“If teachers don’t see a compelling enough reason TO change, why would they care about WHAT or HOW to change?”

—Mike Mattos, co-author of Simplifying Response to Intervention

Keene Mill Elementary School failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress three out of four years from 2008 to 2011. In the fall of 2011, new principal Renee Miller knew that something had to change. That something was a culture of collaboration that would allow teachers the time and knowledge to get the hard work done.

That fall, teams learned what it meant to collaborate. Keene Mill teachers built a common understanding of what collaboration looked like and sounded like by participating in twice-weekly collaborative team meetings facilitated by the school administration. That first year, newly designated team leaders, instructional coaches, and administrators attended professional development together to build a shared understanding of the expectations for collaborative teams. Slowly, utilizing a model of gradual release, team leaders took on a more active role in the work of their team and the hard work of collaboration.

Some important steps along the way included creating a sense of urgency for supporting the neediest, most at-risk students, being clear with expectations on what was tight and what was loose, having administrators in the trenches with the teachers, (walking the talk!), and creating conditions that allowed for collaborative culture to grow.

Teams implemented collaborative practices such as curriculum mapping essential standards and creating student-friendly learning targets. Teachers included students in setting goals for learning and monitoring progress. Quarterly data days where assessment data was analyzed and disaggregated led to the team’s ability to name students by need for the purpose of intervention and enrichment across grade levels.

School leaders created conditions for ensuring all students had guaranteed access to essential learning by supporting teachers: shoring up the core through ensuring curriculum maps and observations during classroom walkthroughs were in alignment; creating a tiered system of interventions and enrichment provided opportunities for students to revisit critical content during a dedicated intervention block; and finally, a school wide intervention team to monitor the progress of the most at-risk students was created.

Through the last 3 years, the school has used all available data to inform next steps. Student achievement data from classroom, district, and state assessments allowed teams to continuously reflect on what supported success and identify areas for growth. Non-traditional sources of data, for instance, in the biannual working conditions survey, teachers’ professional development desires, and even principal evaluation surveys played a role in determining the needs of the school.

Most importantly, we believe in each other, our students, and having fun together!

1. Monitoring student learning on a timely basis.

The grade-level teams meet twice weekly during hour-long blocks of common planning time. The teams focus on either math or reading during these Collaborative Learning Team (CLT) meetings. It is through tightly structured agendas facilitated by team leaders that they focus on what students need to know and how will we know if they know it. Staff honor and value the use of data (both formal and informal) to guide their work. At the core of this is planning common assessments that meet the learning outcomes expressed during conversations when identifying student learning targets. Informal assessment includes information gathered by teachers through: anecdotal records, exit tickets, and high engagement strategies to gather student responses. Formal assessments, such as Horizon, DRA2 Progress Monitoring, Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System, and other common summative assessments help teams learn together. Teachers routinely discuss student needs through weekly "kid talk." During this time students who have not met the expected benchmarks or learning outcomes are identified, and the team brainstorms additional strategies that may be successful to support student learning. Finally, each quarter, teams spend a day immersed in structured, deep data dialogue and analysis using district benchmark assessments in both reading and math. From this activity, students are identified by name and by need as a part of our ongoing cycle of instruction and placed into small intervention groups for either remediation or enrichment. Teachers collaboratively align strategies and resources to support the interventions.

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

The staff understands the multiple opportunities they have to provide intervention. First, the staff recognizes that by using Guided Reading and Guided Math approaches to instruction, intervention can be provided during the content area block of time. Next, special education teachers, ESOL teachers, and instructional assistants are used to “push in” support to provide scaffolding and small group instruction. 

The Keene Mill master instructional schedule allows for 30-minute blocks of intervention or "JUMP START" at varying times throughout the day, which allows for specialists and other highly qualified staff to support students who need additional time and support with content. During this time, teachers meet with small groups or in conferences with individual students. Support staff meet with small groups on a regular basis to intervene with selected content. Additional opportunities are provided for students who benefit from enrichment through parent volunteer programs and Young Scholars.

For students who require additional time and support, beyond the JUMP START double dip, are provided access to the curriculum through intense, small-group instruction using research-based intervention and remediation resources such as Do The Math, Moving With Math, Leveled Literacy Intervention (LLI), Read Well, and Language! Students at Tier 3 are also invited to before-school programs such as Rise to Shine where they access individualized online resources, Writing Boot Camp, and Summer Extended Learning.

Our system and tiers of instruction are monitored monthly by a school wide intervention team comprised of administrators, instructional coaches, special education teachers, ESOL teachers, school counselors, psychologists, and social worker. This interdisciplinary team reviews the progress of each student and determines next steps. The team celebrates when students move from the Tier 3 list back to Tier 2.

