Introduction

            Scotchtown Hills Elementary is a comprehensive school located in Laurel, Maryland.  Proudly, we are not a school identified for improvement due to our student’s ability to meet Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) in all subgroups in both reading and mathematics during the 2007-2008 school years. Our instructional staff provides the students at Scotchtown Hills with a rigorous educational program aligned with the Maryland Content Standards and the Voluntary State Curriculum (VSC).  Students follow a schedule that supports uninterrupted reading and language arts instructional time block of 135 minutes in grades K-2, 105 minutes in grades 3-5, and 90 minutes in 6^th grade.   Time allotments in mathematics have been modified in order for teachers to utilize an instructional block of 75 minutes for K-2, 90 minutes in grades 3-6 and 110 minutes for all children in Pre-kindergarten.  Within grades K-5, there must be at least 60 minutes of instructional time that is uninterrupted. Our Social Studies and Science curriculums have also adopted new time allotments so that teachers will provide students with dynamic cross-curricular support in reading and mathematics.  We will allot 45 minutes for Science instruction everyday in grades K-2, as well as 60 minutes in K-6.  Students in grades K-5 will participate in Social Studies content every other day for 45 minutes, while 6^th graders will do so for 90 minutes.  Students who are part of the Talented and Gifted (TAG) Program participate in a weekly pull-out program geared towards meeting the differentiated instructional needs of students focused on a more accelerated academic level. 

            Our students wear uniforms and participate in a variety of after-school enrichment programs sponsored teachers, parents and the PTA.  In order to prepare our students for the 2008 administration of the new Maryland School Assessments (MSA) in science, we will continue to provide students with engaging explorations and investigations that will enhance their ability to question, make observations, as well as communicate accurate and systemic findings.  Our vision as a community of educators is to increase student achievement across each grade level content area by selecting research-based instructional activities that will enhance the performance of all subgroups making Annual Yearly Progress during the 2007-2008 academic school years.

School Demographics

Scotchtown Hills is a comprehensive elementary school with a population of 639 students of which 474 are African-American, 103 Hispanic, 34 Caucasian, 27 Asians and one student who represents our Indian population.  We have an exceptional core of special educators who work with the 45 students qualifying for services at Scotchtown Hills.  Our faculty consists of 26 fully certified classroom teachers in Pre-kindergarten through sixth grade.  Twenty-three percent of our teachers hold an Advanced Professional Certificate (APC); while sixty-three percent have a Standard Professional Certificate (SPC).  Three of our teachers hold Conditional Certificates and are working diligently to obtain their SPC this year.  The range of teaching experience spans over 28 years.  Within our staff, we have 18 teachers with 0-5 years of experience, 9 teachers with 5-10 years and 12 teachers with over 20 years of teaching children.  Our teachers participate in various on-going professional development opportunities in order to enhance delivery of instruction for all students. 

We are an ESOL center and will be gaining an additional part-time ESOL teacher in order to service our growing population of students whose native language is not English.  We will continue to work diligently in order to provide effective Reading and Language Arts instruction, so our students will acquire the tools necessary to achieve successful language acquisition.  The administrators and instructional staff are actively working towards improving the partnership between school and our ESOL parents by engaging community volunteers to act as resources and translators within our school.  Our newly hired ESOL Parent Liaison will be on hand to work as a facilitator between our school and the neighboring Spanish-speaking community.  We want to ensure that every family feels they are a vital part of our learning community.

There are currently two Head Start classes, one housed on site and another located within the Oseh Salome Synagogue.  Between these programs, we support 32 three and four year old students.  During the 2007-2008 academic school years, we will welcome a full-day Pre-kindergarten program to Scotchtown Hills.  With the addition of the Pre-kindergarten class, it is our intention to continue to provide comprehensive multi-disciplinary services and developmentally appropriate learning experiences to assure that our children are given a positive start in their education and will be ready for kindergarten.  

 Scotchtown Hills is in its seventh year of qualifying as a Governor’s Green School by carrying out conservation activities undertaken in partnership with WSSC (Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission), The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and the City of Laurel.  We are fortunate to work with local restaurants and vendors in order to sponsor various fundraisers for the community and our students.  Our Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) is very active in providing concerts, educational programs and evening events.  Parent-member volunteers have provided many resources by way of working within our school during Back-to-School Night, Teacher Appreciation Week, Scholastic Book Fair, and Science Fair, drama productions, evening parent/teacher conferences, producing a weekly newsletter and serving on our School Planning and Management Team (SPMT) in order to help monitor and develop our School Improvement Plan (SIP).  The PTA was instrumental in initiating and organizing a student versus teacher basketball game that not only was successful in 2007, but has now become a tradition.

