Willowbrook Elementary (2023)

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

Willowbrook Elementary is a school that dares to be different. This has been our Willowbrook vision for the last ten years. We are one of thirteen elementary schools in Bentonville, Arkansas within the Bentonville School District. We have a school population of 846 that includes grades K - 4th grade students. Our staff works closely with one another weekly. Our Willowbrook  created SMART goal is based on data we have obtained through classroom observations and assessment data. We've included our schoolwide SMART goal as an attachment. Our grade level teams create SMART goals for each quarter based on their grade level's essential standards that they track with their students and colleagues. Staff and students track these goals day to day and check-in frequently. Our SMART goals can be found also hanging in the front of our school in the commons area for all students, staff, parents, and visitors to see. All of our staff are evaluated for the same campus goal regardless of their evaluation or experience track. In addition to the campus goal, staff choose a personal professional growth goal that provides consistent feedback through our classroom walkthroughs for each of them personally. We maintain a reference sheet as admin to reference during classroom observations of staff. We share the campus wide progress on our goals with our leadership team and in our faculty meetings. We routinely celebrate our growth and moments of success as a staff in shout outs, newsletters, staff memos, faculty meetings, planning meetings, and school assemblies. As a staff we continue to reflect on our achievements, remain aware of our progress, and know what our next steps should be in moving forward. Additionally, our grade level teams track the progress of their team's SMART goals and post the graphs and progress of the class and grade level within their classrooms and out in the hallways. 

Willowbrook has a school wide intervention and enrichment time built into our master schedule. During this time, students receive the intervention or extension that they need in literacy or math. Our staff who participate within these various groups include classroom teachers, interventionists, special education resource teachers, ESL teachers, classified staff, administrators, and counselors. Over the years we have learned to become very flexible in our grouping and planning. We want to always provide students with the skills that they need, so being able to move groups or students around freely is key. We prefer to move students as they grow and never become boxed into a particular pacing or timeline. These groups are fluid and change when needed based on grade level common assessment data and essential standards. Our teachers use the ELPA21 Achievement Level Descriptors for ESL students to guide interventions and differentiated core instruction for tier 1 small groups. Another key factor in the success of our ESL students is that all of our students are served by an ESL teacher. Those students who are identified as indirectly served receive push-in support in the general education classroom. Students who are served directly, receive pull-out services with an ESL teacher to address more targeted skill gaps. Our special education resource team works closely with our interventionists and classroom teachers to form fluid small groups as well for students based on skill levels and proficiency gaps. We have collaborative team meetings 1-2 times a week. In these meetings teachers continue the work with focused agendas that center around the four critical questions that drive the work of the team:

  • What is it we want our students to know and be able to do? 

  • How will we know if each student has learned it? 

  • How will we respond when some students do not know it? 

  • How will we extend the learning for students who have mastered it?

To remain focused about doing the right work, our team uses a campus created planning cycle. The cycle includes our critical questions but also includes steps that we believe to be vital to teaching and learning. For example, determining proficiency scales, analyzing pre-assessment data, creating common formative assessments, planning tier 1 instruction, celebrating, reflection, examining student work, planning tier 2 interventions, etc.

We are a strong community of learners. In the past we have had staff members attend professional development through Solution Tree, Arkansas Leadership Academy, and Ron Clark Academy. The learning gained from these three providers has been extraordinary in our teacher development. We have also provided our teachers with professional development in STEM, robotics, Lexia Learning, Conscious Discipline, dyslexia supports, ESL strategies, and Hope & Wade King engagement strategies. The biggest impact on staff learning has been from their colleagues. We provide opportunities for campus  EdCamps, learning walks, and professional development from other staff members to be a norm in our building. For example, our ESL team conducts several trainings for our teaching staff that includes tips and strategies when working with ELLs. It is also common for staff to receive PD from our special education team, instructional coaches, leadership team, interventionists, etc.

