Kennewick School District Elementary School Report to the Community
Friday, October 29, 2010 at the ESD 123 office building in Pasco from 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM
Attendees: 15 Kennewick citizens
Presenters and KSD representatives: 14 elementary school principals, 5 district administrators, 1 district communications director, 3 school board members and 1 union president
Purpose: To engage the community, share data and receive citizen recommendations
The presentation was opened by KSD Superintendent Dave Bond with additional information provided by Assistant Superintendent of Elementary Education, Greg Fancher and the principals of the 14 elementary schools.
Information I took away from this presentation:
- The core mission of Kennewick elementary schools is teaching reading
- 90 minutes to 2 hours of daily reading instruction is typical with additional time for some students
- Another 50 minutes daily is dedicated to developing writing skills
- Reading scores earned by 3rd grade drop off during 4th and 5th grade
- KSD curriculum is test driven by the WASL, MSP, HSPE and MAP
- State assessments are moving targets and district scores fluctuate significantly frustrating efforts to use state scores meaningfully to inform instruction
- Poverty impacts are significant and growing in Kennewick with attendant effects on teaching and learning
- Changing community demographics also impact Kennewick schools
- KSD must focus on factors it can control like quality of instruction, quality of curriculum, quality of assessment and use of class time
- Math instruction is 60 minutes each day, science and social studies split 30 minutes per day and music, PE and library share 30 daily minutes. Recess is 15 minutes per day. These values may not apply exactly to all schools.
- Established in 1996, the reading program has been the district’s long term focus
- Reading is perceived as the gateway for student success in math and other subjects
- KSD needs help from families for all students to be successful in school and is seeking ways to improve parent partnerships
Kennewick School District has just grown to over 16,000 students with 7300 in the 14 elementary schools. 60.3% of Kennewick students are white and 30.2% are Hispanic. 49.6% of district students receive free or reduced cost lunches. According to consultant Jim Lewis and Associates the level of student poverty correlates with student pass rates on standardized tests. A one point increase in free and reduced lunches translates to a ½ point drop in scores for all subjects. There has been an increase in free and reduced lunches district wide from 38.6% in 2004/05 to 49.6% in 2010/11.
KSD is a major employer with over 1000 teachers and 1000 classified staff. The district operating budget is approximately $144 million.
KSD tests Kindergarten students in reading readiness and math when entering school and again at the end of the Kindergarten year. First and second grade students take the DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment). DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills) is taken by elementary students several times a year. MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) is taken in September and May by all students and in January by selected students. Washington State tests students in the spring using the MSP (Measurements of Student Progress) which replaces the WASL (Washington Assessment of Student Learning).
Fancher stated the district is trying to include content area instruction in the reading program. The text, Imagine It! does allow some science and social studies instruction. It was noted that while content instruction offers opportunities for students to practice reading it is not suitable for teaching reading. The challenge for Bilingual and Dual Language instruction is to enable students to make more than one year’s growth in reading.
Five of the 14 elementary schools have full day kindergarten. These students do better in school after kindergarten. The cost to convert the other elementary schools to full day kindergarten is beyond the district budget at this time.
Overall district mobility from 3rd to 10th grade is 44%. That is 44% of 3rd graders are still in Kennewick schools in the 10th grade.
For the purpose of this presentation KSD sorted the elementary schools into one of three groups based on student poverty levels or affluence of families of students within the school. Group 1 schools are Amistad, Eastgate, Edison and Westgate. These schools have higher numbers of Limited English Proficient (LEP) students. In 1995/96 there were 388 LEP students in the district and in the current year there are 967 LEP students. Up to 82% of the students in these schools enter Kindergarten unprepared to learn reading or math.
Group 2 schools include Canyon View, Hawthorne, Sunset View, Vista and Washington. These schools are above the district average in serving free and reduced lunches. Numbers of LEP students are increasing but there is no program to serve them. Possible methods to provide service to LEP students would be to bus them to schools with programs or to train staff now in the buildings to serve them.
Group 3 schools are Cottonwood, Cascade, Lincoln, Ridge View and Southgate. These schools have more stable student populations, lower numbers of students in the free and reduced lunch program and few ESL and ELL students.
In turn, each principal described the characteristics of his or her school. Some particulars for each elementary are detailed below.
