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Show THE SAN JUAN RECORD Wednesday, December 8, 2004 - Page 4 Reading First program Report onReimer for each by Becky Utah Office of Education Remote, rural, and poverty-strickeSan Juan School District (SJSD) is a very remote rural district in southeastern n, Utah. Three of its six elementary schools qualify for and receive Reading First monies; of which two are located on the Navajo Nations reservation. The demographics in these three schools are very similar 85 percent or more of the students are enrolled in the free or reduced lunch program and up to 82 percent are not proficient in English. Forced Monitoring. For over six years, the school dis- trict has been engaged in a focused effort to make a difference in the learning outcomes for its students. This effort was initially court ordered and consisted of twice a year monitoring of its schools by regional experts in bilingual and education. year, key concepts which provides for very deep learning and implementation on the part of the teachers. 3. Full inclusion special education model occurred over two years ago which paved the way for a Tiered Instructional delivery model which is fully functioning at all three schools. Special Education teachers push-i- n during morning lit- eracy times; students with in- tensive needs are afforded classroom instruction as well additional targeted instructional times by specialists. Students are normalas 2 ized and not marginalized. 4. The assessment-instructio- n cycle is fully implemented. Student data drives instructional planning. During ongo- meetings, ing grade-leve- l student individual learning plans are formulated after progress monitoring data has been analyzed. DIBELS along with some of the basal assessThrough SJSDs active ments are used. 5. Teachers have been pracsearch for professional and monetary support, they were ticed on and are required to awarded monies from the use Explicit Teaching Plans for all instruction. Although Reading Excellence Act (REA). In almost all cases, the numthe McGraw ber of students scoring below basal series is excellent in its grade level decreased during pacing of the core elements, it the implementation of the lacks the explicit instruction REA grant. teaching model. All teachers For instance, 100 percent of are adept at using this model. third grade students at All teachers provide explicit and quality literacy instrucMontezuma Creek Elemention for the full literacy block. level scored below grade tary in May of 2000. By the end of 6. The remote and rural nathe third year of REA, the ture of this district provides number of third grade stuunique problems in staffing dents below grade level had the schools with decreased to 53 percent. professionals. However, outthe the Although literacy leadership team at the disK-comes of students in the trict level and also the Readthree schools greatly im- ing First leadership team have proved; 40 percent or more still goneoutside of the box in score below grade level. solving staffing issues. We can make a differFor example, in the lowest ence! With the bid for Read- scoring and most remote ing First grant monies, the school the superintendent apleadership team of SJSD proved incentive pay to attract cross-cultur- al Hill-Macmill- increased. of 9. To help counteract loss learning over the summer months, the RF leadership team sent to the remote homes of all of these children, Xeroxed copies of the decodable and Take Home readers that were part of their core basal series. Books were sent every two weeks. It is unclear whether or not Students decorate trees at banks Zions Bank continued its holiday tradition this year, inviting elementary school students from throughout the state to decorate a long-hel- d Christmas tree with hand- made ornaments in the lobby of each Zions Bank branch. The bank provided the lighted trees, and students contributed ornaments they made themselves. In return for creative decorations, bank branches made cash donations to each participating school. This year, Monticello Elementary School kindergarten through sixth grade students made decorations for the tree inside Zions Bank Monticello office (217 E. Central) Zions Bank presented a contribution of $.35 per ornament to the school and will display the tree through the holidays. This year marks the tenth year that Zions Bank has sponsored a Lights On ceremony in Monticello, said Derryl Jack, manager at Zions Banks these books in the homes made a difference to the students literacy achievement. However, the entry benchmark data on the first grade students at fall benchmark testing are impressive. If you compare the percent of first grade students at benchmark on the PSF subtest from fall of 2003 to recent fall of 2004 testing, the difference is remarkable. And with the assessment-instructiofully integrated cycle in each school, these first grade students will most likely continue to improve and make the spring benchmarks in Nonsense Word Fluency as well as n Monticello office. We are delighted every year with the creativity shown by our elementary school children and their Oral Reading Fluency. The San Juan School District Reading First leadership and coaching team are instru- mental in the state-wid- e implementation of Reading teachers in making these ornaments. We appreciate their help spreading holiday cheer. More than 60 Utah and Idaho elementary schools par First. They are providing modeling and direction for Utahs other Reading First schools. ticipated in Zions Banks Lights On holiday celebration this year. In addition, a number of Zions Bank branches invited students e from neighborhoods and special-need- s chilow-incom- ldren to decorate the trees in their lobbies. Zions Bank has been inviting students to participate in this annual holiday event for more than 33 years. Zions Bank is Utahs oldest financial institution, and is the only local bank with a statewide distribution of branches, e operating 111 full-servic- branches throughout Utah. Zions Bank also operates 23 branches in Idaho, and more than 200 ATMs throughout Utah and Idaho. In addition to a wide range of traditional banking services, Zions offers a comprehensive array of investment, mortgage, and insurance services, and has a network of loan origination offices for small businesses nationwide. Founded in 1873, Zions has been serving the communities of Utah for more than 130 years. For more information, contact Zions Bank Monticello full-servi- ce branch at (435) ditional information 587-221- The greatest blessing of our democracy is freedom. But in the last analysis, our only freedom is the freedom to discipline ourselves. Bernard Baruch, financier A Letter From Home 52 Weeks A Year 3 Superintendent and Elementary Supervisor. Unique in this regard are the following: 1. The coaches moved from a school-base- d coach model to a district-base- d coach model. This helped the coaches become more focused and efficient in their coaching roles, increased coaching expertise, improved coaching collaboration and communication, and afforded targeted coaching to schools with more needs. Coaches and District RF di- rector ride together to the school which affords up to 2 hours of planning and discussion in the drive to and from the schools and removes the barriers created by remoteness and ruralness. 2. Professional development has been focused on one or two a highly-qualifie- d professional for a first grade position. The Superintendent also provided his district car to another teacher to enable her to travel 80 miles per day to teach kindergarten in another school. 7. The Reading First Assess- ment Coordinator has designed special grade-leve- l progress monitoring forms that enable principals and other members of the leadership team to quickly scan and determine which child is making progress and which isnt. The Principals and members of the leadership team use this Makes An Excellent Christmas Gift Juan Recorb HOMETOWN NEWSPAPER FOR SAN JUAN COUNTY SINCE 1915 1 information during their monthly school visits to interview teachers about particular students. Teachers are very clear about what is important to the District Leadership team it is the literacy of the children they teach. 8. The success of these efforts is not fully realized in test results yet. However, the data from kindergarten and first grade is very promising. The percent of kindergarten students scoring at Benchmark in PSF in May of last year greatly is avail- able at www.zionsbank.com. highly-qualifie- d moved into a collaborative, problem-solvin- g group. They have implemented their Reading First grant with high fidelity, by moving to a districtwide improvement model. At the forefront of this team is a very knowledgeable and experienced director who is supported by highly involved Ad- 8. 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