From: Hamburg, AR

Arkansas Education Report lists Outstanding Educational Performance:

Congratulations to Hamburg School District! They made the OEP Awards! The University of Arkansas (in Fayetteville) created an Office of Educational Policy in 2003 and recently produced a report highlighting the top perfoming schools around the state in the annual education report entitled Outstanding Educational Performance Awards (OEP).

Hamburg Lower Elementary school is listed as number 7 on the "Beating the Odds - Top Schools Serving Low-Income Students" in Mathematics, 2009. This section highlights the Top 20 performing "High-Poverty" elementary and middle schools across the state based on the Arkansas Benchmark exam.

Portland Elementary ranked number 2 in the Top 3 Grades in "High-Poverty" schools on the "Beating the Odds - Top Schools Serving Low-Income Students" list for mathematics.

Portland Elementary and Hamburg Lower Elementary both made the list for the Top 20 Elementary "High-Poverty" Schools in Arkansas for Benchmark Scores in Literacy, also. Portland is number 4 and Hamburg is number 6 on the list.

This report can be viewed in full by going to http://www.uark.edu/ua/oep/ and then clicking on the green box on the bottom right of the page.

From: Kansas City, MO (Della Lamb Community Charter School):

Hi Janie-

I just wanted you to know that again, JP Institute is the most valuable professional development conference that our teacher leaders and administrators attend every year.  EVERY time we find something valuable that we can take back and use.  We have used a lot of things this year that we’ve heard about or learned about at JP Institute:

1. I showed the Children of the Code videos to our entire faculty this year at the beginning of the year.  I have referred back to them several times already in discussing behavior management and academics with our teachers at Della.  That has provided a really nice frame of reference for our staff.  Those videos have captured what we try to instill in our teachers.

2. I learned a lot about Response to Intervention through the JP Institutes over the last few years.  This year we have been required by the state to write an additional School Improvement Plan (on top of the one we already have to have for the school as a whole as a part of not meeting AYP) specifically for our English Language Learners that are receiving ESL services.  I had already been working on RTI plans for that category of learners here to start this new year and I am able to use it for our School Improvement Plan for ELLs too.  It’s coming together very nicely.

3. From some of my sessions with Doug (am I saying the right name?) this year on Leadership, I got an idea to implement a system that will be more timely in responding to teacher needs as far as pacing and mastery is concerned.  All of my Team leaders are meeting with me on every Monday afternoon to analyze Pacing Guide data from the previous week.  We use a chart to look specifically at pace and at testing report sheets to identify mastery concerns.  The Team leaders bring their team’s PGs with them and go through them, then report to me.  I keep a weekly master log of concerns and do targeted observations/evaluations/coaching and I can better direct our Academic Coach on a week by week basis, delegating some of the concerns to her.  Each team leader also makes themselves a follow-up list for things like multiple absences of kids, incorrect/incomplete PGs or report sheets, incomplete retesting, etc.

Anyway, thanks again for giving us such high quality professional development!

Take care, Jenn

From: Martinsville, VA (Mt. Olivet Elementary School):

Congratulations to the Mt. Olivet students on their performance on the SOL Test.  The staff members have worked diligently to prepare the students for the exam.  Eighty percent of Third Grade students, ninety-two percent of Fourth Grade students and one hundred percent of Fifth Grade students passed the online SOL Test in reading!  The staff and students should be commended for their hard work and preparation for the exam.

From: Appling County, GA:

__________ is a eight year old Hispanic boy. He was retained in kindergarten. He was referred for testing in his second year of kindergarten. However, he was not placed into SPED until January 2009.
His initial first grade reading placement was RMI: 41 (second year of k).

At that time, I began providing him one-on-one instruction (30 minutes) in phonemic awareness and added structure in Reading Mastery I (manipulating sounds, spelling, writing sentences, reading stories from Reading Mastery I without orthography, answering CRCT formatted RMI questions related to stories).

He is currently reading at RMI: 142. It takes approximately 3 days to reach mastery  He receives reading instruction in his classroom with the core reading program as well.

In March, we began working on the 100 High Frequency Words. I divided the words into four lists. The first list was the 16 most frequently occurring words. He was automatic on two of the lists, but was not on the remaining two lists---which lets me know that I need to begin working on these words day 1 of school in the future. 

Fast forward to the state testing (CRCT).  I told him that the reading on the CRCT would be difficult but he should and could read the words he knew, track with his finger, listen carefully and not to give up.

He was awesome!!!!! He read every word that he knew, tracked with his finger, and made it through the entire test without giving up.

I wish you could have seen him.

He answered 28 questions correctly. ELA results were 31 correct and Math was 42
correct.  I do not know if this will be enough to pass the CRCT in Reading and English/Language Arts, but I am sure he passed math.

He is my champion even if he does not pass, because he gave 200 percent!

I want to share with all of you the 3 things that I taught and practiced---and preached a little:

"I know that you are reading when you:

1.    Track with your finger.
2.    Your lips are moving (Whisper Read)
3.    Read until your teacher says put your finger on number ____."

From: Hamburg, AR:

Noble Elementary School started the 08-09 school year with only Special Education students in the Corrective Reading program in 3rd grade.  Two new students enrolled in August.

Of course, as is usually the case, both of these students were not on grade level in reading and placed into Decoding B1.  With the consistent and relentless teaching of Mrs. Lissa Pierce and Mrs. Karen Reese (asst.), these two boys trudged through the B1 program.

In the beginning, there were times 15-20 words were added to the Good-bye List!  After much sweat and tears from the teachers, the group finally completed the program at mastery.   THEN, guess what!  Two other students who were not keeping up in their RM +3 group also had to join the group.

These four students completed the B2 program and started the Ravenscourt program.  We also had them read the story sequence with Linda and Kathy from the RM +3 program prior to the end of year testing.

Guess what?!

ALL four of these students placed FIRMLY into RM +4!!!

I just wanted to share the excitement we experienced at Noble on Thursday.   You could hear the celebration in the hallway and not to mention "smell" the celebration later when they received a pizza party!

MORE from: Hamburg, AR:

At Allbritton Elementary (grades 4-6) in Hamburg, 16 students (4-5th grade and 12-4th grade) began the year in Decoding B1 and B2.  Of these 16 students, TEN will be in the on-grade level program next year!

As we did at Noble, most of the students completed the Decoding programs, read most of the Ravenscourt books after B2, and the story sequence for their appropriate grade level.

Three of the six students that will remain in Corrective Reading next year did NOT complete any of the Ravenscourt books.   I know that one situation or group does not warrant a rule, but it is definitely something to think about!

The combination of the three (1st - complete Decoding programs AT MASTERY, 2nd - increase rate and accuracy through the use of the Ravenscourt Series, and 3rd - read the story sequence to familiarize the students with the vocabulary) has made a BIG difference in the number of students we have coming out of Corrective and going into the Reading Mastery program.

WOOHOO!