Home > Successes > SuccessMaker > Rosewood Elementary School

Rosewood Elementary School

"To meet the standard of NCLB as determined by the state Pametto Achievement Challenge Test (PACT), SuccessMaker Enterprise provides the appropriate instructional model and level of instruction to reach every child everyday, by developing the child's self-esteem, self-confidence and motivation."
�Stephen Ward, Principal

Profile

The Rosewood school name is carried throughout the neighborhood community by sharing its name with the street. The school encompasses approximately 20 acres of land nestled in an established and growing Charlotte/Metro area community bordering North Carolina. The school's physical plant was constructed seven years after the school district was created in 1953, through the merger of four former school districts. After three construction phases, the present facility houses a population of 545 students and 61 faculty/staff members. Rosewood is part of the Rock Hill Three School District enrolling 16,000 students. The ethnic breakdown at Rosewood is 64 percent Caucasian, 24 percent African American, 9 percent Hispanic/Latino, two percent Asian and one percent Native American.

The student population breaks down as follows:

The majority of the families residing within the community have a medium socioeconomic status, with less than five percent coming from more affluent residential communities. Thirty-one percent of the students are from lower socioeconomic households. Thirty-one percent of the students receive a free and reduced-price lunch.

Challenges and Goals

Rosewood was previously challenged with reaching students on an individual level, integrating technology in the classroom and tracking student strengths and weaknesses.

The goals at Rosewood are as follows:

• Students will use technology effectively to access, manage and present information
• To use data to drive instruction and to make decisions
• To use SuccessMaker Enterprise reports for the school intervention team process
• To raise the level of achievement for each student as determined by the state testing program Pametto Achievement Challenge Test (PACT)
• To raise the bar for all students by moving them to the next level of the PACT assessment.
• To develop the child's self-esteem, self-confidence and motivation

Solution

Rosewood Elementary originally implemented SuccessMaker in 1984. The purchase was made possible by funding from the state, the district board of education, and Education Improvement Act and Rock Hill grants. The school is currently using SuccessMaker Enterprise version 6.0. All 545 students are automatically enrolled in the SuccessMaker program as part of their curriculum. Courseware includes:

School Uses of SuccessMaker
SuccessMaker is part of the school's total master schedule and is used in the following manner:

• Grades 3—5 use the Tech Lab daily.
• K—2 students use SuccessMaker in the classroom daily to support instruction for remediation enrichment. They are also able to use the lab twice a week as a whole class.
• Three times a week grades K-2 are able to have an open slot for enrichment.
• Each Wednesday, the lab is used for remediation for grades K-5.
• The after school program uses SuccessMaker Enterprise online resources for motivational learning activities.
• Before school, the lab is opened at 7am for any student who wants to use SuccessMaker Enterprise for resource, enrichment, additional practice or any other means.

During holidays, Rosewood serves as the district site for extended learning, by using SuccessMaker Enterprise as a resource for enrichment, additional practice and any other means for learning. A full-time lab manager is available who is technologically adept to manage software, equipment and communication between teachers and to monitor student progress.

Students love the immediate reports on their progress and the immediate correct/incorrect answers. They also enjoy reading the stories and the interaction between software and the user. Students also continuously cite the games as engaging and are a key attraction.

Results

Last year, Rosewood Elementary implemented the NWEA Measures of Academic Progress in grades 2-5. The tests replaced the non-standardized benchmark tests used in the past and allows the school to develop targeted interventions for students before they take PACT, and helps to measure the school work done. On the Spring MAP assessment, overall student performance at all grade levels was at or above the national percentile in both mathematics and language arts.

Overall PACT performance — All Grades and AYP
"With 91.5 percent of students meeting standard in grades 3-5 language arts and 91.1 percent in mathematics, our school consistently performs in the top quarter of schools in the state and district, regardless of free/reduced lunch status", says Stephan Ward, Principal at Rosewood. "In fact, 84 percent of free/reduced lunch students met standard in language arts and 85 percent in math. This year, our school met adequate yearly progress goals for the year."

Closing the Achievement Gap
At Rosewood, teachers are successfully closing the performance gap between white and African-American students. There has been a reduction in the gap in mathematics from 35.5 points in 2002 to 5.7 points in 2004. In ELA, the gap is 13.7 points with grade 4 student performance the strongest, where 98 percent of white students and 100 percent of African-American students met standard.

Stephen Ward says that outstanding student performance results in overall satisfaction with a school's learning environment, which in turn creates an atmosphere that fosters intellectual and creative development. On district school accountability surveys, 100 percent of teachers reported that "students in my class are actively engaged in learning" and on EOC surveys conducted with teachers, students and parents, 100 percent of teachers, 89.1 percent of parents and 82.7 percent of students reported they were satisfied with the learning environment. One hundred percent of parents reported that the school set high expectations for learning.

Rosewood uses the following strategies to meet their goals:

• To get students onto SuccessMaker Enterprise as often as possible. It is being used daily for reading and math in addition to morning courses.
• To use SuccessMaker Enterprise reports and other testing assessments to develop and confirm student profiles (data driven instruction).
• Teachers present SuccessMaker Enterprise reports to assist SIT in making appropriate interventions, accommodation and recommendations for psycho-educational evaluations and development of the Individual Education Plans.
• To use SuccessMaker Enterprise in meeting the students in the school before and after school tutoring program.
• To involve the child in the understanding of the SuccessMaker Enterprise assessment (to maximize self-esteem and self-confidence).

Factors that made the program successful at Rosewood Elementary included:

• The fact that SuccessMaker Enterprise is adaptable and adjustable to each child's individual needs.
• District and Pearson Digital Learning support is in place to provide software upgrade, staff development, hardware and technical support.
• A full-time lab manager is available, the program provides a student-friendly interface and the content is correlated to state standards.

Since implementing SuccessMaker Enterprise, teachers feel they no longer teach in isolation and there is a more theme-based integration of all content subject matter. Plus, instruction is more individualized to target certain skills. Data from SuccessMaker Enterprise is helping to both validate teacher assessment of the student's instructional level and evaluate the need for providing support instruction and resources in the classroom. Teachers are also making connections between concepts introduced in SuccessMaker Enterprise and concepts taught in the classroom, creating a solid learning environment for the students.

Contact us for additional information on how Pearson Digital Learning can help you achieve results with SuccessMaker Enterprise.