The Camdenton R-III School District is an economically diverse rural school district located in one of Missouri’s highest grossing tourist regions. The district enrolls approximately 4,200 students and operates nine attendance centers serving students from the 25^th geographically largest school district in the state of Missouri. Approximately 51% of the students in the Camdenton R-III School District receive free or reduced lunch.

At Hurricane Deck Elementary, located in Laurie, MO, approximately 72% of the students receive free or reduced lunch in grades PK through 4. Hurricane Deck enrolls 147 students and approximately 12 staff members. Through the utilization of the Professional Learning Community process, Hurricane Deck Elementary demonstrated remarkable growth, as evidenced through student performance on the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP), which was largely the result of strong leadership from teachers and administration as well as the growth of the faculty’s capacity to examine student performance data and proactively intervene based on student need.

During his two years as leader of Hurricane Deck, Mr. Shawn Dandoy worked diligently to enhance the collaborative capacity of the faculty by focusing teachers on student performance based on common assessment data and encouraging action orientation through the implementation of research-based instructional strategies and sharing of the effectiveness of these strategies. In addition, Mr. Dandoy utilized Title I parent involvement evenings, entitled “Dinner at the Deck,” to improve parental involvement and communicate the improvement efforts being implemented at Hurricane Deck.

The result of the school’s work was an increase in the percentage of proficient students in communication arts from 32.6% in 2009 to 56.9% in 2010 based on MAP scores. In math, during the same time span, performance increased from 37% to 59.6%. This marked increase in student performance has kept Hurricane Deck off the list of Title I schools in school improvement.

The results are evident. The collaborative efforts that have gone into creating Hurricane Deck Elementary's Professional Learning Community have resulted in early student success. While the journey is not complete, the early success is a noteworthy celebration for the Hurricane Deck community.