• Category 2

    Selected in 2020

  • Grades: pre k - 4
    School Setting: suburban
    Town Population: 10,900
    Student Enrollment: 341
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 24%
    White/Caucasian: 61%
    Hispanic: 8%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 1%
    Native American: 0%
    Other: 6%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:21
    % Reduced Lunch: 47%
    % ELL Learners: 4%
    Founded: 1922
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Heather Pagan
  • CONTACT:
    500 West Mountain Street
    Kings Mountain, NC 28034
    704-476-8345
    hwpagan@clevelandcountyschools.org
West Elementary School
Kings Mountain, NC
Increasing student achievement doesn’t happen by chance. It is about intentional design, practices, and working hard! "

Describe specific programs in place to ensure that families are involved in the success of your school and students.
We offer a variety of Parent Involvement Activities each school year. These activities include Orientation and Open House at the beginning of the year, Curriculum Nights, Parent-Teacher Conferences twice a year, spirit nights, book fairs, and grade level Title I parent sessions. Our Title I teacher works closely with each grade level team to design,
plan, and implement informative parent sessions during the school day. These sessions are designed to promote parent involvement and academic understanding. Each grade level plans an individual curriculum event where a lesson is demonstrated, activities are
planned, questions are answered, and take-home materials are provided. Families impart positive feedback in regards to the parent involvement events and academic strategies provided during the scheduled sessions. Parent partnerships are imperative
when promoting student success and increasing student achievement.
Describe the most successful activity your school has initiated to strengthen ties to your community.
For quite some time now, we have held a "Twelve Days of Christmas" initiative that has become a staple in our community. Each of the twelve days represents a special celebration or service project geared towards supporting specific community areas of need. One of the twelve days focuses on supporting members of our community that suffer from hunger and homelessness. Students and families bring in canned food for the local Crisis Ministry. To show thanks and appreciation to our community first responders, the students bring in cookies which are then distributed to our fire and police departments. One of the most special days is designed to recognize our most treasured senior citizens. Students collect socks and blankets to keep the residents of our community nursing homes warm and cozy during the holiday season.
These projects not only strengthen our community relationships but also teach the importance of being civically minded.
Describe your philosophy of school change or improvement.
Increasing student achievement and sustaining notable outcomes over a period of time doesn’t happen by chance. It is about intentional design, reflecting on our practices, using data to drive instruction, working hard, and uniting as a team to create a positive learning environment for students. Sustaining achievement is about people, knowledge, and resources. Having the right people in the classrooms willing to do the work, supporting students and faculty at every turn, building rapport with parents and families, engaging community partners, embracing change, using common sense, offering high-quality professional development, purchasing research-based resources, and celebrating successes. It is the goal of any administrator to foster faculty unity and collective efficacy so that goals set are achieved, student success grows exponentially, and outstanding educators always strive for greatness.
What are your school’s top two goals for the next year?
Moving forward, our main focus will be to continue providing sustainable high-quality educational experiences while mitigating learning loss throughout the COVID school year.

Through intense training experiences and collaboration among staff and families, we will continually work to forecast necessary enhancements for students to ensure our high-quality educational experiences are sustainable in all academic areas. Furthermore, we will constantly realign core content standards to mitigate learning loss as we navigate the ever-changing COVID landscape. In response, we will continue to examine our MTSS (Multi-tiered System of Support) structures to fine-tune our individualized student services.
What is the single most important factor in the success of your school that others could replicate?
Through creative scheduling, West Elementary has found a way to personalize the educational process through flex grouping experiences. Often, schools visit West for peer observations to see the schedule first-hand and how the flex grouping elevates differentiation ensuring all standards are taught in a rigorous manner, aligned with data outcomes. Ultimately, West has discovered a way to provide twice the amount of differentiated instruction in all content areas, and it is no secret. West often shares their master schedule and the guide for flex group implementation. With proven success, the flex grouping provides a means for ensuring equal levels of success among all students (growth).
Describe the program or initiative that has had the greatest positive effect on student achievement, including closing achievement or opportunity gaps, if applicable.
The North Carolina Multi-Tiered System of Support is deeply embedded in our work process when layering interventions for students. In essence, core instruction is evaluated and monitored for all students at the Tier I level. Students needing additional support are offered a variety of interventions at Tier II and Tier III levels. With this model, benchmarking data is gathered three times per year to determine a child's ability to apply foundational literacy and mathematics skills. As part of this process, intentional progress monitoring occurs as evidenced by initial data collection to determine levels of skill development and adjust interventions accordingly.

