EP Rayzor Elementary (2023)

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

E.P. Rayzor has been on a 21 year journey toward excellence, both academically and culturally.  While we attempted to implement effective PLC processes for years, our approach was disjointed and unclear.  Our staff wasn’t sure what “PLC work” looked like and would use it for professional development, planning, and various other activities.  As our district began to dig deep into DuFour's PLC practices, our campus began to slowly implement this new learning. We began using this time to look at student work and discuss strategies for instruction; however, we had not determined our essential standards and were oftentimes overwhelmed to know what we were committing to for student learning. As we continued to grow our understanding of PLC processes, we began to truly adopt the vision we have today: “All Means All. We believe all students can learn at high levels.” This vision has been the catalyst that has taken our school from a PLC Lite to a PLC Right campus. 

We have created a collaborative community here at EP Rayzor that is willing to take risks to ensure all of our practices reflect what is truly best for student growth.  The foundation of this work lies in the four pillars of PLC: Mission, Vision, Values, and Goals. 

The mission of E.P. Rayzor is to foster lifelong learning in a supportive and safe environment by providing rigorous academics and character education, so that students can be successful, contributing citizens and lead meaningful lives. In order to achieve our goals, we must understand our why.  Once we collectively established our mission, we knew we had to create a vision that would require our entire school community to see and value the individual needs of each and every student.  We worked to foster a mindset that all students belonged to all of us. This mindset became the driving value behind everything we implemented, including professional development, our master schedule, and our PLC processes. In order to support our values, we knew we had to take steps to continue our learning of the PLC framework. For the last two years, we have sent our Guiding Coalition to the RTI Summit. Additionally, we had the opportunity to work with our Solution Tree Coach, Aisha Thomas, last year. Our Guiding Coalition has taken ownership of bringing their learning back to our staff, as well as serving as coaches to work alongside all of our teachers to support our PLT's.  We understood that collaborative teams were key to the PLC at Work process, therefore, each team set SMART goals for the year. These goals were established to practically measure progress and hold our collaborative teams accountable to our mission, vision, and values. 

We created systematic procedures to address the four critical questions: 

What do we want all students to know and be able to do (our essentials)? 

How will we know if they learn it? 

How will we respond when some students do not learn? 

How will we extend the learning for students who are already proficient?  

We began by identifying our essential standards in all grade levels, creating clarity on what we want our students to know and be able to do.  We have made great strides in creating cognitive ladders and common formative assessments to be able to see exactly where they are in their learning.  Using student data, we collaborate on research-based interventions and extensions to meet the individual needs of our students. Two years ago, we adjusted our collaborative time within our master schedule each week to a two-hour block for teachers to have the time to analyze their student data, determine next steps, and collaborate with their teams and campus experts on best instructional practices. 

We consistently monitor these systems by meeting as a Guiding Coalition, by addressing our campus needs regularly, and by collectively making adjustments and improvements as needed.  These collective commitments ensure that we are able to provide the best education for our students no matter what their needs are. We are still actively pursuing excellence in academics and school culture and are scheduled to take our Guiding Coalition to the PLC Conference this Fall, as well as a different group of teacher leaders to the RTI at Work conference in the Spring.  

As we reflect on the last several years, it has been rewarding to see our staff implement the PLC processes with fidelity and see “All Means All” truly become the heartbeat of our school. 

 
 
 

1. Monitoring student learning on a timely basis.

At E.P. Rayzor, we work alongside our district coaches to implement and use a guaranteed viable curriculum.  This work begins with identifying our essential standards.  Each team uses the REAL criteria to determine if a standard is essential.  Once our essentials are set, teams unpack them, in order to answer the first critical question, “What do I want my students to know and be able to do?”  They are then able to build cognitive ladders, where they break down each essential to determine the skills needed to achieve mastery. These cognitive ladders also serve as excellent tools when learning gaps are identified; teachers are able to see exactly which step/target their student needs intervention on. Prior to instruction, our teams create common formative assessments to track student learning on the essentials.  Our campus tracks this data in multiple ways.  Using district assessments, each grade level tracks student progress with standard based report cards. Based on this data, as well as other formative data, students are put into a Prime Time group. Prime Time is a 30 minute period we set aside each day for schoolwide intervention and extensions, focusing on the essentials. Student progress is recorded on the Prime Time data tracking sheet. Pre and post data is collected and used as evidence of the learning. As a collaborative team, we monitor this data together and make adjustments as needed based on how students respond to their interventions and extensions. This data tracker is a pivotal part of our PLC work, as it addresses all four critical questions and represents ALL students, which is the vision of E.P. Rayzor. Additionally, we keep a campus scorecard that records assessment data, such as beginning of the year, middle of the year, and end of the year benchmarks. At all levels, student data is used for making informed and intentional decisions about what our students need during RTI meetings, and both grade level and vertical PLTs. Both of these occur weekly to ensure our data is viable. 

