ABOUT OUR SCHOOL
Deerfield Run is a Comprehensive Elementary School located in Laurel, Maryland. Our student enrollment is about 600 students in grades Kindergarten through sixth grade. Our projected enrollment was 600 in a building that should only have 540 students. We are an International Center for the Laurel Cluster representing 26 countries speaking some 24 languages.
The student population is diverse, mobile, and poor (poverty rate of 56.44%). We are a Title I eligible school, but not a Title I participating school. Deerfield Run is an open-spaced school with a student mobility rate of 55%. We have about 80 ESOL students and still growing. Our demographics are 397 Black students, 95 Hispanic, 35 White, 35 Asian, and 4 American Indian. About 95% of our students live in apartments.
Many of the factors traditionally resulting in a negative impact on student achievement listed above are not a problem here at Deerfield Run. Our students have traditionally done well on the MSPAP for many years, our 2002 CTBS scores were the highest in the county for a Title I school, and we met all areas on AYP for the 2003 MSA. Our 2006 MSA scores continue to show significant growth overall and within our subgroups: 3rd grade reading was at 67.4%; 3rd grade math was at 71.7%; 4th Grade reading 83.1%; 4th grade math 73.2; 5th grade reading was at 55.1% passing and Math was at 51.6% passing; 6th grade 73.6% reading and 63.2% in math. We have demonstrated continuous growth in the total number of students passing reading and math: reading 2004= 66%, 2005=69%, and 2006=79%; in math 2004=56%, 2005=66% and in 2006=73%. Again, scores reflect Deerfield Run’s continuous road of school improvement. Our teachers are highly qualified: 48% have advanced professional certificates, 48% have standard professional certificates.
Our major initiatives are increase our co-teaching model with our special education and ESOL students, expanding the teaching of the writing process, and continuing our staff training in producing “smart kids” through higher level thinking skills and constructive approach to engaging students.
To create a safe and orderly environment, we have adopted a school-wide Second-Step Program, Bully-Proof Program, and a Cooperative Discipline Program all under the umbrella of Character Education. The affective domain (Second-Step, Bully-Proof, and Cooperative Discipline) and the effective domain (instructional delivery system to increase MSA) combine to produce a safe and orderly environment. Our school disciple referrals were decreased from 92 in 2003 to 35 in 2004 with suspensions decreases from 27 to 16. Our plan continues to work because our referrals were down to 81 in 2005 with suspension to 14 and in 2006 we went to 67 referrals and 6 suspensions. – We will be refining our procedures and interventions to continue our improvements in this area.
Parent and Family Involvement initiative includes increasing the membership in our PTO, having a series of evening parent meetings to meet the needs our community, have 100% of parent/teacher conferences by the end of the second quarter, increase the use of emails, and requiring all fourth, fifth, and sixth graders to participate in our Science Fair. Our PTO had only 52 families last year and we hope to increase that number to 100 this year through an active Executive Board. Our School Partnership Action Team has developed several evening meeting this year including an Ice Cream Social, Math MSA Night, Reading MSA Night, and several parent support nights. Our ESOL Liaison, Ms. Tuveson, has arranged for the Literacy Council to conduct evening adult English classes for our community. Our Science Fair is a family initiative because our fourth, fifth, and sixth graders are required to submit a project that is completed at home. Our Science Fair Committee will conduct a Parent Workshop to outline the requirements to the parents. Although Deerfield has always had a low membership in our PTO, our parent support has always been strong for our school programs and our initiatives. The feedback we get from parents is that they are generally proud of our progress with our test scores and our character education program.
