• Category 1

    Selected in 2019

  • Grades: 1 - 5
    School Setting: urban
    Town Population: 872,600
    Student Enrollment: 578
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 7.3%
    White/Caucasian: 25.3%
    Hispanic: 13.8%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0.2%
    Asian: 51%
    Native American: 0%
    Other: 2.4%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:24
    % Reduced Lunch: 79.9%
    % ELL Learners: 51%
    Founded: 1957
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Darlene Hardesty
  • CONTACT:
    5701 Brill Road
    Indianapolis, IN 46227
    317-789-3600
    dhardesty@perryschools.org
William Henry Burkhart Elementary School
Indianapolis, IN
We recognize hard work and have built a proud culture.
Describe specific programs in place to ensure that families are involved in the success of your school and students.
Various family nights are held throughout the school year. Topics last year included math and reading “make it-take it” style activities and a Blast off to Summer night. This was a favorite as we were able to provided support for parents to keep their students learning over the summer. We also incorporated family games to encourage social emotional development of our students: communication, learning how to be a good winner or loser, turn taking. The feedback from parents was great!
What is the single most important factor in the success of your school that others could replicate?
One factor that has created success for our school is our partnership with NIET. Through this partnership, administrators and teacher leaders have been trained and continue to receive training in best practices. We have learned to look for our greatest need based on data and hone in on a specific goal in which the school year's professional development revolves. Master and mentor teachers conduct research and field testing to ensure the professional development shared with all teachers is effective and will grow students as well as meet our school goal. The leadership team meets several times weekly to review data, discuss next steps, and to determine coaching needs for our teachers. The success our school and district has seen since partnering with NIET has been incredible!
Describe the program or initiative that has had the greatest positive effect on student achievement, including closing achievement or opportunity gaps, if applicable.
To ensure students are growing involves first gathering data from a program called Evaluate and noting trends. Month to month growth in the standards assessed in this program is the foundation for identifying students showing the least amount of growth in a student group, whether that be general education, English Language Learner, or Special Education. Once the target students are identified, teachers tailor instruction in small groups to meet the specific need. Every teacher is involved and responsible for the growth of their target students. Working together in teams helps teachers to group students and to develop lessons for remediation or extension. After the next series of Evaluate assessments, data progression is again reviewed to see which students are showing the slowest growth. The target student groups are fluid and change based on progress.
Identify the critical professional development activities you use to improve teaching and student learning.
During weekly professional development held before school, teachers have a specific teacher or two that they are able to collaborate with during the development time of our new learning. They examine the scope and sequence and discuss where and how to incorporate new learning in their lesson. This is communicated with our leadership team and often developed with support provided. A member of the leadership team will follow up with the teacher before the lesson, during, and/or after the lesson to offer support and feedback for growth. Coaching is a critical component of this practice.
Describe how data is used to improve student achievement and inform decision making.
Using monthly data progression sheets helps us to track and monitor that all students, regardless of learning label, are showing growth. Each teacher identifies “target students” who receive specific intervention, and in some cases extension, lessons in order that we see growth in specific skills and standards during the next assessment.
Describe your school culture and explain changes you’ve taken to improve it.
While we pride ourselves on being a school family, our district is seeing a shift as more students are coming with increasingly different needs. Our school stepped out to use Title funds to take the lead using Second Step Curriculum school-wide to address Social Emotional Learning. In the implementation period so far we have seen incredible success. Teachers report they hear kids using the language of the program in their interactions. Students have used the lessons to springboard ideas that resulted in school-wide initiatives. Parents have sent us messages and made comments about the program and the differences they are seeing at home as well. We recognize hard work and have built a culture of which we are proud.
Stats
  • Category 1

    Selected in 2019

  • Grades: 1 - 5
    School Setting: urban
    Town Population: 872,600
    Student Enrollment: 578
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 7.3%
    White/Caucasian: 25.3%
    Hispanic: 13.8%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0.2%
    Asian: 51%
    Native American: 0%
    Other: 2.4%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:24
    % Reduced Lunch: 79.9%
    % ELL Learners: 51%
    Founded: 1957
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Darlene Hardesty
  • CONTACT:
    5701 Brill Road
    Indianapolis, IN 46227
    317-789-3600
    dhardesty@perryschools.org