• Category 1

    Selected in 2017

  • Grades: 5 - 7
    School Setting: suburban
    Town Population: 33,288
    Student Enrollment: 593
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 19%
    White/Caucasian: 42%
    Hispanic: 14%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 3%
    Asian: 20%
    Native American: 2%
    Other: 0%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:26
    % Reduced Lunch: 33%
    % ELL Learners: 4%
    Founded: 1990
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Maile Carr
  • CONTACT:
    4909 79th Avenue West
    University Place, WA 98467
    253-566-5660
    mcarr@upsd83.org
Drum Intermediate School
University Place, WA
Our school culture is based around high expectations for all students.
Describe your philosophy of school change or improvement.
• High quality Core instruction is the most important piece to student learning
• Our intervention programs increase student access to core instruction
• Build a common language and professional development around effective instructional practices
• Mutual accountability – teachers agree upon instructional practices, use them and improve upon them as a group.
• Constant improvement upon a guaranteed and viable curriculum
• Transparency of data and monitoring of student achievement

Explain how Title I funds are used to support your improvement efforts.
We use Title 1 Funds to increase instructional minutes for struggling students. This increased instructional time is extended day instruction and/or for intervention time that is focused on an acceleration model. We also use funds to increase parent involvement and support staff development around effective instructional practices for struggling students.
Identify the critical professional development activities you use to improve teaching and student learning.

• Within the majority of our PD opportunities we refer to a common instructional framework based around guided instruction
• Constant administrative feedback around the common instructional framework
• Content specific trainings
• Professional development around specific components within a lesson geared toward improving checks for understanding, chunking and sequences and scaffolding
• PLCs function to provide continuous professional guidance on curriculum and instruction issues.
Describe how data is used to improve student achievement and inform decision making.
We use state data to inform our practice, monitor progress, and modify our programs. We give valid and reliable nationally normed assessments in reading and math for student placement, evaluation of intervention program and core instructional material, and tracking of progress. Data and student work are evaluated on a weekly basis during PLC time to help monitor progress and adjust instructional practice. We analyze data around board determined goals:
1. Students outperform the state and nation on all state and nationally normed tests
2. Students in identified subgroups outperform their state and national peers
3. Students in identified subgroups make continuous progress reducing the achievement gaps between identified subgroups
4. Students make continuous progress - including cohorts of students in each quartile
Describe your school culture and explain changes you’ve taken to improve it.
Our school culture is based around high expectations for all students. We hold weekly PLC meetings around data and instructional practice. We focus on: fully guided explicit instruction, increased instructional minutes for struggling students, an acceleration model of intervention, extended day instruction, intentionally placing struggling students with highly skilled/experienced teachers, a systematic guaranteed and viable curriculum through our entire K-12 System.
Stats
  • Category 1

    Selected in 2017

  • Grades: 5 - 7
    School Setting: suburban
    Town Population: 33,288
    Student Enrollment: 593
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 19%
    White/Caucasian: 42%
    Hispanic: 14%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 3%
    Asian: 20%
    Native American: 2%
    Other: 0%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:26
    % Reduced Lunch: 33%
    % ELL Learners: 4%
    Founded: 1990
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Maile Carr
  • CONTACT:
    4909 79th Avenue West
    University Place, WA 98467
    253-566-5660
    mcarr@upsd83.org