Great Falls Elementary is helping all students develop the world class and life and career characteristics of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by being continually committed to the social, emotional, and academic development of every child. Our school is a safe, challenging, caring, and supportive environment where teachers, parents, students and community members work together to ensure all students have a solid foundation for life. We strive to make the learning experiences interesting and engaging while holding students accountable for reaching their highest potential.
Great Falls Elementary is a rural school that serves a diverse population of approximately 400 students in grades PK – 5. Great Falls Elementary is working to achieve the standards for progress toward the 2020 SC Vision Performance and is working towards meeting the standard for progress toward the 2020 SC Performance Vision. Although Great Falls Elementary has begun to experience growth in all academic areas, the staff continues to work hard to close existing gaps in achievement while moving more students into the categories of meets and exceeds to be comparable with other schools throughout South Carolina. Although achievement data for the school in Math and ELA have increased tremendously and has come closer to state averages, Great Falls Elementary will continue to work diligently to exceed the state's averages in all subjects.
Our SC READY scores are on the incline - however, they still lag behind state scores. The goal of Great Falls Elementary is to continue to improve and achieve at high levels, so that all students achieve at least at the 90th percentile.
Great Falls Elementary School's data for the 2018 - 2019 SC READY administration are as follows:
Reading
40% of 3rd graders met or exceeded expectations.
38% of 4th graders met or exceeded expectations.
28% of 5th graders met or exceeded expectations.
School-wide data 35% of students met or exceeded expectations.
Math
45% of 3rd graders met or exceeded expectations.
38% of 4th graders met or exceeded expectations.
37% of 5th graders met or exceeded expectations.
School-wide data 40% of students met or exceeded expectations.
Early Childhood/Primary (PK–2): At Great Falls Elementary School, there are no summative assessments for students in grades PK – 2. Students in Pre-K are assessed using PALs. PALs data for those students are not included in the data analysis section of this plan, as the final assessment for PALs was interrupted by COVID-19 in the spring of 2020. PALs analysis on available data can be available upon request.
Kindergarten students are assessed using the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment (KRA), Fountas and Pinnell (F&P) – and Measures of Academic Progress (MAP). KRA does not provide the school with any data that is relevant for informing instruction; therefore, that data is not included in the analysis section of the plan. However, MAP data are included. F&P is not required until Winter for Kindergarten students. Additionally for the 2020 – 2021 school year, students in Kindergarten through second grades are being assessed three times a year for screening purposes using the MAP Fluency assessment. The fall data has been included for the two sections deemed most important by our school district.
Kindergarten data indicates that the kindergarten students’ projected proficiency is 5% in Reading. There is a large number of students scoring in the approaching category for projected proficiency – 80%. In the fall, only 15% of students’ projected proficiency was not met. There were also no students projected to exceed at this time either. In math, 28% of the students are projected to meet, while 62% of the students’ projected proficiency is approaching. Only 10% of the students are projected, at this time, to be not met, while 8% of students are projected to be exceeds.
First and second grade students are also assessed using F&P and MAP. This data is also included in the data analysis section of this plan In reading, in first grade, 7% of students are expected to meet, while 40% of students’ projected proficiency is approaching. 53% of students are projected to not meet, while 0% of students are projected to exceed. In math, 24% of students are projected to meet. 29% of first graders’ projected proficiency is approaches, while 47% of students are projected to be not met. There are 0% of students slated to exceed.
In second grade, in reading, 22% of students are projected to meet. 37% of students’ projected proficiency is approaching. In second grade, 39% of students are projected as not met, while 2% of the students are projected to exceed.
In math, 27% of students are projected to be met. 37% of students’ projected proficiency is approaches. 31% of students are projected to not meet, while 5% of students are projected to exceed.
Last year, school discipline data indicated a need for a new school-wide discipline plan to impact both school climate and student achievement data.
Great Falls Elementary works hard to provide many opportunities to help our students be successful and well-rounded both in and outside of the classroom. Students have a plethora of activities in which to participate, including: Student Council, Safety Patrol, Recycling Club, a variety of Book Battles and Competitions, GITI Math and Science Club, Girls on the Run, Art Club, and Chorus. Parent involvement and community connections continue to improve through planned PTO and school events including: a Winthrop Partnership, a new School-wide Discipline PBIS, a Mentoring Matters Program, Junior Achievement, Meet the Teacher Night, Open House, Quarterly Awards' Days, monthly Student Awards, Veteran’s Day Program, Parent Conferences with a steadily increasing rate of parents attending, classroom volunteers, Fall Festival, Reading Buddies throughout the school, Reading Nights, Donuts with Dads and Divas, Grits with Grandparents, Family Literacy Picnic, Annual Bike Run, and grade level field studies. Great Falls Elementary is committed to ensuring students obtain a solid foundation for the next steps in their journey through life - on their path to becoming college and career ready.
Our 2019 - 2020 school year was quite an eventful one. School was abruptly interrupted by the coronavirus - an unexpected global pandemic. We were unable to complete our school year because it so abruptly came to an end for in-person learning on March 13th. Our staff worked hard for the remainder of the year to provide online/virtual experiences for our students daily. Although learning will now look differently than it ever has before, as a school, we are committed to rising to the challenge to ensure that our children continue to learn and achieve at high levels.
Tammy Taylor
Principal
Tonya Weir
School Improvement Council Chair
