• Category 1

    Selected in 2023

  • Grades: 3 - 5
    School Setting: rural
    Town Population: 14,344
    Student Enrollment: 1,630
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 3%
    White/Caucasian: 94%
    Hispanic: 2%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 0%
    Native American: 1%
    Other: 0%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:16
    % Reduced Lunch: 52.9%
    % ELL Learners: 1%
    Founded: 2009
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Beth Cline
  • CONTACT:
    9370 Lancer Rd
    Hebron, OH 43025
    740-928-1915
    bacline@lakewoodlocal.k12.oh.us
Jackson Intermediate School
Hebron, OH
Jackson’s success can be summed up in our school motto, to do “whatever it takes” to ensure all students learn and grow.
1. Tell us about your school’s success.
The basis of Jackson’s success can be summed up in our school motto, to do “whatever it takes” to ensure all students learn and grow. With this mindset, we put students at the center of our daily planning and instruction. We strive to maintain a building schedule that includes core content instruction and intervention periods as well as embedded professional collaboration time to examine student data and target instruction effectively. In the past two school years, Jackson Intermediate has maintained four of five stars in the Progress and five stars in the Gap Closing components of the Ohio School Report Card, which indicates our students exceeded or significantly exceeded the expectations for growth both individually and across measured subgroups. Our Achievement component increased from three to four stars, meaning more of our students met/exceeded Ohio’s standards in ELA and Math. While we are extremely proud of these academic accomplishments, we realize the work never ends so we will continue to do whatever it takes each day. Since no school does it alone, we thank our district and community for their support and commitment to the success of all Lakewood Local students.
2. Talk about the greatest contributing factor(s) that promoted positive change in your school.
Among several key strategies we believe had a positive impact on student achievement, blocking the instructional schedule, done before the Covid shutdown occurred, must be acknowledged first since it permits longer, uninterrupted instructional periods and gives Title teachers, intervention specialists, aides, and support staff dependable access to support learning across the grade band. These blocks provide 120 minutes of ELA, 90 minutes of
math, and 40 minutes of intervention, called WIT (Whatever It Takes) each day. The Principal created a quadrant diagram listing all Jackson students by name into one of four categories that showed their achievement (grade level benchmark) and their growth (amount and rate of progress). Every teacher was provided with an electronic version listing their rosters of students. These quadrants have become a dynamic tracking tool that teachers use to create action plans for individual students. We strongly believe this strategy and weekly data team meetings, have the most critical impact on student gains.
3. How has ESEA funding supported the school's success?
We used ESEA funding to support schoolwide improvement in two ways, staffing and instructional resources.  First, this funding pays the salaries of two teachers who have training as instructional coaches in math and reading. These teachers use a peer-coaching model to work with individual teachers and/or grade/building level groups of teachers. In addition to their support in these areas, each of these staff members teaches one 90- minute accelerated 5 th  grade class each day. . Some FUNdations Level 3 Training has be paid for in order to support at risk students in small group instruction as well as teachers who are new to the curriculum.  
 Second, ESEA funding has been used to purchase 200 Freckle Math seats, an online learning platform linked to Star Math scores that allows adaptive practice.
4. What professional development activities were used to improve teaching and learning?
With direct guidance of the Jackson Principal, Title coaches help facilitate regularly scheduled math and reading Teacher-based Team meetings focused on increasing content knowledge and skillful use of curricular resources, fidelity to consistent, accurate classroom instruction emphasizing evidence-based practices, and the examination of student performance and growth based on
areas of greatest need.
 
5. Talk about the cultural shift leading up to your school's success.
Some of the previously mentioned strategies were challenging for teachers to accept in the beginning. When the master schedule was created, teachers felt frustrated. They had to teach content at assigned times instead of being able to create their schedules. It was important for administrators to give full explanation and support so they could understand that the block schedule would provide them targeted intervention time. Once they accepted this, we turned our attention to Tier 1 instructional minutes and content collaborations during TBTs to ensure core instruction was being taught with fidelity. The next shift was when teachers realized they were going to need focused measurable interventions in order to meet the needs of all students using comparable measures. The final hurdle was when teachers used the quadrant tool to track student performance and growth. Staff felt empowered by the real time feedback loop that its use created.

6. How has community involvement strengthened your success?
Our Title I teachers also work with all staff to plan and implement two curriculum engagement opportunities annually. These events are called, Learning Fun with a Loved One, and are
scheduled on holiday party dates. We invite parents and other “loved ones” to participate
with students in math or reading activities for about an hour just before holiday parties begin.
By preceding classroom parties, which are generally well-attended events in any case, we
are able to reach about 200 attendees who learn some fun ways to support the learning at
home. They also complete exit surveys that help us improve future events.
Stats
  • Category 1

    Selected in 2023

  • Grades: 3 - 5
    School Setting: rural
    Town Population: 14,344
    Student Enrollment: 1,630
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 3%
    White/Caucasian: 94%
    Hispanic: 2%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 0%
    Native American: 1%
    Other: 0%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:16
    % Reduced Lunch: 52.9%
    % ELL Learners: 1%
    Founded: 2009
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Beth Cline
  • CONTACT:
    9370 Lancer Rd
    Hebron, OH 43025
    740-928-1915
    bacline@lakewoodlocal.k12.oh.us