a vision for how we would collaborate and what PLC work would look like at our school.  Over the past four years, we have refined that process.  PLC teams have self-assessed each year and based on that assessment, we have focused on refining some aspect of the four critical PLC questions.  We also focus on one additional question which guides and informs teacher practice.    Each of these questions has been the impetus for implementation of a systemic change in our school culture, structures and processes.

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What do we want the students to learn?
Yearly examination of the Essential Standards in each subject area.   This analysis includes samples of proficient student work, prior skills needed, and a timeframe for teaching the standard (curriculum map).

How will we know if they learned it?
We have developed a school wide assessment plan including both formative and summative assessments.  Our school benchmarks are given three times a year and results are sent home to the parents.  In addition, each team has developed Common Assessments which are given to all students in the school.

What will we do if they don’t learn?
We have implemented a school wide Intervention and Enrichment program (Thunderbolt Time), which is part of our regular school day.  This program provides additional support and time for students who are not proficient on our essential standards.  It also provides enrichment courses for students who do demonstrate proficiency.

What will we respond when they do learn?
This year we have identified students with high abilities in learning.  These students are offered a variety of services to help them achieve at the same rate as other students in our school. 

How will we teach it? 
We are in the process of developing an Instructional Model for our school which includes both formative and summative evaluations for teachers.  This model informs our professional development, lesson planning, instruction, classroom observations and the implementation of best practices.  We rely on research based strategies (such as Marzano’s Classroom Instruction that Works) as the core of our classroom instruction.

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We are also becoming more adept at using technology to make the implementation of these programs easier and more effective.  We have a Data Coach who is working with the teams on organizing student data into formats that are teacher-friendly and guide us in our decisions.

At a recent seminar by Dr. Reed Spencer, he asked this question, “Does everyone in your school know what happens when a student doesn’t learn?”  This question has caused a change in how we allocate our resources.  Everyone at the school helps out during our school wide Intervention and Enrichment program.  Custodians, paraprofessionals, even school lunch ladies all have a part to play in making these programs work. 

We have discovered two essential realities about becoming a Professional Learning Community.  One is that this truly is a journey.  All of our departments are in different places in implementation, but each department is on the path that leads to becoming truly collaborative.  The second important reality is that Professional Learning Community teams look slightly different depending on the curricular area.  Our Physical Education Department and Fine Arts Department have developed teams that look slightly different than Language Arts or Science, but all teams focus on the four essential questions.  Those questions guide everything that we do. 

Students’ test scores show a pattern of improvement each year, with a couple of slight exceptions.  On student and parent surveys, over 95% express satisfaction with our school and programs.  Teachers also indicate that their work in Professional Learning Communities, although very intense, is rewarding and “what’s best for kids.”

 

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

1. Monitoring student learning on a timely basis.

All of the teachers at SRIS are organized into curricular teams.  These teams have identified essential learning standards or reteaching standards.  They have also identified how they will assess student learning for each standard, background knowledge and prior skills needed for each standard, and what proficient student work looks like.  This is an essential step before monitoring student learning.  Teachers monitor student learning on a daily basis in the classroom.  Based on student response, many Tier 1 interventions are implemented in the classroom, including small group instruction, flexible grouping among team members, and differentiated instruction.  Teachers include a variety of assessment instruments including student performances, inquiry based projects, labs, investigations and, of course, written assessments.  Prior to administering the assessments, teams determine the criteria for Mastery, Proficiency, Basic Understanding and Standard Not Met on each standard.  Our Language Arts teams have established “anchor” papers with representative samples of student work in each category.  Other teams spend time grading student work for each other to ensure that all team members are grading in a consistent manner. 

Every two weeks, teachers administer or examine a Common Assessments.  Each team has developed a format for analyzing student work and uses that format to meet and collect data on the results of the common assessments.  Based on their analysis, students are identified as failed learners needing Tier 2 interventions or intentional non-learners needing additional support through our At Risk program in the Learning Center, Math Support Class or Literacy Block.  Students who have demonstrated proficiency on the assessment attend an Enrichment class of their choice.

