• Category 1

    Selected in 2017

  • Grades: k - 5
    School Setting: rural
    Town Population: 691
    Student Enrollment: 77
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 5%
    White/Caucasian: 88%
    Hispanic: 7%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 0%
    Native American: 0%
    Other: 0%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:13
    % Reduced Lunch: 56%
    % ELL Learners: 3%
    Founded: 1945
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Rachell Mitchell
  • CONTACT:
    313 S. 6th
    Gillett, AR 72055
    870-548-2466
    rmitchell@dewittdragons.net
Gillett Elementary School
Gillett, AR
One of the greatest assets of this small community is the giving spirit. There is always an endless supply of volunteers. The tradition and love for this school runs deep and wide.
Describe specific programs in place to ensure that families are involved in the success of your school and students.
At our school, we believe that it isn’t programs that make us successful, it’s people. We are blessed to have certain organizations such as local churches, non-profit groups, and parent teams that work alongside of the school to ensure that all students, families, and staff their needs met.

We feel that if a student is safe, loved, and accepted, they can accomplish anything. The organizations mentioned above help with things such as: the food backpack program, the clothing closet, extra-curricular activities, and student achievement recognition to name a few.

Because of the small size of the school, we must focus on individual needs. These groups and our staff do whatever they can to ensure that all needs within our reach can be met. When we met the goals of helping kids and families, we have been successful. As we reach out and help families of students, they reach out in return by supporting us and entrusting us to educate their children.
Describe the most successful activity your school has initiated to strengthen ties to your community.
It would be difficult to choose one single activity that strengthened the ties to the community and our school. The heartbeat of Gillett is this school. Because our community stakeholders are so giving of their time and resources, we take as many opportunities as possible to collaborate and allow them in our school with our children.
From parent nights, to musicials, to breakfast with grandparents...we love seeing community members in GES! Our yearbook is constructed solely by community members. Fall festivals and PTA fundraisers are another way we connect our school to our Gillett community.
One of the greatest assets of this small community is the giving spirit. The list could go on and on. There is always an endless supply of volunteers. The tradition and love for this school runs deep and wide.
Describe your philosophy of school change or improvement.
With school change and improvement, we believe it is a slow process. You cannot change overnight. Change is difficult at times. A positive school culture with buy-in from students, teachers, and community is helpful in making the shift to change and improve.

A vision and mission that everyone believes is essential to school change and improvement. "Why are we here, what are our goals?" is a good way to define a mission and vision of a school. Once the stakeholders of the school understand their mission, goals for change and improvement can be set.

While change can be hard, it is important to celebrate the small accomplishments along the way to reaching the goal. It is also important that schools examine data and assess how they are doing in relation to reaching their goals. This should be done often, as schools should evaluate progress toward goals along the way.

All school goals should be designed with student’s best interests and student achievement as the top priority.
What are your school’s top two goals for the next year?
Our school's top two goals for next year are:

1. Student achievement. Not only do we want students to be successful and meet state standards for their grade level, we emphasize student interventions at an early stage to be sure that all students show growth. We will continue the process of setting student goals and monitoring their progress towards reaching those goals.

2. School climate. Our school climate is very important when defining how successful we are. We must constantly find ways to promote a climate that is loving and conducive to learning. We will continue our partnerships with staff, students, families, and other stakeholders to promote shared activities that will draw us together and allow us to flourish.

Again, as mentioned many times in the questions above, we will do whatever it takes to make student's successful.
What is the single most important factor in the success of your school that others could replicate?
The single most important factor that helps our school be successful is that we all work together. Staff and community members are always willing to construct a new project, repair something that is broken, put together new equipment for the school, volunteer to help kids with their studies, etc.

