• Category 2

    Selected in 2020

  • Grades: pre k - 5
    School Setting: rural
    Town Population: 79,707
    Student Enrollment: 415
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 0.5%
    White/Caucasian: 0%
    Hispanic: 99%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 0%
    Native American: 0%
    Other: 0%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:22
    % Reduced Lunch: 100%
    % ELL Learners: 75%
    Founded: 2002
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Sandra Garcia
  • CONTACT:
    704 W. Ridge Rd
    San Juan, TX 78589
    956-279-9420
    arianna.hernandez@psjaisd.us
Graciela Garcia Elementary School
San Juan, TX
At Garcia Elementary we are learning new and innovative teaching methods to continue supporting student success and growth."

Describe specific programs in place to ensure that families are involved in the success of your school and students.
The team at Graciela Garcia Elementary strongly believes that parental involvement greatly impacts student academic success. Our school has implemented numerous programs encouraging family involvement which includes library services, school assemblies, counseling and parent education sessions.
Our Family Literacy Nights bring parents in for a reading experience with their children. During this event, participants are given the opportunity to enjoy the magic of read alouds using diverse literature in both English and Spanish thus validating their culture. A book distribution is also held to ensure that all families have equitable access to literature. The library also provides family sessions involving technology applications and STREAM activities to promote problem solving and critical thinking skills. Academic success is celebrated alongside families with regular school assemblies, reading banquets and parades. Garcia Elementary’s International Baccalaureate program holds an End of year Exhibition Day highlighting the students’ inquiry projects developed throughout the year. The counseling department conducts regular parental sessions which focus on social emotional needs and strategies to enhance positive child development. Counselors are in constant contact with parents to continue building school - home relationship. The parental advisory council supports school functions through volunteers, fund raisers, parental education classes which range from health, nutrition, citizenship and social justice.
With the aforementioned programs, families at Garcia Elementary strongly impact student academic success.
What are your school’s top two goals for the next year?
Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is an essential goal that is an integral part of education and human development. It is essential for children to acquire and apply knowledge, skills, and attitudes for healthy identities. It is important for students to show empathy to others, maintain relationships, and self-manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible decisions which take other’s needs into consideration.
One of the top goals for our campus next year continues to be literacy. Literacy in every sense of the word. Not so long ago, literacy was considered the ability to read and write. Now, literacy refers to and encompasses all 4 modes of language communication. As we strive to meet the needs of students moving into the 21st century, we understand students will need advanced levels of literacy to live a fulfilling life. Their jobs, their household and their personal lives, in general, will demand from them high levels of literacy. Their ability to listen, read, write and speak effectively will essentially determine their quality of life.
Describe the program or initiative that has had the greatest positive effect on student achievement, including closing achievement or opportunity gaps, if applicable.
Garcia Elementary has been implementing the Dual Language Program and International Baccalaureate Programme simultaneously for the past 12 years. We genuinely believe that these two programs have had the greatest positive impact on student achievement, including closing achievement or opportunity gaps. Our demographics have always reflected a high number of English Learners as well as Economically Disadvantaged children. There is empirical data that supports the positive benefits of this program as students are taught literacy in their native language from the start. When this program is implemented with fidelity, English learners close the achievement gap.
The IB Primary Years Programme focuses on the development of the whole child as an inquirer, both in school and in the world beyond. At the heart of the IB is the learner profile, a long- term, holistic vision of character education that is the focus of the program and puts the student at the center of everything we do. The IB curriculum is concept-based and is taught under 6 transdisciplinary themes. These transdisciplinary themes to help students make connections between the subjects, thereby facilitating more effective learning. Because the IB Programme requires students to take action after a unit of study, it leads to students practicing their oral language development as they present their research. This in turn boosts our students’ self-confidence and self-esteem.
These two programs have offered a transformative experience for our students, teachers, and community. They challenge students and remove barriers so that they may receive a rigorous equitable education that offers them an opportunity to be successful.
Identify the critical professional development activities you use to improve teaching and student learning.
At Garcia Elementary, our continuous professional development sessions have improved our teaching.
In our Collaborative Learning Communities, we collaborate and learn from each other. Our Collaborative Learning Leader/Instructional Coach trains us in effective teaching practices. In our meetings we use district-data, data drawn from conversations, observations, and prior student work to make informed decisions about how to help our students move toward the desired goals. The goals are sometimes extended over time (entire year) or they can be as short as one-week. The interaction between our teachers can be formal or informal and can occur among colleagues who teach the same grade level or across grades. The exact composition of the group is secondary to the common interest and goal of improved practice. We have opportunities to visit other classrooms, have colleagues model lessons in our classroom, reflect, take action, improve our teaching, and receive feedback. Through this process, our reflection and inquiry into teaching has led us to improve our teaching methods and student learning in our classrooms.
At Garcia Elementary we are open to learning new and innovative teaching methods to continue supporting student success and growth.
Describe how data is used to improve student achievement and inform decision making.
Data has always played a very important role at Graciela Garcia Elementary. Over the years, we have moved forward in learning the importance of analyzing our data and using it to inform our instruction and decision-making.

Our school has improved instruction based on data-driven practices and has also achieved gains in student performance and progress. Through the years, data-driven instruction has become a norm at our school. We begin in the summer before school starts and continue throughout the school year after each assessment and reporting period. We meet weekly in our CLC room (Data room) to learn new strategies, review and analyze our data, and chart student’s progress.

There are four very important principles that our school applies when using data to drive instruction, intervention and decision making.

1) Assessment – both formative and summative.
2) Analysis – Examining the results of assessments to identify strengths and weaknesses.
3) Action – Creating Student Learning Objectives (SLO’s), Action/Intervention Plans. Differentiating and teaching, effectively, what students most need to learn based on assessment results.
4) Culture – Developing buy-in and trust from faculty (building a data-driven culture takes time and several years before everyone sees the benefits).

Embracing data-driven instruction has helped move Graciela Garcia Elementary forward, and has positively impacted our school culture, our staff, and, most importantly, our students.


Stats
  • Category 2

    Selected in 2020

  • Grades: pre k - 5
    School Setting: rural
    Town Population: 79,707
    Student Enrollment: 415
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 0.5%
    White/Caucasian: 0%
    Hispanic: 99%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 0%
    Native American: 0%
    Other: 0%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:22
    % Reduced Lunch: 100%
    % ELL Learners: 75%
    Founded: 2002
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Sandra Garcia
  • CONTACT:
    704 W. Ridge Rd
    San Juan, TX 78589
    956-279-9420
    arianna.hernandez@psjaisd.us