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

We are in the fourth year of implementation of a school wide intervention/enrichment program called Thunderbolt Time.  Thunderbolt Time is a systematic, school-wide program to provide 1) interventions for students who have not demonstrated competence on core concepts; 2) study hall for students who struggle completing and turning work in; 3) enrichment activities for students who have demonstrated competence; and 4) challenge courses for our high ability learners.  Thunderbolt Time is held every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday throughout the year during the last 40 minutes of the school day.  This purpose of this program is to:

• Increase student learning.
• Teach students to be accountable for their own learning by:
  1. helping students determine the need for interventions.
  2. allowing choice (within certain parameters) in the selection of enrichment activities.
  3. encouraging students to recognize and choose more challenging curriculum.
  4. requiring students to complete all classroom assignments and activities. 
  5. Increasing motivation for both students and teachers by providing an opportunity to participate in activities that are intrinsically rewarding. 
  6. Providing a structure to connect concepts taught in the classroom with their community and world.

Each Friday, we utilize our student information system to run reports that identify students with missing assignments from all curricular areas.  These students are required to attend Study Hall on the following Tuesday, unless they are targeted for intervention in a core subject.  On Friday, core teachers identify those students in need of intervention based on the common assessment.   The Student Information System generates a new class for an intervention in each of the core subjects and students are automatically enrolled in the course.  
On Monday, students who need to attend Study Hall and Interventions receive a stamp in their student planner indicating where they will go on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. 

Our enrichment program is a particularly strong component of Thunderbolt Time.  These four week classes focus on helping students develop 21st Century skills by organizing the coursework around the Utah Life Skills Curriculum and providing a career focus with each class.  We offer over 68 courses, including such student favorites as robotics, engineering, sculpture, spray paint art, indoor hockey, acoustic guitar, animation, making podcasts, digital photography, Mandarin Chinese and French, CSI, numerous sports, etc.  We have also incorporated Service Learning activities into Thunderbolt Time.

We also utilize this time to enhance services we offer to gifted and talented students in our school.  For instance, we are able to incorporate practice or independent research time for Math Counts, Science Olympiad, History Fair, Geography Challenge, Lego League and Junior Great Books.

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

All teachers at SRIS belong to collaborative teams with a common curricular focus.  A majority of the teams have been given common preps this year.  We hope our student population next year will allow us to give common preps to all teams.  In addition, we have set aside one day a week for teams to collaborate after school.  We also offer core teams a collaboration day each trimester.  All teams have set SMART goals focused on student learning that tie to our overall school vision that all students will ACHIEVE, BELONG AND CONTRIBUTE. 

Teams are given pacing guides each month to guide them in their collaborative work.  We utilize specific formats for these meetings including; student centered agendas; formats for analyzing student work; and Google docs for collecting data on student progress.  Teams also collect data from Cognos and use that data to identify the “bubble” students, or those students who are very close to achieving proficiency.  We have a Data Coach at our school who works with the teams to collect data in usable formats for team analysis and to communicate with parents about student progress.   Teams utilize these formats, their common planning time, and pacing guides to analyze student work, evaluate the effectiveness of interventions, refine and revise curriculum maps and determine best practice. 

We also strive to provide students and parents with specific and timely feedback about their learning.  We are in the first year of implementing a new grading policy that separates academic achievement from student effort.  This effort has required a shift in thinking on the part of teachers, students and parents but we are committed to this process of providing more effective feedback to students about their achievement in relation to the essential learning standards.

One of our veteran teachers commented after seeing achievement scores jump from 86.8% to 94% in one year.  ”I don’t think I’ve ever worked at a school where we did so much to make sure students learn.”  This was especially true for our students who were struggling, but with the addition of services for gifted students, we can now say that about all students in our school.  These services include differentiation in the classroom, cluster grouping, Thunderbolt Time challenge courses, extensions to their learning such as Science Olympiad, Lego League, Math Counts, etc.; placement in a high ability classroom and access to an Accelerated Learning Lab.  We focus on the achievement of all of our students and work to provide the best possible education to meet their individual needs.

Andrew Carnegie said, “Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives.  It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.”   In the four years since Sunrise Ridge Intermediate School opened, we have been able to achieve “uncommon results” because of our school wide commitment to the principles of collaboration as part of a Professional Learning Community.  We are not perfect, but we see and recognize that our work together has led to high levels of student achievement.   We would credit our success to the commitment of our staff to the principles of collaboration as part of a Professional Learning Community. 

List awards and recognitions your school has achieved:

The Utah State Office of Education recently released a school report card and school performance chart based on proficiency and progress scores for each school in the state. All intermediate schools are included with middle schools in a comparison of the CRT results in Language Arts, Mathematics and Science. 
Sunrise Ridge was ranked as follows:
Second in the state in Mathematics for all Middle Schools.
Third in the state in Science for all Middle Schools. 
When we are compared with schools with similar demographics, we are number one in both Science and Mathematics based on both proficiency and progress scores.