• Category 1

    Selected in 2021

  • Grades: pre k - 5
    School Setting: urban
    Town Population: 183,677
    Student Enrollment: 471
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 0%
    White/Caucasian: 0%
    Hispanic: 96%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 0%
    Native American: 4%
    Other: 0%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:22
    % Reduced Lunch: 97%
    % ELL Learners: 68%
    Founded: 1898
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Aidee Vasquez
  • CONTACT:
    5594 Ponce Trail
    Brownsville , TX 78526
    956-548-8930
    aivasquez@bisd.us
A.S. Putegnat Elementary School
Brownsville , TX
Connected students overcome challenges, achieve increased academic scores, and feel safe and secure."
1. Tell us about your school’s success.
Our Cinderella story began with a journey that involved many factors. A strong Instructional Leadership team and the school's positive climate and culture has paved the way for student success. Motivational activities, open door policy, and a team work atmosphere with staff members is evident in the day-to-day endeavors. Parental and community involvement are strong pillars that bind the school together into a successful educational society.
ASP is a successful Honor Roll campus for infinite reasons. School connectedness, academically, emotionally, physically, socially, and culturally is ASP’s goal. Connected students overcome challenges, achieve increased academic scores, and feel safe and secure. Connected stakeholders are able to identify student needs and potential. This serves as a beacon for a data-driven climate environment. At ASP it is clear that academic performance is highly prized and valued.
2. Talk about the greatest contributing factor(s) that promoted positive change in your school.
At ASP, data drives instruction, ultimately paramount to the rising academic achievement scores. Differentiated instruction, accommodations, and student grouping assignments regarding data allow teachers to collaborate and plan, accordingly. Student grouping assignments incorporate a hybrid schedule to foster small groups and pinpoint a student's area of need. Upon disaggregating data, ASP staff discovered that
literacy is the common denominator in the area of need throughout all content areas. Hence, literacy centers with blended learning became essential for success in all areas. Small groups are engaged in literacy binding lessons in the lower grades to zero in on exact skills. The continuous monitoring of lessons, accommodations, and interventions is vital to determine if students are responding to remediation. Thus, proving that data has been the campus' main contributor to all the accolades the campus has achieved.
3. How has ESEA funding supported the school's success?
When reasonable in cost and necessary to accomplish our campus goals, funding supports awards for recognition or incentives for student achievement in the basic foundation curriculum. ESEA funding is also utilized for Professional Development to address needs identified in our Campus Needs Assessment and assist teachers to improve student achievement. In addition, ESEA funds assist in providing research-based, supplemental, intensive, accelerated and connected to the basic foundation curriculum. Services are provided to our students after the scheduled instructional day and Saturday Academies.
4. What professional development activities were used to improve teaching and learning?
Professional development is an integral component in all school and district entities. Campus leadership and faculty teams attend district/state conferences and trainings throughout the school year for improving overall student performance and refining best practices. Teacher collaboration in sharing best practices during horizontal and vertical alignment meetings have proved effective. Training of Trainers (TOT) is one key component in the campus professional development community. Teachers train other teachers in evidence- based teaching strategies that have proven effective in eliciting content comprehension and refining specific skills. In order to improve writing scores, the writing teacher would train lower and upper grade level teams to share best practices for editing, revising, and composition writing highlights.
5. Talk about the cultural shift leading up to your school's success.
Many traditions have taken root at ASP that are a testament to its rising accomplishments. The school works diligently to create partnerships between the community and campus by inviting families to attend Meet the Teacher Night, Honor Roll Ceremonies, Fine Arts Musical Presentations, Grandparent’s Day, Open House, and Parent Assessment Meetings. Additionally, students enjoy Accelerated Reader (AR) contest awards, Panther Power Hour, Fabulous Friday, Panther Time, Movie Nights, Essay Contests, and annual field trips. Being that literacy is the focal point of any successful school, many of ASP’s traditions take precedence in this concept. Students anxiously await to create the costumes of their favorite book character and participate in the Book Character Parade, which elicits the love of reading.
6. How has community involvement strengthened your success?
Communication between school and community is an integral part of all successful schools. At ASP, this is evident in the strong partnership that the school fosters with parents, community and former alumni. ASP sits in the middle of downtown, Brownsville, TX, the oldest school in the city. It is regarded as the little neighborhood school that sprouted a town around it. This has established ASP's roots to grow deep and has made it the focal part of its community. ASP recognizes the importance of nurturing a strong relationship amongst school, family, and community. This recognition is what cultivates the healthy bond that allows students to expand their horizons and make real connections between what they have learned and how it relates to in real life. This bond is what helps ASP to be the successful school that it is.
Stats
  • Category 1

    Selected in 2021

  • Grades: pre k - 5
    School Setting: urban
    Town Population: 183,677
    Student Enrollment: 471
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 0%
    White/Caucasian: 0%
    Hispanic: 96%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 0%
    Native American: 4%
    Other: 0%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:22
    % Reduced Lunch: 97%
    % ELL Learners: 68%
    Founded: 1898
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Aidee Vasquez
  • CONTACT:
    5594 Ponce Trail
    Brownsville , TX 78526
    956-548-8930
    aivasquez@bisd.us