• Category 1

    Selected in 2015

  • Grades: k - 6
    School Setting: urban
    Town Population: 0
    Student Enrollment: 486
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 2%
    White/Caucasian: 75%
    Hispanic: 21%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0.5%
    Asian: 1%
    Native American: 0.5%
    Other: 0%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:21
    % Reduced Lunch: 73%
    % ELL Learners: 6%
    Founded: 1954
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Jileen Xochimitl
  • CONTACT:
    1300 9th Street
    Ogden, UT 84404
    801-737-7602
    boydstunj@ogdensd.org
Horace Mann Elementary School
Ogden, UT
Our teachers have become expert at examining data, looking at students as individuals, and working together to come up with solutions to help all students succeed. They have come to see each student in the grade as their own, and they support each other to become better teachers to reach all students.
Describe specific programs in place to ensure that families are involved in the success of your school and students.
This year we wanted to strengthen home/school ties, so we implemented student data binders to help us with that. We had an expert on this come to our school and give us Professional Development in how to set this up, and then she worked with each grade level team to get them up and running. We informed families about the binders at our back to school night and showed them the expectations we had for the binders. Students in all grades graph their data in language arts and math weekly. The binders go home and families go through the binders with their students, and then sign off saying that they have done this. We show the families the objectives that are expected for their students to master, and they can see how their students are doing in relation to these. At parent teacher conferences, these binders were the catalyst for the discussions. Our teachers have added other academic information to the binders and some have included attendance and behavior data.
Describe the program or initiative that has had the greatest positive effect on student achievement, including closing achievement or opportunity gaps, if applicable.
The initiative that has made the greatest positive effect on student achievement is our weekly grade level PLC meetings. Our teachers have become expert at examining data, looking at students as individuals, and working together to come up with solutions to help all students succeed. They have come to see each student in the grade as their own, and they support each other to become better teachers to reach all students.
Identify the critical professional development activities you use to improve teaching and student learning.
We try to base our professional development on the needs of our school. As our school sets our 90-day plan, we look to see where our needs are, and then plan professional development to meet those needs. Our best professional development activities are teacher led, and we have empowered our teachers to lead out in PD activities. When we use outside experts to do PD, we prefer them to observe what is going on, and then create PD based on our needs. We like them to come back and check to see how we are doing on what we learned. Both the instructional coach and principal observe teachers and set small goals to help teachers move forward. Often times our PD comes from needs that they see, and not all teachers are expected to attend all PD activities. We try to tailor the activities to student and teacher needs.
Describe how data is used to improve student achievement and inform decision making.
Our school is great at data-driven instruction. We want our entire school to be a Professional Learning Community (PLC). Within that big PLC, we have grade level PLCs that meet weekly in 90 minute meetings during the school day. They use the 5 PLC questions to help guide instruction and assessment. Through curriculum maps and interim assessments, they plan instruction for the week and create common formative assessments. The next week they chart and examine the data and determine which students need more help to achieve the objective, and how they are going to help them. Weekly they continue the process of looking at data, planning interventions and extensions based on the data, creating common formative assessments, and then planning learning experiences to meet the objectives for the upcoming week. We also use information from the interim assessments, and end of year testing to guide our instruction. We keep track of all of this information on grade level spread sheets.
Describe your school culture and explain changes you’ve taken to improve it.
Our school has a strong culture of student achievement which is based on the truth that all students can learn. We do not allow any student to "opt out" of learning, and we relentlessly track each students progress and find ways for students that are not succeeding to achieve success. Our theme for the year is "Learning is Super", and each grade has adopted a super hero. Everyone is encouraged to wear their super hero shirts on Monday, and our student data binders are called HERO binders which stands for Hardworking, Excellence Every Time, Reaching Our Goals, and Optimistic. We say this motto every morning, and as students meet and achieve goals, they receive a bracelet that reads "I Made My Goal" from the principal and their names are announced over the morning announcements. We want students to feel that learning and hard work can be fun and rewarding!
Stats
  • Category 1

    Selected in 2015

  • Grades: k - 6
    School Setting: urban
    Town Population: 0
    Student Enrollment: 486
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 2%
    White/Caucasian: 75%
    Hispanic: 21%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0.5%
    Asian: 1%
    Native American: 0.5%
    Other: 0%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:21
    % Reduced Lunch: 73%
    % ELL Learners: 6%
    Founded: 1954
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Jileen Xochimitl
  • CONTACT:
    1300 9th Street
    Ogden, UT 84404
    801-737-7602
    boydstunj@ogdensd.org