• Category 2

    Selected in 2015

  • Grades: pre k - 5
    School Setting: rural
    Town Population: 15
    Student Enrollment: 331
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 0%
    White/Caucasian: 89%
    Hispanic: 0%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 0%
    Native American: 0.1%
    Other: 0%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:28.7
    % Reduced Lunch: 47%
    % ELL Learners: 0%
    Founded: 1991
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Caroline Wacker
  • CONTACT:
    1111 Rasho Road
    Traverse City, MI 49686
    231-933-5800
    wackerca@tcaps.net
Courtade Elementary School
Traverse City, MI
Our grade level achievement meetings have been a corner stone of our work to close the achievement gap. Teachers and students have a clear understanding of their assessment results and dig into the information to adjust their instruction as needed.
Describe specific programs in place to ensure that families are involved in the success of your school and students.
Parent involvement continues to be a challenge for us. We offer parent training sessions once to twice per year. However, they are not well attended. We offer Literacy/Math Game Nights to model how to make learning fun at home. Again, they are not well attended. We provide students with independent "book bags" to practice fluency at home. There is a mix of success with this.
Describe the most successful activity your school has initiated to strengthen ties to your community.
Our Parent/Teacher organization strives to provide one free family event once per month to build a strong sense of community within our school. Activities include: Family Picnic, Family Fitness Night, Muffins with Moms, Donuts with Dads, Daddy/Daughter Dance, Mother/Son Bowling, Movie Night with a Pumpkin Decorating Contest, Jog-a-thon (main fundraiser), Game Night, and Art Gallery Night.
Describe your philosophy of school change or improvement.
Our philosophy of school improvement is a team approach with the belief that we must establish and maintain high expectations for ALL students. Our School Improvement Goals state "All Students will demonstrate mastery..." with the understanding that ALL means ALL. We work hard to not make excuses, such as "this child's home environment is poor." or "this child has ADHD." We focus on what the teachers need to do instructional to meet the needs of all students. We recently began to focus on the goal of having 80% of our students achieve grade level standards based upon classroom teaching with the remaining 20% who may need Tier 2 or Tier 3 supports.
What are your school’s top two goals for the next year?
Our top two goals are:
1) All students will achieve or exceed grade level benchmarks in the area of Reading, Writing, and Math.
2) All students will make adequate yearly growth as demonstrated on NWEA Reading and Math assessments.
What is the single most important factor in the success of your school that others could replicate?
I believe the most important factor is time to meet with grade level teachers to analyze the data and create a plan to meet the needs of the students. There needs to be an established protocol that is consistently followed during the meetings and an accountability piece to ensure staff follow-through with the plan. An important piece of this is to provide support to teachers as they work to adjust teaching strategies to meet the needs of all learners in a trusting environment.
Describe the program or initiative that has had the greatest positive effect on student achievement, including closing achievement or opportunity gaps, if applicable.
Our grade level achievement meetings have been a corner stone of our work to close the achievement gap. Teachers and students have a clear understanding of their assessment results and dig into the information to adjust their instruction as needed. We also have two targets that we remain focused on throughout the school year: 1) All students will achieve or exceed grade level expectations as demonstrated on our district assessments in Reading, Writing, and Math. 2) All students will make adequate achievement growth in Reading and Math as demonstrated on the NWEA assessments.
Explain how Title I funds are used to support your improvement efforts.
Title One funds are used to provide a.5 FTE Reading Specialist and a .5 FTE Math Specialist to students who are performing below grade level expecation. Services to students begin the first full week of school and are provided 4 - 5 times per week for increments of 20 - 30 minutes per session. We also have Title One funds to provide parent involvement and support to families.
Identify the critical professional development activities you use to improve teaching and student learning.
Our staff meetings focus on professional development, at least once per month. Our Professional Learning Communities also focus on professional development through the use of educational research and protocols to discuss what the implications are in the classroom.
Describe how data is used to improve student achievement and inform decision making.
The Courtade teachers work closely with our Intermediate School District team and the building principal to analyze our achievement data by student, teacher, and grade level to determine strengths, weaknesses and needs of students and staff. We use a specific protocol during our grade level achievement meetings to consistently analyze our results. We identify students as Tier One Watch, Tier 2, or Tier 3. We use grade level meeting data to identify appropiate interventions to meet the needs of all students. Building-level Professional Development is guided by classroom and grade level results. Budget decisions for interventions are based upon our achievement results.
Describe your school culture and explain changes you’ve taken to improve it.
Courtade Elementary School fosters the feeling of a school family. We have common rules and procedures to ensure a safe and orderly environment. We model and expect mutual respect as well as demonstrating care and concern for each student. We set high expectations for academic and social behaviors. We periodically review our procedures and adjust as needed. We monitor student behavior referrals as well as teacher/parent observations of problem areas. Our guiding principle is "What is best for all students?"
Stats
  • Category 2

    Selected in 2015

  • Grades: pre k - 5
    School Setting: rural
    Town Population: 15
    Student Enrollment: 331
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 0%
    White/Caucasian: 89%
    Hispanic: 0%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 0%
    Native American: 0.1%
    Other: 0%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:28.7
    % Reduced Lunch: 47%
    % ELL Learners: 0%
    Founded: 1991
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Caroline Wacker
  • CONTACT:
    1111 Rasho Road
    Traverse City, MI 49686
    231-933-5800
    wackerca@tcaps.net