Astoria School District
Lewis and Clark Elementary Schoolwide Title 1-A Program Plan
2023-2024 School Year
Description
Schools that implement a schoolwide program under Title I-A must develop a plan for changing the total instructional program in the school. The plan must be based on a comprehensive needs assessment and include specific outcomes and strategies to address the learning needs of all students in the school. In addition, the plan must be reviewed annually with the input of families, and updated as needed. Districts have a great deal of autonomy in determining the format of their schoolwide plans. ODE created this template that schools can use to guide the development of their school wide plan. Schools or districts that choose to develop their own template must include criteria identified in the document located in the resource section below.
Contact Information
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School District
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Astoria School District
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School Year
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2023-2024
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School Name
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Lewis and Clark Elementary
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Building Administrator
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Eva Hague
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Planning Team Members
Name Role Name Role
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Stephanie Sparks
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Title 1-A District Coordinator
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Breanna Lantz
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Classified Staff
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Eva Hague
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Building Administrator
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Johanna Nelson
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Classified Staff
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Marjo Hawkins
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Title 1-A Teacher
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Amanda Steenholdt
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Parent
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Cari Hirahara
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Certified Teacher
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Bree Beresh
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Parent
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Janelle Wagner
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Certified Teacher
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Charlet Robinson
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Parent
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Morgan Welsh
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Certified Teacher
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Rachael Light
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Certified Teacher
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Needs Assessment Summary
All schools receiving ESEA Title I-A funds must perform a comprehensive needs assessment at the school level to review the strengths and needs of the students the school serves, including identifying the barriers that students who have been historically underserved experience. The needs assessment should inform the goals of the school level plan. ODE recommends a school to conduct a needs assessment at least once every three years. This section briefly summarizes the results of this needs assessment and the process that the district used to conduct the needs assessment.
Date of Needs Assessment: March 16, 2023
Student Demographics: Who are our students?
Describe the students you serve. How have your student demographics changed over time? What trends are you seeing?
Lewis and Clark Elementary serves all of the students in grades 3-5 in the Astoria School District, which is located in Astoria, Oregon. In the three years prior to the Covid pandemic, the Astoria School District was seeing a slight increase in total student enrollment, with total student enrollment being at 1,915 in March of 2020. Since the pandemic, our total student enrollment has fallen to between 1,740-1,747 for last year and March of 2023. We were unable to find enrollment numbers for the 2020-2021 school year. Student enrollment at Lewis and Clark Elementary has mirrored this trend. In June of 2018, there were 427 students enrolled at Lewis and Clark. In June of 2019, this number decreased slightly to 416, but rose again to 427 in March of 2020. Last year our student enrollment had fallen to 400, and as of March 2023 we have 402 students enrolled at Lewis and Clark, which are still slightly less than our pre-pandemic numbers.
Lewis and Clark Elementary is one of two schools within the Astoria School District that receive Title 1 funds, and the school has received Title 1 funds for at least the last 20 years. The percent of our students qualifying for Free and Reduced lunch has stayed fairly consistent over the last four school years. The rates have ranged from a little over 44% to almost 50% of our students within the 2018-2022 school years. When looking at our numbers for students who qualify for special services, either through Special Education or English Language Development, there has been an increase in both areas since the 2018-2019 school year. In 2018-2019 we had 11.54% of our students on an IEP and receiving special education services. That number currently is at 15.67% as of March of 2023. Likewise, the percentage of our students receiving English Language Development services has increased from 3.13% in the 2018-2019 school year, to 8.21% as of March of 2023.
How is your school serving students who have been historically underserved by the system?
In the past 15-20 years the Astoria School District has worked to provide teachers with training in sheltered language instruction through SIOP, GLAD and more recently Constructing Meaning. Currently, Lewis and Clark has three staff members who are certified trainers in Constructing Meaning. Our English Language Development teacher has provided support to students and classroom teachers through both a co-teaching model and pull-out model.
