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Creative scheduling to maximize instructional time and prioritizing district resources have had the greatest positive effect on student achievement. The building schedule provides a large block of time for daily whole group reading, small group reading time, a daily challenge period to provide research-based interventions and progress monitoring, common planning time for teachers, and tutoring times built in both before and after school to meet student needs.

Describe the most successful activity your school has initiated to strengthen ties to your community.

We believe that “It takes a village to raise a child”, so we know it is important to keep the community both informed and involved. Research shows that children are more likely to succeed if their families are involved in their education. R.C Waters has a strong parent-teacher group, T.I.E (Together In Education), that works to develop a closer connection between school, home, and the community. We create a positive and inviting environment for students, staff, and families. Through the T.I.E. group we are able to host a variety of family oriented activities such as Family Math Night, Dr. Seuss Literacy Night, Family Fitness Day, Family Movie Nights, an End of the Year Carnival, Santa’s Shop with local vendors, and many classroom activities. The community is informed of the great things happening at the school through regular press releases, a quarterly school newspaper, Facebook posts, our building informational kiosk, and newsletters. Community members are involved in activities including mentoring, reading with students, “Learn With Me” days, fire safety days, and classroom or grade-level presentations.

What are your school’s top two goals for the next year?

1. To implement similar strategies to ensure success in math for all students
2. To set goals for continued growth in reading and writing

Describe the program or initiative that has had the greatest positive effect on student achievement, including closing achievement or opportunity gaps, if applicable.

At R.C. Waters, creative scheduling to maximize instructional time and prioritizing district resources have had the greatest positive effect on student achievement. The building schedule provides a large block of time for daily whole group reading, small group reading time, a daily challenge period to provide research-based interventions and progress monitoring, common planning time for teachers, and tutoring times built in both before and after school to meet student needs. District resources have been prioritized and utilized to provide a reading teacher at each grade level, as well as grade level assistants. During small group reading time and the challenge period, students are grouped by similar ability and shared among all grade level staff to provide small group instruction that matches individual student needs. Our instructional practices are research based and have aided the growth in student achievement. We have the ability to provide intensive reading intervention with qualified staff 5 days a week for 30 minutes. Students’ needs are identified and remediated with the goal of becoming independent learners.

Describe how data is used to improve student achievement and inform decision making.

Data is our biggest asset. We are data driven and constantly assessing what is working and what is not. With the implementation of a Response to Intervention (RTI) process to address the needs of all students, a variety of assessments are used to gauge the needs of students, as well as measure student growth. Both formative and summative assessments are used to drive instruction. Reading assessments, measuring students’ fluency in reading skills and reading passages, are administered three times per year. All reading assessment data is stored in a central database, which allows staff to generate graphs that display individual student targets and trend lines. These core components help determine who is on track and who is not in becoming a successful reader. Grade-level data teams meet every eight weeks to review the assessment and progress monitoring results, identify students needing interventions, and determine the type of research based intervention to be provided. Progress monitoring data is then collected to determine if the intervention is effective and the gap is closing. Our reading series also affords our teachers the opportunity to benchmark students to determine the reading levels of all students. These results are then used to develop flexible reading groups that are designed to meet the needs of the students during their guided reading instruction time.

Describe your school culture and explain changes you’ve taken to improve it.

Our major cultural focus is that we are team centered. We believe that students do not just belong to the classroom teacher, but to ALL of us. Every child’s growth and success belongs to any and all staff members, from the cooks and custodians, to the teachers and administration. Teachers work and plan together to share their expertise with each other.
R.C. Waters Elementary School kicked-off a school wide PBIS (Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports) initiative this year. PBIS is a process for creating safer and more effective schools by allowing a safe and productive learning environment where teachers can teach and all students can learn. The school has adopted a unified set of expectations for behavior in our school. These expectations are posted throughout the school and will be modeled consistently throughout the school year. The unified classroom expectations, found in every classroom and non-classroom setting in the school, are as follows: Be Respectful, Be Responsible, and Be Ready. The focus of PBIS is acknowledging and rewarding students for consistent positive behavior.

• Category 2

  Selected in 2015

• Grades: k - 3
  School Setting: rural
  Town Population: 11,300
  Student Enrollment: 430
  Student Demographics:
  

  Black/African American: 0%
  White/Caucasian: 91.4%
  Hispanic: 5%
  Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
  Asian: 0%
  Native American: 0%
  Other: 3.6%
  

  Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:16
  % Reduced Lunch: 41%
  % ELL Learners: 0%
  Founded: 1957
• PRINCIPAL:
  Dawn Bryant
• CONTACT:
  220 E. Ottawa St.
  Oak Harbor, OH 43449
  419-898-6219
  dbryant@bcssd.com