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    DEMOGRAPHICS
    YEAR SCHOOL OPENED
    1970
    ATTENDANCE RATE (%)
    94.0
    student Enrollment
    708
    Race/Ethnicity (%)
    African American....................... 34.5
    Hawaii/Pac. Islander.......................... -
    White.............................. 29.6
    Multiracial...................... 7.3
    Hispanic......................... 25
    American Indian/AK....................... -
    Asian.............................. 3.3
    GENDER (%)
    Male................................ 47.9Ā 
    Female........................... 52.1
    Special Services** (%)
    FARMS........................... 78.2
    504.................................. 2
    Special Ed..................... 10.3
    LEP................................. 17.3
    Title 1............................. Yes

    Ā **Special Services Terms Glossary

    School Renovation Details - 1996, 2000, 2010, 2018 K addition, walls to close the open space design in phases.

Hilltop Elementary School

Strategic Plan Indicators

  • After each school leadership team reflected on its school culture, community, and the key contributing factors to student growth, they used this information to select the Strategic Plan Indicators that would have the greatest positive impact for their students.  Each school was directed to select two to six indicators on which to focus during the 2018-19 school year.  Certainly, we all know that if we focus narrowly and deeply, we are more likely to realize positive results.  The indicators that this school’s leadership team selected are noted below.
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  • 2019-2020 Strategic Plan Indicator(s) Chosen by the School - 2, 5, 6 (expand to view details)

    View Full List/Descriptions of Indicators

    Indicator 2.  NCREASE THE PERCENTAGE OF STUDENTS WHO REPORT THAT AACPS STAFF CARE FOR AND SUPPORT THEM

    Indicator 5. INCREASE THE PERCENTAGE OF STUDENTS WHO READ ON OR ABOVE GRADE LEVEL BY THE END OF SECOND GRADE

    Indicator 6. INCREASE THE PERCENTAGE OF STUDENTS IN GRADES 3-8 WHO MEET OR EXCEED EXPECTATIONS ON STANDARDIZED READING, LANGUAGE ARTS, AND MATHEMATICS ASSESSMENTS

Expand All

  • 2018-2019 Strategic Plan Indicator(s) Chosen by the School - 2, 5, 6 (expand to view details)

    View Full List/Descriptions of Indicators

    Indicator 2.  NCREASE THE PERCENTAGE OF STUDENTS WHO REPORT THAT AACPS STAFF CARE FOR AND SUPPORT THEM

    Indicator 5. INCREASE THE PERCENTAGE OF STUDENTS WHO READ ON OR ABOVE GRADE LEVEL BY THE END OF SECOND GRADE

    Indicator 6. INCREASE THE PERCENTAGE OF STUDENTS IN GRADES 3-8 WHO MEET OR EXCEED EXPECTATIONS ON STANDARDIZED READING, LANGUAGE ARTS, AND MATHEMATICS ASSESSMENTS

Strategic Journey

  • Throughout the next 3 years, schools will focus on their chosen Strategic Plan Indicators as the drivers to increase student engagement and achievement within their schools.  They will choose strategies to help them grow or increase within each indicator and will monitor and evaluate the student and school changes that take place along the journey.  Below you will see what this school imagines their students and school to look like in 2021 after having focused and worked on their chosen indicators for three years.

Our Vision of Success: 2021

  • During the 2018-19 school year, 77% of our minor referrals have addressed concerns over disrespect. This is mostly consistent with data from the previous school year. Also during the 2018-19 school year, 47% of our major referrals have addressed concerns over fighting and unsafe actions. This is a major decrease from 70% during the previous school year. The 2018 Maryland Climate Survey indicates that 87% of students feel like they belong at Hilltop and 87% of students feel that they like their school. In addition, 93% of students feel that their teachers encourage them and work hard in their classes. As a result, Hilltop continues to believe that it is important to provide direct instruction targeting the social and emotional development of our students.

    In the years to come, Hilltop will continue to implement a curriculum that directly teaches problem-solving skills for social contexts, strategies for self-regulation and growth mindset. We will provide structured opportunities for students to practice these new strategies and skills with teacher and peer support. We will help students transfer their learning to real-world scenarios. In addition, we will create a common language so students can use to demonstrate respect and empathy across multiple disciplines and settings. We will incorporate restorative practices to resolve conflicts, and use cooperative discipline to reteach appropriate behaviors. As Hilltop welcomes new students throughout the school year, we will support them with the transition and help them learn our Hilltop Way. Our proactive approach will increase students’ readiness for learning, as well as prepare them to be productive citizens.

