• Category 1

    Selected in 2014

  • Grades: pre k - 5
    School Setting: urban
    Town Population: 14,300
    Student Enrollment: 265
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 30%
    White/Caucasian: 44%
    Hispanic: 14%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 1%
    Native American: 0%
    Other: 11%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:17
    % Reduced Lunch: 87%
    % ELL Learners: 5%
    Founded: 1952
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Tamara Kelly
  • CONTACT:
    4502 Belle Grove Road
    Baltimore, MD 21225
    410-222-6589
    tjkelly1@aacps.org
Belle Grove Elementary School
Baltimore, MD
The support of a Title I math and reading resource teacher allows for additional interventions as well as job embedded staff development for teachers.
Describe specific programs in place to ensure that families are involved in the success of your school and students.
Belle Grove has many ways to engage and involve our families in their children's academic growth and success. Open and continuous communication with families is a key component to ensuring family involvement. One event that kicked off the school year was Belle Grove's Sneak a Peek event. This event provided students and families the chance to come to school before the first day to meet the principal, their teacher, and to see the classroom. This initial event helped to establish and emphasize the importance of home school partnership. In addition, our principal communicates with families through the monthly newsletter and utilizes the Connect Ed message system to share important school events. Parents and guardians are also in constant communication with their child's teachers through daily agenda book messages, Class Dojo interactive behavior management system, and phone calls. Communication does not only occur when there is a problem. We also share students' successes.
Describe the most successful activity your school has initiated to strengthen ties to your community.
Because there is no community center in our area, the school is the hub of our neighborhood. We have initiated many community events to strengthen ties with our families. Math Nights, Reading Nights, STEM Nights, our annual Wearable Arts Show, as well as partnerships with the local library. These successful events help to build parent capacity to help at home with instruction and to build parents' confidence with asking questions and becoming more involved in the school and their children's education.
Describe your philosophy of school change or improvement.
School change and improvement can only occur when the school culture is positive. Schools are transformed when staff, students, and community are positively affirmed. Excellence is highlighted and celebrated, not only for students but for staff as well. Challenges are identified as opportunites for growth. The concept of the growth mindset, also lends itself to school change or improvement. Intelligence and achievement is not fixed. At Belle Grove, we believe that through perseverance, encouragement, motivation, and effort learning and achievement occurs. The possibilities for change, growth, and improvement are great when you instill in students and staff that through effort and positive mindset all things are possible!
What are your school’s top two goals for the next year?
Belle Grove's top two goals for next year are to continue to increase the reading and writing fluency of our students and to increase our parental involvement even more.
We have seen great strides at Belle Grove this year in the areas of reading and writing. This growth is noted on our county's reading skills assessment, as we are continually making notable progress. But the real evidence is witnessed in the classroom where writing has come alive and work is posted everywhere. It is our belief that if we continue our sound instructional practices that academic progress will continue. In the area of parental and family involvment, we are planning a variety of events during the school day this year as well as communicating more through social media outlets such as Twitter. We believe that thinking outside the box will yield increased parental and family involvement.
What is the single most important factor in the success of your school that others could replicate?
Specific feedback to teachers and students about instruction has been an important factor in our school's success. Teachers and instructional staff receive specified feedback through three types of walkthroughs; quick visits, learning walks, and data walks. During quick visits, the principal provides individual teachers with feedback regarding instruction and how the instruction aligns to the school improvement plan. Teachers take this information and reflect on their individual practice. Through learning and data walks, the leadership team, along with central office curriculum specialists, provide generalized grade level feedback which is quantitative in nature. The data is analyzed and provides our school improvement team, which consists of every teacher in the building, valuable data on how the entire school in progressing towards our school improvement goals. The data is also used to plan professional development sessions and to improve instructional practices.
Describe the program or initiative that has had the greatest positive effect on student achievement, including closing achievement or opportunity gaps, if applicable.
