Fairfield Central Elementary, like the four other elementary schools in our district, is rated “excellent” by the Ohio Dept. of Education. We are very proud of this accomplishment.

While these state rankings have been around for some time now, the federal No Child Left Behind Act has added new layers of complexity. Now the ratings are based not only on how many students pass the Ohio Achievement Tests, but also on the progress of various “subgroups” within the school.
 
Right now, Central Elementary is also evaluated on whether five specific subgroups – Hispanic, Limited English Proficient, African American, Economically Disadvantaged, and White – meet standards that together comprise a measure called Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). Not only does the school as a whole have to meet these standards, but each individual subgroup must also meet them.

Last year two of Central’s subgroups, Hispanic and Limited English Proficient, did not meet the AYP standards. It’s important to understand, many of the individual students in those subgroups did meet them, but not enough for the entire subgroup to achieve the standard. Our school is responding to this challenge by working together as a team under its own slogan: “No Central Child Left Behind.”

A focus on continuing professional development for our staff is part of that effort. Under the overall theme of differentiation – it’s an education term that means adapting teaching methods to each child’s learning style – we did a training called Sheltered Instruction Operation Protocol. Robin Solazzo, a specialist from Butler County Educational Service Center, presented five afterschool workshops, met with teachers in groups by grade, and then observed and met with every teacher in the building to provide this training, which helps teachers learn how to make the curriculum more comprehensible to students.
 
Our central office has also provided support. Phyllis Gethers, a language arts instructional specialist, did two half-day trainings for our teachers, including our English as a Second Language teachers and our special education teachers.
 
Of course, we don’t want to wait until the end of the year to see how these and other efforts are working. So we use other measures to monitor progress throughout the school year. One is the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills assessment, a set of measures of early reading development. We also use the Scholastic Reading Inventory, a computer-based reading program that provides a fast, effective way to assess student reading levels, and the End of Theme tests, which are part of the Signatures Reading Series. With all of these, we are seeing good progress. Still, the most-watched indicator will be the results of the third grade and fourth grade Ohio Achievement Tests. The results are expected next month.

Getting parents involved with their child’s school is key to a student’s success. We offer Family Fun Night to promote reading activities at home as well as monthly movie nights. The teachers have done an afterschool program called Cooking Up Success that combines reading activities with cooking.

Any activity that helps bring parents into the school is good. The staff of Central Elementary is working hard to make sure that “No Central Student is Left Behind.”

Richard Wood is the principal at Fairfield Central Elementary School. He can be reached at wood_r@fairfieldcityschools.com.

Published in the Fairfield Echo, May 22, 2008.