West Pelzer Elementary School (WPES) is a community school in the upstate of South Carolina. The school serves approximately 380 students from pre-K to fifth grade. WPES began the work of becoming a Professional Learning Community in 2019.

Teachers at WPES were previously working within their grade-level teams to plan instruction at high levels for all students. However, in 2019, the collaboration between grade levels became more intentional, focusing on choosing and tracking essential standards with purposeful data. Anderson School District One (ASD1) introduced the PLC process as a way to ensure all student needs were being met. ASD1 dedicated administrative and instructional team meetings to truly define what effective PLCs look like. Schools created a Guiding Coalition (GC) at each location, and Solution Tree provided training on the Four Big Questions of the PLC work for the Guiding Coalition team members. WPES’ GC consisted of a range of school level stake holders. WPES’ GC began its work by creating a mission statement to provide a vision for becoming a true Professional Learning Community. GC members took the information that was presented at the initial training along with the Mission Statement that was created for WPES and communicated it with their grade-level teams in order to build a strong foundation for structuring the PLC process within the school. As the school began the process of learning how to meet as collaborative teams in order to do the important work of a PLC, the administration created a school-wide plan of when teams would meet. The administration altered this schedule each year in order to find the best use of instructional time.  The table below explains the schedule for each year that WPES has worked to implement the PLC model. 

Each year during their collaborative time, grade-level teams focused on: identifying essential standards, creating pre-assessments, Common Formative Assessments (CFA), tracking student data, and growth. Teams also reviewed instructional strategies that were utilized during their Tier 1 instructional time. Each team reviewed their grade level standards and used REAL criteria to help identify these standards: Readiness, Endurance, Assess, Leverage. Additionally, teams began to plan out their Tier 2 instructional plans through the use of Curriculum Maps (CM) to ensure that all essential standards were being taught and student understanding was being measured.

1. Monitoring student learning on a timely basis.

West Pelzer Elementary teachers have created curriculum maps for each grade level that help to ensure students are receiving a guaranteed and viable curriculum.  Each South Carolina standard in English Language Arts and Math was carefully reviewed by teams.  Teams met and came to a consensus about what was essential.  Learning targets within the essential standards are identified and common formative assessments for the learning targets are embedded in the curriculum map.  Teachers use their curriculum maps during collaborative meetings to guide planning for instruction.  Teachers have 90 minutes each week to meet with collaborative teams to develop common formative assessments or analyze data from an assessment.  Collaborative teams also use this time to group students based on data and create action plans for both intervention and enrichment groups.  Teachers use this time to also share successful strategies based on data. 

As a way to ensure that every unit taught throughout the school year focuses on student needs, teachers give pre-assessments prior to the start of a new unit.  Teachers use the data from the pre-assessments to guide all instruction (whole group, small group, and one-on-one). Teachers at West Pelzer Elementary School continually review the curriculum map to plan common formative assessments (CFA). These CFAs guide instruction. Teachers meet weekly to review performance on CFAs in ELA and Math. Data is used to plan both interventions and extensions for students during tier 2 instruction. Student data is also shared with support staff who push into classrooms during tier 3/”Prevention Loop” to assist and address skill gaps that support the essential standard. Weekly collaborative team meetings allow teachers to provide student support in a timely manner. While collaborative teams at West Pelzer Elementary School work diligently to monitor student progress, we do not stop there! West Pelzer Elementary School also utilizes the school’s Academic Action Team and the Guiding Coalition to monitor student progress beyond collaborative grade-level meetings. These teams are pivotal in ensuring that our school goals for math and ELA achievement are met. These teams meet at the beginning of the school year to review state testing data, STAR diagnostic data, and create school-wide SMART goals to focus on as a school.  This year STAR data is being used to create SMART goals for each student, class, and grade level.  Our SMART goals and data tracking is clear and displayed within our school’s hub.

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

Tier 1: 

• Teachers have uninterrupted, protected time built into their schedule to ensure all students receive Tier 1 core instruction in all subject areas.

• Collaborative teams meet twice weekly to discuss the 4 critical questions. 

• Teachers work collaboratively to: 

  • Identify essential standards, learning targets, and mastery levels for each standard.

  • Develop pretests, CFAs, and summative assessments for each unit.  

  • Design Tier 1 instruction and prevention loop strategies to help students reach standards mastery. CFA results are analyzed and used to plan prevention loop instruction. 

  • Develop Tier 2 interventions for instruction. Interventions are based on student data from end-of-unit summative assessments.

  • Plan Tier 2 extension activities to deepen the knowledge of students who have shown mastery of essential standards.

 “Prevention Loop”:

• Each homeroom class has a block of time designated for small group instruction for students. During this time, teachers and support staff are reteaching essential standards that students are currently working on to prevent students from needing additional support at the end of the unit. 

• Support staff pushes in during this time to work with multiple groups of students daily, however, students identified as needing the most support are “double-dipped” meaning they will meet with support staff and the classroom teacher. 

