Nevitt Forest Elementary School is a Kindergarten through Grade 5 elementary school with a student population of approximately 525. The current student population lacks diversity both ethnically and economically. The areas zoned for Nevitt Forest include multiple federally subsidized housing units therefore; 96% of students attending the school qualify for federally subsidized meals. This is an indicator of the high level of poverty which impacts the students attending the school. Coupled with high levels of poverty, is the high transient rate of the students attending the school. Approximately 50% of the student population will stay enrolled in Nevitt for the entirety of their elementary school experience. The annual transient rate is 39%. The current academic performance of the student population is depressed; however multiple data points, including MAP assessment data indicate a high level of growth. The state’s analysis of student performance data, EVAAS, indicates that the students attending Nevitt are growing at a more rapid rate than peers attending similar schools.
The School Renewal Plan has been revised to include the most recent student achievement data. It was also determined that multiple goals and actions should be modified in order to adjust for the high level of academic growth over the last two years. The goals continue to be attainable and appropriate for the remainder of this cycle. An additional focus is to further engage parents in the education setting. The Renewal Plan includes initiatives to support the engagement of parents in meaningful opportunities so that students are poised for success. While the school has been able to engage parents in activities that involve students such as literacy night and math night, there continues to be a need to strengthen parent and community involvement. An additional staff member has been added to support further development of the home to school relationship as well as assisting parents in understanding and being a part of the Multi-Tier System of Support (MTSS) process. Student performance and academic achievement continue to be the primary areas of focus for the current administration and staff. All decisions are made considering the impact on students and their ability to improve their academic performance. The current administration works to analyze student performance data on a regular basis and provides support to teachers as they tailor instruction to meet the needs of the students. This is evident through current practices including the school’s in-depth MTSS process.
Through the MTSS process, student performance is analyzed using multiple points of data and is then used to help identify instructional needs, professional development needs, and areas for improvement which are addressed in the School Renewal Process.
Current student performance using MAP data indicates that the students at Nevitt are performing lower than the district average in some areas, but are demonstrating significant growth overall. There are still grade levels and areas of focus for improvement.
The school currently tracks progress through MAP data and the MTSS process which provides consistent longitudinal information. Due to the intense MTSS process that is in place at the school, multiple academic interventions have been identified and provided to students who are in need of additional support. Based on needs assessment data and the current analysis of students assigned to in and out of school suspension, there is also a need to strengthen interventions for students experiencing behavioral difficulty within the school setting. Based on this data, it can be determined that the current instructional practices are positively impacting student performance.
Based on analysis of the data, there continues to be a need to provide high quality instruction using research based practices and interventions. The staff has further identified summer regression as a factor which negatively impacts our students. While some students participate in the district led summer programs, participation is limited. This is a factor which needs to be explored in the future to determine how to best support the students and families in order to minimize this regression.
