Willow Grove Kindergarten Center

School Information

School Name: Willow Grove Kindergarten Center
District Name: Kildeer Countryside CCSD 96 School
Address: 777 Checker Drive, Buffalo Grove, IL 60089
School Phone: 847.541.3660
School Fax: 847.821.7572
Principal: Barbara Cirigliano
Principal email: bcirigliano@district96.k12.il.us
Web Address: http://www.district96.k12.il.us/WG/

Demographics

Number of Students:  307
Number eligible for Free and Reduced Lunch: 0.7%
Percent of Limited English Proficient: 14.7%
Percent of Special Education: 
Racial/Ethnic Percentages:

• White: 74.9%
• Black: 0.7%
• Hispanic: 6.8%
• Asian/Pacific Island: 15.6%
• Other: 2%

Student Achievement Data:

Present Student Achievement Data at 3 points along a continuum to demonstrate trends. For example, provide data for grades 1, 3, and 5 or similar intervals. The data report should always include the most recent school year and should always offer a basis of comparison (for example, state scores, national scores, or scores from similar schools). If no data is available place n/a.

Willow Grove Kindergarten uses AIMSweb to monitor student progress three times a year.  These benchmark assessments allow staff to determine the lowest quartile.  Those students are then strategically monitored monthly to assess their progress.
As can be seen by the data students make good progress when appropriate interventions are used to facilitate their learning.

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

Willow Grove Kindergarten and Early Childhood Center believes that their youngest learners can be assessed and the information from these assessments can be used to direct and guide instruction. The use of AIMSweb for benchmark assessments and for strategic monitoring gives staff the appropriate tool to understand student growth.

Mastery Manger is also used to look at the results of common formative assessments that are given as pre and posttests. These assessments are linked to the standards and also drive instruction.

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

1. Monitoring student learning on a timely basis.

At Willow Grove Kindergarten and Early Childhood Center we have established assessment practices to monitor student progress and to guide our instruction. We use many forms of assessment along a continuum from most formative (daily) to most summative (annually). Initially the teachers at Willow Grove established a set of Learner Standards which identified what they wanted their students to know and be able to do in order to achieve success in Kindergarten. The teachers used the Illinois State Standards to guide the process and for alignment purposes. This Curriculum Framework is Board approved and published.

Teachers assess progress toward these standards three times a year using benchmark assessments based on the essential learning targets found in the Curriculum Framework. This process allows the monitoring of student progress as they advance through the curriculum. The data from these assessments is used to track the curriculum, assess student progress and to provide intervention and remediation.

Benchmark assessments were not frequent enough to provide teachers with information to guide their instruction. Common assessments, pre and posttests, were then developed by teams of teachers in literacy and math at the kindergarten level. These assessments provide data that drives student instruction. Teachers also use strategic monitoring to manage and monitor student learning on a much more individualized basis.

The goal at Willow Grove is to be knowledgeable about the most appropriate way to assess young children and how to best use that information to guide instruction.

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

In order to guarantee that all students achieve, Willow Grove has developed a Pyramid of Interventions. These interventions are available to all students and are both short and long term. The interventions are based upon a specific, agreed upon criteria and are school wide. Learning is supported in a timely fashion that is directive and systematic. These interventions are designed to provide more time and support for students in need.

Willow Grove Kindergarten has built an "Intervention Block" into its daily schedule. During this time all staff is available to provide research based interventions to designated students. Staff members are assigned to specific classrooms and under the teacher's direction they provide individual skill instruction to students. Teacher teams review the assessment data for students and then determine the best intervention to assist the student. The "Intervention Block" is best described as a short term, skill based experience that is narrow in scope and is based on the results of more formative common assessments. Additionally, students who are proficient can receive enrichment and extension of the curriculum during the "Intervention Block".

Some students receive an "extra hour" of kindergarten four days a week. This "Double Dose"program is designed to assist students who are in need of a more long-term programmatic intervention that is broader in scope and based on the results of more summative assessments or benchmark assessments.

Willow Grove also offers a more remedial intervention as a full day kindergarten program for those students who require a more intensive program to have a successful kindergarten experience.

Depending on the needs of individual students it is the practice at Willow Grove to base intervention or remedial strategies on the results of more formative and more summative assessments or a combination of both.

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

Willow Grove teachers have a variety of opportunities to collaborate with their colleagues both formally and informally. They meet informally during the lunch period to discuss teaching strategies, student goals and expectations, processes and procedures. They are organized as reading teams to meet weekly to discuss classroom literacy instruction, assessments and assessment results, reading strategies, and curriculum issues. They also have the opportunity to meet weekly as a kindergarten team. The school has a leadership team where the members represent the entire school staff. These high functioning teams work to build shared knowledge in the areas of standards, curriculum and assessments.

District wide there are opportunities to meet across grade levels in subject areas. These vertical job-alike teams meet monthly to discuss subject areas and specific content. They collaborate on identifying the essential outcomes in these areas as well as clarifying the expectations at each grade level so that students have the knowledge and skills necessary for the next level.

Willow Grove is participating in a "Sister School" project that is a collaborative effort involving a team of Willow Grove teachers visiting with another team from another school to perform audits of each other's PLC practices.

District 96 offers a variety of Learning Retreats for faculty members to encourage collaboration and capacity building. Through participation in a various collaborative initiatives teachers benefit from authentic, job embedded staff development.

List awards and recognitions your school has achieved:

Accreditation by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (N.A.E.Y.C)