Lakewood – Teachers at Foothills Elementary School worked hard for four years to improve their students’ academic performance by analyzing data, compacting lessons, teaching in smaller groups and creating writing and math programs.
When the Student Accountability Report was released Tuesday, the news couldn’t have been better: The Jefferson County district school went from average to a high-improvement rating.
The teachers celebrated by applauding one another and munching on chocolate chip cookies.
“It was thrilling for the staff,” said principal Kathy Namura.”They had worked so hard to make a change.”
The report, released each year by the Colorado Department of Education, lets parents check out staff size, teachers’ salaries and years of experience, student disciplinary incidents and how funding is being used by the school.
The school is at Green Mountain, about 12 miles west of Denver. It has 325 students in grades kindergarten through six.
Four years ago, Mary Reibold, who taught at the school and is now an instructional coach there, and former principal Gale Downing started analyzing data to see how they could improve students’ grades.
“We got down to the reality that it wasn’t working,” Reibold said.
Today, teachers and staff work together by analyzing data from the state, the Jefferson County school district and their own school assessment tests.
They not only examine grades, but look at trends that they say are instrumental in creating new lesson plans.
“The data is driving our instruction,” Reibold said.
John Rinko is a parent of three children who attend the school. An engineer, he volunteers as chairman of the school’s accountability committee.
Rinko collects data for the teachers, then compares test scores and teaching methods from other schools that are demographically similar to Foothills.
“Communicating that type of information to the teachers really motivates them,” Rinko said.
Students are viewed by staff as valued customers who have needs that must be served.
Teaching methods used include smaller groups or one- on-one instruction; aides who are trained to work on certain skills with children; “compacted” curriculum; and swapping learning ideas.
The staff worked almost 18 months on developing a schoolwide writing program and this year a math program was created that uses a “constructivism approach,” which allows students to solve problems by thinking on their own rather than being told how to do it.
“We’re working smarter, not harder,” Reibold said.
Staff writer Annette Espinoza can be reached at 303-820-1655 or aespinoza@denverpost.com.
