Indiana Schools Want To Know About Leesburg Elementary's Success
Posted
Staff Report-
LEESBURG - When a school is successful, other schools want to know how that success was achieved.
Schools around Indiana now are looking at Leesburg Elementary School to find out LES's secret to success.In October, Leesburg was one of only two Indiana schools to win the Indiana Title I Distinguished School Award. After Leesburg's Title I teachers presented at Title I regional meetings in Indianapolis, South Bend and Bloomington, Leesburg received inquiries about their program.
Visitors from around the state began touring Leesburg to see the program in action. They wanted to know how Leesburg went from a school with only 38.8 percent of its students passing ISTEP English/language arts and math tests six years ago, to one with almost 80 percent passing both tests this year. Visitors, including teachers, principals and administrators, also are interested in how LES has been able to reduce the achievement gap between student groups, according to LES Principal Marv Marino.
Randal D. Miller, principal of Fox Hill Elementary School, Indianapolis, took a team from across the MSD Washington Township School Corp. to visit Leesburg in January. Miller said the group was extremely impressed with Leesburg's "small group, differentiated instruction for first- through third-grade students, the emphasis on research-based literacy instruction with the implementation of best practices, and the use of all available support staff working directly with students providing direct instruction in a well-coordinated, time-efficient manner."
In March, Leesburg hosted four groups of visitors from Eastbrook Community School Corp., Smith-Green Community Schools, MSD Washington Township Schools again and South Central Community School Corp.
Sue Angelos, a Title I teacher from South Central, told Marino, "We heard about your extended day kindergarten model and have already implemented it into our school day about one month ago. So far it is working very well."
Marino said Leesburg's extended day kindergarten program runs during the lunch hour. Identified students stay an extra hour from the morning kindergarten class, while afternoon kindergarten students come an hour early. This is an inexpensive way to provide five extra instructional hours each week without any pull-out from the regular kindergarten program, said Marino.
"We really like the literacy group concept, which will assist with our school's Tier I Intervention model," said Cheryl Gardner, a South Central third-grade teacher.
"Our visit was very helpful," said Laura Ramsey, Matthews Elementary School principal. "My teachers went from being very scared about going on to a non-graded literature block to being excited about it. They have already asked for substitute teachers to cover their classes so they can level the books we have and start next year running. Your lesson format was a helpful tool for us as we begin our venture."
Ramsey also said, "As a former Leesburg teacher, I saw great improvement in my students' test scores in language arts over the four-year period that I was a part of the staff. I know this model works, and there is data over time that supports this finding."
Terah Lee, a first-grade teacher at Matthews, said, "I really appreciated our visit. It was very insightful and encouraging to see the progress that Leesburg has made. As a building next year, we want to use the literacy groups as a way to better educate those students not achieving in a large-group setting. ... Leesburg was a great resource for us to learn from. We appreciated their warm welcome and the many ideas we were able to receive. The Leesburg staff was a great help."
One component of the program Fox Hill wants to replicate parts of in its program next year is the coordination of several student services, including Title I, special education, regular education and English as a second language, in order to teach student literacy groups. Teachers and assistants from these areas work together during the literacy group time. They also are interested in the extended school day, and extended school year opportunities for at-risk learners.
Churubusco Elementary School principal Kevin Kempton said, "I was very interested in visiting Leesburg because I was impressed with the constant increase in their ISTEP scores. We were anxious to talk with the Leesburg staff to find out what has caused their consistent academic growth."
