• Category 1

    Selected in 2018

  • Grades: pre k - 5
    School Setting: rural
    Town Population: 87,650
    Student Enrollment: 440
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 0%
    White/Caucasian: 1.8%
    Hispanic: 98%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 0.2%
    Native American: 0%
    Other: 0%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:20
    % Reduced Lunch: 100%
    % ELL Learners: 61%
    Founded: 2003
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Marla Cavazos
  • CONTACT:
    3420 W Rogers Road
    Edinburg, TX 78541
    956-289-2306
    mar.cavazos@ecisd.us
Anne L. Magee Elementary School
Edinburg, TX
Our school culture is one of Unity and Teamwork.
Describe specific programs in place to ensure that families are involved in the success of your school and students.
Magee Elementary takes pride in engaging families and the community in the school's activities. The school targets ways in which they can collaborate with families and community to mold successful college-ready students. With consistent communication and family oriented events, Magee's strive for excellence creates a tight-knit family unit with parents, students, and staff support. Student success is evident the more the families are involved. Consequently, it leads to school improvement.
Describe the most successful activity your school has initiated to strengthen ties to your community.
Our school is very involved in Community and City events. We are involved as a host school for the Community Food Bank for our parents. We also give our parents English classes. We also give Nutrition classes to parents and students. We also are involved in the Annual City Christmas Night of Lights Parade and enter a huge float for our school and usually place 1st. We also enter a school float for the Spring Edinburg City Fiesta Parade and place 1st to demonstrate school/community pride! Students and parents get involved.
Describe your philosophy of school change or improvement.
Magee's administrators believe in the premise that as educators they must instill the power of believing in oneself to get students ready for the next level of education and life itself. While student demographics are challenging, the admininstration achieves all expected goals that are set from the onset of the school year.
They work as a team and believe in each other and most importantly the students. Through a combined effort, Magee not only met all the State of Texas Standards, but also continues to achieve a distinction in every category possible. The combined effort of administrators, teachers, staff, parents, and students focuses on the vision of exemplifying student achievement.
What are your school’s top two goals for the next year?
One goal is to increase our student achievement and the other is to increase our "closing the gap" performance.
What is the single most important factor in the success of your school that others could replicate?
Magee Elementary has high TEAM spirit from the Principal to every single staff member. There is much positive camaraderie among all stakeholders, including parents.
Describe the program or initiative that has had the greatest positive effect on student achievement, including closing achievement or opportunity gaps, if applicable.
Our school district provides extensive trainings based on in depth research in specific subjects and grade levels. They have invested and provided our schools with high technology, and many other resources that allow teachers to flourish. Each grade level meets and collaborates with other grade levels throughout the entire school district. Subject experts present various trainings to our educators that are research-based and up-to-date for students to grow.
Explain how ESEA federal funds are used to support your improvement efforts.
The ESEA federal funds are used to provide the campus and students with extremely valuable resources needed for student learning. Our curriculum assistant and counselor provide students with instructonal materials necessary to receive academic achievement. It has also been used to improve parental involvement and purchase materials to help parents with instructional activities and resources. It helps the school and parents meet the educational goals of our low income students.
Identify the critical professional development activities you use to improve teaching and student learning.
Through professional development, teachers analyze and implement all the TEKS, Magee administrators, along with teachers, disaggregate end of the year data from Pre-Kindergarten to 5th grade. Based on the data, teachers and administration set goals for the following year and select staff development opportunities that will enable them to help prepare students in becoming successful lifelong learners.

The connection between professional development activities and the TEKS begins with the Magee administration. The administrative team attends a weeklong leadership academy provided by the school district.They receive educational updates on core curriculum.
Describe how data is used to improve student achievement and inform decision making.
Student data is used daily to track all student progress. We meet in teams through grade level meetings, vertical alignment, and faculty meetings to ensure everyone knows continuously how each student is doing. Students use data to track their own progress and monitor their success. All our data helps us because it is very prescriptive for each learner to be able to show growth.
Describe your school culture and explain changes you’ve taken to improve it.
Our school culture is one of Unity and Teamwork. We work hard together to get the recognition that the school has received. We took a campus where most are economically disadvantaged or at risk and still achieved the honor of becoming a National Blue Ribbon School.
Stats
  • Category 1

    Selected in 2018

  • Grades: pre k - 5
    School Setting: rural
    Town Population: 87,650
    Student Enrollment: 440
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 0%
    White/Caucasian: 1.8%
    Hispanic: 98%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 0.2%
    Native American: 0%
    Other: 0%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:20
    % Reduced Lunch: 100%
    % ELL Learners: 61%
    Founded: 2003
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Marla Cavazos
  • CONTACT:
    3420 W Rogers Road
    Edinburg, TX 78541
    956-289-2306
    mar.cavazos@ecisd.us