Frierson Montessori Elementary School is one of CCSD's rural schools. Frierson has approximately 160 students of mixed demographics and a poverty level of approximately 70%. We are proud to be District 9’s only Montessori School and CCSD’s 6th and newest Montessori program. The 2022-23 school year will be our fifth year transitioning into a full Montessori School, with an anticipated attendance of 185 students. Currently, we have 3 Primary Montessori Classrooms and 3 Lower Elementary Classrooms. Next year we will add 2 Upper Elementary Classrooms. Teachers in the 8 Montessori classrooms will be a part of the continuous training in the Montessori Methodology. This training will be provided by Lander University for our newest staff and specified training for all staff through funding from our Title 1 resources in addition to the commitment of our school district. Each year we will phase in one additional grade level as we grow to a Primary to Adolescent Montessori School.
We understand the negative impact of COVID-19 and the fact that by March of 2021, approximately 43% of our learners remained out of school as Remote learners. As a result, all of our teachers in grades 1st through 5th taught in a dual-modality; they taught remote and in-person learners at the same time during the 20-21 school year. This proved to be very difficult and created a number of challenges for our learners. During the 21-22 school year the District’s goal was to assess student growth as they returned to a more normal year. In addition to testing our students in SCReady/SCPASS, MAP, and District Benchmarks, we tested our Kindergarteners and First-grade students on FastBridge and our 4-year-olds using the MyIGDIS test. We consistently evaluated the achievement and growth of the students at Edith L. Frierson. We used the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) assessment specifically focusing on the Reading and Math subtests for students in grades 1st through 5th. In MAP Reading our students in the 3rd through the 5th grades had a range of growth from 2% to 10%, with 4th and 5th grades growing the most. The percentage of students meeting their growth target was 47.8% in 3rd grade; on average 2% met their growth target, 50% in the 4th grade; on average 10% met their growth target, and 41.2% in the 5th grade; on average 10% met their growth target. In grades 1st and 2nd we experienced our greatest declines in growth with 12.5% of 1st graders meeting their growth and 43.8% of 2nd graders meeting their Reading growth goal. In Math, 56.3% of our 2nd graders had the highest percentage of students meeting their growth target on MAP. However, the other grades had declines in the number of students meeting their growth target from one to twenty percent in Math. Overall, 39.6% of students in grades 1st-5th met their target growth in Reading and 30.8% of the students made their target growth in MAP Math. On the Spring FastBridge Assessment, 51% of Kindergarten students ranked in the Low-Risk range and 47% of First graders were considered to be Low-Risk. As shared by the office the Assessment & Evaluation, June 2022, “Across both Early Literacy and Early Numeracy subtests, when results are examined by school, it shows that the majority of our Montessori programs (Edith L Frierson, James Simons, Malcolm C. Hursey, Montessori Community School, and Murray-LaSaine) tend to show some of the highest percentages of students scoring in Tier I.”
In the Spring of 2022, all schools in the State of South Carolina had the opportunity to administer the State Department of Education’s Standardized assessment, SC Ready and SC PASS to our students in grades third-fifth. We look forward to those official results in our work to improve the instruction of our students. In our daily work, our school continued to focus on helping all students develop the World Class Skills of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by maintaining clear expectations and an understanding of where our student’s abilities were.
To help increase growth and achievement in both Reading and Math, we will continue to use research-based instructional strategies that have been proven effective in elevating the learning experiences of students at Frierson. Specifically, as a result of ESSER funding requests for the 2022-2023 school year, we will be able to support our students academically with the support of a Master Reading Teacher and a Reading Interventionist who will work with our students who need the greatest amount of academic support. Teachers will continue to meet once a week for 70 minutes in Professional Learning Communities with both the instructional coach and Principal as we Implement the EL reading curriculum and continue our book study of LETRS and grow in the art and science of reading instruction. Teachers will continue to implement Open Court Phonics, the Heggerty Phonics program in Primary Montessori, and the Waseca Phonics program in Primary and Lower Elementary Montessori Classrooms. Teachers in all grades will continue their work following the CCSD instructional units for reading created by the Curriculum and Instruction office. Additionally, we will continue to review formative data and will use data protocols to establish the next steps for students at all instructional levels. In math, teachers in all grades will implement the Bridges Core curriculum as well as Bridges Number Corner for all students. As we continue to support growth in both Math and Reading we will use multiple settings throughout the day and use a daily 40-minute flex period for targeted intervention using Adapted Digital Technology. The Montessori curriculum will continue to be our core curriculum, however, with these supports, we expect to see gains in both literacy, numeracy, and science.
Additionally, due to our request for ESSER funds to support our work to improve student engagement and accountability, we will have 2 additional positions. For the 22-23 school year we will have the support of a full-time Parent Advocate and full-time Student Concern Specialist. These two new positions will provide our students with individuals designated to focus on the social and emotional growth and well-being of all our students. Working together with our district, we will use the Restorative Practices social science strategies to strengthen our school climate, build greater relationships between individuals as well as teach children the impact of building social connections within our school in order to create a safe and peaceful learning environment.
We continue to be proud of the growth and the implementation of our Montessori Program. Working with our district, this community, and our families we have given new life to this school by bringing newly trained instructors with the goal of continuing this work.
Finally, we thank our PTA and SIC members, community partners, Kiawah Cares, Kiawah Foundation, The Friends of Frierson, and our many families and community members for your continued support and trust in knowing that we are committed to doing our very best to provide a great learning environment for all our children.
Dr. Deborah Davis-Cummings, Principal
Mrs. Ashley Carrigan, SIC Chair