This year, we made the decision to restart at ground zero as a staff with the Learning by Doing book study. We are also going to begin a heavy focus on inclusive practices work with our special education department (please see our inclusive practice matrix). Our team is ready to begin creating a more inclusive environment for our special education students and all of our staff who work with them. We have started this work by allowing our special education specialists to present information and training to staff during faculty meetings. 

1. Monitoring student learning on a timely basis.

Bentonville Schools provides a well-balanced, paced curriculum for all grade levels K-12 that is based upon the Science of Reading and Arkansas State Standards. Willowbrook has learned how to utilize our curriculum as a guide, but move students to mastery of essential skills. Our teaching staff has become extremely well versed in the Science of Reading and received the R.I.S.E. Award from the state of Arkansas in 2019. Our grade level teams meet with instructional coaches 1-2 times a week collectively to review and discuss curriculum expectations for all subjects and to plan for instruction. Both of our instructional coaches make themselves available for weekly collaborative team meetings and weekly planning meetings. While our instructional coaches remain well versed as experts in their content areas, our classroom teachers have learned to lead in regards to planning instruction for students as well. 

Our teams meet collaboratively with a set agenda to discuss student learning and upcoming expectations toward essential skills. Our staff has created a collaborative team planning cycle that ensures that we remain focused on the right work. Every teacher is responsible for providing the ongoing literacy assessment data from the QPA (quick phonics assessment) and PAST. That data is used to guide primarily our K-2 small group instruction. All of our teachers in grades K-4 work together to develop common formative assessments based on the unpacking of essential standards. 

The teams create a quarterly document that is updated after every NWEA MAP assessment. This document breaks down each individual classroom, student by student. We are able to recreate groups within our classrooms and during intervention blocks based on this data and quick check assessments. Our ESL teachers, interventionists and special education department is also included in reviewing this data. They discuss in collaboration with coaches student  progress through RTI. This process takes place all year and is a continuous cycle. 

 
 

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

Based on our team's work through our collaborative planning cycle, we design the appropriate interventions and necessary instructional plans. Teachers keep documentation of those skills that they have determined to be essential. Our teams remain focused on following the collaborative cycle for planning in the area of critical question three, How will we respond when learning has not occurred? Our teams work together to determine the right course of intervention for all students through this cycle of planning. Each grade level has 30 minutes to an hour long block of intervention/enrichment time that is included in our master schedule. This protected time ensures that all students are receiving tier 2 interventions. During this tier 2 time, students attend their designated groups based on skill and/or objective. Classroom teachers keep a spreadsheet of student groups sorted by skills and update it as needed. Our team of staff who work with those students in their groups include classroom general education teachers, interventionists, ESL teachers, sped resource teachers, instructional assistants, and various other staff such as OT/PT, speech teachers, counselors, etc. 

The data and progress monitoring of students is reviewed regularly by our teams. We have organized our bi-weekly faculty meetings after school to be data meetings and an extension of collaborative team work. This is protected time devoted and focused on the work of analyzing our data and making instructional based decisions. Our teams love this time. It gives them uninterrupted opportunities with their teams and creates vertical team meeting opportunities across grade level bands.

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

At Willowbrook, we have an environment that puts just as much focus on staff learning as student learning. In our experience, when we grow our teachers, we grow our students. Our staff is committed to stretching their own learning, asking challenging questions, and participating in student-centered coaching that will improve student learning. We frequently learn more from each other than any other conference or professional development event.

Small group instruction is non-negotiable with our teams and we make it a priority to focus the bulk of our efforts here. We make sure that all of our students, regardless of level, are being seen weekly for an adequate amount of time. When students are not progressing, we take steps for implementing new strategies by utilizing our fellow team members, instructional coaches and interventionists as resources. We unpack our essential standards as a team to ensure that we all have the same understanding of the learning objectives and skills. We must review with one another, "What does this look like?, What does this sound like?, What does proficiency look like?, What is not an acceptable response?, "How will we know we've met mastery?", etc." 

