• Attendance Rates 
• Discipline Rates
• Numbers of FARMS students
• LEP (Limited English Proficiency) students 
• Special Education student enrollment 
• Title I Status 
• Student Mobility Rate 
• District Assessments scores - English/Language Arts & Mathematics
• PARCC Scores - English/Lanuguage Arts & Mathematics (Elementary grades 3, 4, 5)

Key Challenge #2: Limited English proficiency for students and/or families

Our EL population has increased by over 10 percent in the past 5 years to represent 21% of our population, over 100 students. Families enrolling or coming to school require the use of Language Link or interpreters and rely on bi-lingual facilitators. Planning events that encourage our bilingual families has broadened our perspective and encouraged us to seek alternative means to overcome any language barriers in our efforts to build positive relationships. Our students represent varying levels of English language proficiency; therefore, they have different academic and social needs. With oral language developing prior to reading and writing, instruction must look different even for students in the same grade level. The F & P reading leveling assessment contains reading and oral comprehension questions while District Reading Assessments and PARCC require written responses. Our EL students perform higher when they can discuss their thinking, instead of independently writing their thoughts.  Therefore, we have tailored instruction to require this written component more often. Students are expected to orally share and collaborate, and then formulate those thoughts in written form. This occurs in small group, guided reading instruction as well as cross-curricular settings such as social studies, science and math. 

Further, all our families, including those representing 12 different languages and many more countries of origin, need to see themselves represented in the building and in instructional endeavors. Maintaining an inclusive environment requires consistent communication and outreach.  We hope to continue encouraging our diverse population of students to feel welcome and represented within our school and community. (Indicators 1, 5, 6,11)

• Socio-Economic Issues (employment, income levels, housing costs) 
• Student Mobility 
• Access to food ("food desert") 
• Limited English proficiency for students and/or families 
• Families in Crisis (mental, physical emotional, financial)  
• Inclusion of Triple E (EEE) 
• Inclusion of activity buses  
• Inclusion of Support Staff

Key Challenge #3: Student Mobility 

Our student mobility rate is 25%. This means that many, if not all, classrooms do not begin and end the school year with the same students. Some students attend 3-4 different elementary schools within their career, while others remain at GBPE throughout their elementary tenure.  This presents challenges in acclimating to different learning environments and routines. Even with following Common Core Standards, the sequence of curricular components varies among counties and states. Students may have missed critical content that was taught prior to their arrival, thus creating a gap.  Further, teachers and classrooms need to re-establish expectations and routines each time a new student enrolls, so the classroom dynamic isn't negatively altered and new relationships can be formed. We work closely with our Pupil Personnel Worker (PPW) when housing situations impact our families. Our percentage of FARMS students has been consistently 5-10% higher at the end of each school year, when compared with the percentage at the end of September (when federal code pulls data); thus impacting our Title I funding. This can be correlated to our mobility rate.  Twenty-five percent of our population either does not begin or remain a full academic year at GBPE.

Morning Meetings, where students and teachers gather to forge bonds, helps us all learn more about each other; so we are better able to understand how our students' learning and behavior may be impacted by outside factors. When families experience significant dynamics, we, as a school, have to focus on being a consistent beacon of hope and safety for our developing learners. (Indicators 1, 11)

• Socio-economic community issues (employment, income levels, housing costs) ,
• Significant changes over time in student/community demographics 
•  Access (or lack of access) to community financial programs 
• Access (or lack of access) to community social programs 
• Access (or lack of access) to community health-related programs 
•  Access (or lack of access) to community academic support programs 
•  Significant increase/reduction in student enrollment number

Key Challenge #1: 

Socio-economic community issues (employment, income levels, housing costs)

As a Targeted Title I school, we supplement and support instructional practices, while continuing to seek the most effective teaching and learning strategies for our students. Many children come from non-traditional homes, coupled with parents who work non-traditional hours.  Not all families live within walking distance and families do not have equal access to transportation. This creates barriers for children returning to school for after-school and evening events. A trend we noted was that many of our families weren't attending events in the evenings, so we crafted ways to address family constraints and concerns. The plans included events in the morning and at alternating hours to allow working families to participate. GBPE also has many families experiencing trauma, which has an impact on student academic and social/emotional success. Changing and refining our PBIS structures to better highlight positive and proactive strategies has helped reduce discipline referrals and kept students learning in the classroom.

A great deal of comprehension relies on prior knowledge and experiences.  Not all of our families share the same experiences or opportunities. This impacts achievement. To counter this, our teachers have provided virtual experiences to build background knowledge. Students can experience the sights and sounds of various places through watching videos and exploring websites and databases. Literature and Informational Reading became the focus in all grade levels, centered around students’ ability to understand and respond to rigorous texts. Many of our students lack internet access at home, so to bridge this technology gap, we are embedding more 21st century strategies and skills into the curriculum.

We have a strong partnership with our PTO, yet membership is low. We provide incentives to join PTO, provide interpreters to assist with language barriers, and are steadily increasing parent and community involvement while working to increase our volunteerism. By working to build stronger relationships among all our stakeholders, we will help foster stronger academic success  (Indicators 1, 5, 6,11)