Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the School Performance And Programs topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Carpenter Elementary principal reports interim gains in math, outlines schedule and intervention changes
Summary
Carpenter Elementary Principal Tyler told the board the school redesigned its master schedule, increased specials and targeted intervention time, and is seeing interim growth in math while reading showed modest gains. The school invited board members to a March 3 Reading Across America event.
Tyler, the principal of Carpenter Elementary, told the Laramie County School District #2 board on Feb. 10 that the school has redesigned its master schedule, reallocated Title I paraprofessional time to targeted intervention, and altered professional learning community (PLC) and RTI practices to better meet student needs.
Tyler said the schedule changes combine grade levels for specials to give students longer blocks (often 30 minutes to an hour), and that one teacher, Miss Warren, is teaching a combined fifth- and sixth-grade class to free scheduling space and enable cross-grade collaboration. The school has used Title I paraprofessional time to provide interventions to students with the highest need rather than strictly by schedule, Tyler said. He also described a more flexible PLC cadence for K–2 teachers and virtual collaboration with comparable small-district teachers.
On interim assessment data, Tyler reported growth in math: the school’s interim math percent meeting or exceeding expectations rose from 56 percent in the fall to 66 percent at midyear. Reading rose modestly from 43 percent in the fall to 44 percent at midyear. Tyler said the school’s YTOP (interim assessment) results show 58 percent of students meeting or exceeding expectations in English language arts at midyear and 33 percent meeting math expectations on the interim measure; staff expect additional growth in the third quarter as curriculum content intensifies.
Tyler credited staff for implementing data talks (individual teacher meetings focused on assessment data), using FastBridge and other screeners, and adopting individual reading plans (IRPs) for targeted interventions. He described an organized process for reviewing interim and summative data and said the staff has started building a school improvement project that identifies essential standards and additional building-level standards to close instructional gaps.
Tyler also invited board members to participate in the school’s Reading Across America event on March 3. The school plans a short, 15-minute reading block in each class from 10:45 to 11 a.m. and invited trustees to read to students.
The presentation emphasized instructional changes in a small-school context: combining some specials, reallocating intervention time, embedding cross-grade PLCs and committing to data-driven interventions.
Tyler closed by offering to share the school’s midyear and end-of-year data with trustees on request.
