• Category 1

    Selected in 2018

  • Grades: 1 - 4
    School Setting: rural
    Town Population: 17,070
    Student Enrollment: 253
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 17%
    White/Caucasian: 67%
    Hispanic: 2%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 0%
    Native American: 1%
    Other: 13%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:23
    % Reduced Lunch: 100%
    % ELL Learners: 0%
    Founded: 1961
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Erica Weadon
  • CONTACT:
    986 Highway AA
    Poplar Bluff, MO 63901
    573-785-4392
    ericaweadon@pb.k12.mo.us
Lake Road Elementary School
Poplar Bluff, MO
Students are launched to their classrooms with a reminder that Lake Road ROCKS!
Describe specific programs in place to ensure that families are involved in the success of your school and students.
Lake Road seeks to build strong relationships with families. An open house is held in August to make students and their families feel welcomed. Community organizations set up booths to provide information regarding extracurricular activities and opportunities for our students. Parents and guardians are encouraged to serve as volunteers through a program called Three for Me, which asks parents to pledge at least three hours to the school. Parents can choose from a variety of school and classroom activities such as reading to a class, tutoring students in math, or being a lunch buddy. Families are kept informed of academic and behavioral progress through regular communication from teachers. Students lead parent teacher conferences by sharing their data binders and academic goals for the year. Teachers use ClassDojo to keep families informed of upcoming events and student behaviors as well as the online portfolio for parents to see examples of their child's work throughout the day.
Describe the most successful activity your school has initiated to strengthen ties to your community.
Lake Road enjoys strong partnerships with community partners through their Bright Futures Council. Bright Futures is a model of support and communication that allows communities and schools to identify student needs and match needs with existing resources. The Bright Futures Council includes local businesses, churches, civic organizations, parents, and other community members. The council supports an effort to bring activities to the school throughout the month. One activity includes Club Days that allow students to be involved in extracurricular activities on and off campus twice a month. In response to poor attendance, the council developed the Rotary Good Habits Store, a monthly incentive store for students. With this support, we are are able to provide our students exceptional experiences and resources.
Describe your philosophy of school change or improvement.
We truly believe each and every child can learn at high levels. By adopting a growth mindset, students and staff never give up. We know there is always room for improvement, and we strive daily to be better than the day before.
What are your school’s top two goals for the next year?
One goal is to fully implement School-Based Implementation Coaching. Through teacher created videos and team discussion, teachers will watch together, reflect, provide specific feedback, respond to ideas for improvement, discuss best practice, and identify next steps.

One long term goal is to integrate STEM and project based themes throughout the curriculum. Teams will work to develop STEM curriculum that incorporates reading, writing, math, science, engineering, and technology.
What is the single most important factor in the success of your school that others could replicate?
Lake Road is a high performing Professional Learning Community (PLC). In order to fine tune our PLC and ensure we were focused on the right work, all staff engaged in the book study Learning by Doing, A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work. All staff worked together to revise our mission, vision, commitments, and goals. The process gave everyone a voice and allowed us to come together to answer the questions: 1. Why do we exist? 2. What must we become in order to accomplish our fundamental purpose? 3. How must we behave to create the school that will achieve our purpose? 4. How will we know if all of this is making a difference? Our newly revised mission, vision, commitments, and goals truly drive our daily work. This process has allowed us to build collective efficacy, where all staff have a shared belief that we can accomplish great things.
Describe the program or initiative that has had the greatest positive effect on student achievement, including closing achievement or opportunity gaps, if applicable.
Creating a positive culture focused on student learning has made the greatest impact on student achievement. The entire staff working together to create a building-wide system of support through PBIS has made major office discipline referrals nearly nonexistent. With the culture shift, students feel safe and part of a loving family. They want to be at school and some students have expressed sadness when an upcoming holiday break is mentioned. When students attend school and behaviors are in check, students learn.

There are times when students require more support with behaviors. Students who continue to struggle even after expectations have been taught and modeled receive tier 2 or 3 intervention through a social group or Check In Check Out. These interventions have decreased the number of suspensions over the years, which in turn have increased the amount of time students are in the classroom to learn.
Explain how ESEA federal funds are used to support your improvement efforts.
Our Title 1 funds are allocated to multiple areas to help fully support our intervention efforts. Funds have been used in the areas of salaries for intervention teachers, instructional technology and staff professional development. Intervention teachers have been integral in helping to close the achievement gap of many students. Instructional technology purchased such as iReady and Chromebook carts have also been crucial in helping to support intervention teachers and regular classroom teachers. Our staff also attends professional development opportunities outside of the district when appropriate. Title 1 funding has been a major contributor to the success of our building's academic gains.
Identify the critical professional development activities you use to improve teaching and student learning.
The staff at Lake Road Elementary is firmly engaged in professional development (PD) to integrate new research and meet the demands of diverse learners. To cover all areas for professional development, each staff member is assigned to one of three teams: Data, PBIS, and Leadership. Leaders on the data team ensure the common formative assessment process is in place and executed during grade level team meetings. They receive PD on peer coaching and assessment capable learners. Leaders on the PBIS team share behavior data at team meetings, seek input for celebrations and parent/community nights, and serve as a classroom management resource to all staff. The leadership team's goal is to lead the staff through collaboration in order to achieve high student academic success. They receive training on standards based grading and core curriculum. Professional Development provided within these teams is shared out during weekly team meetings and collaboration days held at least monthly.
Describe how data is used to improve student achievement and inform decision making.
Consistent assessment is used to target skill deficits and high performance. iReady Math and Reading Diagnostics, reading records, unit assessments, and common formative assessments (CFAs) are all administered and analyzed at the building level by the data team and even further by grade level teams. For our needs, the most powerful tool to improve student achievement and inform decisions are CFAs. In grade level teams, teachers write CFAs based on district created essential learning outcomes. CFAs are given during whole group or small group time and are used to inform and drive teachers' instruction. During grade level team meetings, teachers analyze the results of CFAs and have purposeful conversations regarding targeted instruction based on students' common misconceptions. Students are then placed into groups and receive specific skill instruction and feedback. Based on the results of the CFA, students set their own goals to empower them to become "leaders of their own learning".
Describe your school culture and explain changes you’ve taken to improve it.
Lake Road Elementary chose to implement Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) after a year of 400 office discipline referrals in 2011. 100% of staff were on board with a complete overhaul of our response to discipline and continue to revise the system of support each year. With the implementation of our newly created school-wide student expectations, handbook, lesson plans, and the Morning Celebration, we have seen a complete turnaround. Our Morning Celebration recognizes and celebrates academic and behavior success. Students are launched to their classrooms with a reminder that Lake Road ROCKS! (We are Respectful, Outstanding, Cooperative, Kind, and Safe!)

In the classroom, teachers have cultivated an environment of family and safety that has created confident learners. As students enter the classroom, they are immediately engaged by the teacher through a greeting, shared good things, and student affirmations. This prepares students for a positive and successful day.
Stats
  • Category 1

    Selected in 2018

  • Grades: 1 - 4
    School Setting: rural
    Town Population: 17,070
    Student Enrollment: 253
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 17%
    White/Caucasian: 67%
    Hispanic: 2%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 0%
    Native American: 1%
    Other: 13%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:23
    % Reduced Lunch: 100%
    % ELL Learners: 0%
    Founded: 1961
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Erica Weadon
  • CONTACT:
    986 Highway AA
    Poplar Bluff, MO 63901
    573-785-4392
    ericaweadon@pb.k12.mo.us