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

• Building capacity in team leaders, coaches (CC, Dennis Sparks, Erik Jensen, Ann Delehant, retreat) and teams (adaptive schools)
• Math Workshop, academy courses
• 6+1, BAS, Lucy Caulkins
• TAR book studies, TLAC, Seven Strategies, Simplifying RTI 
• Parent book study (Creating Innovators)
• Principles to Actions (NCTM)

Additional Achievement Data

Pass Percent School- All

Subject	VDOE Accreditation Benchmark	Pass Percent School Year 2013-2014			Pass Percent School Year 2014-2015			Pass Percent School Year 2015-2016
		KMES	FCPS	VA	KMES	FCPS	VA	KMES	FCPS	VA
English	75	93	81	74	94	85	79	94	85	80
Math	70	96	81	74	96	84	79	96	83	80

 

Pass Percent- 3^rd Grade

Subject	VDOE 2015-2016 Accreditation Benchmark	Pass Percent School Year 2013-2014			Pass Percent School Year 2014-2015			Pass Percent School Year 2015-2016
		KMES	FCPS	VA	KMES	FCPS	VA	KMES	FCPS	VA
English	75	86	74	69	92	81	75	93	81	76
Math	70	93	70	67	92	77	74	93	78	77

 

Pass Percent- 4^th Grade

Subject	VDOE 2015-2016 Accreditation Benchmark	Pass Percent School Year 2013-2014			Pass Percent School Year 2014-2015			Pass Percent School Year 2015-2016
		KMES	FCPS	VA	KMES	FCPS	VA	KMES	FCPS	VA
English	75	95	75	70	92	82	77	97	80	77
Math	70	97	83	80	97	85	84	99	83	83

 

Pass Percent- 5^th Grade

Subject	VDOE 2015-2016 Accreditation Benchmark	Pass Percent School Year 2013-2014			Pass Percent School Year 2014-2015			Pass Percent School Year 2015-2016
		KMES	FCPS	VA	KMES	FCPS	VA	KMES	FCPS	VA
English	75	95	79	73	96	84	79	95	85	81
Math	70	88	74	73	91	75	79	91	76	79

 

Pass Percent- 6^th Grade

Subject	VDOE 2015-2016 Accreditation Benchmark	Pass Percent School Year 2013-2014			Pass Percent School Year 2014-2015			Pass Percent School Year 2015-2016
		KMES	FCPS	VA	KMES	FCPS	VA	KMES	FCPS	VA
English	75	94	82	73	94	85	76	91	85	77
Math	70	98	88	76	98	91	83	95	90	82

 

  

 

English Performance		2013-2014	2014-2015	2015-2016
All Students	School	93%	94%	94%
	Division	81%	85%	85%
	State	74%	79%	80%
Black	School	86%	91%	92%
	Division	68%	74%	73%
	State	59%	65%	66%
Hispanic	School	87%	88%	85%
	Division	64%	70%	70%
	State	65%	71%	71%
White	School	97%	96%	96%
	Division	89%	92%	92%
	State	82%	86%	86%
Asian	School	90%	94%	94%
	Division	88%	92%	92%
	State	87%	90%	91%
Students with Disabilities	School	80%	74%	69%
	Division	56%	58%	58%
	State	43%	45%	46%
Economically Disadvantage	School	77%	81%	83%
	Division	62%	68%	68%
	State	59%	66%	66%
Limited English Proficient	School	74%	80%	78%
	Division	59%	65%	64%
	State	54%	61%	61%

  

Math Performance		2013-2014	2014-2015	2015-2016
All Students	School	96%	96%	96%
	Division	81%	84%	83%
	State	74%	79%	80%
Black	School	92%	97%	95%
	Division	66%	71%	71%
	State	60%	67%	67%
Hispanic	School	93%	91%	90%
	Division	64%	68%	68%
	State	67%	73%	72%
White	School	97%	98%	98%
	Division	88%	90%	91%
	State	80%	85%	86%
Asian	School	99%	94%	97%
	Division	91%	93%	93%
	State	90%	93%	93%
Students with Disabilities	School	86%	89%	74%
	Division	52%	53%	56%
	State	43%	48%	49%
Economically Disadvantage	School	91%	87%	85%
	Division	63%	67%	67%
	State	61%	68%	69%
Limited English Proficient	School	92%	87%	86%
	Division	62%	66%	65%
	State	62%	67%	66%

 

Spring 2016- State of Virginia Board of Education Distinguished Achievement Award

2014 & 2015 —State of Virginia Board of Education Excellence Award, a recognition of schools and divisions that have met all state and federal achievement benchmarks and have made significant progress toward goals for increased student achievement and expanded educational opportunities

2013—Northern Virginia Magazine Best Elementary School Award

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