ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
Students throughout USD 480 spent some extra time in the classroom this summer, and as the coordinators for the elementary school programs told it at the most recent USD 480 board meeting, there was much success seen.
“Cottonwood Elementary School had 117 students who attended summer school, and out of those 117 students, we had 88 percent attendance. With math, we focused on our iReady lessons to track that progress, and we had 87 percent of iReady lessons passed,” Cottonwood Elementary School summer school coordinator Kaitlyn Ralston said. “With reading, we were using Amplify, which is the intervention program we use during the school year, and we had 83 percent of the students improve in one or more of those skills. Overall, we saw a lot of improvement with the students who were able to attend. We were really pleased with the attendance rate of the students who did come for that time. We also had STEM time, which is more hands-on learning, and we saw them applying so many skills during that learning time, which we don't always see in the classroom, and we thought that was a real highlight from the summer school time.”
MacArthur Elementary School also saw some successes, according to coordinator Stephanie Brock.
“At MacArthur Elementary School, we had 92 students enrolled to attend summer school, and 82 students who attended regularly. When I went back and did the math, our attendance rate was 77 percent, and we had 28 students who had perfect attendance,” Brock said. “With the attendance rate, I looked into some of that, and there were a few other things that were happening, like athletic camps and illness and just other circumstances. The students were entered into a prize drawing every day they attended summer school, and the winner from each classroom was allowed to pick a prize. Students participated in 30 minutes of reading instruction using mCLASS intervention in a group of four or less, and out of 82 students who were progress monitored, 71 percent of them made progress in at least one skill area. Students worked on their individual math path in iReady with the goal of passing two lessons per week, and each student who passed two lessons a week received a prize. 82 students worked on their path during summer school, and 67 percent of them passed two lessons a week, three out of the four weeks. Each grade level had a 45 minute daily STEAM time, which was one of the students' favorite parts of summer school. The students who were enrolled were students who were identified by teachers in terms of having a Tier 3 plan, or being an ESL student, or maybe a Special Education student who was struggling and needed some extra attention.”
Meadowlark Elementary School students also made great strides, according to coordinator Kristina Brady.
“The students’ day at summer school at Meadowlark Elementary School consisted of one hour of reading instruction through whole group and small group instruction, 45 minutes of math instruction through whole group and small group instruction, 30 minutes of personalized learning time, and 45 minutes of STEAM activities,” Brady said. “Out of the 113 students who were enrolled, 89 attended, and the overall average attendance rate was 81 percent, with 36 students having perfect attendance. Prizes were given for perfect weekly attendance and additional prizes for those with 16 day perfect attendance. In reading, 67 percent of the students improved their score in one skill area, and 26 students improved their scores in or more skill areas. With math, 69 percent of the students passed two iReady lessons a week, 28 students passed two lessons all four weeks, and 61 students passed two lessons, three out of the four weeks. In total, 677 iReady lessons were passed, which is a pretty big accomplishment. The students also participated in STEAM activities daily, and some of the activities included volcanoes, solar oven s'mores, fizzy art, engineering activities, painting, games, fidgets making, science experiments and much more.”
Assistant Superintendent of Academics Dr. Maria Gomez-Rocque then gave the update for Prairie View Elementary School.
“For the 16 days of summer school, the goal was to have students achieve growth in their personalized reading skill target using Amplify Boost Reading and mClass progress monitoring, and then have the students reach their personalized math goal by completing at least two iReady math lessons per week,” Gomez-Rocque shared. “Those goals were tracked using iReady goal trackers and weekly goal track sheets. With reading, out of 66 students progress monitored, 73 percent of them achieved growth in at least one skilled area. In math, 79 percent of the students in attendance passed two or more iReady lessons at least two of the four weeks. The session started with 66 students in attendance on the first day, and there was an 83 percent average daily attendance, with 16 achieving perfect attendance who were awarded a free daily pass to Adventure Bay Water Park.”
Students at Sunflower Elementary School also showed much progress, according to coordinator Tamra Kapp.
“Sunflower Elementary School’s summer school day consisted of 45 minutes of Tier 2 instruction in reading and math using mCLASS and iReady curriculum, 30 minutes of Boost and iReady digital curriculum, and 45 minutes of STEAM activities,” Kapp said. “We had 54 students enrolled in summer school, with 48 attending. Out of those 48, we had 28 students who missed one day or less and received a goodie bag. Overall, we had and average attendance rate of 86 percent. In reading, with Boost, we had 415 sub-skills mastered and with Burst, out of our 48 students, 74 percent passed at least one skill or more in mCLASS. With math, in iReady, we saw 502 lessons passed. Every day, Sunflower Elementary School students participated in a STEAM activity which including: making kites, ice cream, edible slime, lava lamps, sun catchers, birdhouses, solar oven s'mores, volcanoes, painting plant pots, arts and crafts and much more. I did appreciate how there was criteria that had to be met before being referred for summer school, and that let us be able to focus on those students who really needed that extra assistance, and the small groups were also very beneficial.”
