given every nine weeks and show students’ progress
toward mastery.
Data analysis. Teachers and administrators review
student data frequently, monitoring progress daily
and weekly. Students who have not achieved mastery
receive more instruction in their regular classrooms
or are referred for tutoring or other interventions
offered through the school’s Response to Intervention
program (see page 18 for more information on the RTI
program). Teachers will often identify 10 students for
focused interventions to be certain they get the extra
attention they need.
Finally, the school has weekly grade level meetings
on individual students’ benchmark assessments and
monthly cross-grade level meetings to discuss each
grade’s progress in helping students master grade
level expectations. In the 2011-12 school year, leaders
adjusted the schedule to bracket each day with 30
minutes of community-building, and designated
enrichment/remediation pull-out times for each
grade level. Leadership meetings focus on data analysis and current benchmark targets throughout the
year, and the daily visits to classrooms by the school
leaders examine and support both instruction and the
interpretation of assessment data.
Conclusion
John Sevier Elementary School has made substantial
strides toward increasing student performance by
placing a strong emphasis on relationships between
and among adults and children. The school’s many
efforts include establishing a coherent and consistent
approach to promoting a positive learning climate,
setting consistent behavioral management techniques, and continually emphasizing academic rigor
and achieving one’s personal best.
Assessments
used at
John Sevier
Elementary
• Brigance-K
• Aimsweb
• STAR Early Literature
• STAR Reading
• STAR Math
• Writing Assessment
• Constructed Response Assessment
• Discovery Education Assessment
• SAT-10
• TCAP
• Grade level benchmarks every nine weeks
The school has embraced changes in the past several years, using each as an opportunity to improve.
For instance, John Sevier serves a different span of
grades than before, but found that the change gave
them new energy, an ability to introduce even more
coherence and consistency, and a newfound identity
as a top performing school.
Pathways to the Prize
Lessons from the 2012 SCORE Prize School Winners
20