In addition to sheltered language instruction, Lewis and Clark uses Title 1 funding to be able to offer instructional assistant push-in support into the general education classrooms as well as pull-out intervention services to students needing additional help in reading and sometimes math. Data from school wide screening measures, such as Acadience oral reading fluency, Star Reading and Math assessments, and decoding surveys are used to determine which students are selected for pull-out Title services. Once these students are selected, frequent progress monitoring happens to track how students are progressing with the intervention, and whether changes need to be made to the intervention plan.
Lewis and Clark Elementary has implemented the Positive Behavior Instruction Support (PBIS) program since the 2005-2006 school year. During the year staff spend time explicitly teaching and reviewing school wide expectations with students. Behavior data is collected and examined throughout the year, in order to determine challenging areas that need more attention and to determine equity with regards to who is receiving behavioral trackers. While our PBIS committee took a pause during the COVID pandemic, it is back up and running once again this year. This committee meets to review the behavior data and will make recommendations for modifications to the behavior program as needed.
Data Examined: What data did we look at?
We reviewed a variety of measures of data during our needs assessment. We began by looking at our demographic and attendance data. This included looking at the percentages of students attending school regularly as a whole group, and then broken down into race. We also looked at the breakdown of the percentages of students at our school who qualify for free and reduced lunch. At the district level we examined the percentages of students receiving special education services as well as the percentage of students who are identified as emerging bilinguals. For academic measures we looked at data from the screening assessments that we give three times a year. For reading we looked at our Star Reading assessment, the SBAC Language arts assessment and the Acadience Oral Reading Fluency assessments that we give to determine words correct per minute and an accuracy rate. In addition, we viewed the data from the Really Great Reading decoding surveys (beginning and advanced) that we give to 3rd graders three times a year. For math we looked at data from the Star Math assessment and the SBAC math assessment. We viewed the current data we have for this year as well as past data for all of these measures. For behavior data we examined a variety of reports from SWIS, including referrals by problem behavior, referrals by location, referral rates by group/ethnicity and average referrals per day per month over the course of the last 5 years. The last data we looked at was from the Youth Truth Survey that our students participated in during the 2021-2022 school year. Using this data we were able to clearly see a few areas that we need to be addressing in our school wide plan.
Identified Strengths and Needs: What is the story our data is telling?
Based on the data we have determined the following areas of strength:
*Our fifth graders' scores have seen an increase on the ELA portion of the Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBAC), in the past three years of scores that we looked at. This includes the year 2021-22, which was during the pandemic.
*When looking at our behavior data around referrals by race/ethnicity, rates for all groups are equitable.
* Our percent of students reading at/above in their accuracy on our Acadience oral reading fluency passages has increased, while our percent of students reading well below in their accuracy decreases to single digit numbers by the time the students are in 5th grade.
Areas of Need:
*5th grade math scores on the SBAC and Star Math assessments have shown a trend of decreasing scores over the past three years.
*Behavior data by location shows that the Playground is an area that receives a lot of referrals. *Longitudinal data for reading and math showed that our students who receive ELD services are impacted by summer learning loss.
How has this changed over time?
The biggest change over time has been caused by the pandemic and its impact on students’ learning. We are still seeing the repercussions of this interrupted learning, especially for our students who were kindergarteners and first graders when the pandemic began.
What are the barriers, and root causes, that students in the building face?
Barriers & Root Causes:
- Access to consistent care and services is difficult in our area. This includes general healthcare, social emotional care, mental health services, and housing. We have a lot of seasonal/ migrant jobs as well as Coast Guard families who move frequently. A lot of jobs in our area do not cover the cost of living, or the costs for people to be able to support their families.
- For our Latinx families there are limited services and language barriers.
- In our building, we are on our third administrator in three years. In addition we have had a high turnover rate for our teachers and support staff.
What opportunities and strengths exist that can be utilized to support the school's academic, social, and other goals?
Opportunities and Strengths:
- We have a strong administrator now in our building who has roots in the community and a strong background in ELD instruction and highly effective instructional strategies.
