2017-18
Annual School Performance Report Apollo Elementary School
Apollo Elementary School 15025 SE 117th Street, Renton, WA 98059 (425) 837-7500 http://connect.issaquah.wednet.edu/elementary/apollo Principal Jane Harris
Mission We develop confident, responsible, creative, and lifelong learners. Apollo is a place where all are respected, supported, and challenged academically, socially, and emotionally. Our Mission Goals: • Hold all staff and students to exceptional standards • Students are academically and emotionally ready for their life outside of school • Actively participate and work together to create a whole-school approach • Create learning opportunities and allow students to practice skills Vision: Preparing All Students to Launch!
Welcome It is extremely rewarding to be an active participant in a school community where student learning and excelling is the primary goal! Our committed staff, parent partners, and community advocates help to ensure that we reach our mission of developing confident, responsible, creative and lifelong learners.
Teacher Experience
1
Teacher’s with National Board Teacher Data for the 62.5% Experience Certification
2017-18 School Year will be available December 2018. Average Years Teachers with Master’s/Ph.D
8.9
Teaching Experience
OSPI Data In March 2014, the U.S. Department of Education declined to renew the state of Washington’s conditional Elementary and Secondary Education Act Flexibility Waiver for schools receiving Title I, Part A funds. This decision affects all schools in Washington State, which are now subject to the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Washington is the only state that has lost its waiver and must revert to NCLB standards and timelines of assessment. For schools and districts to be considered succeeding under NCLB, schools must meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) standards. For schools to meet AYP, 100 percent of all students, regardless of special needs or English language mastery, must meet proficiency standards. Apollo met AYP this year. For complete information about the Issaquah School District’s assessment data, highly qualified teachers, annual yearly progress, and state NAEP (of Educational Progress) results, please visit the state’s online district report card.
District Report For budget details and more go to www.issaquah.wednet.edu/district/ annual-community-report/ The Issaquah School District believes in seeking continual feedback from a broad and diverse range of constituents regarding their experiences with the District and their neighborhood school. See the Community Polling Study site at www.issaquah.wednet.edu/district/polling for more information and survey results.
Demographics Grades: K-5
Enrollment: 673 95.7%
43.8% 31.1%
14.7%
12.8% 1.8%
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Highlights Reading Improvement is a current area of academic focus for our teachers. We work in professional learning communities to collaboratively improve our teaching practices to best meet our students’ needs. Within the broad topic of reading improvement, we focus on decoding, fluency, and comprehension. Apollo offers reading enrichment opportunities, to students not meeting standard, after school for several weeks. Certificated teachers improve students’ foundational skills in reading through use of a succinct curriculum. Students are provided transportation and snacks with support from the Issaquah Schools Foundation. An integral part of our reading focus is ensuring that students do not lose progress made in reading over the summer. Summer reading is encouraged by welcoming students and families to come to Apollo’s library in the summer for book check out, story hours and more! Developing readers, writers, and mathematicians are of paramount importance at Apollo. Writing celebrations occur across grade levels several times a year. Growth in writing is monitored through frequent On Demand writing prompts. Growth progress, in reading, is closely monitored and instruction is targeted to individual student needs, though guided reading groups, independent reading, student teacher conferences and additional services provided to students who qualify Special Education, Title 1 and ELL. The Issaquah School District most recently adopted the Eureka Math Curriculum for the elementary level. This curriculum provides students the opportunity to demonstrate fluency with numbers sense as well as build on their mathematical problem solving skills and meets the Common Core Standards. We are a school that welcomes all students and families. We are unique in that we house multiple district programs and so in turn we are able to meet the needs of all students who enter our doors— from those who qualify for special services to those who qualify for the highly capable and gifted classrooms. Our students represent a diverse demographic both socioeconomically and ethnically. We strive to celebrate diversity and Apollo is very proud of our community. Apollo and the school’s PTA support a yearly Multicultural Night, Reflections Artist Celebration, theatrical production, Science Fair, and musical program events are many ways Apollo celebrates diversity. With our Rocket Recognition program, all students have the opportunity to be recognized for positive character traits and academic achievement. Any staff member can nominate students
Highlights Continued each month for following the Rocket Way of being Respectful, Responsible, and Safe. Students are recognized for their accomplishments as members of the Apollo Learning Community. Students are taught, throughout the school year, about respect, responsibility, and safety physically and emotionally. Each month, students nominated by their teachers for following the Rocket Way have lunch with the principal! Apollo’s classrooms are equipped with a variety of technology in every classroom from kindergarten to fifth grade. Our students and teachers utilize the vast technology options to make learning come alive. Apollo has rolling laptop carts and Ipads to enhance learning to keep classroom interest and excitement high. Apollo students benefit from strong community involvement. Our active PTA raises money, sponsors events, conducts enriching programs, and works diligently to increase our community and parent involvement. The Apollo PTA is officially recognized by the National PTA as a PTA of Excellence in the areas of ELL and Diversity, Advocacy and Empowerment, and Community Engagement. We have a strong partnership with the Issaquah Schools Foundation, and have benefitted greatly from multiple learning grants the foundation has provided. District middle and high school students also contribute to the learning community at Apollo by serving as tutors in our Wednesday morning tutoring program and as volunteers at special events.