Our student data is used to guide all instruction. This is another key area of importance. We consistently and constantly ask one another, "What does the data show?" Our instructional coaches and administrators spend a heavy amount of time diving into our data with our teams. We share necessary strategies and 'look-fors' when analyzing the data and then we make the necessary adjustments. This sometimes means that we step outside of our required district curriculum and we do not wait to get permission to make the changes. This can feel uncomfortable at times going against district recommendations, but our staff has done this enough to know that the benefit is worth it in the end. We give students what they need, when they need it, ensuring that they are all meeting state required standards. 

We have created a culture and working environment of always learning. We participate in frequent events, training, and workshops by Solution Tree and within our district. Our staff regularly participates in learning walks to visit and observe their colleagues. They learn from each other by being vulnerable with our craft.  Willowbrook also has three district learning labs housed on our campus where district staff visit weekly in their teams to observe high quality instruction taking place in our classrooms with our teachers. We enjoy learning and growing with other educators around our region. 

Achievement Data Files

Additional Achievement Data

Willowbrook Elementary has performed at a high level consistently for the last five years. In addition to our high performance in achievement, we have consistently shown growth in all of our students, including our sub populations. 

Attached you will find our state achievement data for grades K-4. We have provided in-district comparison data for NWEA MAP. Arkansas State comparison data is unavailable for grades K-4 for the NWEA MAP Assessment. The reason for this is that each district in Arkansas can choose from NWEA MAP, I-Ready or STAR for their K-2 state testing assessment. We have, however, provided you with our in-district data as a comparison with other schools. For our 3-4 grade levels it is completely optional by the state of Arkansas to take the NWEA MAP Assessment and it is our choice to assess these students. We believe the data and information from this assessment provides useful data points when planning instruction. Grades 3-4 are required to take the ACT Aspire Assessment by the state of Arkansas and we have provided that information for you. The National Achievement Norms by NWEA MAP have been provided as a comparison as well. For the year of 2019-2020, our achievement data shows our fall to winter result only due to COVID. 

Willowbrook's (WES) current comparison schools as of 2022 within the district include Evening Star Elementary (ESE), Elm Tree Elementary (ETE), and Cooper Elementary (CES). Willowbrook has consistently been one of the top performing elementary schools in the district and within the state of Arkansas. You will find attached a report from the Office of Education Policy from the University of Arkansas. Willowbrook ranked #9 out of 20 schools in the state for overall growth based on the ACT Aspire assessment in 2021. Willowbrook also ranked #7 in the state of Arkansas and in the region for math growth. 

Our database targeting our students who receive  ESL, SPED, and Tier 3 who require additional levels of instruction is used in planning instructional groupings. We combine this information with their current classroom progress to determine the appropriate groupings. Their schedules indicate the level of services provided in addition to the number of staff who all work together for them. Our school data can also be attributed to a high level and rigorous culture of engagement in technology, STEM, and standards-based integration of content. We also work collaboratively with our families to equip parents with tools that can be utilized at home during our Coffee with the Principal parent training. These parent trainings take place quarterly and also during parent teacher conference weeks. Our ESL staff also provides targeted instruction for students served directly, during pull-out instruction and students who are served indirectly through a push-in model. It is not required that we serve these students through a push-in model, but we know that this method is what is best for kids. 

 

2015-2016 -Top 10% Arkansas Performance Achievement

2016-2017 -Top 6%-10% Arkansas Performance Achievement

2016-2017 -Top 6%-10% Arkansas Growth Performance

2017-2018 -Top 5% Arkansas Performance Achievement

2017-2018 -Top 5% Arkansas Growth Performance

2019 - The ADE Arkansas Science of Reading R.I.S.E. Award

2018-2019 -Top 5% Arkansas Performance Achievement

2018-2019 -Top 5% Arkansas Growth Achievement 

2020-2021 - Top 5% Arkansas Performance Achievement

2020-2021 - Top 5% Arkansas Growth Achievement

2021 - University of Arkansas Office of Educational Policy - Super Grower School for Overall Student Growth

2021 - University of Arkansas Office of Educational Policy - High Achievement for Overall Math Performance

2021-2022 - Top 6%-10% Arkansas Growth Achievement 

2021-2022 - Top 5% Arkansas Perfomrance Achievement

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