Michael C. Riley Elementary and Early Childhood Center’s goal is to help all students develop the World Class Skills of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by providing differentiated instruction and appropriate interventions to meet each child’s needs on an individual basis. Through the multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) approach, our highly trained and qualified staff successfully designs engaging lessons and builds a sense of community and shared purpose. To meet the needs of our Multilanguage Learners, we also have five ESOL teachers who serve students in reading, writing, speaking, math, language development and monitoring support. All classrooms focus on delivering effective daily instruction and a coherent, viable curriculum are driven by state standards and school data. 21st Century skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, collaboration, creativity, and innovation are part of our daily instruction.
Our core beliefs also include bringing out the leadership potential of each child through a learning through leadership model, The Leader in Me. Through examination and reflection, we have identified strategies and systems to build positive choices through the eight effective habits, roles and participation models to demonstrate leadership, and accountability systems to measure and evaluate individual, classroom, grade level and school wide data points. An Increase in satisfaction of our school was evident in the Measurable Results Assessment (MRA) survey that was administered in April 2022, with improvements shown in the areas of leadership, culture, and academics.
Michael C. Riley and ECC students continued to develop strong academic knowledge and the social and emotional skills needed to successfully acquire high levels of college and career preparedness beyond the elementary years. We experienced many accomplishments throughout the year despite the challenges of COVID outbreaks that impacted our 2021-22 school year. Twenty additional students were identified as Academically Gifted and Talented. Eight students also were identified as Artistically Gifted and Talented. Twenty-five students exited English as Second Language Services based on growth on the 2022 ACCESS testing results. We also had eight students featured in the district’s River of Words publication, a text collection of student art and poetry contributions. In July 2020, we were notified of our reaccreditation status as a Leader in Me Lighthouse School, and in the spring of 2021, we received recertification of our status as a STEM school through Cognia.
Our students have many opportunities to address the learning loss that resulted from the COVID pandemic. For example, extensive after-school tutoring was provided for students in many grade levels. The focus was concentrated on the areas of math and reading. Daily morning meetings in classrooms focus on the eight habits, as well as character pillars to reinforce core values in all students. Students' literacy skills continue to thrive through a balanced literacy approach and the district’s 1:1 technology initiative. One-to-one technology devices for K-5 are provided to the students to engage in research and academic reinforcement. Other school-wide initiatives that cultivated leadership in our students include student-led conferences, class counseling lessons, an active Student Lighthouse Team, community service projects, and the offering of many clubs and extracurricular activities.
There are many ways students, families, and community members are involved at our school: ESOL Family events three times a year, Latino Family Literacy Program, Curriculum events such as the Cardboard STEM challenge, community events such as the Happy Feet event co-collaborated with the Rotary Club of Bluffton, student-led conferences, ‘WIG’ celebration events, and parenting challenges to enforce the use of the Habits at home. We welcome and appreciate the continued involvement and look forward to moving towards being completely in-person for our events this school year.
At Michael C. Riley Elementary and Early Childhood Center, we are proud to be a Title 1 school and sincerely commit to building on our growth next year. Together, we Love, Learn and Lead!
