• Category 3

    Selected in 2022

  • Grades: k - 6
    School Setting: urban
    Town Population: 63
    Student Enrollment: 194
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 2.1%
    White/Caucasian: 48.4%
    Hispanic: 36.1%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 2.6%
    Native American: 2.6%
    Other: 8.2%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:32
    % Reduced Lunch: 41%
    % ELL Learners: 3.6%
    Founded: 2011
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Wendy Consoliver
  • CONTACT:
    2201 Morrie Avenue
    Cheyenne, WY 82001
    307-365-7161
    wendy@poderacademy.com
PODER Academy
Cheyenne, WY
"PODER Academy goes above and beyond in offering different resources in the community to our families."
1. Tell us about your school’s success.
With greater-than-average diversity in its student body compared to other schools in the district and state, lower funding levels per student, and consistent outperformance compared to its peers, PODER Academy has always stood out among the crowd. One of the best illustrations of these achievements is captured by the Wyoming Department of Education’s WAEA school report scores, which simultaneously grade schools for achievement, growth, equity, and English learner progress. PODER Academy’s aggregate WAEA school score of 3.0 for 2021-22 is comfortably ahead of all other elementary schools in the district. It is also the only elementary school in the district that is meeting or exceeding 15 year WAEA proficiency goals in WY-TOPP Math and ELA for all student subgroups, as highlighted by WDE (these include EL, Free/Reduced Lunch, Hispanic, IEP, Two or More Races, and White student subgroups). No other elementary school in Laramie County School District #1 comes close to rivaling these student-centered achievements.
2. Talk about the greatest contributing factor(s) that promoted positive change in your school.
PODER implements different strategies that help our students achieve proficiency in all areas and that close the achievement gap. For instance, even though PODER Academy has not been given Title I funding in recent years by the district and even though PODER is provided with significantly less per-student funding overall, the school is able to provide after-school tutoring on Mondays and Tuesdays from 4:00 to 5:00 pm. After-school tutoring is for all students who are below the 50th percentile on their NWEA fall report and for students who are at basic or below basic on their WY-TOPP interim tests. They continue in tutoring until they can subsequently demonstrate proficiency. An important element of this tutoring program is that it is directly handled in each classroom by the students’ own teachers, since they are the most well-informed individuals regarding each student’s unique needs and behavior. In addition to after-school tutoring, we also host Saturday school for students who are particularly weak in some areas. While Saturday school is not hosted by the students’ own teacher in most cases, there is extensive coordination between the Saturday school teachers with the primary teachers in order to ensure that the four hour instructional sessions are tailored to individual student needs. All of our efforts at PODER Academy–including teaching, tutoring, and behavioral intervention–are evidence-based. For instance, we monitor our student’s growth through our monthly BIT meetings, the Spring NWEA growth assessments, and the WY-TOPP winter interim assessments. We also monitor data from other exams, routine quizzes, and from homework. Our teachers’ proficiency in gathering, analyzing, and monitoring data helps them to improve their instructional approaches and more effectively target the needs of each student.
3. How has ESEA funding supported the school's success?
PODER Academy utilizes Title II funds to promote more leadership opportunities for our veteran teachers. Mentoring our new staff through our veteran teachers helps build morale, self-confidence, and instruction strategies.
One of PODER Academy’s uses of Title III funding is for one-on-one training with an ESL professor from the University of Wyoming. As part of this, our ESL teacher has at least four training sessions throughout the school year and all of our teachers have a single session at the beginning of the school year.
PODER Academy utilizes Title IV funding according to its prescribed use guidelines, which include providing well rounded educational opportunities, promoting effective use of technology, and helping students be safe and healthy.
PODER Academy utilizes Title VI to purchase online subscriptions such as Learning A-Z which has programs for reading and writing such as Raz Plus and Writing A-Z. These programs help to support students’ reading instruction by utilizing reading comprehension tools in the resource and classroom setting. The writing plus subscription is utilized to support student writing expression instruction with weekly assessments and checks to accompany consistent instructional supports.
4. What professional development activities were used to improve teaching and learning?
PODER Academy conducts many professional development activities for our staff. Every Thursday, for instance, our teachers are convened together to share their instructional concerns and generate ideas collectively to address those concerns. Also, in these professional development activities our experienced teachers are given leadership opportunities to mentor less experienced teachers and to provide research-based training sessions from the MTSS model. Once a month we focus this event on interpreting recent student performance data as a team and collectively ascertaining accommodations and strategies that certain students may benefit from. Additionally, for new staff, we provide monthly training sessions directed by one of our experienced teachers to share strategies for a range of topics. Topics of focus for these sessions include dealing with student behavior, implementing the school’s culture and vision, and reading and interpreting data from weekly assessments, daily exit tickets, WY-TOPP Interims, NWEA assessments.
5. Talk about the cultural shift leading up to your school's success.
At PODER Academy we maintain thorough communication with parents and work with them so that they support our teachers’ academic and behavioral instruction in the home. Every week, our teachers send home a weekly assessment report and, in cases where a student may have failed an assessment, we also send a copy of the failing assessment. Teachers regularly send emails, make phone calls, and send text messages to parents so that they cooperate with, support, and provide feedback or insight regarding our instructional strategies for their children. This strong relationship is strengthened by the reputation our teachers have developed through the exceptional care they demonstrate on a daily basis. Because of our substantially lower per-student funding, PODER Academy out of necessity has large class sizes of about 30 students each. With these large classes, it is not only essential to have disciplined behavior management and effective instruction, but it is also crucial that we work with parents to extend our classroom culture in the home.
6. How has community involvement strengthened your success?
PODER Academy has been in the community of Cheyenne Wyoming for eleven years now. PODER Academy not only has brought outstanding academic scores to the community, but also initiates food drives, offers resources for families who are in need of job, housing, and basic needs.
PODER Academy goes above and beyond on offering different resources in the community to our families. Many families do not know how to improve their lives using the resources and partnerships that we have with the community.
Stats
  • Category 3

    Selected in 2022

  • Grades: k - 6
    School Setting: urban
    Town Population: 63
    Student Enrollment: 194
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 2.1%
    White/Caucasian: 48.4%
    Hispanic: 36.1%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 2.6%
    Native American: 2.6%
    Other: 8.2%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:32
    % Reduced Lunch: 41%
    % ELL Learners: 3.6%
    Founded: 2011
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Wendy Consoliver
  • CONTACT:
    2201 Morrie Avenue
    Cheyenne, WY 82001
    307-365-7161
    wendy@poderacademy.com