    Action step:

    Support students in developing SEL skills as well as their response to adversity by:

    • Providing time in the daily schedule to explicitly teach and practice SEL skills.
    • Ensuring the delivery of Second Step Lessons.
    • Targeting students of greatest behavioral needs through Tier II supports (Check In & Check Out, CDM and monthly behavioral intervention meetings).
    • Enhancing professional development opportunities in the areas of equity and social emotional learning.
    • Developing our own SEL competencies by growing our self-care and team supports within the building

    Students will report that they have the language and skills to identify their feelings and have strategies for coping with their feelings to support them in being ready for learning. Students will share that a common language exists at Hilltop for discussing feelings and receiving support for their social and emotional well-being. In turn they will report an increase in staff that support and care for them.

    Staff and adults will report an increase in student awareness around feelings and corresponding behaviors. While staff will still report student need for support in this area, they will see an overall improvement of students using strategies around SEL and behaviors based on multiple years of using restorative practices (community circles) and 2nd Step curriculum.

     
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    READING: In the years to come, Hilltop will work to develop academic achievement. We will increase the number of students meeting or exceeding expectations for college and career readiness in Reading and Math. We will increase the number of students meeting or exceeding mastery in CCSS standards, as measured by AACPS assessments. We will ensure that all students are reading on grade level by the end of 3rd grade, and that every student grows at least a year in reading achievement as measured by Fountas and Pinnell Running Records.

    To do so, Hilltop will take a diagnostic approach across content areas, and analyze student performance to identify their strengths’ and needs. We will balance providing individualized or small-group supports with consistently exposing students to content standards. We will create opportunities for productive struggle and promote rigor and relevance. Through productive struggle across disciplines, Hilltop will encourage higher level thinking and problem-solving. We will foster students’ grit and perseverance. We will shape students’ identities as readers and writers, and we will grow a lifelong love of learning. During the 2017-18 school year, 16% of our student population were enrolled in either a Tier II or Tier III Reading intervention. An additional 7% of our student population were participating in evidence-based instruction targeting areas of reading performance.

    Action Step:

    Support ALL students to grow in their ability to read and comprehend texts by building teachers’ capacity to effectively implement differentiated guided reading that includes:

    • Monitoring student achievement through consistent use of informal and formal measures.
    • Utilizing appropriately leveled texts and comprehension supports.
    • Focusing on quality questions for Thinking Jobs and post-reading discussions.

    Students will share that they are cared for and have instruction tailored to their individualized needs within guided reading and interventions.

    Teachers will share that they are seeing individual student growth as a result of focused, individualized conferring within guided reading and exposure of grade-level texts and work through explicit comprehension instruction.

    MATH: In the years to come, Hilltop will work to develop academic achievement. We will increase the number of students meeting or exceeding mastery in CCSS standards, as measured by AACPS assessments. To do so, Hilltop will take a diagnostic approach across content areas, and analyze student performance to identify their strengths’ and needs. We will balance providing individualized or small-group supports with consistently exposing students to content standards. We will create opportunities for productive struggle and promote rigor and relevance. Through productive struggle across disciplines, Hilltop will encourage higher level thinking and problem-solving. We will foster students’ grit and perseverance. We will shape students’ identities as mathematicians, and we will grow a life-long love of learning.

    Action Step:

    Develop student flexibility with numbers by:

    • Incorporating CRA to meet the needs of all learners during the daily number sense routine and fluency lessons.
    • Increased instructional focus on SMP 1 (make sense persevere) and SMP 4 (model with math).
    • Implement Bridges Intervention program to move struggling math learners.

    Students will share that they are cared for and have instruction tailored to their individualized needs within small-group math instruction and interventions.

    Teachers will share that they are seeing individual student growth as a result of an increased instructional focus on incorporating CRA into daily instruction and an increased focus on SMP 1 (make sense and persevere) and SMP 4 (model with math). We will also see an increase in student growth by meeting students needs through utilizing the Bridges Math Intervention program to move struggling learners.