- Very experienced ELD specialist. The district also has a family liaison that is primarily working on building relationships with our Latinx community.
- We have three Constructing Meaning trainers in our building.
- The district is sponsoring a number of teachers in getting their ESOL endorsement. Next year we will have five newly ESOL endorsed staff members because of this program.
- Title 1 team is utilizing strategies that align with the Science of Reading and is led by an experienced reading specialist.
- To help support SEL and behavior, we now have two full time counselors instead of one. The district hired a district wide behavior support specialist this past year.
- We have implemented a new core curriculum for ELD, phonics, reading, and are in the process of adopting a new math curriculum.
- Our school recently received training from Playworks, which is an organization that supports cooperative play and learning during recesses.
ENGAGEMENT IN PLAN DEVELOPMENT:
Who was engaged in this process and how?
We had a team of 12 people who participated in our Title 1A School wide planning meetings. The team consisted of a district level administrator, our building administrator, our Title 1A teacher, four certified staff members (which included a teacher representative from each grade level as well as our instructional coach), two classified staff and three parents. The team met initially to review multiple sources of data for our school for the needs assessment. After looking at the data we discussed the areas of strength and apparent areas of need for our school. After discussing the areas of need we identified three focus areas in which to develop goals and action plans for our school. Upon completion of our Title 1A Schoolwide Plan, the same team of people met again to review the plan in its entirety as we prepare to fully implement the plan during the 2023-2034 school year.
Goals and Activities
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GOAL/OUTCOME 1
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100% of Lewis and Clark classroom teachers will use a Constructing Meaning (CM) strategy in their classroom at least once a week to increase Emerging Bilingual students' engagement in classroom content instruction for the 2023-2024 school year.
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Activities
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Measures
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*A CM trainer will share engagement strategies with the LCE staff at least once a month.
*Develop a walk through form for CM Strategy use.
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Teachers will be observed using a CM engagement strategy once each term. This can be done by invitation, included in an observation, a walk through, or recorded and shared.
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Professional Learning
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CM Trainers will keep their credentials up to date. At least one CM training course will be offered for elementary teachers who have not yet received training. This training will continue to be offered until all staff have been trained.
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GOAL/OUTCOME 2
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65% of 5th graders will be at or above benchmark by the end of the 2023-2024 school year as measured by the Star Math assessment.
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Activities
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Measures
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*Training on newly adopted math curriculum
*Utilizing the instructional coach to model and support effective teaching strategies
*Implement math interventions and supports as space and time allows *Develop a walk through form for math
*Lengthening the math block in the master schedule by 15 minutes.
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The instructional coach and/or administrator will conduct walk throughs using a common checklist and provide feedback to teachers. STAR math results will be the assessment used to measure progress and is given three times a year in fall, winter and spring.
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Professional Learning
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Teachers will need initial and on-going training on the new math curriculum. Teachers will also receive job-embedded professional learning through the instructional coach.
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GOAL/OUTCOME 3
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For the 2023-2024 school year, the number of behavior referrals from the playground will decrease by 10% from the previous school year.
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Activities
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Measures
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*Implement Playworks’ structures and strategies
*Provide additional playground activities and equipment
*Visual reminders of game rules and expectations
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Data on behavioral referrals will be collected from SWIS.
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Professional Learning
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SEL training and conflict resolution/de-escalation training for all staff. SWIS training will be offered to relevant data keepers.
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Family Engagement
How were parents/guardians and families involved in the development of this plan? What additional activities are underway for engagement?
As we sought to develop our initial schoolwide plan after the pandemic, we invited parents to be part of the planning team. We had three parents who participated in our meetings to examine the data for the needs assessment, set our building goals and develop and review our schoolwide plan.
With the development of our school plan complete, we are planning to engage staff and families in activities in the fall to share our plan. Some of the engagement activities we have planned to occur during the school year include: before school starts family/teacher conferences, fall and spring family/ teacher conferences, the annual Title 1 Parent meeting, literacy and/or math night, a winter and spring music program, and an ELD Bilingual Celebration occurring in the spring.
