North Godwin Elementary has found success through strategic hiring practices that bring in teachers with a "no one gives up" mindset, strong collaboration among teachers through a PLC model, and layered academic supports. The school provides targeted reading and math intervention daily for students and collaborates closely as a staff. North Godwin also builds relationships with students and emphasizes quality core instruction, with over 80% of students needing to master a skill before receiving intervention. These practices have contributed to higher test scores at the school over time.

1. An Outperforming School
– What is Working?
Mary Lang, Principal at North Godwin Elementa
Dr. Dorothy VanderJagt, Director of T&L at Ken

3. Objectives
 Share information about North Godwin
 Share what has worked at North
 Opportunity to reflect on your current practices
 Inspire others to implement something new or
different

4. Demographic Information
 Total Number of Students (Kindergarten through 4th
Grade): 396

 Ethnicity
 American Indian--.5%
 African American—15.64%
 Asian—2.56%
 Hispanic—46.67%
 Caucasian—23.85%
 Multi-Racial—10.77%

 Bilingual Students: Total of 153 bilingual students or 38% of
our K-4 population.

 Free/Reduced Lunch: 92%

 Special Education: 60 students or 15%


5. North Godwin 4th Gr. MEAP Scores
85
69
72
84
74
69
92
87
84
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Reading Math Writing
2011 2012 2013

6. What’s the Magic?
 Getting the Right People on the Bus
 Supporting Them on Their Ride
 Build Relationships with Students & Staff
 Developing Solid Core Instruction
 Strong Classroom Management
 Prescriptive Intervention
 Learning Together

7. Get the Right People on the Bus
 Staff
 Recruitment
 Student Teachers
 Paraprofessionals
 Be Selective
 Screener Interviews
 Live Teaching
 Traditional Interviews

8. Education is Not Just a
Profession, It’s a Calling
 “No one gives up” mindset
 Sense of urgency for every child
 Ticket out of poverty; hopefulness
 A high-morale family school culture
North Godwin Elementary

9. Support for the Ride
 Mentorship Program
 Observation/Visitation
 Modeling
 Outside Consultants
 Teacher Induction Program (TIP)
 Building Collaboration
 District Collaboration

10. We Are Family
 Whole staff training in PLC model
 Abundant evidence of collaboration and
shared leadership
North Godwin Elementary

11. Build Relationships
 Get to know your students
 Get to know your colleagues
 Work together collaboratively
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTu9qngVc-Q

12. Core Instruction
 Provide quality core instruction
 Collaborate, collaborate, collaborate
 Intervention does not take place until 80% of class
masters a skill
 Teachers act as facilitators
 Focus: 21st Century skills, Literacy in the Content
Area, Sheltered Instruction and Gradual Release

13. High Expectations
 High Expectations for ALL students
 Reading Rigby Level 7 by the end of Kindergarten
 70 sight words
 Writing 3 sentences on topic
 Dialogue, Strong Leads, Details, etc.

14. Classroom Management
 Strong classroom management is the
foundation of a successful classroom.
 Every minute of the day is intentional.

15. Math Intervention
 September 2013—one Math Interventionist per
building
 Push in services to see math lesson delivered by
classroom teacher
 Pull out services to provide remediation.

16. Reading Intervention
 Prescriptive phonics and phonemic awareness
lessons provided during core instruction.
 30 minutes of targeted phonics or phonemic
awareness intervention daily for all grades.
 No intervention until 80% of students master skill.

17. Layers of Support
 Native speaking EL support
staff
 Rtl model in place: 1st Core, 2nd
TAG, 3rd Child Study
 After-school and summer
programs
 One instructional coach per
building: model lessons, mostly
in ELA
North Godwin Elementary

18. Learning Together
 https://vimeo.com/66753575
 K-12 Learning Walks
 Administrative Team and Instructional Specialists tour all
buildings in the district together
 Develop a common understanding of effective
instruction
North Godwin Elementary

20. Contact Information
Dorothy VanderJagt
Kent Intermediate School District
dorothyvanderjagt@kentisd.org
Mary Lang
North Godwin Elementary
lang@godwinschools.org
616-291-6770

21. An Outperforming School
– What is Working?
Mary Lang, Principal at North Godwin Elementa
Dr. Dorothy VanderJagt, Director of T&L at Ken