Penrose Elementary was named a National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence in 2015. We had been a ''Performance'' School for 10 + years prior to 2017/2018 where we earned the rating of ''Priority Improvement'' on the School Performance Framework. It was a humbling experience. We requested and were approved for a Diagnostic Review. The Diagnostic Review allowed us to look closely at our processes, structures, procedures, and most importantly, search for strategies to increase growth and achievement in ELA and Math to move our school from ''Priority Improvement'' to ''Performance'' in one school year. In 2018-2019, our School Performance Framework was ''Performance''. We had not had an SPF since the 2018-2019 school year until the 2022-2023 school year. Currently, our School Performance Framework rating is ''Performance''. COVID played a big part in student and staff struggles during the 2021-2022 school year. There were a significant number of student and staff quarantines that impacted instruction, achievement and growth; however, the 2022-2023 school year was a normal school year where students and staff we in school for the entire year. Our SPF went from priority improvement to performance for the 2023-2024 school year and has now remained in performance for the 2023-2024 school year.
Staff Configuration: The Penrose Elementary administrative team consists of first year principal in an interim role, an administrative secretary, and two full time school guidance counselors.
The instructional staff at Penrose consists of 3 preschool classrooms (1 classroom which hosts 2 half day sessions and 2 classrooms with full days sessions), as well as one infant room and one toddler room. The K-6 school consists of two teachers per grade level in K, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, with 6th grade being our only grade-level where we are one track. The support staff consists of the following staff members:, one STEAM teacher, one physical education teacher, one music teacher, 3 special education teachers, 7 special education paraprofessionals, 1 Title Certified reading teacher (she serves as the Gifted and Talented teacher too), 1 full time Title 1 paraprofessional, and 1 1/2 time math interventionist who also serves as our district's ELL teacher.
Instructional Programs PreK-6:
Preschool:
Prior to January 2019 the PreSchool in our district had been outsourced to a local entity, this included our CPP slots and special education students. After applying for a large center license, we are now able to serve the needs of our preschool population. Our leadership has been consistent and very knowledgeable. We were able to hire quality teachers for our youngest learners. We are able to predict a much higher Colorado Shines rating which in turn has lead to increased academic performance of our youngest learners. In addition, it has increased our enrollment in kindergarten.
Our Preschool program has adopted Creative Curriculum. The
Creative Curriculum includes developmentally appropriate goals and objectives for children within four main categories of interest: social/emotional, physical, cognitive and language.
Kindergarten-Third Grade Reading Instruction:
Our school and district have created Curriculum Maps and pacing guides utilizing Atlas Rubicon. The core resource for reading is INTO Reading. We supplement and provide interventions with CR Success, Phonics Boost, SPIRE, Seeing Stars, and SIPPS. We utilize the Heggerty Phonemic Awareness book to address phonemic awareness deficiencies as phonemic awareness is a precursor to reading instruction. All of our teachers and administrator have complete the Reading Teacher's Top Ten Tools course which meets the READ Act K-3 teacher training requirement.
We assess our students at the beginning, middle, and end of the year utilizing Acadience Reading (formerly known as DIBELS) by making sure all students receive instruction in the foundational skills of reading. In kindergarten, students learn to discriminate sounds in words and map them to the letters they represent. This continues through the grades until each third-grade student can read with ease, understand the materials and think critically.
In addition, our K-3 teachers are becoming well versed in Acadience Reading. They look at probe detail reports to determine next steps for student instruction, with a set schedule for progress monitoring early literacy skills. Our goal, with our primary teachers and our Title 1 staff, is to promote early identification of reading difficulties and provide effective interventions to quickly close reading gaps and ensure all Penrose students can demonstrate a level of competency in reading skills necessary to achieve success in school.
When students are identified as significantly below grade level based upon our diagnostic assessment (Acadience Reading) to determine specific areas of need for reading improvement. Teachers use this information to collaboratively develop an intervention plan (called a READ plan) with the child’s parents to bring the child up to grade level reading proficiency. Our students continue to receive interventions until the teacher determines that the child's data has met reading skill competencies.
We are very thoughtful and intentional about providing parent friendly home supports and materials for our primary students in the 5 components of reading instruction. We have purchased several online programs to reinforce skills (Lexia, IXL, and Reading Eggs).
Fourth-Sixth Grade Reading Instruction:
Our school and district have created Curriculum Maps, and pacing guides utilizing Atlas Rubicon. The core resource for reading is INTO Reading. At the intermediate level we focus on vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. If an intermediate student struggles in reading, we are able to intervene by employing a Multi-tiered system of support. We diagnosis issues by triangulating our data from multi-sources so we can provide high quality, researched based interventions after ensuring good first instruction. All of our intermediate teachers completed the Reading Teacher's Top Ten Tools course even though it was not required beyond 3rd grade. We wanted to ensure continuity of language, strategies, and supports.
