Valley Center Primary School

District Information

School Name: Valley Center Primary School
School Address: 30436 Miller Rd.
                            Valley Center, CA 92082
School Phone: (760) 749-8282
School Fax: (760) 751-2654
Principal:  Patty Christopher
Principal email: christopher.pa@vcpusd.net

Demographics

Number of Students: 507
Number Eligible for Free and Reduced Lunch: 197
Percent of Limited English Proficient: 33%
Percent of Special Education: 14%
Racial/Ethnic Percentages:

• White  42%
• Black    1%
• Hispanic  42%
• Asian/Pacific Island 1%
• Native American 14%

Only grades K-2 are in attendance at this school. 
Only 2nd grade students are tested.

 

Present Student Achievement Data at 3 points along a continuum to demonstrate trends.

Please list source of comparison data:CST of Primary School 2nd grade/CST State Wide

2nd	2005	2006	2007
Math	67/50	76/52	78/53
L.A.	40/40	50/42	58/43

 

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

One indicator that was not asked for was the Academic Performance Index from the state of California that is used to show progress between schools and over time.  We are proud to say we have increased each year since 2004.

Year                      School API           State Median API
2004                       679                         730
2005                       794                         751
2006                       846                         759
2007                       854                         766

As we examined data, we found that every subgroup made progress.  However we have particular challenges when it comes to English Learners.  Our school currently has kindergarten, first grade and second grade students (not in the bilingual program).  We only give state assessments to 2nd grade students.  VCPUSD has an outstanding two-way Bilingual Program.  For the past 6 years, English Learners who have not been in the Bilingual Program have stayed at the Primary School for 2nd grade.  2nd graders in the bilingual program have moved on to the Lower Elementary School.  The number of English Learners staying at the Primary School is small.  We are proud that 42% of these students have scored proficient of above in English Language Arts. 

However, this coming year, all bilingual 2nd grade students will be attending the Primary School.  This will give us a significant number of English Learners.  As most of these students have been taught to read in their primary language only, the English Language Arts assessment will prove to be a particular challenge.  We will need to structure our intervention programs in such a way as to give these students the support they need to be successful on the state assessment as well as other common, local assessments.

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

Even though we have functioned as a Professional Learning Community ever since a group of us were trained at a Dufour workshop presented in Los Angeles in the summer of 2006, we moved to the next level after Nita Grantham and Lanelle Gordin (from the County Office of Riverside) presented to our district leadership team last summer (August 2007).

At this training we discovered a very workable protocol that gave us a format to examine data, establish monthly SMART goals, identify students who needed intervention and select strategies and techniques that we determined to be best practice in terms of instruction.

This was the exact training our school needed at the time.  Every grade level embraced the training and has been utilizing the protocol since.  For our teachers that do not have statewide data, this way of looking at data from common assessments and creating SMART goals has really invigorated our teachers.  Now during our monthly Grade Level PLC Team Meetings, we have a way to pinpoint students as a grade level who need reteaching and intervention on particular skills.

 

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

1. Monitoring student learning on a timely basis.

Teachers individually and in small teams informally monitor student learning on a continual basis.  Certainly, the monthly PLC meetings are a formal time where student learning is discussed and analyzed.  Every month, the impact of targeted strategies and interventions are examined. 

Usually students who test as far below in several common assessments are discussed at our weekly Student Study Team meetings.  At this meeting, teachers from several grade levels brainstorm even more strategies and arrange for parent meetings and ongoing interventions to help these students

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

Our school has three tiers of intervention.  At the most intensive level, our students receive assistance from special education professionals.  At the second level, students work in small groups with our Title 1 reading teachers and Title VII tutor program.  At the first tier of intervention we utilize four intervention teachers who provide a push-in model of intervention to every classroom for 45 minutes each day.  Our 2nd grade students also receive leveled reading instruction daily in our Language Arts Reading Pods.  The first tier of intervention is able to give very timely support and reteaching so important for student success.

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.

We build teacher capacity in several ways.  Our district is committed to provide high quality professional development.  So far about half of our staff at the Primary School has received direct training from the Dufours.  Our Buy Back Days continually refine essential standards, pacing guides and common assessment development.  We have 4 meetings throughout the year where this work is continued in district-wide grade level meetings.
 
At every PLC Team meeting, we are building capacity of our members as different teachers take on leadership roles in leading the SMART goal protocol discussed in the above section.

 

List any awards and recognition your school has achieved

•  Finalist for California Governor’s Challenge
•  Home of VCPUSD District Teacher of the Year
•  California Distinguished School Finalist 2007-08