What are the steps the school takes to remove barriers to participation for all parents/ guardians and families?
Communicating with families in their home language(s)
As a school and as a district we make sure that any information sent home is available in English and Spanish. In addition, our district utilizes Parent Square for all communication with parents. This app allows for translation of information into a variety of languages. Interpreters are provided at Parent/Teacher conferences, IEP meetings and any other meetings that may require translation for our families. We also have access to our district's family liaison for communicating with our Latinx families.
Variety of activities at times and locations that are convenient to families (e.g. in person/ virtual/ website)
Our Parent/ Teacher conferences are available during the day and evening. IEP meetings can be virtual or in person depending on the needs of the family. This year we have been able to resume student performances for the first time since pre-COVID. Our performances have been offered at a variety of times and sometimes at a variety of locations (at our school, at the Astoria High School).
Online Presence: What is available for families on our website? Is our Title I-A plan online?
Plans are currently underway to update our district and school websites to be more user friendly. Currently, families can access our school's website for the calendar, lunch menus, staff contact information, and basic school information. Our Title I-A plan is currently available in English on our existing website. The Spanish copy of our plan will be available online once translation is completed.
Transportation: Do we offer ways for families without vehicles to attend in person?
In the past our district has provided shuttle services to certain family events, mainly due to parking constraints. In special circumstances the district has provided transportation for families in order to attend conferences/ meetings at their child's school.
Childcare: Do we offer options for families to bring small children to meetings or activities?
Families are not discouraged from bringing their small children to most, if not all, meetings or activities.
Continuous family engagement plan in other Title 1-A requirements
Annual Title 1-A Meeting: What do we share with families at the annual meeting? How do we communicate about opportunities for family involvement in school activities?
At the annual meeting we inform parents that Title 1-A is a federally funded program. The funds are used to provide programs and extra support to students who are struggling in reading and math. We also make sure to share Parent/Guardian rights under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). At this meeting we share with families what the design of our Title 1-A program looks like, the assessments and curriculum that are used as well as data from the schoolwide assessments that are given. Family involvement requirements under Title 1-A are also shared with parents. This includes the district level family involvement plan, the school level family involvement plan and the Title 1 School Family Compact. Families are also informed about the schoolwide plan for Lewis and Clark, and the process for the annual review and evaluation of this plan. They are invited to share their feedback regarding the schoolwide plan. The time is also taken during this meeting to share upcoming opportunities for family involvement/ partnership with the school.
All of our opportunities for family involvement in school activities are communicated through ParentSquare. Occasionally we will also send out letters/ flyers to families in addition to the information communicated through ParentSquare. In addition to communication that our school sends out to families, the district also emails out a monthly newsletter to families with information from each school and the district and community as a whole. These newsletters go out in English and Spanish.
Family/ Student/ School Compact: How are families involved in the design of compacts? How are compacts discussed with families and students?
We have parents on our schoolwide Title 1 planning team. At our meeting they reviewed our current compact and gave their feedback. The compact was discussed with families and students at our spring parent/ teacher conferences. Going forward this compact will be shared with families during our back to school conferences happening prior to the start of the school year.
Building Parent/Guardian Capacity: What are the strategies we use to help families support their student's learning?
In order to help build parent/ guardian capacity in order to help them support their student’s learning we will place strategies on our school website, once the redesigned website is up and running. We also anticipate being able to bring back in person events such as literacy night and math night, which had been postponed due to the pandemic. Classroom teachers send home resources for home activities as needed and/or requested by parents in order to help support their student’s learning.
Annual Plan Review
Review Date: TBD in the spring of 2024
Reviewing Our Plan: Who was at the table?
Our Annual Plan review will occur in the spring of 2024.
Looking Back: How did we do?
Our Annual Plan review will occur in the spring of 2024.
Looking Forward: What’s next?
Our Annual Plan review will occur in the spring of 2024.
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Astor Schoolwide Plan 2023-2024