Math Instruction Kindergarten-6th Grades:
Our school and district have created Curriculum Maps and pacing guides utilizing Atlas Rubicon. common resource for math is Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's, INTO Math. This is a newly published program and our third year using it as a common resource across grade levels. We have encountered some difficulties. Assessment structure doesn't always match the recommended teaching. We are now intentional about ''planning backward'' by looking at the assessment for modules to assist in planning for instruction. We are currently implementing Professional Learning Communities as a means of looking more closely at teaching and learning.
Standards Based Instructional System/Monitoring our Instruction and Learning:
Our district has created common formative assessments which we believe matches the depth, rigor, and difficulty of state assessments for every grade level in reading, writing, and math. We believe that being standards based means that every teacher, in every classroom, every day, through this continuous teaching/learning cycle, ensures students learn all standards and associated concepts and skills to mastery. We strive to continually answer four critical questions, adapted from Dufour & Eaker (1998, 2002, 2006): 1. What do students need to know, understand, and be able to do? 2. How do we teach effectively to ensure all students are learning? 3. How do we know students are learning? 4. What do we do when students are not learning or are reaching mastery before expectation? We are able to work through this process by implementing Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). We are still learning about the process and perfecting it.
Multi-tiered Systems of Supports:
Colorado
Multi-
Tiered
System of
Supports (
CO-MTSS) is defined as a prevention-based framework of team-driven data-based problem solving for improving the outcomes of every student through family, school, and community partnering. We are beginning to learn and implement more and more layers of evidence-based practices. Our primary focus on Tier 1 instructional practices to be in alignment with district expectations and support. However, we we intend to shape, develop, and increase the collective capacity of our school to implement and hopefully sustain a multi-tiered system of supports through a problem-solving culture that integrates data, practices, and systems to improve educational outcomes for every student. This year we are putting a high focus on our MTSS model and our school guidance counselor and TITLE teacher are a part of this team. We are trying to improve our MTSS by increasing parent attendance and participation and early intervention.
Student Characteristics
Student Demographics:
Student enrollment at Penrose is approximately 258 students in grades K-6. Of those 258 students only 17.4% report as minorities. 41.1% of all students at Penrose qualify for free or reduced lunch. 1.6% of the students at Penrose speak English as a second language. 16.7% of students at Penrose have been identified for Special Education services. 0.8% of students at Penrose have been identified as Gifted. We had a mobility rate of 10%.
Follow up from Diagnostic Review Results from February 2019:
Onward Educational Consulting, LLC conducted our Diagnostic Review in February of 2019 due to our School Performance Framework rating of ''Priority Improvement''. We have since moved to ''Performance''. However, we continue to utilize the results of our Diagnostic Review to move from ''good'' to ''great'', a destination for quality education in Fremont County.
Culture of Performance Recommendations:1. Build shared accountability through school-wide commitment to collaboratively established student achievement goals that are understood by all. Goals should be set at the teacher level, grade level, and school level. The work of PLCs should focus on meeting or exceeding goals.
Academic Systems Recommendations:
3. Ensure the school provides a comprehensive and aligned curriculum by articulating the types and levels of performance expected at each grade level based on standards and evidence outcomes. Clarify the role of standards versus instructional materials to ensure a focused, school-wide approach to teaching the standards. Provide ongoing opportunities for both horizontal and vertical articulation to ensure consistency of planning and practice.
4. Identify a consistent set of research based, non-negotiable practices to be implemented school-wide. The school’s instructional model should intentionally maximize student engagement and should be used to drive instructional planning, the selection of instructional materials, planning of classroom activities, and use of technology. The instructional model should be well articulated by school leadership and systemically implemented in all classrooms in support of a rigorous cycle of teaching and learning.
5. Maximize the use of instructional time through the effective use of school-wide practices. Ensure the use of instructional time reflects the articulated instructional model for math and reading and includes engaging, rigorous, student centered instructional strategies and frequent checks for understanding and effective use of technology. Maximize the effectiveness of whole group and mall group instruction including interventions.
Talent Management Recommendations:
6. Provide high-quality professional development and coaching support for teachers in the implementation of high-leverage instructional strategies aligned to the articulated instructional model.
7. Put structures in place that allow school leadership to implement a system of frequent, ongoing observation and feedback to teachers to support the implementation of the instructional model. Observations from weekly cycles should be used to inform school-level professional development topics and coaching.
UIP Creation
To create the UIP in 2024/2025, the principal, leadership team, and staff used state data, and local data (NWEA and Acadience Reading/DIBELS) to conduct a ''Data Dig'' at the beginning of the school year. We began the process of looking for trends, determining root causes, narrowing down priority performance challenges, and brainstorming possible action strategies. The Building Leadership Team took the work from the staff to develop the UIP. From this work, Priority Performance Challenges were identified and then we focused on determining the root causes. Major improvement strategies and aligned action steps were created and written into the the Unified Improvement plan to target the root causes and effectively eliminate them with the goal of staying at Performance when the state accountability system resumes. We have set a goal to increase our overall academic performance in reading and math. We continuing to seek a higher overall percentage on the SPF.