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Each year, teachers observe all peers within their own grade level, then observe one peer above and one peer below their grade level. In addition, this year, our school is compiling "best practices" for each content-based standard. Best practices are compiled at each grade level and placed on the school-wide shared computer drive.

Describe specific programs in place to ensure that families are involved in the success of your school and students.

Relationships are cultivated within the community in order to strengthen the families in the following ways: (1) Highlands Community Services - a vital link between parents, teachers and social services. (2) High Point PTA, parents, area businesses and churches have organized our “No Child Left Unfed” program to meet the physical needs of 120 families in our school. (3) Mentoring program linking area church members with students in need. (4) Virginia Tech’s 4H program meets on campus monthly – parental participation is encouraged. (5) Title I educators host Parent Night twice a year to assist parents academically. (6) High Point’s PTA hosts several family involvement events: fall festival, Family Fun Night (physical education focus), Father/Daughter Dance, Breakfast with Dad, See You at the Pole events, Veterans’ Day Breakfast, Community Helper Day (7) HPES organizes an “Angel Tree” for the holidays to assist families in need

Describe the most successful activity your school has initiated to strengthen ties to your community.

Our No Child Left Unfed (NCLU) program provides approximately 102 food backpacks to needy students each week.

Describe your philosophy of school change or improvement.

We believe the “secret to our success” is in KNOWING every child can succeed far above the students’ or parents’ expectations. We demand excellence from all students – regular ed, special ed and the identified gifted. We expect only the best each student can produce, and present our instruction with the rigor and challenge necessary to meet those expectations. An educator is only as successful as their lowest achieving students, and our lowest achieving students have made huge gains due to the encouragement, challenge and high intensity of instruction. The data clearly shows that increased rigor and intensive study will produce high levels of success in all students. Our reading and mathematics instruction have been imbued with new levels of rigor and the highest expectations for student performance. Through the implementation of an intensive, systematic, balanced literacy program our students are eliminating the achievement gap!

What are your school’s top two goals for the next year?

1. Continue to increase student achievement for each subgroup across all content areas through increased rigor
2. Improve instructional practices and continue to increase project-based learning.

What is the single most important factor in the success of your school that others could replicate?

Research indicates that volume reading is key to increasing reading growth. Motivating students to read can be challenging, so HPES staff worked together to generate creative themes and incentives. For example, the school-wide reading theme for 2013-2014 was “Book Dynasty” (based on Duck Dynasty). Students were “happy, happy, happy” to hear announcements from “Si’ and receive incentives such as duck calls, beards, bandanas, books, and special lunches with “improv skits”! This year’s 2014-2015 theme is “Willie Wonka and the Reading Factory.” Students are thrilled to discover a golden ticket lying on their desks and incentives such as ever-lasting gobstoppers, vision goggles, books, purple hats, and messages from “Willie Wonka”! In only two years, the school-wide word count increased from 120,000,000 to 320,000,000! Last year (2013-2014), 125 students read more than 1,000,000,000 words! As a culminating activity, students had fun at an over-night lock in at the school!

Describe the program or initiative that has had the greatest positive effect on student achievement, including closing achievement or opportunity gaps, if applicable.

HPES provides an intensive, systematic, balanced literacy program in grades pre-K through 5 designed to significantly increase student growth. This program reaches beyond the basal series and SOLs by incorporating a mixture of fiction and non-fiction texts across a variety of genres, implicit and extensive vocabulary development, fluency, word study skills, writing, and comprehension with the purpose of increasing a higher level of cognitive thinking. In addition, students interact with the text in much more complex tasks according to Bloom’s cognitive levels. Using a wide array of assessment data, students are provided differentiated instruction in cooperative, whole, flexible, and small groups, and are provided math and reading remediation according to the targeted needs of individual students. Groups are fluid and change regularly according to progress monitoring results. In addition, a principal-developed reading routine is currently in place in K-2 classrooms.

Explain how Title I funds are used to support your improvement efforts.

Early intervention is the key to success at all academic levels. All students in grades K-1 scoring below level on beginning-of-the-year assessments receive 30-60 minutes of additional remediation daily from Reading Recovery (first grade) Kindergarten Intervention, and/or classroom teachers. In addition, Title I funds support and provide resources for our 4-year-old preschool program. Rigorous and expert instruction is provided from our Title I teachers that has significantly closed the achievement gap among at-risk students. As result of intensive early intervention practices, most students are prepared and reading on grade level by the end of grade 2.

Identify the critical professional development activities you use to improve teaching and student learning.

We believe the professional development opportunities that have been most beneficial are peer observations, collaboration, and sharing of best practices. Each year, teachers observe all peers within their own grade level, then observe one peer above and one peer below their grade level. In addition, this year, our school is compiling "best practices" for each content-based standard. Best practices are compiled at each grade level and placed on the school-wide shared computer drive. Lesson plans are also displayed on the shared drive as another way for teachers to share strategies.

Describe how data is used to improve student achievement and inform decision making.

Instruction is data driven and targeted toward individual student needs. Remediation is provided in whole, small, and one-on-one settings. A daily formative assessment approach is used to guide lesson planning, adapt daily instruction, and reteach concepts. "On-the-spot remediation" is utilized throughout each lesson to give students the opportunity to adjust their thinking during the learning process. Summative and formative assessment tools are also used to assist teachers to evaluate and reflect upon their own teaching, and make adjustments according to student performance. Data is reviewed on an ongoing basis to determine areas of strengths and weaknesses, and best practices are shared in order for teachers to strengthen their instructional practices through more effective strategies. Our consistent data tracking also allows teachers to more efficiently communicate with families about their student’s abilities and needs. Data also determines professional development opportunities.

Describe your school culture and explain changes you’ve taken to improve it.

Below are the best practices that have become what we consider to be our school culture. These practices have been adopted and implemented over the last 2 years:

1. High expectations for success of ALL students
2. Collaborative approach to instruction
3. Relentless pursuit of mastery
4. Vertical alignment of PK-5 curriculum
5. Safe, secure & positive learning environment
6. Ongoing professional development
7. Protection of instructional time
8. Sharing of best practices
9. Peer observations
10. Flexible grouping for targeted instruction- (whole, small, one-on-one, flexible)
11. IE Block (Intervention/Enrichment)
12. Continuous progress monitoring
13. Constructive criticism and frequent feedback
14. Creative and innovative methods of increasing student motivation
15. High level of student engagement

• Category 2

  Selected in 2014

• Grades: pre k - 5
  School Setting: rural
  Town Population: 0
  Student Enrollment: 617
  Student Demographics:
  

  Black/African American: 3%
  White/Caucasian: 96%
  Hispanic: 0.1%
  Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0.1%
  Asian: 0%
  Native American: 0.1%
  Other: 0%
  

  Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:20
  % Reduced Lunch: 48%
  % ELL Learners: 1%
  Founded: 1965
• PRINCIPAL:
  Sherry King
• CONTACT:
  14091 Sinking Creek Road
  Bristol, VA 24202
  276-642-5600
  sking@wcs.k12.va.us