Formative and summative data sources provide a springboard for program planning. We utilize goal summaries and standard assessments to develop high-quality lessons that are engaging and rigorous for students. We firmly believe that data show a broad vision for mastery of grade-level concepts and unwavering student success.
Explain how ESEA federal funds are used to support your improvement efforts.
Through closure, we realized the magnitude of educational opportunities available in the digital age. The possibilities are endless when developing multiple learning platforms. We look forward to expanding technology resources available that enhance student learning and improve educational practices. The federal funds provided will be utilized to enhance classroom technology, keep one to one technology relevant for students, and support high-quality program development.
Identify the critical professional development activities you use to improve teaching and student learning.
The staff is committed to attending high-quality professional development each year. All professional development aligns with the data utilized to develop our School Improvement Plan and Professional Development Plan opportunities for our staff. Our staff has attended and continues to attend professional development including but not limited to the following: Multi-Tiered System of Support Framework, NC Standard Course of Study & Curriculum Alignment, Technology Integration, Istation Training, Parent & Family Engagement, Leadership, Crisis Training, Active Shooter Training, interactive parent communication platforms, and other high-quality sessions. We utilize valuable resources provided by Cleveland County Schools, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, as well as our colleagues. We are committed to keeping up to date and current on best practices, new laws, relevant curriculum, and collaborating as professionals to prepare our students for what lies ahead.
Describe how data is used to improve student achievement and inform decision making.
Student data are collected continuously throughout the year. These data outcomes are utilized to evaluate all levels of tier support, create plans, and make adjustments as needed.

Progress monitoring occurs on a weekly or bi-monthly basis depending upon each student’s tier level. Grade level teams meet weekly to document academic and behavior data sources while making intervention adjustments. Our Problem Solving Team meets each week to review grade level input and offer support strategies to meet student needs. This team encompasses a school counselor, tier interventionist, school psychologist, and principal.

Our Multi-Tiered System of Support Leadership Team takes data conversations to a deeper level by closely working together to evaluate more Tier I levels of instruction while looking holistically at Tier II and Tier III groupings. This systematic multi-tiered approach maximizes student achievement socially and academically.
Describe your school culture and explain changes you’ve taken to improve it.
Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) are embedded in the culture and climate of our school. This mindset allows teachers to engage in conversations that identify remediation and acceleration for students based on classroom, benchmarking, and formative assessment data. However, our response to teaching and learning during closure allowed us to see innovation through a different lens. We saw our team unite, support one another, acquire new skills, reinvent face to face lessons on a virtual platform, and continue
to connect with families in a meaningful way. We have always valued each of our faculty and staff members for the strengths they bring to our team, however, this collaborative skillset helped us forge through unprecedented times unscathed. There is absolutely no doubt that we grew exponentially as individuals and as a supportive school family.
Stats
  • Category 2

    Selected in 2020

  • Grades: pre k - 4
    School Setting: suburban
    Town Population: 10,900
    Student Enrollment: 341
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 24%
    White/Caucasian: 61%
    Hispanic: 8%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 1%
    Native American: 0%
    Other: 6%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:21
    % Reduced Lunch: 47%
    % ELL Learners: 4%
    Founded: 1922
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Heather Pagan
  • CONTACT:
    500 West Mountain Street
    Kings Mountain, NC 28034
    704-476-8345
    hwpagan@clevelandcountyschools.org