Tier 2:

• Teachers have Tier 2 time built into their schedule to ensure that all students have access to Tier 2 instruction. During Tier 2, students receive interventions or enrichments aligned to essential standards taught in Tier 1 instruction. 

• Tier 2 instruction can focus on math or reading skills and is focused around previous essential standards taught during Tier 1 Instruction. 

• During this time, students are grouped across grade levels based on CSA given at the end of a unit. 

• Instruction during this time is focused on reteaching and extending learning.

• Tier 2 instruction occurs approximately 30 minutes daily. Students receive targeted instruction based on identified needs. Data is collected and closely monitored to adjust student groupings as needed. 

• Teachers administer STAR testing to students a minimum of three times per year. This data is analyzed and used to create intervention action plans for students who are showing low growth or low proficiency levels. Action plans are implemented during Tier 2 instruction.  

• Teachers use the F&P Benchmark Assessment System three times per year to conduct formal running records and determine student instructional reading levels. The information provided by these assessments is used to differentiate small group reading instruction. 

Tier 3:

• Students who have received interventions in Tier 1, 2, and 3 blocks but continue to not meet grade-level standards are referred to the school’s Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) team. This team meets monthly and takes a team approach to discuss student progress, developing an intervention plan for those students, and progress-monitoring growth toward goals.

• Students not mastering grade-level standards and who are more than one grade level behind receive additional intervention support. This may be provided in the form of targeted skills-based reading intervention, resource, or ESOL services based on each student’s needs.

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

Anderson 1 provided training at the beginning of the PLC process for all staff members on the process of the PLC. After the initial training, West Pelzer Elementary used collaboration times and faculty meetings to build capacity by creating collective commitments, norms, and expectations for collaborative time. Collaborative teams determined essential standards and curriculum maps to guide instruction. By working together to determine the essentials and a plan of action, teachers became more effective as a team. At WPES, we have come to understand that data is not condemnation but information. If a teacher believes that a teammate’s data shows that they were more effective than their peers, our teachers work together to coach one another to understand what led to the success of that certain strategy or approach. Our district and school administration believe in this process as well and are not shy about stepping up and providing any support needed. Last year, WPES was lucky enough to have Jacquie Heller, a Solution Tree representative, join each team/grade level PLC. She was able to offer valuable information after she observed our collaborative teams. She was able to speak to our strengths and offer key insights on how our collaborative teams could grow. This year our district brought Solution Tree presenters to speak on viable and equitable common formative assessments. This also helped to solidify ownership of WPES’ implementation of a truly effective PLC. Our teachers were quick to analyze their current assessments and revise if needed. In September of this year, six WPES educators (two administrators, a reading coach, and three classroom teachers who serve as PLC facilitators) were sent to hear Michael Maffoni speak on creating a thriving coaching culture within our professional learning communities. The team of six was able to bring information back to our Guiding Coalition team and begin the coaching process within all collaborative teams school-wide. The most impactful means of building teachers' capacity to work as members of high-performing collaborative teams that focus on improved learning for all students is the marked increase in student achievement. It is hard to look at WPES’ SC Ready scores and STAR scores and deny that implementing a truly effective PLC process yields truly impressive results. PLC has become a way of life at WPES because collaborative teams realize that our students feel most successful when they see their own growth and successes.

Achievement Data Files

• wpes-35-eoe-data-template-032620-5262.xlsx
• wpes-k2-eoe-data-template-6248.xlsx

Additional Achievement Data

WPES focuses on continued growth through rigorous Tier 1 instruction, timely and effective Tier 2 interventions/enrichments and specific, tailored Tier 3 interventions. This has been crucial in helping our students recover from the loss of instructional time due to Covid. Most recently, our students showed significant improvement in ELA from the 21-22 school year to the 22-23 school year. Additionally, excellent growth was shown in Math, particularly in grade 4. The chart below will show percentage of growth for WPES as well as longitudinal growth. 

WPES SC Ready Comparison: Students Scoring Meets of Exceeds

Longitudinal Data

The data included represents both achievement and growth and provides a picture of the growth shown by our students as our collaborative teams continue to work through the PLC process.

*When reviewing the data files, please note that there is no data for 2019-2020 due to school shut down because of Covid. 

*Additionally, our District began using STAR for benchmark assessments in 2022. Prior to that, our District utilized MAP.

 

• 2017-2018 Good Report Card Rating 
• 2018-2019 Excellent Report Card Rating
• 2021-2022 Good Report Card Rating
• Palmetto Gold and Silver Awards based on overall achievement on state assessment 
• Perfect SC Ready Scores on Reading and Math in 2021, 2022, and 2023 (state summative assessments)

Images

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Files

• reading-23_24-calendar-tier-2-lrp.pdf
• guiding-coalition-agenda-2859.pdf
• 22-23-agenda-3rd-grade--10_4.pdf
• data-tracking-chart--3rd-grade-math-standard.pdf