BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
Telegraph Editor
STARKE — Bradford School Board members recently heard about some of the individual school improvement projects that administrators have taken on this year.
Superintendent Will Hartley — who is working on his own project — assigned these leadership projects after seeing how Starke Elementary Principal Raymond Schaefer’s focus on FSA science scores had turned around performance there.
Bradford Middle School Principal Terry O’Quinn said she and the teachers at Lawtey Elementary School are focused on improving learning gains. Together they determined the root cause was a lack of differentiation in instruction for all students — the Level 1 FSA scorers as well as the Level 5 group.
Those with low proficiency need intervention, and those with high proficiency need opportunities for enrichment to keep growing. The data show that proficiency levels and learning gains drop as students are moving from third grade to fourth and fifth grade, O’Quinn said.
Last year, Lawtey Elementary was a D school. If they were judged on proficiency alone, the school would have been and A or B school, she said, but it was low achievement in learning gains that brought them down.
“When you look at this picture, it really puts it in perspective. We can get them there, but then we can’t keep them there, and we can’t grow them,” she said. “We have to really focus on each student. And I know that sounds very generic, but we can do it. We know our kids in and out, and we know what they need.”
Testing at the beginning of the year set the benchmark for how far they have to go. It was encouraging that scale scores at each grade level were higher than the district and state averages. O’Quinn said it is good news, but it’s also typical of Lawtey. The job is to continue that learning growth.
“We do have our work cut out for us to show growth and get these learning gains,” she said.
Because the teacher cannot do it all, paras, ESE teachers and other interventionists are being brought in to help with small group work, which also allows for more peer-to-peer interaction. Students learn more from each other during those times. O’Quinn said it’s all hands on deck. Teachers are also going through professional development learning from each other about differentiated instruction.
“It still is a work in progress. It is a total shift in the way that we have given instruction. But they are definitely working hard, and we are seeing some benefits,” she said.
Bradford High Principal Angela Ward and Assistant Principal Chris Coffey were looking for higher proficiency scores last year after working on instructional practices and professional development. When the scores came in, they dove deeper, looking at years of data that followed fifth-grade students through their middle and high school years. There were some learning gains Ward said, but in comparison to the state averages, they are behind.
While proving proficiency is important, Ward said they have to work harder on learning gains first, because they are so far from proficiency.
As far as contributing factors, Ward mentioned the lack of aligned curriculum from elementary through high school, lack of student engagement, and a lack of common progress monitoring. This last factor led to students scoring well on assignments but poorly when tested.
This year they have adopted a new curriculum and are focusing on aligned progress monitoring. Coffey said professional development was provided on the benchmarks of the new curriculum and lesson planning. They’ve been working to get everyone on board and keeping them on track with the curriculum pacing, and how to use progress monitoring data to adapt lessons and provide intervention.
NEFEC is involved with instructional walks, model lessons and engagement strategies in all areas — English, math, science and social studies.
A challenge for both schools — and the entire district — is student attendance. They cannot learn if they are not in school. Here the schools are using incentives to support positive behaviors. Even looking forward to a popsicle can be enough to get them to class. The high school has handed out athletic passes, planned a field day and recognized Top Tornadoes every month. Coffey said they are seeing attendance improve to the highest level since 2017.
Additional work on school improvement
Assistant Superintendent Karen Clarke said the School Improvement Support Team from the Florida Department of Education has completed its first instructional reviews of both Lawtey and Southside, which was also a D school last year. The reviews came with positive comments, she said. They will be moving forward with less intensive classroom visits to gather information and provide more feedback.
Clarke also announced that a NEFEC grant has paid for consultant Rex Mitchell, a former Hamilton County Superintendent and “math guru,” to work with Southside third- and fourth-grade teachers on mathematics instruction. What they learn can eventually be pushed out to other schools.
