Morrill Elementary is in year one of Title I School Improvement status because a subgroup of our students in grades 3 – 6, did not meet the AYP 72 percent proficient goal in reading. This happened during the ?05/?06 and ?06/?07 school years. The Morrill Junior High and High School students did meet the reading goal.
As an identified school ?in need of improvement,? Morrill Elementary must develop and implement a two year reading plan to help the subgroup of students to meet the proficiency goal. Beginning with the 2007-08 school years, the goal increases to having 81 percent of elementary students proficient in reading. A committee consisting of the elementary principal, teachers, and parents must develop and submit a plan of improvement to the Nebraska Department of Education for their approval. We would like to take this opportunity to invite parents to participate in the plan?s development. We will meet at the elementary library on Tuesday, February 12, at 6:30 p.m. to discuss our plan for improvement.
What will this plan of improvement look like? The plan will have several components: parent and community involvement, professional development for teachers through workshops and guided instruction, reading activities which focus on improving achievement, small group instruction using researched based reading interventions, and direct instruction utilizing reading strategies to improve comprehension and fluency. Everyone will need to work together, so that our subgroup of students who are struggling readers can be successful!
Parents? involvement is a very important part of their student?s success. We are monitoring information about our students? progress in reading. If a student is not at the proficient level, we will have suggestions of how parents can help their students as well as information concerning how we are assisting their student while they are in school. There is a direct relationship between the importance placed on reading at home and student success at reading in school. We must develop strong partnerships between home and school if we want our students to be successful.
As always, there is an option to enroll students in our Wheatland Attendance Center with transportation provided. If parents wish to utilize this approach, they will need to visit with Mr. Ingram, the superintendent, at 247-3413.
As we move towards and through the plan of improvement, we will communicate our progress in this publication, The BuzzWord. If you have further questions, please contact me at the elementary building, 247-2176. Working together, we can make a difference for our elementary students!