Concluding the presentations, Fancher spoke passionately about his conviction and commitment to the district 3rd grade reading goal which has endured through 3 superintendents. The power of the goal is that it has not gone away. Pushing students to make 1 ½ years reading growth during one school year is essential to having them catch up.
At the end of the program participants completed a questionnaire making recommendations to KSD.
School information summaries:
Group 1 -
For these reports school mobility refers to the percent of student turnover during the school year. ESL is English as a Second Language and ELL is English Language Learners. Title 1 is a federal program providing funds to schools which Kennewick uses to hire more staff like paraeducators.
Westgate Elementary – Principal Dale Kern 445 students
90% free and reduced lunch 47% ELL 25% mobility Receives Title 1 funding
Students at Westgate speak 17 different foreign languages. Last year 85% of 3rd graders made
1 ½ years growth in reading. This serves to advance the district goal of helping students catch up with their peers reading at grade level.
In math 3rd graders are ability grouped into 5 groups to better customize instruction for each student.
Title 1 funds pay to hire more staff.
Eastgate Elementary – Principal Niki Arnold-Smith 493 students
96% free/reduced lunch 48% ELL about 20% mobility
Reading is taught 90 minutes daily K-5. Bilingual in K, 1 and 2. Full day Kindergarten. Some students have an extended day. Summer school for transitional Spanish speakers going into 3rd grade English cklasses. Reading curriculum is Imagine It! and Reading Mastery (very scripted, directed and targeted)as alternate core. Also, Corrective Reading for 4th and 5th graders at least 2 years behind. Read Naturally is used on computers to build fluency.
Edison Elementary – Principal Bruce Cannard 524 students
75% free/reduced lunch 30% ELL
This school offers Dual Language classes K-5 using a 50:50 model. Action Team for Partnerships (ATP) linked to student achievement in math and reading and helping students develop positive attitudes toward education. Family Math Night has 65% of students participating.
Amistad Elementary – Principal Andy Woehler 576 students
97% free/reduced lunch 59% ELL about 20% mobility Receives Title 1 funding
Reading is taught 90 minutes daily K-5. Bilingual K, 1 and 2. Full day Kindergarten. Some students have an extended day. Summer school is offered. Response to Intervention (RTI) offers the possibility for students to make more than one years’ growth in reading. Imagine It! provides limited science and social studies instruction. ELL students transition to English reading in the 3rd grade using Scholastic Transitions. Math and science are taught in English K-5. Reading Mastery is alternative core.
Group 2 -
Washington Elementary – Principal Rob Phillips 481 students
67% free/reduced lunch 11% ELL about 12% mobility
Class size ranges from 22 to 30 students. Has an Intermediate Life Skills classroom. Also has a 4th and 5th grade Developmental Therapy classroom. Reading in grades 1, 2 and 3 is 2 hours daily. Reading intervention, K-4, provides additional time for students needing more reading instruction and preparation for the state assessment.
Hawthorne Elementary – Principal Craig Miller 480 students
76% free/reduced lunch 24% ELL about 18% mobility
Class size ranges from 27 to 31 students. There is one Dual Language class and ECEAP is new this year.
RTI started here in 2008. The staff cannot work harder so work smarter using DIBELS to monitor reading progress.
Vista Elementary – Principal Matt Scott 430 students
65% free/reduced lunch 7% ESL/ELL about 25% mobility
Class size ranges from 19 to 29 students. There are primary and intermediate Life Skills classrooms and an ECEAP classroom. Imagine It!, Reading Mastery (K-3)and Corrective Reading(4 & 5) are used. Supplemental reading materials include Language for Learning (K-1) and Phonics for Reading (2-5). Math Connects is used (K-5) as well as Step Up to Writing (K-5).
Canyon View Elementary – Principal Mark Stevens 480 students
55% free/reduced lunch 45% ESL/ELL about 17% mobility
Class size ranges from 23 to 30 students. There is a Life Skills class and a primary Developmental Therapy class. Use RTI and Reading Mastery to teach reading. Have hired 4 paraeducators to work with small groups of low level readers.
Sunset View Elementary – Principal Tony Langdon 504 students
36% free/reduced lunch 9% ESL/ELL about 7% mobility
Class size ranges from 23 to 32 students. There is a K-2 Life Skills class. Imagine It! is not used at this time but is under consideration. Harcourt Trophies is current reading program. RTI will be adopted. There is a building Site Council called the Leadership Team. Four days each week there is a 30 minute reading intervention using Harcourt Interventions, Phonics Boost and Read Naturally.
