• Category 1

    Selected in 2021

  • Grades: k - 4
    School Setting: urban
    Town Population: 367,000
    Student Enrollment: 477
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 10%
    White/Caucasian: 59%
    Hispanic: 24%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 0%
    Native American: 0%
    Other: 7%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:19
    % Reduced Lunch: 60%
    % ELL Learners: 20%
    Founded: 1955
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Ana Ave
  • CONTACT:
    2910 S. 18th Street
    Lafayette, IN 47909, IN 47905
    765-772-4780
    aave@lsc.k12.in.us
Edgelea Elementary School
Lafayette, IN 47909, IN
Edgelea Elementary School focuses on building strong relationships with students, teachers, staff, and families."
1. Tell us about your school’s success.
Edgelea is an exemplary learning environment focused on building positive relationships, collaborating, innovative instruction, and life-long learning. All students receive Tier 1 instruction in the gen-ed classroom. Teachers differentiate instruction based on content and student data. Every three weeks an 8-step process is followed to ensure teachers are teaching and students are learning. Student data is disaggregated to determine weak and strong learning patterns, including analyzing NWEA, ILEARN, IRead data, and 3-week classroom assessments. Before school starts, teachers and administrators plan the instructional calendar for the upcoming school year. A visual timeline is created to show the allocation of the instructional year to the state standards. Teachers focus instruction on three-week curriculum maps, monitoring student progress, and holding collaborative data meetings every three weeks. Remediation and enrichment is offered daily to students based on student data.


2. Talk about the greatest contributing factor(s) that promoted positive change in your school.
Edgelea is a PBIS school and we have created a safe and orderly environment where students are regularly celebrated and honored for their hard work, effort, and good choices through daily Golden Heart awards for kindness and Winner’s Circle awards for behavior. We have a clear, focused vision which includes high expectations, time on task, and rigorous, engaging, and challenging instruction. Teachers are innovative and creative in their lesson planning. Every student has an iPad assigned to them and all classrooms have an interactive BenQ board. Edgelea is implementing PLTW, Codelicious, and Generation Genius into the curriculum. Student progress is monitored and supported every three weeks at our grade level data meetings. We diligently follow an 8-step process for ensuring all students' needs are met. Most importantly, our children love coming to school. They are able to learn because they have staff members who truly care about them, love them, and want what is best for them.
3. How has ESEA funding supported the school's success?
Our Title funds pay mostly for staff members. We have hired 8 of the very best Title 1 assistants. We have established our school as a great place to be employed and we are able to hire quality individuals who love their jobs and love their students. Our Title staff members push in to classrooms and and provide small group instruction, remediation, intervention, and enrichment. We have purchased researched based programs for our students: Seeing Stars, Read Naturally Live, Words Their Way, Sound Partners, Michael Heggerty, Optimize, Razz Kids, Reading Eggs, IXL, and Study Island. We have utilized Title funds for family involvement: STEM Night, Reading Bingo, Board Game Night , and Math Night. We encourage children to explore and make new connections with the world around them. We treat each child as an individual learner and encourage them to appreciate the joy of learning. We recognize every child needs support and encouragement within a stimulating, safe learning environment.
4. What professional development activities were used to improve teaching and learning?
Our goal for professional development at Edgelea is to advance teacher learning, address specific issues, foster collegiality, reduce teacher isolation, and lead teachers to greater insights about teaching and learning. After surveying teachers, we provided PD through a summer book study entitled Fostering Resilient Learners. We provided 3 days of Project Lead The Way training to incorporate state mandated computer science standards, and we spent the year focusing on writing. We introduced Positive Action curriculum and provided ongoing PD to support teachers. Every three weeks, the administrators and teachers collaborate, share strategies, and review data to improve teacher instruction and student learning.
5. Talk about the cultural shift leading up to your school's success.
Edgelea Elementary School focuses on building strong relationships with students, families, and coworkers. We feel strongly this is the most important intervention for school success. Students and even the staff members must feel safe, loved, and valued in order to learn and to be successful at school.
We make learning fun and exciting by incorporating Project Lead the Way and SEL Positive Actions into our school curriculum. Edgelea offers free after school clubs for art, robotics, game club, EL social club, Green environment, basketball, and volleyball. We offer family involvement nights/activities such as musical performances, family reading, math, and STEM nights, EL parent involvement nights, skating parties, and more.
Students are involved in their own goal setting and are responsible for keeping track of their own data. Each teacher, in grades K-4, collaborates with students to create a visual goal for their NWEA, Accelerated Reader, and other data (varies by grade level).
6. How has community involvement strengthened your success?
At Edgelea we believe students whose parents are involved in their schooling are more likely to have higher grades and test scores, attend school regularly, have better social skills, and show improved behavior. With that in mind, we welcome our parents and community members daily. Excellent communication is the bridge to strong partnerships. All newsletters are sent in both English and Spanish. Recently we established a STEM Advisory Board (SAB) made up of community members and parents. SAB's mission is to support academic excellence while promoting partnerships between Edgelea and our local community with its businesses, corporations, universities and colleges. The Board provides guidance to improve the school’s STEM program by focusing on the issues related to STEM education and on STEM opportunities that arise for Edgelea students. Last year our students hosted three outreach service projects: socks for the homeless and animal toys and food for the local zoo and animal shelter.
Stats
  • Category 1

    Selected in 2021

  • Grades: k - 4
    School Setting: urban
    Town Population: 367,000
    Student Enrollment: 477
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 10%
    White/Caucasian: 59%
    Hispanic: 24%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 0%
    Native American: 0%
    Other: 7%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:19
    % Reduced Lunch: 60%
    % ELL Learners: 20%
    Founded: 1955
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Ana Ave
  • CONTACT:
    2910 S. 18th Street
    Lafayette, IN 47909, IN 47905
    765-772-4780
    aave@lsc.k12.in.us