Explain the activities in which your school will participate to increase your overall rating. Include specific details.

As evidenced in the SES Band Data, which content area(s) will be the focus for improving student achievement and why was this area chosen?

Pasadena Lakes Elementary currently stands in Band 4, with 363 points earned.  Our rank within Band 4 is 141 (out of 208 schools).   

Since the 2012-2013 school year, Reading, Writing, Math and Science scores have been unstable, but trending generally downward in Grades 3, 4 and 5; including in all ethnicities with the exeception of Hispanic females. 

As such, our PLCs are focusing on ELA, because if students can't read well, they will have difficulties with Writing, content area (Science and Social Studies) text and Mathematics word problems.

What specific BEST Practice(s) will be implemented or scaled-up to improve teaching and learning in order to increase performance within the SES Band?

The following BEST Practices will be scaled-up this year:

• Google Docs and Sheets have been introduced, and are used by each grade level team (including cluster teachers) to provide consistent and timely school-based monitoring in Reading and Mathematics.
• Specific feedback on instruction in each classroom is provided through I-observation, Classroom Walkthroughs, and quarterly data chats.
• School-wide strategic support for at-risk students students is provided by Specials and Support staff.
• Science rotations and labs have been introduced and classes scheduled into the labs.
• Teachers will monitor Writing using monthly on-demand prompts, and recording scores in Google Sheets.
• An FSA Camp for at-risk students in Reading and Math will be implemented

Describe in detail how the BEST Practice(s) will be scaled-up.

Sharing best practices is a way for schools to scale-up in order to improve student achievement; working together gives educators opportunities to share what is already working in their schools.  Pasadena Lakes Elementary School will "scale up" the following practices:

• Learning Goals and Scales will be displayed and reviewed prior to, and at the end of, lessons. 
• Field Trips have been scheduled to schools both within and above our SES Band.  Teachers have noted differences in instructional practices, and overall attitudes of staff and students in these schools. 
• Our principal converses with other principals within our Band to share ideas to improve student achievement. 
• Standards-based bulletin boards have been introduced in classrooms and in hallways.
• Administration provides consistent monitoring and feedback through iObservation and Marzano practices.
• Specific differentiated centers have been introduced in classrooms, which include interactive journal feedback which provides for student accountability.

What specific school-level progress monitoring data is collected and how often?

School data is monitored every three weeks using School City assessments in ELA, Math and Science for students in grades K-5. We also provide monthly writing promts for students in grades 1-5. Students are assessed 3 times per year using the Benchmark Assessment System (BAS) in Reading. Students in Kindergarten are also assessed on letters, sounds, and concepts of prints. Once the assessment window closes, administration and curriculum support staff review the data then set up individual or team data chats to review the results with teachers. As a team, we discuss ways to remediate and enrich students. We also identify any instructional support that the teacher may need to ensure that student instructional needs are met. 
 

How does the school ensure the fidelity of students not progressing towards school and district goals?

Students who are not progressing towards school and district goals are first instructed using the gradual release model. As teachers go through the process of releasing the learning process to students, teachers identify students who are not mastering the standard. Teachers then work with students in a small group setting to remediate students in meeting the standard. After more intense instruction, teachers can put the standard in the maintenance center to allow students to continue to work on the standard until mastery.  

The teacher can also begin to collect data in relation to how other students are progressing and present it to the Response to Intervention (RtI) Team. During the RtI review process, recommendations of further interventions can be shared with the teacher to implement with the student. Data is collected and the student progress is monitored for a period of 4-6 weeks. 

How does the school ensure that all classroom instruction is accessible to the full range of learners using Universal Designs for Learning (UDL) for effective instructional design (planning) and delivery (teaching)?

Pasadena Lakes ensures that lessons are planned with the students in mind. Teachers diffrentiate lessons to meet the needs of all learners. Pasadena provides lessons that offer students a variety of modalities to engage them, to provide multiple means of representing their understanding of the Florida standards and to demonostrate their understanding of the content through multiple ways of expression through informal and formal methods of assessments. Standards for reading and math are taught through whole and small group utilizing the Optimal Learning model.

How does the school ensure Tier 1 Standards-Based classroom instruction is being implemented properly and effectively?

Pasadena ensure that teachers are implementing Tier 1 standard based instruction through classroom walk-throughs and data analysis during data chats. Professional learning communites are centered around discussion of unwrapping the Florida Standards and collaborating with team members to discuss teaching strategies that scaffold instruction to drive student achievement of the standards.

Describe texts used for core, supplemental, and intervention programs at each grade level. How does the school ensure students have access to a balance of literary and informational text in a variety of mediums?

Pasadena has a Balanced Literacy Reading Resource room where teachers are able to check out both literary and informational text to teach content standards through interactive and shared read alouds. Through school and district based trainings teachers have learned the ten characteristics of text to choose quality books for read alouds and guided reading groups. Each teacher has been provided with a literacy contiuum and prompting guides to provide students with quality text and questions to improve reading behaviors.

Please complete this section based on 2018-2019 end-of-year results.
Instructional Implications: Discuss the success of specific strategies/activities and provide a rationale as to why those academic improvements occurred as a result of those strategies.

Our school focus for the 2018-19 school year, was English Language Arts (ELA) in grades K-5. Our achievement profiency levels increased by 6 points. Our English Language Arts learning gains decreased by 1 point, and our lowest quartile decreased by 3 points. To address the decreases in our English Language Arts, we reviewed our literacy plan and school-wide data and made adjustments with our instructional practices to better meet the needs of our students overall and especially the lower quartile.