Photo: Willow Hill Elementary School Principal Mr. Damon Jordan shares the good news with Abington School Board; Dr. Ann Bacon (background) explained grant possibilities.
The Pennsylvania Department of Education has announced that Willow Hill Elementary School has achieved status as a 2015-2016 Title I Reward School for High Progress after meeting four measurable requirements.
This designation places Willow Hill in the highest five percent of Title I schools in the state based on aggregate progress in closing the achievement gap in Reading and Mathematics for PSSA and/or Algebra I/Literature for Keystone Exams combined for the All Student group and the Historically Underperforming Student group. Willow Hill Elementary School received this award for High Progress on the combined results of the Reading and Mathematics PSSA.
There are over 1,800 Title I Schools in Pennsylvania and only the top five percent earn this designation.
In addition to meeting the criteria for closing the achievement gap for the combined All Student group and Historically Underperforming Student group, to earn this designation the school had to meet four Annual Measurable Objectives (AMO’s) related to PSSA testing. These are:
- At least 95% of the students in grades 3 through 6 at Willow Hill must have participated in the Mathematics and Reading PSSA’s
- The Attendance Rate for All Students at Willow Hill must have been at least 90%.
- The school must have met its designated goal for Closing the Achievement Gap in Mathematics/Reading PSSA for All Students. This performance measure is based on a calculation involving the percent proficient/advanced in the base line year of the assessment and the average percent increase needed to close half of the total gap within six years.
- The school had to meet its designated goal for Closing the Achievement Gap in Mathematics/Reading PSSA for Historically Underperforming Students. The procedure for calculating this score is the same as that for the All Student achievement gap.
Willow Hill met all of these criteria and, as a result, was identified as one of 90 Title I Reward Schools for Progress. This number represents 5% of the Title I schools in Pennsylvania.
As a Title I Reward School: High Progress, Willow Hill will be eligible to apply for two competitive grants, an Innovation grant and a Collaboration grant.
An Innovation grant is a competitive grant that is designed to promote the implementation of new learning structures and processes to meet individual student needs.
A Collaboration grant is a competitive grant that is awarded to Title I Reward and Focus schools. This requires a partnership between a Reward and a Focus school; a Focus school is a Title I school that has the largest “within-school gaps between the highest-achieving subgroup or subgroups and the lowest-achieving subgroup or subgroups” or has a subgroup or subgroups with low achievement. Together, both schools must work collaboratively to create goals that will address the Annual Measurable Objective(s) that were not achieved by the Focus school, demonstrating its cooperation and outlining its plan to increase student achievement in those areas.