Freedom Elementary School (2020)

  1. PLC Story
  2. PLC Practices
  3. Achievement Data
  4. Awards
  5. Resources

Freedom Elementary School's journey as a successful Professional Learning Community (PLC) is a testament to the power of collaboration, dedication, and a shared vision for student achievement. This is the story of how Freedom Elementary School maintains a commitment to be a thriving PLC Model School that positively impacted students, teachers, and the entire school community.

A Clear Vision and Commitment:
Our school has a strong commitment to the idea that all students can succeed. Freedom Elementary's staff, from administrators to teachers, share a common vision of improving student outcomes and believe that we can achieve this through collaborative efforts.

Establishing a Framework:
Our leadership team works with teachers to establish a clear framework for the PLC process. This framework includes regular meetings, a focus on student data, shared goals, and a commitment to professional development.

Professional Development:
We are invested in ongoing professional development for all staff members. This includes training on effective collaboration, data analysis, and instructional strategies. Teachers are given the tools they need to grow and succeed as educators.

Data-Driven Decision Making:
One of the central pillars of Freedom Elementary's PLC’s is a commitment to data-driven decision making. Teachers collect and analyze data on student performance, allowing them to identify areas where students are struggling and make informed decisions to address these issues.

Collaborative Culture:
A culture of collaboration is fostered among teachers. Regular PLC meetings are a space for open dialogue, sharing best practices, and discussing how to improve instruction. Teachers work together to design interventions and share resources.

Targeted Interventions:
With the help of data, Freedom Elementary School implements targeted interventions for struggling students. These interventions are designed collaboratively, and progress is regularly monitored to ensure that students are making meaningful gains.

Continuous Improvement:
Freedom Elementary School's PLC is not a one-time effort but an ongoing process of continuous improvement. As a school, we regularly assessed its practices, made adjustments, and strived to refine its strategies.

Freedom Elementary School's PLC story is a powerful example of what can be achieved when educators come together with a shared purpose. Through a commitment to collaboration, data-driven decision making, and a relentless focus on student success, we have transformed our school into a thriving learning community.

1. Monitoring student learning on a timely basis.

The work of our Professional Learning Community at Freedom Elementary School has greatly expanded its ability to track student mastery levels. As a school that has already converted its grading practices to a standards based approach, the transition of our PLC work in this direction was smooth. In the last school year, we have invested a significant amount of time and energy collaboratively building quality common formative assessments that align with the scope and rigor of our grade level standards. Teachers developed these assessments within their collaborative teams as a mode to keep a constant pulse on student understanding. This was accomplished through professional development hours, weekly collaborative team meetings, and teacher planning days. A significant number of hours (50+) have been devoted by each collaborative team over the course of the last year to develop and refine these assessments. The information gained from them allow for guaranteed systems of recovery to be enacted throughout the course of instruction that ensure students have every opportunity to master grade level content. All assessments are made available through the use of Google Forms. This provides us an immediate breakdown of student mastery levels and this data is accessible to all parties involved in teaching and recovery roles for the students being assessed. In addition, our collaborative team meeting room has data walls that include every student and every standard in the areas of reading and math. Our essential standards are color coded for additional emphasis. As students master standards through initial core, they are checked off in black. For those students that master standards through recovery, we indicate mastery with a red check. This system of tracking student mastery allows us to zoom in on individual students while also keeping a pulse on the group as a whole. 

 

2. Creating systems of intervention to provide students with additional time and support for learning.

An area of particular focus this year has been the intentional implementation of guaranteed systems of recovery. We utilize the information gained from our common formative assessments to determine individual mastery levels of our students with regards to specific grade level standards. As we assess students, those that have not yet mastered a particular skill or concept are provided an aligned recovery. Students continue to be reassessed and recovered until mastery is achieved. The interventions and assessments are developed and implementation planned through collaborative team meetings. Our teams utilize a few different protocols after the delivery of pre-assessments and common formative assessments. Through these protocols, teachers are able to meet individual student needs through recovery and extension. Freedom Elementary School has an intentional block of time scheduled into the school day called Clinics where much of this work is achieved. During this time period, we personalize learning for all students. This time period allows us to implement guaranteed systems of recovery based upon common formative assessment data. As a result, our clinics have become completely devoted towards recovering standards not yet mastered and the extension those that have by individual students. This work is an “all hands on deck” approach where regular education, special education, and interventionists work in unison to address student misconceptions as planned developed in their collaborative team work.

3. Building teacher capacity to work as members of high performing collaborative teams that focus efforts on improved learning for all students.

Building capacity and leadership within our collaborative teams has been a growth area at Freedom Elementary School this year. We have successfully implemented PLC facilitators at each grade level. Through training, practice, and reflection, our facilitators have become an integral part of keeping our teams focused on the agendas developed and aligned with the four critical questions. They also have helped to create a culture where adherence to the team developed norms are expected. As an Instructional Leadership Team, my instructional coach and I have noticed significant improvements made in the area of focused work. Teachers are not only having rich discussions about student performance levels but they are also putting actionable steps in place as a result. Being product minded is an area of current focus for our collaborative teams. While rich discourse is certainly encouraged during team meetings, we also want to be mindful that the work itself is the central focus. By monitoring that piece, we can ensure that our students are benefiting from the work of our PLC.

 

Achievement Data Files

Additional Achievement Data

The assessment structure and standards in Kentucky have changed significantly over the course of the past several years in almost every content area. Because of that, it is somewhat difficult to track student data longitudinally as you are comparing assessments that have changed from year to year. While we certainly look at KSA data (state assessment), we also utilize other data sources that have remained consistent in structure. Up until the current year (2023-2024), Freedom students have taken the CASE assessments three times annually. As indicated by reports attached, FES has consistently performed at the top of the district in student growth through the course of the academic year. This school year, our district began utilizing the iReady assessment which is designed as a benchmark to indicate student proficiency levels. It is modeled after our state assessment. Students take it three times annually much like they did with CASE previously. 

 

2015-16 Distinguished School/School of Distinction (Top 2% in the State)

Kentucky Center for Mathematics (KCM) Model School- 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19

PLC Model School - 2020

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