School Improvement Plan

Principal: Vickie Rumrill, Principal

Vertical Team: Westbury Region: West

Mission Statement

S. C. Red Elementary School is a school which enrolls students from pre-kindergarten – fifth grade.  Red has an approximate enrollment of 450 students.  These students are a mixture of students who live in the HISD attendance zone for Red and students who attend, from outside the attendance zone, as part of the magnet program.  The magnet program at Red consists of math, science and technology.  Students receive additional instruction on a weekly basis in each of the labs.

In addition to the HISD curriculum, CLEAR, Red provides programs to meet the needs of each child.  The Neighborhood-Vanguard program offers depth and complexity to the curriculum for students identified as gifted/talented.  Students identified as Limited English Proficient (LEP) are served in either the bilingual or ESL program.   In addition, Red offers a variety of classes for special needs students including:  PPCD, generic, multiple impaired, life skills, autism, resource and speech.   Red is a multi-ethnic school with the following breakdown:  45% Hispanic, 26% African-American, 18% White, and 11% Asian.  The attendance rate at Red is approximately 96.3%.  Approximately 64% of the Red students are eligible for the free/reduce lunch program.  In addition 60% of the students are listed as at-risk.

Red Elementary will have 24 homeroom classrooms and five self-contained special education classes for 2007-08.  In addition, Red has three magnet teachers, one each of the following:  physical education teacher, music teacher, librarian, reading coach, nurse, and magnet coordinator.  The teaching staff as an average of 13 years teaching experience.  27% of the Red staff has an advanced degree.  All of the Red staff is NCLB certified.

Red Elementary School has an attendance zone which is primarily composed of single family homes.  In addition the attendance zone has a small number of apartment complexes.  Red is fortunate to have an active PTO which supports the school. 

S.C. Red Elementary School is a TEA Recognized School for the second year in a row.  Red Elementary has many areas of strength.  On Spring TAKS 2007, Red had the following areas with scores met standard scores above 90%:  5^th Science 91%, 3^rd Reading 96%, 5^th Reading 91%, and 5^th Math 91%.  When you average the TAKS scores across all grade levels, Red continues to progress toward its goal of exemplary.  89% of all students in grades 3-5 met standards TAKS Reading.   88% of students in grade 4 met standards in writing, and 91% of 5^th grade students met standards in science.

Red will continue to strengthen its math program.  On the Spring 2007 TAKS scores, 83% of students in grades 3-5 met standards.  Third grade will focus on the areas of objective 4- concepts and uses of measurement (64%) and objective 6- mathematical processes and tools (69%).  These were the only objectives in which a grade level did not have a met standards rate of 70%.  Each grade level will focus on objectives in which a met standards score of 85% was not achieved.

Red will continue to look at specific sub-groups of students who are not performing to the level of their peers.  All instructional areas must pay attention to students who are economically disadvantaged.  In addition the following subgroups scored less than 85%: writing- Hispanic (83%), white 80%; mathematics- African American (82%) and Hispanic (84%).

Red will have the following SMART goals for the 2007-2008 school year:   Objective 1- the SAT/Aprenda scores in Reading in grades 1-3 will show a mean NCE growth of 2.  Objective 2- TAKS Math scores will have an average passing score of 90%.  Objective 3- TAKS commended rate in math and reading will increase by 5% from the 2006 commended rate.

Red will continue to address the gaps in student achievement and try to find ways to address them.  Red will continue to meet in PLCs by grade levels.  Each grade level will meet weekly to address what will be taught and what will be done if the students do not show mastery the first time it is taught.  In addition, Red is working to improve its gifted/talented program.  All teachers will receive additional training on how to better meet the needs of these students.

It is important for students who are not showing mastery on skills to receive immediate, specific interventions.  This year, Red will institute school-wide tutorials/enrichment during the school day.  These groups will be flexible and skill specific.  The teachers will rotate teaching tutorial/enrichment.  In addition to in school tutorials, teachers will continue to offer after school tutorials.

In addition to tutorials, parents will be offered workshops to assist them in helping their students at school.  Teachers will offer subject specific workshops on Saturday to show parents what they can do at home to work with their child.