 Major initiatives and how these efforts will improve student performance.

            Although our Special Education students scored proficient or higher during the 2007 spring administration of the Maryland School Assessment and demonstrated an increase in the number of students performing on or above grade level compared to our 2006 MSA scores, we need to focus on the continued academic growth of this subgroup.  The majority of our students made annual yearly progress based on the confidence interval determined by the state.  Special Education Resource teachers will continue to work closely and plan with classroom teachers to provide an individualized education program that is based on the current instructional level of each student.  Frequent review of the goals set for each student will be modified accordingly throughout the year to reflect the student’s achievements.  Staff will participate in continuous professional development presented by our Special Education Resource teachers and Regional Instructional Specialist (RIS) in reading and mathematics.  The focus of each meeting will include early identification, developing and monitoring IEP’s, instructional interventions and modifications, as well as policies and procedures used by the Special Education department.  We will continue to work closely with our regions compliance office in order to provide accurate Limited Access Files (LAF’s) and records to support our students in Special Education.

Free and Reduced Meal Students (FARM)

            Students within this category have shown marked improvement in overall scores in reading and mathematics on the 2007 Maryland School Assessments.  Our priority must be to continue to meet the needs of these students and enhance their ability to achieve on standardized and state assessments.  In particular, we will be focused on each grade-levels academic performance in reading comprehension, application of reading strategies and utilizing informational text to improve a student’s ability to complete brief-and extended-constructed responses successfully.  We will continue to offer an after-school tutoring program to support students and provide additional instruction.  Identified FARM students will meet with volunteers from our Mentor and Tutoring program during school hours.  Mentors and tutors collaborate with classroom teachers to provide activities which reinforce mathematic concepts, skills and strategies as well as reading and language arts instruction.  Providing FARM students with this intensive one-on-one instruction will enable students to grasp concepts that might be lost when working in a larger group.  It is also noted that many of our FARM students are represented in the SPED subgroup.  Knowing this will aid our Special educators and classroom teachers in managing small flexible groupings during reading and math instruction, in order to provide intensive instruction and scaffolding to improve each student’s ability to become an independent learner.

 Limited English Proficient (LEP)/English For Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL)

            We are experiencing growth in the number of LEP/ESOL students at Scotchtown Hills Elementary School.  Although our subgroups in grades 3-6 were too small to be represented (less than 5 students at each grade level), they did make annual yearly progress in both reading and mathematics.  Scores were significantly higher in reading and math on the 2007 MSA compared to students’ performance on the 2006 Maryland School Assessment.  We want to continue to support those level 2 and level 3 ESOL students within our classrooms, so they can be provided with the opportunity to improve language acquisition.  Many families have decided to remain at Scotchtown Hills (boundary school) and not attend local ESOL centers.  To meet the needs of new students, we are gaining an additional part-time ESOL teacher.  This person will also meet monthly with administrators and teachers, providing workshops on classroom management strategies and instructional modifications that can be used to increase student achievement across content areas.  We support the “Whole-Day” Perspective for both Special Education and LEP/ESOL.  Teachers who are with those SPED and LEP students for the majority (about 90%) of the school day have the power to provide students with intense one-one-one instruction and interventions.   As a school, we must provide teachers with the training and support necessary to supplement these students.   By working with the Special Education Resource and ESOL teachers, we can empower them and create collaborative efforts focused on student achievement.  

            Parents are a vital part to the success of our children.  We have many parents who work within our school as volunteers, substitute teachers and mentors.  We have been fortunate to maintain an active Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) at Scotchtown Hills that works diligently to provide our students with a variety of after-school events, fundraisers, in-school assemblies and community involvement opportunities.  This year, we welcome an entirely new executive board.  The focus of this year’s PTA members is to continue to support academics, while increasing the number of active PTA members and the involvement of parents within their children’s classroom. During the upcoming school year, the PTA and SPMT will work collaboratively to encourage an increased number of parents and mentors visible in the classrooms.  Members of the community and PTA will be invited to our monthly SPMT meetings to discuss the effectiveness of our School Improvement Plan.  They will be involved in the on-going monitoring of various activities stated within our Monitoring Tool, as well as participate in the process of planning, organizing and drafting the 2007-2008 SIP.

            The staff and administration are committed to improving the level of communication between home and school to provide clarity in student expectations and the mission of the school.   We will also be working together to implement evening programs that will benefit and support parents/guardians ability to work with their children at home, particularly in reading and math.  Providing parents with workshops that expand their understanding of reading instruction and math applications can provide them with the confidence to work with their child outside of school.