Being able to offer effective guided reading instruction has had the greatest impact on student achievement. All students are assessed using the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment. Once students' instructional and frustration levels are determined teachers provide instruction that is on each student's reading level. Teachers meet daily with small groups to provide appropriate reading materials, lessons, and hands-on opportunities for students. They focus on student-specific skills and strategies that will enable them to access more complex text. These practices lead to engaging differentiated instruction.
Explain how Title I funds are used to support your improvement efforts.
Title I funds are used to support many improvement efforts at Belle Grove. Title I funds are used to hire a part-time Pre K teacher and aid to allow for a full-day Pre K program for our students. The support of a Title I math and reading resource teachers allow for additional interventions as well as job embedded staff development for teachers. Because of Title I funding, we are able to provide additional reading interventions, professional development opportunities for teachers including conferences and consultant work, additional planning sessions for staff, and parent workshops including opportunities for parents to learn strategies to help their children at home. In addition, Title I funds provides students with extended learning opportunities such as Saturday School and Summer Learning Academy. These extended learning opportunities have focused on increasing our students' proficiency in the areas of reading comprehension and fluency, writing , math and STEM.
Identify the critical professional development activities you use to improve teaching and student learning.
Our school staff has focused on strengthening the instructional capacity of teachers in the areas of reading and writing. Teachers attended a writing conference with Lucy Calkins to learn strategies to support the writing curriculum through Units of Study. Teachers returned and shared their newly obtained knowledge with their colleagues and subsequently the program has been implemented in grades K-5. Reading consultant, Kathy Bumgardner visited the school to observe, plan, and model lessons for whole group and small group instruction for teachers. Collaborative planning sessions have been critical in improving teaching and student learning as well. Teachers work together to plan reading, writing, and math lessons which align to Common Core and Belle Grove school improvement goals. Teachers are also able to engage in grade level specific mini professional development sessions during collaborative planning. This practice provides differentiated professional development.
Describe how data is used to improve student achievement and inform decision making.
Data is analyzed on a daily basis at Belle Grove Elementary. During weekly leadership team meetings, grade level collaborative planning, and monthly School Improvement Team Meetings, the principal is working alongside classroom and resource teachers to review county assessments. Through this analysis, we are able to identify and monitor students most at risk of not mastering standards and making conscious decisions regarding interventions and the differentiation needed for each child. In addition, the county data specialist visits Belle Grove to provide support to the staff regarding how to effectively analyze data for trends which influences our instructional next steps.
Summative assessments are not the only data used to inform instruction. Belle Grove implements formative assessments daily. These assessments provide instructional staff with real time feedback which assists in planning for differentiated, student tailored remediation or extension.
Describe your school culture and explain changes you’ve taken to improve it.
We are the home of Bulldog Pride at Belle Grove. Our school culture is centered around providing a safe and respectful environment. An environment that provides students with the opportunity to develop positive relationships, engage in rigorous instruction, and demonstrate responsible behaviors to grow as lifelong learners. Students are encouraged to make good choices, face consequences, and help others. To improve upon our school culture we have worked hard to implement daily positive office referrals for students and staff which supports our PBIS program. We also implemented the Double Check Program, a program affiliated with Johns Hopkins which provides strategies to teachers with an emphasis on sensitivity to students' culture and learning styles.
At Belle Grove, students are committed and encouraged to achieve academically. We believe in the growth mindset and the power of yet. Students are supported everyday to persevere towards their academic goals.
Stats
  • Category 1

    Selected in 2014

  • Grades: pre k - 5
    School Setting: urban
    Town Population: 14,300
    Student Enrollment: 265
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 30%
    White/Caucasian: 44%
    Hispanic: 14%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 1%
    Native American: 0%
    Other: 11%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:17
    % Reduced Lunch: 87%
    % ELL Learners: 5%
    Founded: 1952
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Tamara Kelly
  • CONTACT:
    4502 Belle Grove Road
    Baltimore, MD 21225
    410-222-6589
    tjkelly1@aacps.org