Richmond Hill Elementary School is working to improve its student achievement with a little help from data assessment, which led to their new math incentive program Math Mania.
The Board of Education received an overview of RHES’s current activities during their meeting Thursday, March 27, when Curriculum Resource teachers Chris Flake and Karen Smith presented the board with information about how the school’s data assessment efforts work.
"We are using data driven decisions regarding instruction in the classroom," Flake explained, noting it all based off of information from the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests (CRCT). "This provides all teachers with information about their students’ strengths and weaknesses."
Three times a year, the school does data assessments in order to learn more about specific needs students may have. Based on what the data says, student plans and paraprofessional lesson plans can be geared toward helping students’ specific needs.
"We also have EIP, or Early Intervention Program, where we work closely with small groups of students," Flake said. "And EIS, or Early Intervening Services, has trained paraprofessionals working on phonics, reading fluency, math and reading comprehension with students."
Principal Walt Barnes said the student’s achievements are largely a result of the Curriculum Resource teachers at RHES.
"We’ve put together this Math Mania program as an incentive program to help students with their math skills," he said. "It is so important for children to know their addition and subtraction skills before they leave here."
Smith said the Math Mania was a data-driven decision based on CRCT scores. Right now, 30 percent of RHES students are exceeding the standard scores for CRCT math scores. The goal is to increase that to 50 percent.
Smith said the PTSO has helped out a great deal, with parent volunteers fundraising for the Math Mania incentives.
"We’re happy to support curriculum-based assistance for our students," said PTSO member Haley Beeson. "We’re trying to help our students be front runners and prepare them for the future."
Flake said they will receive all the CRCT scores at the end of this year, at which point they’ll evaluate the data to see what needs to be worked on next year.
"Our assessments will help us tailor next year’s instruction," she said.
Superintendent Dr. Sallie Brewer thanked RHES for "explaining where all the good test scores are coming from."
See one parent's comment on the web at www.bryancountynews.net.