• Category 2

    Selected in 2018

  • Grades: pre k - 5
    School Setting: rural
    Town Population: 2,240
    Student Enrollment: 213
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 2.4%
    White/Caucasian: 82.6%
    Hispanic: 11.7%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0.5%
    Asian: 0%
    Native American: 0%
    Other: 2.8%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:12.9
    % Reduced Lunch: 72.3%
    % ELL Learners: 5.2%
    Founded: 2007
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Christal Calhoun
  • CONTACT:
    1201 S. Tool Drive
    Tool, TX 75143
    903-432-2637
    christal.calhoun@malakoffisd.org
Tool Elementary School
Tool, TX
A successful campus must have a united mindset that shares the same vision expecting all to achieve success while acknowledging the effort required by all at all times.
Describe specific programs in place to ensure that families are involved in the success of your school and students.
Tool Elementary has many ways of inviting our families into the school to ensure the success of our school and students. Our parents and community are welcome to attend our morning meeting, every morning at 7:55, the entire school body comes together. This is a time for things like good character, praise and even the occasional Friday dance takes place. Mentors are invited to come meet with students to develop reading skills. The campus holds many activities throughout the year where parents are invited to come. These include a Veterans Day program, a musical program presented by the students and each six weeks awards are offered.
Describe the most successful activity your school has initiated to strengthen ties to your community.
Our most successful activity that ties us to our community happens every year, during the month of October. TES has Grab N’ Go READ NIGHT! Thirty stations are located around the outside of the school. Parents and their child drive to each station where staff members are dressed in their favorite story book character to distribute goodies donated by local businesses. The children are given a leveled reader at the last station. The purpose of the event is to promote reading at home. The students go home and read a portion of their book to return the next day for an assignment and activity. We have several community volunteers to help make this event a success. Every year our staff, students, parents and community love this event and there is a great turnout.
Describe your philosophy of school change or improvement.
A successful campus must have a united mindset that shares the same vision expecting all to achieve success while acknowledging the effort required by all at all times. Change requires us to take risk and learn while doing, this means we cannot settle by doing what we’ve always done, but instead we must rise up to the challenges and expect ourselves to grow while developing a system that fosters a culture of success while meeting our students immediate needs first.
What are your school’s top two goals for the next year?
The top two goals for the next school year is to develop individual plans of Success for each student and continue to provide our students with experiences that in the end will produce a well rounded citizen.
What is the single most important factor in the success of your school that others could replicate?
The mindset of the campus has progressed over the years from, is a student passing, into what is the student's potential? By doing this we've acknowledged that every student does not have the same potential. By focusing instruction on the percentage of students passing we are limiting other student's potential. Taking this new mindset and developing individual plans for each student measures success individually before success is achieved as a whole. Individual goals are developed by knowing a student's strengths and weaknesses. These goals allow us to challenge all students to grow. In the end this produces a rich learning environment for all.
Describe the program or initiative that has had the greatest positive effect on student achievement, including closing achievement or opportunity gaps, if applicable.
Attendance at Tool Elementary has been an issue in the past, but one simple idea turned that around quickly. In a school with over 80% economically disadvantaged we realized our parents did not see the importance of their child being at school every day. Often times the students were making the decision about if they wanted to come to school or not. After viewing the change of roles happening in families it was obvious that we needed to take advantage of the student having the responsibility of getting to school. I guess you can say we decided to get the kids attention. This is when Granny Calhoun parties started. Every six weeks at an awards ceremony, we present students with a Granny Calhoun party invitation, if they have perfect attendance with no more than two early check outs or tardy. Every party has a different theme and the principal comes dressed up as Granny Calhoun. The parties are a huge success and attendance is now over 97 percent each school year.
Explain how ESEA federal funds are used to support your improvement efforts.
ESEA federal funds play a very large role in helping us to meet our students' need for a learning environment that encourages the student to not only participate in the learning, but take ownership of how they learn.Flexible seating has been purchased and both students and teachers see the benefits. Technology to support reading stations and classroom instruction are used daily throughout the school and in all grade levels. We have recently added light filters to provide less strain to the eye and produce more fluency as research has proven. The funds have been used to purchase supplemental instructional material for our classes. We have also been able to hire additional instructional staff to assist our classroom teachers. Our staff have been able to attend professional development off and on campus. We have been able to offer after-school tutorials and summer school using these funds. Through this additional time for instruction we have seen students make great strides.
Identify the critical professional development activities you use to improve teaching and student learning.
The principal believes the best professional development for her staff is using the coaching model. An effort is made to be in each classroom every day. It may be only a quick walkthrough but a prompt constructive feedback is provided on every visit. The principal provides a thorough analysis of the lesson cycle instructing her staff on making sure each student experiences success. This year the teachers are being videoed. After the video is done the principal provides instructional feedback. During the vertical team PLCs everyone views the videos and provides constructive feedback. The staff is given the opportunity to attend traditional professional development but they have stated that they have learned more from the coaching model.
Describe how data is used to improve student achievement and inform decision making.
Great individual plans for success are developed during our grade level meetings. Data is used to make informed decisions. The grade level teachers meet with the principal to look over current data from classroom performance and to develop individual plans for each student. The meetings are very detailed because we are looking at not only the struggling students, but every student to see if they are performing at their individual potential. Grade level meetings require the classroom teacher to keep a record of current averages, parental contact, benchmark grades, use of our educational supports on campus such as tutoring, content mastery and reading intervention.During the first two six weeks the content mastery teacher and reading intervention teachers are included in the meetings to give support to the planning. Once the student's individual plan is created, it is reviewed to determine if adequate exposure to interventions have been included so that future progress goals can be set.
Describe your school culture and explain changes you’ve taken to improve it.
As soon as you walk through the door of Tool Elementary you know this place has an outstanding culture. The staff is known for being a high energy family that keeps things positive and fun. We believe in high expectations and working as a team to get the job done. Motivational moments are available throughout each day allowing our students to be recognized for any and everything during our daily morning meetings. Morning meetings are led by the principal and this brings the campus together as a family to start the day. Every two years the principal and staff adopt a new theme that represents a positive plan for the campus. The morning meetings are a great place to see this come to life. This year we've adopted Rise Up, We Rise Up Together. The students are learning the many ways they can choose to Rise Up and the positive effects of helping someone else Rise Up.
Stats
  • Category 2

    Selected in 2018

  • Grades: pre k - 5
    School Setting: rural
    Town Population: 2,240
    Student Enrollment: 213
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 2.4%
    White/Caucasian: 82.6%
    Hispanic: 11.7%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0.5%
    Asian: 0%
    Native American: 0%
    Other: 2.8%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:12.9
    % Reduced Lunch: 72.3%
    % ELL Learners: 5.2%
    Founded: 2007
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Christal Calhoun
  • CONTACT:
    1201 S. Tool Drive
    Tool, TX 75143
    903-432-2637
    christal.calhoun@malakoffisd.org