There is no shortage of people who will step up and help out. If other schools wanted to replicate this, we recommend that the schools celebrate and embrace the volunteers such as parents, community members, former students, etc. Invite them in, share in school success, and allow them to be helpful.
Describe the program or initiative that has had the greatest positive effect on student achievement, including closing achievement or opportunity gaps, if applicable.
The initiative of student reporting of data and goal setting has had the greatest positive effect on student achievement. When students know how they are doing and what they need to do better, we feel the school as a whole has a plan for success. Students are very competitive to get their personal goals met so that they can go even higher. We implemented student data binders and student data walls to show their progress.

Teachers use the concepts of a PLC-Professional Learning Communities to break into teams and analyze this data in order to present to the students. In these meetings, teachers are able to collaborate on ideas for teaching, learning, and assessment. All of this is done with student achievement in mind.
Explain how Title I funds are used to support your improvement efforts.
Title I funds are used at GES to employ our only paraprofessional, Sheila. She works alongside of the teachers to help reinforce skills, especially in the early grades. If a student is having trouble with sight words, a child needs someone to read aloud with, or a student needs help with math facts...Mrs. Sheila works with them in small groups, individually, etc.

Additional Title I funding is also used for programs such as Reflex Math, which help accentuate and reinforce basic math fact skills. Technology, such as a SMART Board, has been purchased in the past to ensure that all classrooms have technology in their class to stay on top of technology.

Professional development is very important to our school. In order to prepare students for their futures, teachers must be equipped with the latest, research based educational trends. Our school and district believes in investing what funds we can for teachers to have book studies, curriculum workshops, and training.
Identify the critical professional development activities you use to improve teaching and student learning.
Our school district puts top priority in allowing teachers to attend professional development that enriches and enhances their teaching abilities. Some of the professional development that they attend is based upon our teacher's Professional Growth Plan, and the teachers get to choose PD that would be helpful to them.

Some types of professional development activities that our school and district participate in are: Partner with our local educational. cooperative in “Job-Alike” trainings that are content specific. Teachers collaborate with other teachers who hold similar jobs and unpack new curriculum and standards, develop lesson plans, create assessments, etc. Our school also uses our PLC teams to help us develop goals and work toward meeting them in regard to student achievement. We frequently revisit the idea of a Professional Learning Community and make adjustments to our teams and goals as necessary.
Describe how data is used to improve student achievement and inform decision making.
At GES, we are fully aware that data should drive all decisions that you make, especially when dealing with student achievement.

John Hattie’s research on Effect Size shows that providing feedback to students and then setting individual goals will allow a student to grow by empowering them and allowing them to have ownership of their learning.

Teachers look at data weekly in our team meetings. With this student performance information, they make assessment decisions as well map out interventions that the students may need.

Students are given data binders. They are analyzing their own performance data. Students and teachers then meet together to set goals, and they monitor their progress along the way.

After studying trend data over time, team decisions such as new curriculum can be made.
Describe your school culture and explain changes you’ve taken to improve it.
The school culture at Gillett Elementary has a personal but purposeful tone. Due to our school size, we have the ability to know each child and their family members on a personal level. We all have the common goal of producing successful and productive citizens.

Individualization is important to us. The small class sizes allow us to connect with students in a meaningful way.

Our small school size also calls us to do “Whatever it Takes” to help that individual child. You might see the principal sweeping the floor and then later calling out spelling words to a child who needs that extra help. The 3rd grade teacher might bring a coat from home to the needy student who is without. Again, “Whatever it Takes.”

A frequent revist to our school core beliefs helps us to refocus and improve culture. Changes and decisions are made based on constant monitoring and adjusting.
Stats
  • Category 1

    Selected in 2017

  • Grades: k - 5
    School Setting: rural
    Town Population: 691
    Student Enrollment: 77
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 5%
    White/Caucasian: 88%
    Hispanic: 7%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 0%
    Native American: 0%
    Other: 0%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:13
    % Reduced Lunch: 56%
    % ELL Learners: 3%
    Founded: 1945
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Rachell Mitchell
  • CONTACT:
    313 S. 6th
    Gillett, AR 72055
    870-548-2466
    rmitchell@dewittdragons.net