Group 3 –
Cascade Elementary – Principal Chad Foltz 560 students
40% free/reduced lunch 17 students ESL/ELL about 11% mobility
Grades 1 to 5 use Step Up to Writing which is a formulaic program to teach writing in preparation for the state test. Step Up to Writing is characterized as excellent for improving writing skills.
Cottonwood Elementary – Principal Mary Ann Kautzky 526 students
11% free/reduced lunch 21 students ESL/ELL
Use RTI and Imagine It! SRA Leveled Readers provide additional science and social studies skills content and practice. Accelerated Reader reading machines are used for 30 minutes.
Southgate Elementary – Principal Vickiy VanBeek 523 students
31% free/reduced lunch 21 students ESL/ELL about 10% mobility
Students are attending classes at the Fruitland building while Southgate is being remodeled.
Math Connects is the district adopted math program used in all KSD elementary schools. The program is among those recommended by the state and is the second year of implementation in KSD. Math Connects recommends literature which aligns with the math lessons. Kennewick teachers have developed a pacing calendar for the school year which includes ongoing assessments.
Ridge View Elementary – Principal Lori Butler 567 students
31% free/reduced lunch 38 ESL/ELL students about 5% mobility
80% of students enter Kindergarten ready to learn. Two hours daily is dedicated to reading instruction. Math instruction uses RTI, Math Connects, SRA Connecting Math Concepts and Accelerated Math.
Butler stated that 2 hours of reading instruction is necessary so all students including high performing students continue to grow.
Lincoln Elementary – Principal Ron Campbell 539 students
45% free/reduced lunch 38 ESL/ELL students about 9% mobility
Not a Title 1 school so receives no federal funds. Parent volunteers read with the students. KSD participates in the SE Washington LASER (Leadership and Assistance for Science Education Reform) Alliance. KSD uses science kits for science instruction. 950 kits will be distributed K-5 this school year.
Lincoln created a 5th grade curriculum integration project last spring including science, reading, writing, math and social studies using CBA (Classroom Based Assessment). An outcome of Lincoln’s work is that WASL science scores have increased 38 points.
What a great summary, Tom.
This summary was interesting and I know it took a lot of time – so thank you for attending and writing the summary.
What does the KSD or more precisely the school board hope to gain from these reports? The school board is great at asking for the data year after year, but what do they do with the data after it is presented? (Most of this data can be found at the OSPI website). It is rumored that some board members believe public humiliation will scare principals, thus teachers to better test scores. Most principals/ teachers understand how poverty affects learning, but I don’t believe all school board members understand the affects of poverty. These presentations take a huge amount of time for principals/teachers to gather and put into a presentation, but what is the bang for the buck? How many unsolicited “off the street” citizens attended? What is the “take away” for citizens or members of the KSD that attended? The most glaring piece of data was 49.6% of students in the KSD are free or reduced—one in two students are in poverty—this is the CRISIS of our district, state and nation.
You ask some great questions Pam. I would further ask, what is the evidence that the 3rd grade reading scores actually reflect success later in school (or better yet, in life)? Is reading important? Of course it is. But so is a love of learning, exposure to music and the arts, etc.
Thank you Tom for your summary. I had heard about this day-long school board meeting but , of course, was unable to attend since I was teaching. A concern I have about the district as a whole is that we, as teachers, are being asked to teach with “canned” programs, and are told we need to be “faithful” to the programs rather than use instructional strategies that have been identified as best practices in education. It seems the district thinks these programs have no flaws, yet we all know that one size does not fit all and no program is a “magic bullet” as Marlis Lindblooom once told me. It has become apparent that the 2 main programs used at the elementary level, Math Connects and Imagine It (reading) both have flaws that teachers need to be aware of and create supplements for. Staying “faithful” to flawed programs is not in our students’ best interests. Teachers need to be allowed to teach using best practices , activities and strategies to best serve the needs of their particular students. It may be that the district believes using “canned” programs will allow them to control teacher quality. That’s my guess, anyway.
Thanks for your comments, Sylvia. Your insights need to be shared with parents. Do you have ideas about how we could bring more to this site?