• Category 1

    Selected in 2013

  • Grades: pre k - 3
    School Setting: rural
    Town Population: 1,500
    Student Enrollment: 507
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 24.5%
    White/Caucasian: 70%
    Hispanic: 4.3%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 1%
    Native American: 0%
    Other: 0.2%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:14
    % Reduced Lunch: 54%
    % ELL Learners: 1.5%
    Founded: 1969
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Laura Lands
  • CONTACT:
    5423 Killens Pond Rd
    Felton, DE 19943
    302-284-3020
    ddcurry@lf.k12.de.us
Lake Forest North Elementary School
Felton, DE
Our students are grouped based upon their needs and are divided amongst all the teachers in that grade level, being given to the teacher that has characteristically shown the highest achievement in each specific skill.
Describe specific programs in place to ensure that families are involved in the success of your school and students.
First, we have a very strong, supportive PTO that is always happy to come in and volunteer their time, as well as go out and share the great things going on at our school. Coming from active members of the community, their words have a great effect on getting the word out to the rest of the parents that the work we are doing is being successful, but also that all parents are always welcome to come in and see for themselves what is happening here and volunteer if they would like. That leads into the second program that has ensured family-involvement, which is our classroom volunteer program. We always see a constant stream of parents coming in to offer their time in assisting with both the academic (i.e. – one-on-one student support or being a classroom parent) and community-assistance programs (i.e. – Christmas donation projects and helping with food bags for disadvantaged students) that we have at our school.
Describe the most successful activity your school has initiated to strengthen ties to your community.
The biggest thing we do is make sure to take every opportunity we can to invite our parents, grandparents, guardians, and community members in, for both day and night activities. We have programs such as Muffins for Mom, Danish for Dad, and Granola for Grandparents to involve families. We have a Veterans Day celebration in November, where we invite in and honor all of our local active and veteran servicemen and women. We have a Black History celebration in February, where we invite in African American community leaders to speak to our students. Our mentoring program connects at-risk students with members of our school and community, as well, in order to help them succeed. Our Curriculum Nights also serve as a forum to keep our parents, guardians, and community members appraised of what the children in our school are doing currently, as well as changes that can be expected in the future.
Describe your philosophy of school change or improvement.
School Improvement is always done through staying at the forefront of Best Practice, researching any current programs, instructional methods, or technology that have been proven through research to increase the quality of instruction and student learning. It is also imperative that we, as a staff, always look forward to any change that will eventually affect our student population and plan accordingly in order to prepare both our teachers and our students for those shifts in material and curricular expectations. Change should never be made for change's sake; there must always be a valid reason.
What are your school’s top two goals for the next year?
Our primary goal is a smooth transition to success with full Common Core Standards implementation. We hope that by making this our primary focus, we will be able to help push our students to new levels of success, especially when being taught this more rigorous program. Our second goal focuses on the change from our current DCAS state-testing protocol to the upcoming Smarter Balanced testing protocol. Since Smarter Balanced will be advancing the requirements of student thinking, it is our goal to fully prepare our students to achieve on this test as they have on DCAS.
What is the single most important factor in the success of your school that others could replicate?
Mentoring, I feel, is the single most important factor that has contributed to our school's success that other schools could easily replicate. It creates a community of learners and stakeholders bound together, from teachers to paras, administrators to CBO officials, cafeteria and custodial workers, as well as members from our community and local Air Force Base to come in to work with at-risk students, as well as just coaching and encouraging all students to achieve and succeed. We even see student-to-student mentoring, in which all of our children work to build each other up and build a positive school environment. In order to replicate this, all that is required is a group of students and adults committed to the success and achievement to all within the school's walls.
Describe the program or initiative that has had the greatest positive effect on student achievement, including closing achievement or opportunity gaps, if applicable.
Meet the Challenge (MTC) is, by far, the initiative that has had the biggest effect on our students and their performance. We initially use DCAS data in order to determine the needs of the student population within a grade level. From there, students are grouped based upon their needs and are divided amongst all the teachers in that grade level, being given to the teacher that has characteristically shown the highest achievement in each specific skill. Even beyond the academics, it creates a true community of learning, where all the teachers and students receive some ownership and partnership over the achievements on the test. It creates a truth in our school for the saying, “It takes a village.”
Explain how Title I funds are used to support your improvement efforts.
First, we carefully analyze all the programs we currently have active in the school to determine which are working and deserve continued support, which need to be modified, and which are no longer viable. Once that money has been appropriately divvied up, we then begin looking into new, research-based programs that we feel will best supplement the instruction and material being taught in the classroom, as well as programs we feel will fit well with the culture of the school. All of these decisions are made by a team of administrators, teachers, members of our CBO, community, and PTO coming together to make up our School Improvement Team.
Identify the critical professional development activities you use to improve teaching and student learning.
It is too difficult to explain what we do specifically each year simply because every year is different. We choose our PD activities based on what we see are the needs of our teachers (either what we see or what they self-identify) or what our students need. Therefore, we are able to create our PD-learning opportunities to be catered toward the specific needs of our school at that point in time. For example, this year in particular we saw a specific need for training on Common Core alignment, both as the school in its entirety, as well as training each grade level individually so they understood what Common Core meant to them and their students. This is an example of a need that is specific to this year and how we are addressing it, but it will not continue to be a necessity.
Describe how data is used to improve student achievement and inform decision making.
We constantly review our data in order to best meet the needs of our diverse student population. We begin by using end-of-year data to help us set up our classes for the following year. At the beginning of the next year, it drives our formation of the small groups, including the skills taught in those groups, who will get morning tutoring, who will see a reading specialist, who gets after-school tutoring, our mentoring program, our Instructional Support Team (IST). Assessment data serves as a constant driver behind how we refine and improve the next round of that assessment, as well as differentiation within our classrooms. Effectively using data is a crucial element of the success we have been able to celebrate in recent years.
Describe your school culture and explain changes you’ve taken to improve it.
I think the biggest change implemented that helped us improve our school culture was establishing a clear vision, created by effective leadership. In this, I acknowledge Dr. Brenda Wynder, our principal during our success. It was through that vision and her motivation, planning, and leadership that change was able to be enacted so we could achieve as we have. Dr. Wynder always kept that vision, "We are going to make it to the top of the mountain," in the forefront of our minds in whatever activity we were engaged. We made sure to make every decision we could based around the students, with that simple goal in mind. It is now my responsibility to continue that effective leadership that Dr. Wynder had begun, doing everything I can to improve upon the strong foundation built.
Stats
  • Category 1

    Selected in 2013

  • Grades: pre k - 3
    School Setting: rural
    Town Population: 1,500
    Student Enrollment: 507
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 24.5%
    White/Caucasian: 70%
    Hispanic: 4.3%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 1%
    Native American: 0%
    Other: 0.2%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:14
    % Reduced Lunch: 54%
    % ELL Learners: 1.5%
    Founded: 1969
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Laura Lands
  • CONTACT:
    5423 Killens Pond Rd
    Felton, DE 19943
    302-284-3020
    ddcurry@lf.k12.de.us