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Highland Elementary School

"Our success with SuccessMaker has been the result of good implementation, adequate time on task, and total teacher involvement. Teachers are fully involved with assisting students with the programs, and using the reports to appropriately integrate SuccessMaker with classroom curriculum and instruction. SuccessMaker is an integral part of Highland’s school culture."
     Cheryl Parkey, Technology Coordinator, Highland Elementary School

Highlights

• Pearson Digital Learning’ SuccessMaker® has been extremely effective in helping low-income, Limited English Proficiency (LEP), and Exceptional Student Education (ESE) students reach high academic standards. The program provides instruction for diverse learning needs including, ESE, ESOL (English as Second Oral Language), and at-risk populations.
• Formerly rated as a "D" school in 1998 and 1999 by the state of Florida, Highland Elementary has raised its ratings to achieve an "A" in 2000, and a "B" for the 2002 school year.
• Highland students have demonstrated a positive correlation between achievement levels in SuccessMaker and performance on the FCAT. Students achieved level 7.0 in the Math Concepts and Skills courses in grade 5, and a level 6.0 in Reading Adventures courses for grade four. Students performing at these levels achieved a passing 3.0 or better on the FCAT.
  

School District Profile

Highland Elementary School is located in the city of Lake Worth, in Palm Beach County, Florida. The school serves grades preK through 5 and enrolls 800 students. The ethnic population is 46 percent Hispanic, 30 percent African-American, 17 percent Caucasian, 4 percent multiracial, and the remaining 3 percent Asian and Indian. Ninety-three percent of Highland’s students receive a free or reduced price lunch, 43 percent are ESOL, and 90 percent are LEP. Highland Elementary is part of the Palm Beach County School System.

Challenge/Goals

The ethnically and culturally diverse students at the school suffer from a high rate of poverty. Highland’s student performance had been low and the school had been scoring poorly in all measures of academic success. Highland was initially ranked as a "D" school by Florida’s school grading system.

In 1999, Highland Elementary met the criteria of a lower socioeconomic, Title I urban school, with a majority of the students falling into the ESOL category. In response, the school implemented SuccessMaker to help increase student achievement in reading, writing, and mathematics.

Solution

SuccessMaker was implemented at Highland Elementary in 1996. SuccessMaker possessed an approved reform model for the federal grant program. The program was designed to improve instruction, assessment, classroom management, professional development, parental involvement, and school management processes. It also aligns to Highland’s curriculum, technology, and development, and puts strategies in place to help all students meet challenging state content and performance standards. The program was developed as a result of a 1999 annual school assessment that discovered that grade four students did not meet the district or state average in narrative or expository on Florida writing tests. The review also showed that 117 out of 174 first graders could not read to grade level by the end of the year. Furthermore, students in grades 4 and 5 did not meet the district or state averages on the FCAT tests.

Today, SuccessMaker is available to all 800 students in first through fifth grade. Funding for the initial SuccessMaker purchase was received through the Palm Beach School District Board of Education. Updated SuccessMaker versions were purchased through a Comprehensive School Grant awarded to the school.

Highland Elementary currently has SuccessMaker running in three labs, with 31 computers in each lab. Computers with SuccessMaker are also located in the classrooms. A variety of SuccessMaker courses in reading, writing, math, science, and Spanish are available to help students increase their performance and overall learning. Teachers monitor student progress every four weeks with math and reading benchmarks.

Highland Elementary students in the SuccessMaker Lab.

Results

Since implementing SuccessMaker at Highland Elementary, FCAT scores have consistently improved. According to Dr. Richard Hughes, principal at Highland, "If you want success on the FCAT, or any high stakes test, SuccessMaker, properly implemented, will guarantee achievement at an FCAT level 3 or better." Previously ranked a "D" school by the state of Florida, Highland has raised its status to an "A" in 2000 and a "B" in 2002. With dedicated staff and teachers, SuccessMaker has proven to be a winning combination for increased academic performance at Highland Elementary School.

Highland students demonstrated a clear correlation between SuccessMaker levels and FCAT test scores. Students achieving level 6.0 in Reading Adventures for grade four correlated to a passing 3.0 or better on the FCAT:

Highland Elementary has steadily increased its FCAT scores in Writing since 1999:

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