• Category 3

    Selected in 2017

  • Grades: pre k - 5
    School Setting: rural
    Town Population: 150,287
    Student Enrollment: 469
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 2%
    White/Caucasian: 94%
    Hispanic: 2%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 1%
    Native American: 1%
    Other: 0%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:20
    % Reduced Lunch: 50%
    % ELL Learners: 0%
    Founded: 1939
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Loralee BeCraft
  • CONTACT:
    4011 Highway 48
    Cunningham, TN 37052
    931-387-3208
    loralee.becraft@cmcss.net
Montgomery Central Elementary School
Cunningham, TN
When everyone believes they have the skills, talent, and support to be successful, they approach challenges with a "can do" attitude.
Describe specific programs in place to ensure that families are involved in the success of your school and students.
-Bi-monthly Family Reading Nights
-Community Math Nights at local grocery
-Before and afterschool tuotoring program
-Weekly Grade-level newsletters and monthly school newsletter
-Highly active Parent Teacher Association
Title I Learning Centers assist parents when teachers are not available with parenting and at-home teaching resources.
Describe the most successful activity your school has initiated to strengthen ties to your community.
We are a campus school with the middle and high schools within a safe walking distance. We partner with them to offer activities to increase our student achievement. We use service learning students to peer tutor and for before-school care of students of campus teachers. These programs extend the influence of the school on students throughout their school career.
We are also a true community school. Most of our students have parents and even grandparents who attended school here as well. We have a close family bond with our community.
Describe your philosophy of school change or improvement.
School administrators are continually assessing the strengths and opportunities for growth within the school. We prioritize our time based around the most urgent needs in our building regarding student acheivement. We look for teacher leaders within our school to lead implementations and share good teaching strategies for other teachers and staff.
What are your school’s top two goals for the next year?
2017-18 MCES School Goals
• We desire to be a Reward School in Growth (top 5% of schools in the state).
• Every student will read and write on grade level and every student will master grade level math standards and grade level math facts.
What is the single most important factor in the success of your school that others could replicate?
The single most important factor in our success is our focus on school culture, specifically our focus on collective efficacy. When everyone believes they have the skills, talent, and support to be successful, they approach challenges with a "can do" attitude. To replicate our success, we recommend school leaders be trained in McRel’s Framework for Balanced Leadership.
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 with the greatest positive effect on student achievement has been collaborative planning sessions. We define collaborative planning as school-level administrators and lead teachers meeting with:
-grade levels to identify the daily targets, assessments, and best teaching practices
-grade levels utilizing the Backwards Design process which is looking at District Common Assessments to identify item types and matching those to our classroom assessments
-grade levels meeting with administrators and district leaders to plan STEM implementation and "challenges"
Explain how Title I funds are used to support your improvement efforts.
Our Title I funds have supported the following:
-highly qualified Math Interventionist/Coach to work with students and teachers to identify best teaching practices
-substitute teachers to cover teachers for nine-weeks planning sessions
Identify the critical professional development activities you use to improve teaching and student learning.
PD activities used to improve teaching have included:
-data use training
-small group reading instruction
-small group math intervention
-explicit direct instruction
new assessment item types and assessment rigor
-text complexity
-inquiry-based teaching
-Digital Blended Learning opportunities
We also utilized walkthrough observations to conduct needs assessments for professional devlopment opportunities.
Describe how data is used to improve student achievement and inform decision making.
Data is used to determine our academic focus, select students for intervention, and to change the predicted achievement paths of under-performing subgroups. Each grade level uses a data spreadsheet which is updated weekly. This helps us have a clear vision for each student when planning our lessons and small group instruction.
Describe your school culture and explain changes you’ve taken to improve it.
Montgomery Central Elementary is a purposeful community of staff members focused on student achievement. Collective efficacy drives our daily work. Every teacher feels as if each student in our school is their student. We are a family of educators believing in success through empowerment and dedication.
Stats
  • Category 3

    Selected in 2017

  • Grades: pre k - 5
    School Setting: rural
    Town Population: 150,287
    Student Enrollment: 469
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 2%
    White/Caucasian: 94%
    Hispanic: 2%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 1%
    Native American: 1%
    Other: 0%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:20
    % Reduced Lunch: 50%
    % ELL Learners: 0%
    Founded: 1939
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Loralee BeCraft
  • CONTACT:
    4011 Highway 48
    Cunningham, TN 37052
    931-387-3208
    loralee.becraft@cmcss.net