Winston Churchill Elementary

 

School Information

School Name:  Winston Churchill Elementary
School Address:  1520 N. Jones Road, Schaumburg, IL 60195
School Phone:  (847) 357-6300
School Fax:  (847) 357-6301
Principal: Dr. Craig Gaska       
Principal email:  craiggaska@sd54.org

Demographics

Number of Students:  417
Number Eligible for Free and Reduced Lunch: 5.8%
Percent of Limited English Proficient: 14.9%
Percent of Special Education:
Racial/Ethnic Percentages:

• White (54.7%)
• Black (3.6%)
• Hispanic (11%)
• Asian/Pacific Island (27.3)
• Other (3.3%)

 

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

Please list source of comparison data:

State Averages: Winston Churchill/State of Illinois

	Grade 3 (school/state)
	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
Math	88/79	96/86	91/87	96/85
Reading	66/66	75/70	81/73	79/72

 

	Grade 4 (school/state)
	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
Math	n/a	89/85	96/86	96/85
Reading	n/a	75/73	82/74	91/73
Science	77/71	89/80	87/80	85/76

 

	Grade 5 (school/state)
	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
Math	82/73	91/79	95/83	92/81
Reading	73/63	80/69	82/70	76/74

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

Churchill School has been evolving as a professional learning community since the 2006-2007 school year.  In April of 2007, a representative team from our school met with Tom Many and Becky Dufour, and participated in a “Critical Friends Audit” in the presence of an audience of about 100 professionals invited to learn about the audit process.  In addition to this interview, our school collected several artifacts showing our implementation of professional learning communities.  Those artifacts are now the school’s “playbook,” which is constantly evolving as our analysis of our common assessments and student progress dictates. 

The audit questions in the areas of: a focus on learning, collaborative culture, and results orientation forced us to reflect in ways we otherwise would not have considered. Several suggestions were offered by the audit team. In spring of 2008 we began the process of re-evaluating our progress and conducting a self-audit using the same criteria. We are now in the process (Spring 08) of re-evaluating our progress and conducting a self-audit using the same criteria. The audit process, in our opinion, is a critical component of the professional learning community process. Not only must we continually analyze common assessments and student performance; we believe we must also maintain a reflective practice on our professional learning community itself.

As a result of our audit we learned that we needed to focus our PLC discussions by having a formal agenda for each meeting that concentrates on different subject areas. We are very excited to be participating in a district audit with Keeneyville School District 96 during the 2008-2009 school year.

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 use common assessments and reading unit checkpoints to monitor student progress on a timely basis.  Rubrics are used to assess written math exemplars and student’s writing portfolios.  The MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) test is given to students three times a year.  This formative test gives feedback on reading and math progress within 24 hours.  Individual students and the class as a whole then set goals based on information received from these tests and assessments. We are also using Sequal Web information to filter students on a timelier basis. This allows us to confirm common assessment data for targeting information

 

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

Professional Learning Communities, within the whole school learning community, have been set up as K-2, 3-4, and 5-6.  These PLC’s have been given one-hour to meet each week.  This time is embedded into the school day.  At these meetings, our staff discusses common assessment data and, through analysis of this data, create intervention groups.  The support staff are also active members of the intervention teams and they assist teachers in this process.  The staff at Churchill accepts that Professional Learning Communities are a work in progress and are continually modifying their efforts to accommodate student needs.

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.

Teachers are open to sharing teaching methodologies.  A common curriculum is used and a curriculum schedule keeps teachers in pace with one another.  Common assessments are developed and agreed upon by teachers.  Teachers develop agendas and team norms that are followed to make their PLC meetings productive and focused.  Team meetings are held consistently, and we set high expectations each week for our collaboration efforts.

 

List any awards and recognition garnered by your school

We have not received any at this time.