Adams EL - School Plan 2003 - 2004 School LAND Trust Program

Proposal for 2003-2004

9. School's identified most critical academic need(s) addressed in this plan:
Please check only the primary area(s)

10. Briefly describe the school plan. Be sure to include:

• What you will do and what the money will be spent for to improve student academic performance (be specific)
• Your committee's goals for student improvement
• How your committee will measure or assess academic improvement

This box will be displayed on the web and will reflect on your school, so you will want to check your spelling, grammar, and punctuation. The information must fit into this expandable box.

Adams Elementary School will continue to emphasize reading improvement and the development of life skills through two school-wide programs: Scholastic Reading counts and PeaceBuilders. Trustlands funds will be used to purchase leveled readers and quizzes, rewards and incentives for both reading and life skills development, and to pay for the services of staff members to assist in administering and managing these programs. We would also like to expand our program to help us meet the requirements of the NCLB legislation. We would use the Trustlands money to help purchase an Integrated Learning System (and needed computer hardware to support it) to improve math skills, particularly to remediate learning for those students working below grade level and to expand learning of those working above grade level. The main focus will be math, but licenses may be purchased to support other curriculum areas as needed. The money would also be used to train teachers in the use of the ILS. Goals of the Trustlands Committee include: Improvement of reading skills, increased circulation of library books, completion of more comprehension quizzes, more extensive reading for all students, the development of life skills, increased respect and responsibility among students, reduction in school discipline incidents, improvement of math skills, and possibly other curriculum areas, for students who are working below grade level and extension of math curriculum, and possibly other curriculum areas,for students working at or above grade level. Academic improvement will be assessed by review of data reports generated by the SRC program and ILS. Discipline incidents will be tracked by reviewing the number and categories of incidents kept on a student database.

11. How does this plan relate to the school improvement/strategic plan?

Reading improvement and the development of life skills are themes of our school's plan for Fostering Educational Excellence. We are expanding that plan to include areas of concern with the NCLB legislation, adding the improvement of math skills, and possibly other curriculum areas to the plan.

12. FINANCIAL PROPOSAL

Adams Elementary continues to implement its multi-year plan by continuing
to increase student use of our Scholastic Reading Counts program. 
Trustland monies were used to purchase books and quizzes, making the
program more accessible to students, as well as paying salaries of
personnel to manage the program.  We have documented a dramatic increase
in student use of the program since the beginning in 2001-2002.  During
the 2001-2002 school year, students took a total of 1,121 quizzes.  Last
year(after Trustlands funded teacher training) the use increased to 4,169
quizzes taken.  Up through February 10, 2004, students have taken 4,106
quizzes with almost four months of school remaining.  Without Trustlands
funds, this program would not be available at our school.  We have added a
dedicated ILS (Integrated Learning System) computer lab that
individualizes instruction for students in math (our main focus) and
reading (recently added targeting specific populations).  Teachers have
been and continue to be trained in the use of this technology and the lab
is in almost constant use. We expect to have data using end-of-level tests
to determine if gains in reading and math performance have been made.
Trustlands money was also used to acknowledge good behavior with
incentives through our continued participation in the PeaceBuilder
program.
 We have also used Trustlands money to provide the D.A.R.E. program at our
school through Layton City Police Department.

The school's Trustlands plan was published in an annual report and sent
to all families in the school community.  In addition, the Trustlands plan
was presented and discussed by the Community Council, PTA Board and
described in the school newsletter.