• Category 2

    Selected in 2015

  • Grades: 1 - 5
    School Setting: urban
    Town Population: 55,670
    Student Enrollment: 555
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 17%
    White/Caucasian: 59%
    Hispanic: 11%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 1%
    Native American: 0%
    Other: 12%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:25
    % Reduced Lunch: 89%
    % ELL Learners: 4%
    Founded: 1920
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Jan Koeniger
  • CONTACT:
    2160 S 300 E
    Anderson, IN 46017
    765-378-3393
    jkoenige@acsc.net
Valley Grove Elementary School
Anderson, IN
As a staff, we strive to be open and honest in our dialogue with one another. We engage in regularly scheduled conversations about standards and first-time instruction. With this approach, we are able to clearly define our expectations of one another for instruction, but also establish clear goals for our students.
Describe specific programs in place to ensure that families are involved in the success of your school and students.
Valley Grove strives to build strong relationships with families and the community. This is not always easy with our student population. We have tried to be creative in our planning to incorporate families that do not have reliable transportation, positive school interactions in the past, as well as disengaged parents. VGE utilizes the internet to engage parents- school website, Facebook page, email notifications for events, and even text messaging. Through these venues, teachers and staff keep families notified of activities such as newsletters, Family Literacy Nights, Math Nights, and various classroom projects.
VGE has scheduled very successful parent/teacher conferences as well as parent information nights to discuss “high-stakes” testing and preparing for changes in assessments. Many parents do not have a clear understanding of standards or testing and they find these nights very valuable. Our Title 1 social worker works hard to maintain healthy and supportive relationships with our neediest families by providing transportation to appointments, making home visits, seeking needed resources, as well as helping with food collection and donations during holidays and specific times of need.
Describe your philosophy of school change or improvement.
Our motto at Valley Grove is "Never Settle for Less than Your Best!" As a staff, we strive to be open and honest in our dialogue with one another. We engage in regularly scheduled conversations about standards and first-time instruction. With this approach, we are able to clearly define our expectations of one another for instruction, but also establish clear goals for our students. In doing so, we have managed to evolve and change as needed. Everyone plays an active role in our failure or success at Valley Grove. We encourage, we work hard, and we accept the challenges that arise knowing we can count on one another.
What are your school’s top two goals for the next year?
1. Valley Grove would like to
Describe the program or initiative that has had the greatest positive effect on student achievement, including closing achievement or opportunity gaps, if applicable.
The primary initiative that has lead to the greatest positive effect on student achievement at Valley Grove Elementary is The 8-Step Process. As a part of our 8-Step Process, teachers provide instruction on specific standards each three weeks. At the end of the three week cycle, students are evaluated on these standards with a common assessment. Once the assessments are scored, teachers and principals meet together to discuss scores and trends in the data for each grade level. Our teams focus on standards that have a large number of “bubble” students that could become much more secure in the skill with remediation and reteach time. These standards are then used to create a three week cycle of remediation, reteach, and enrichment opportunities for students. This teaching takes place everyday for every student in the building. At VGE, this time is without interruption and a guaranteed opportunity for ALL students to be met at their level.
Explain how Title I funds are used to support your improvement efforts.
Title I funding has supported our improvement efforts through both a primary and intermediate reading specialist serving grades k-3, a literacy data coach to help teachers with instruction and data interpretation, as well as a full-time social worker. Valley Grove has worked hard to provide continuous staff development on focused, small group reading interventions as well as differentiated math instruction. Title I monies have recently been used to purchase a mobile chromebook lab to assist in student assessment and instruction as well.
Identify the critical professional development activities you use to improve teaching and student learning.
Many opportunities for professional development are embedded into the workday. Our teachers have had continuous and extensive training on The 8-Step Process. Building teams and team leaders have been trained by Pat Davenport (co-creator of the process) as well as continued “process checks” twice a year since its inception.
Valley Grove teachers have been trained in the Title I Comprehensive Intervention Model for Reading, The Daily 5, & Cafe. All teachers and principals have received extensive training on the program components and technology supports available with adopted math and reading programs. Professional development is provided by our Data Coach and principal to help teachers in the interpretation of data and reports in order to drive instructional decisions in their individual classrooms as well as at the building level.
Stats
  • Category 2

    Selected in 2015

  • Grades: 1 - 5
    School Setting: urban
    Town Population: 55,670
    Student Enrollment: 555
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 17%
    White/Caucasian: 59%
    Hispanic: 11%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 1%
    Native American: 0%
    Other: 12%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:25
    % Reduced Lunch: 89%
    % ELL Learners: 4%
    Founded: 1920
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Jan Koeniger
  • CONTACT:
    2160 S 300 E
    Anderson, IN 46017
    765-378-3393
    jkoenige@acsc.net