Dear BCE patrons,
It is time for us to give a mid -year accounting of how we are spending the money we receive through School Land Trust. This money is governed by our School Community Council and is intended to cover areas of need within a school.
Butterfield Canyon Elementary is using their Land Trust money to improve literacy skills across grades K-5, and math in sixth grade. CRT scores and other data sources we reviewed, including DIBELS scores and Guided Reading levels, indicated to us that literacy is an area where additional support is needed. We have hired 12 paraprofessionals (technicians) to push-in to every classroom through grades 1-5 in the school for ½ hour a day for four days a week. They work with small groups of students on skills in areas of identified need while teachers give struggling readers an additional level of literacy support in an extra guided reading group. The technicians have been trained on specific activities in the areas of fluency instruction, word study, vocabulary and background knowledge, and familiar re-read. When planning, teachers choose the activity from the menu of choices in which they feel their students need the most support.
As our sixth grade teachers are working on implementing the new common core in math, their technicians are working on enrichment activities with the students who have mastered core concepts. While the technicians work with them, the teachers are able to re-teach students who need extra support to build their skills in the concepts they are learning in class.
Our Kindergarten teachers receive an hour of service in the morning and an hour in the afternoon. The technicians are trained in a research-based reading program called My Sidewalks. They follow this program with small groups of students and work on letter and sound recognition, reading, and other skills.
Preliminary data is indicating that our interventions are successful. Students are improving in their daily fluency scores and making progress in guided reading levels. We will keep collecting data as we continue throughout the year.
Teachers also have received ongoing professional development training in both instructional and behavior strategies.
We appreciate the support we receive from the School Community Council, and our community at large. Your children are important to us, and their success is our success!