Improving Student Achievement Reading is a current area of focused learning improvement for our teachers. We work in professional learning communities to collaboratively understand how to best meet our students’ learning needs. Within the broad topic of reading improvement, we have an intentional focus on Main Idea, Word Recognition, Key Elements of a Story, and Using Evidence within the Text to Support
Special Programs Apollo hosts two special district programs. Apollo has the distinct honor to be a site for those students who qualify for the district self-contained special education program, LRC II, and for those who qualify for MERLIN, the Highly Capable/Gifted self-contained program for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades.
Student Activities Apollo has a variety of Student Activities including, Student Council for 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders, choir, math and reading intervention, Scratch and Coding Clubs, Drama Club, King County Green Team, 5th grade Dream Team basketball and First Lego League Robotics. “Rocket Club” is Apollo’s on-site and district maintained, before and after school, tuition-based, school-age care program.
Just So You Know... Our facilities continue to offer an excellent learning environment for our students. Apollo has technologically sound classrooms, multiple activity areas, and an expanded multipurpose space. Apollo is a school of acceptance and pride. We are proud to say that our students and their families feel safe, welcomed, and encouraged at Apollo. We reach great heights doing all things the Rocket Way!
Assessment Two tests given to elementary school students—The Smarter Balanced Assessment and the Washington Comprehensive Assessment of Science help indicate how well Issaquah students are learning.
Smarter Balanced Assessment The results of Washington State’s Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA) and Washington Comprehensive Assessment of Science (WCAS) help parents know how well their student is meeting learning targets. They also help schools plan instruction and curriculum based on these learning targets. The Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA) is a statemandated test that measures students’ progress toward College and Career Readiness in English Language Arts (ELA) /Literacy and Math. The SBA replaced existing tests in English and Math in the spring of the 2014-2015 school year. The tests are given as part of Washington State’s education reform efforts which began in 1993 and involve annual state-specific tests for students in grades 3-8 in ELA (SBA), Math (SBA), and Science (WCAS) and then again in high school (SBA in ELA and Math and WCAS in Science). The SBA consists of two parts: a computer adaptive test and a performance task. Writing is included at every grade level and students are asked to solve multi-step, real-world problems in Mathematics. Performance tasks ask students to demonstrate an array of research, writing, and problem solving skills. The SBA results accurately describe student achievement (how much students know at the end of the year) and are reported in two ways: scaled scores and achievement levels. A scaled score is the student’s overall numerical score. These scores fall on a continuous scale (from approximately 2000 to 3000) that increases across grade levels. Scaled scores are used to illustrate students’ current level of achievement. Based on their scaled scores, students fall into one of four categories of performance called achievement levels. Levels 3 and 4 represent “Meeting Standard” and reflect “adequate understanding” and “thorough understanding” of the learning standards. Levels 1 and 2 represent “Not Meeting Standard” and reflect “minimal understanding” and “partial understanding” of the learning standards.
Grade Level Total ELA
77.4 69.8
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77.2
73.7
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80.2
78.8
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Grade Level Total Math 80.6
79.4
77.4
71.5
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74.9
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76.5
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WCAS The WCAS is an exam developed and mandated by the state; it was given for the first time in Spring 2018. The WCAS measures what students know and can do on the 2013 science standards. WCAS assesses all three dimensions of the learning standards (science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, crosscutting concepts) and goes beyond multiple choice tests. The test includes a variety of item types including selected response (multiple choice, multiple select), technology enhanced, and constructed responses (equation builder, short answer). WCAS scores show the learning level of each student as compared to the state’s expectations for a well-taught student at that grade level. The numbers on the chart below represent the percentage of students who meet or exceed standard.
Grade 5 WCAS - Science
78.7
74.9
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