 
 

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

At E.P. Rayzor, we have created a schedule that supports intervention or extension for All students.  Last year, we worked with our guiding coalition and our Solution Tree coach and designed a schedule that allowed for all students to have a 30 minute block we call Prime time. This block is school-wide and does not interfere with Tier 1 instruction.  We believe that each child must have access to Tier 1, grade level instruction in order to learn at high levels. Additionally, students that receive Special Education services, or other support services, such as Dyslexia, Speech, or EXPO, will still receive these services, outside of Tier 1 instruction in their classrooms, and intervention or extension during their Prime Time block. 

Tier 2 Instruction

Students are grouped into Tier 2 interventions based on data collected from common formative assessments, district benchmarks, and diagnostic screeners. Once student needs are identified, groups are formed with a grade level essential that will be targeted.  If students are successful during their Tier 2 intervention cycle, they may move to a different essential or an extension group.  Students that are unsuccessful after a targeted intervention cycle will be put into our RTI/MTSS system by the MTSS team. 

Tier 3 Instruction

If student assessment data shows that a student is missing skills from prior grade levels, they are placed in Tier 3 interventions to close the learning gaps and are added to our RTI/MTSS system. If students move through intervention cycles and are able to close learning gaps, they may move to Tier 2 and receive on grade level interventions as needed.  If learning gaps continue with intensive intervention, further evaluation is considered by the MTSS team. 

Tier 2 and Tier 3

At E.P. Rayzor, we have a K-2 Interventionist and a 3-5 Interventionist that support our classroom teachers for Prime Time each day.  All staff that support students during this time, whether for intervention or extension, are required to use the Prime Time tracking sheet. This records the students, the essential, the provider of the intervention, the duration of the intervention, and pre and post data. This document is used with fidelity during our weekly PLT to monitor student progress. This is when our teachers and support staff collaborate on instructional strategies to meet student needs.  This tracking sheet is also used by our MTSS team when discussing student concerns. 

 

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

To create a high performing staff, leadership must go first. Our admin team truly believes in modeling and coaching our staff in the PLC processes. We know that the key to transformational leadership is getting teacher leaders to see our WHY and be willing to take risks. Over the last two years, our Guiding Coalition has done just that.   Two years ago, we took this team to the RTI at Work conference, where we began to solidify our learning of the PLC framework.  They took ownership of our vision and came back ready to coach and work alongside our staff to implement key practices. Last year, we were able to take a different group and plan to take another this Spring. We have also had multiple opportunities at the district level to learn from experts from Solution Tree. This has been powerful in helping many of our staff internalize EP Rayzor’s vision of “All Means All.” They are motivated to put their learning into practice and do what they know is best for ALL students. One of the most exciting rewards is watching their capacity grow where they truly believe that all students belong to all of us.  For example, we implemented a check-in/check-out system and all support staff including special areas teachers are assigned to students that need additional support each day. The students check in every day, twice a day, with their chart and have specific goals set with their check-in/check-out person. At E.P. Rayzor, we know that it truly takes intentional collaboration to ensure all students are learning at high levels academically and emotionally. 

 

Achievement Data Files

Additional Achievement Data

In the 3rd -5th grade data submitted for our state test (STAAR) it is important to note that the STAAR test in Texas has changed drastically in the last few years. The format and the expectations have changed from year to year without a lot of communication or resources from the state on those changes throughout the year. Last year the state added written constructed responses to the test. Students were expected to write written responses and use multiple forms of answer choices such as moving graphics around and filling in blank spaces to provide answers. We recognize that our data shows areas of improvement. Through the PLC processes, we are focusing on ensuring growth for every child and using response to intervention or "responsible teachers intervening" to provide every child with specific interventions that meet their needs based on assessment data. Through our commitment to the PLC processes, we continue to learn and grow because we truly believe every child can learn at high levels.

At EP Rayzor our campus has collectively created SMART goals to help us track student data and ensure student success. For example, our math vertical PLT set a SMART goal in the 2022-2023 school year for 80% of students to be on grade level or above through consistent monitoring of student data throughout the year. The data collected for that math vertical PLT goal is included in the reading math growth tracking document attached. The math vertical PLT was able to exceed its goal through intentional data tracking and taking action through collaboration to meet students' needs. 

Data tracking for inferencing is tracked across grade levels and the growth data tracking is included in the attachments. Our campus has identified inferencing as an essential standard across grade levels and identified how it scaffolds across grade levels. The RI assessment is used to assess inferencing and our PLT’s track student growth quarterly on how students are growing in their ability to make inferences and connections. This goal was set by our language arts vertical team last year and tracked throughout the year and aided our PLT’s in setting intervention groups throughout the year for students who needed additional support in the skill of inferencing. 

Another piece of data included under the resources tab that reflects student achievement and growth is a snapshot of how we track identified essentials and how our students are performing on those essentials. Once data is shared based on essentials that are being tracked our PLT’s work through the Prime Time document to place students in intervention groups for the identified essentials. Teams track students' pre and post-data for targeted intervention groups and take action based on students' needs.

 

Our campus has been awarded multiple Lantana Foundation Education grants to continue our professional development through attending Solution Tree conferences. 

 

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