• Category 2

    Selected in 2012

  • Grades: 3 - 5
    School Setting: rural
    Town Population: 2,700
    Student Enrollment: 112
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 2%
    White/Caucasian: 90%
    Hispanic: 5%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 0%
    Native American: 3%
    Other: 0%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:18
    % Reduced Lunch: 48%
    % ELL Learners: 100%
    Founded: 1973
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Greg Jensen
  • CONTACT:
    220 N. Wisconsin St.
    Conrad, MT 59425
    406-271-5251
    tjenseng@conradschools.org
Prairie View School
Conrad, MT
Public Relations are very important. We have a weekly newsletter that keeps parents involved and updated. There is a hard copy that goes home weekly as well as being available on our school website. We have a partnership with our local radio station and our local newspaper.
Describe specific programs in place to ensure that families are involved in the success of your school and students.
We received the 21st Century After School Grant that allows us to have after school programs that extend the school day on a less structured level. Families are involved! We also have IAT meetings regularly that parents attend. We meet to keep everyone informed and updated.
Describe the most successful activity your school has initiated to strengthen the ties to your community.
Public Relations are very important. We have a weekly newsletter that keeps parents involved and updated. There is a hard copy that goes home weekly as well as being available on our school website. We have a partnership with our local radio station and our local newspaper.
Describe your philosophy of school change or improvement.
Our mission statement is: We have a shared commitment to a supporative environment for lifelong learners. We believe that the needs of our students always come first and foremost. Family dinamics have changed and so has our society and the environment around all of us. Parents, staff and students need to work together and look at changes that need to be in place to address the changes in education.
What are your school’s top two goals for the next year?
We have just adopted our 3 & 3 Goals: (3 Academic and 3 Behavioral)
Each student of each grade level will be at or above their benchmark by the end of the school year.
All staff will be trained and on board on our behavioral program and data will be collected and evaluated for trends and patterns of behavior.
What is the single most important factor in the success of your school that others could replicate?
Our school is a small 3-5 grade leveled school and has an enrollment of 111. We have two sections of each grade and that gives us a staff of six, along with our specialized class teachers, which we share with our other schools. We have a full time resource teacher and a title 1 teacher. We have a school with an open feeling atmoshere. We have no doors to our classrooms. All staff takes ownership in all of our students and not just the ones in their classroom.
Describe the program or initiative that has had the greatest positive effect on student achievement.
We ablitly group throughout our 3-5 grades in reading. Our students are given the MAP testing three times throughout the year and the STAR test is given monthly. We use the data from these testings to help place our students in the appropriate levels. We meet regularly to see if students need to be moved.
Explain how Title I funds have supported your improvement efforts.
We use our title 1 funds to hire a full time instructor in our 3-5 building as well as our k-2 building. We also use our monies to send these two staff members to conferences and to training. We have recently hired another full time instructor to manage the data and testing. She takes the data and works with the struggling students on a regular schedule.
Identify the professional development activities you use to improve the teaching portion of the teaching and learning process.
Classroom teachers meet with our reading coach and aide to see the progress that is being made and to find the students that are struggling to meet their goals. These students are identified, so individual skills are addressed. Each child is seen as often as time allows to reach their benchmarks.
Describe how data is used to improve student achievement and inform decision making.
We have a half time instructor that is in charge of scheduling tests, collecting data and then dristributing the data to the rest of the staff. Reading groups are based on the data. The information is also used to identify the struggling students and then they are pulled out of the classroom to double dose on those skills that are needed.
Describe your school culture and explain changes you’ve taken to improve it.
We realize that when all staff is committed and works together and then meets after hours to insure our students needs are being met, scores increase. We realize that 90 minutes a day for reading is the minimum for success. Individual students get additional time for their double dosing.
Stats
  • Category 2

    Selected in 2012

  • Grades: 3 - 5
    School Setting: rural
    Town Population: 2,700
    Student Enrollment: 112
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 2%
    White/Caucasian: 90%
    Hispanic: 5%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 0%
    Native American: 3%
    Other: 0%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:18
    % Reduced Lunch: 48%
    % ELL Learners: 100%
    Founded: 1973
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Greg Jensen
  • CONTACT:
    220 N. Wisconsin St.
    Conrad, MT 59425
    406-271-5251
    tjenseng@conradschools.org