2016-17
Annual School Performance Report Challenger Elementary School
Challenger Elementary School
25200 SE Klahanie Blvd., Issaquah, WA 98029 (425) 837-7550 https://connect.issaquah. wednet.edu/elementary/ challenger/ Principal Sara Jo Pietraszewski
Welcome Parents and community members are vital members of our team. Their support enables us to provide a wide variety of enrichment programs. Thanks for working with us to make every student’s success our top priority
Mission The Challenger community will create a positive, friendly, respectful learning environment where staff and students feel safe, are willing and encouraged to take risks, and individual learning styles are recognized and nurtured.
Demographics Grades: K-5
Teacher Experience Enrollment: 590 95.3%
62.2%
Teachers with Master’s/Ph.D
Teacher’s with National Board Certification
8.2
3 Average Years 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. Challenger 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.
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District Report For budget details and more go to www.issaquah.wednet.edu/district/annualcommunity-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.
Highlights Challenger has a very warm and friendly atmosphere. We strive to be a central part of the local Klahanie neighborhood community and aim to be a place of learning and growth for all students and families. It is through this partnership that we can best serve our students! We gather together through our traditional assemblies including Veterans’ Day, Winter Sharing, Martin Luther King Jr. Observance, and a Year-end Celebration. We are proud of our continued strong partnership with our parents and the community. Parents are actively involved in the life of the school as they volunteer countless hours to support student learning. The power of our volunteers directly benefits student learning. This year in partnership with the Issaquah Schools Foundation, 35 Challenger students were matched with V.O.I.C.E mentors. We are also fortunate to have many middle and high school students who volunteer to support students with academic skills and teachers with preparation of materials. Challenger celebrates a strong tradition of before and after school enrichment programs. We partner with community groups to host after school chess, Lego, art, drama, and science clubs. Our teachers also provide enrichment by leading a number of clubs: Student Council, Safety Patrol, Comet Choir, Waste Watchers, Drum Group, Running Club, and Math Club. Fifth graders attend camp for three days at Camp Orkila on Orcas Island. Our teachers and students are enthusiastically engaged in the integration of technology into all aspects of learning. Classrooms are equipped with a high ratio of computers, document cameras, digital cameras, ActivBoards, ActivVotes, and ActivExpressions. In addition, each grade level has Netbooks and iPads for student use and we have five complete laptop carts that are available for classroom checkout. Challenger recognizes students each month through PRIDE
skill awards and honors students for showing important life and social skills such as: respect, friendship, decision-making, and several others. Students who follow school rules are recognized with SHAZAM cards, a positive behavior recognition tool. We are a King County Level 4 Green School with composting in both our lunch-room and our classrooms. Also, our student-led Waste Watchers provide food and paper waste recycling at lunch. We also have a No-Idle Zone in our pick-up loop to minimize air pollution. Challenger is proud of its outstanding music program. All grade levels perform curriculumrelated concerts that incorporate music, dance, instruments, solos, and speaking parts. We also offer Comet Choir and Drum groups for interested 4th and 5th grade students. Our PTA works closely with the school to provide both academic enrichment opportunities and social opportunities for our students. These include: Science to Go lessons, assemblies, teacher and school grant opportunities, popsicle social before school starts, Color Run, Art Reflections, Festival of Cultures, Eager Reader, Free Popcorn Fridays, Book Swap, BINGO Night, and Science Fair.
What’s New This year Challenger was officially honored for achieving Level Four status in the King County Green Schools Program in recognition of its practices to conserve water and prevent pollution. To do this, we’ve had to maintain requirements for Level One, Level Two, and Level Three Green
Schools, plus add in an action item to share with the school community. Over the past several years, Challenger has undertaken several steps to reduce its water use and to educate students and staff about water conservation and protection, including: pledges to reduce personal water use and prevent pollution, posted reminders in school restrooms, pledges to reduce use of bottled water, examination and maintenance of all school faucets, toilets, and irrigation system, running dishwashers and clothes washing machines with full loads only, use of reusable silverware, and turning off hot water heaters during extended school breaks. This year our Green Team created an informational video for the school community about our Waste Watchers program. The video teaches students how to effectively use our compost, recycle, and trash bins at lunch to reduce waste. Starting in February, each Wednesday at Challenger is a “Waste-Free Wednesday” in which students make a concerted effort to pack lunches with as little waste as possible. Most weeks we measure less than 2 lbs. of waste for over 575 students! Challenger staff continues work as a PBIS (Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports) school and take on the District PBSES (Positive Behavior and SocialEmotional Supports) work. PBIS is based on principles of applied behavioral analysis and the proactive approach to positive behavior support for students. The school has worked together to adopt and organize behavioral expectations that enhance academic and social outcomes for all
students. This includes developing expected behaviors for shared locations around the building (i.e. in the lunchroom, hallways, and restrooms) and recognizing students who demonstrate expected behaviors with “shazams” that are special cards that celebrate good behavior. This summer, our school library will continue to partner with the King County Library System to host open-library time for families once a week. This summer’s focus will be on literature that inspires imagination, creativity, and innovation in science and technology.
Improving Student Achievement We are in the first year of our School Improvement Plan (SIP) that focuses on math. In looking at Challenger data and our work around reading the past three years, the teacher leadership team and the rest of the certificated staff believes that a next logical step in examining overall student performance (considering the need to address CCSS math practices and also the work that has already been done in reading instruction), is to shift our focus to math where student performance has a lot of room to grow. We will apply our work in best-practice reading instruction into our work with math. This is an especially appropriate time to do so as we dig deeply into the new Eureka Math Curriculum. Our intent is to support teachers in the instruction of math through training and implementation of the new curriculum. In addition, we will continue to use our instructional coach to provide high levels of supports to teachers in the areas of literacy.
Special Programs Challenger houses one of the District’s Learning Resource Center II (LRC II) programs: a special education program for K-5 students. Our LRC II students are included in general education grade-level activities as much as possible. We know them to be a vital part of our diverse community.
The results of Washington State’s Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA) and Measures of Student Progress (MSP) 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 state-mandated 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 (MSP) and then again in high school (SBA in ELA and End of Course assessments in Math and Biology). 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
Two tests given to elementary school students— The Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA) and the Measurement of Student Progress (MSP)—help indicate how well Issaquah students are learning.
For a few schools the 2016-2017 Smarter Balanced Assessment results in English Language Arts and Math were suppressed by OSPI. For information from OSPI on test suppression rules, please visit OSPI at http://reportcard.ospi.k12. wa.us/TemplateDetail.aspx?domain=SBAC&schoo lId=1455&reportLevel=School&year=2016-17&gra deLevelId=5&groupLevel=District&waslCategory= 1&chartType=1&yrs=2016-17
67.8
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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.
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Grade Level Total Math 79.5 70.4
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Smarter Balanced Assessment
Grade Level Total ELA
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We are a host school for many kindergarteners from Grand Ridge Elementary. These students are bused to Challenger from the Issaquah Highlands. These students and their families continue to be a vital part of our Challenger community!
Assessment
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Just So You Know...
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MSP
Grade 5 MSP-Science
The MSP is an exam developed and mandated by the state; it replaced the state’s original annual exam, the WASL, in spring 2010. The MSP measures what students know and can do on the 2009 science standards. Next year the MSP will be replaced by the Washington Comprehensive Assessment of Science which will measure what students know and can do on the Next Generation Science Standards. MSP 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.
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