REVISED March 8, 2006
2005-2006 No Child Left Behind - Blue Ribbon Schools Program
U.S. Department of Education
Cover Sheet Type of School: (Check all that apply) X Elementary __ Middle __ High __ K-12 __Charter
Name of Principal Mrs. Mary Betry Bass
(Specify: Ms., Miss, Mrs., Dr., Mr., Other) (As it should appear in the official records)
Official School Name Chester Nelson Elementary School
(As it should appear in the official records)
School Mailing Address 1336 W. Spruce Avenue
(If address is P.O. Box, also include street address)
Pinedale CA 93650-1037
City State Zip Code+4 (9 digits total)
County Fresno State School Code Number* 10-62117-60005888
Telephone (559) 327-7600 Fax (559) 327-7690
Website/URL http://qp.clovisusd.k12.ca.us/nelsonelementary E-mail
I have reviewed the information in this application, including the eligibility requirements on page 2, and certify that to the best of my knowledge all information is accurate. Date January 23, 2006
(Principal’s Signature)
Name of Superintendent* Dr. Terry Bradley
(Specify: Ms., Miss, Mrs., Dr., Mr., Other)
District Name Clovis Unified School District Tel. (559) 327-9000
I have reviewed the information in this application, including the eligibility requirements on page 2, and certify that to the best of my knowledge it is accurate.
Date January 24, 2006
(Superintendent’s Signature)
Name of School Board
President/Chairperson Mrs. Ginny L. Hovsepian
(Specify: Ms., Miss, Mrs., Dr., Mr., Other)
I have reviewed the information in this package, including the eligibility requirements on page 2, and certify that to the best of my knowledge it is accurate.
Date January 24, 2006
(School Board President’s/Chairperson’s Signature)
*Private Schools: If the information requested is not applicable, write N/A in the space.
PART I ELIGIBILITY CERTIFICATION
[Include this page in the school’s application as page 2.]
The signatures on the first page of this application certify that each of the statements below concerning the school's eligibility and compliance with U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) requirements is true and correct.
1. The school has some configuration that includes grades K-12. (Schools with one principal, even K-12 schools, must apply as an entire school.)
2. The school has not been in school improvement status or been identified by the state as "persistently dangerous" within the last two years. To meet final eligibility, the school must meet the state’s adequate yearly progress requirement in the 2005-2006 school year.
3. If the school includes grades 7 or higher, it has foreign language as a part of its core curriculum.
4. The school has been in existence for five full years, that is, from at least September 2000 and has not received the 2003, 2004, or 2005 No Child Left Behind – Blue Ribbon Schools Award.
5. The nominated school or district is not refusing the OCR access to information necessary to investigate a civil rights complaint or to conduct a districtwide compliance review.
6. The OCR has not issued a violation letter of findings to the school district concluding that the nominated school or the district as a whole has violated one or more of the civil rights statutes. A violation letter of findings will not be considered outstanding if the OCR has accepted a corrective action plan from the district to remedy the violation.
7. The U.S. Department of Justice does not have a pending suit alleging that the nominated school, or the school district as a whole, has violated one or more of the civil rights statutes or the Constitution's equal protection clause.
8. There are no findings of violations of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in a U.S. Department of Education monitoring report that apply to the school or school district in question; or if there are such findings, the state or district has corrected, or agreed to correct, the findings.
PART II DEMOGRAPHIC DATA
All data are the most recent year available.
DISTRICT (Questions 12 not applicable to private schools)
1. Number of schools in the district: 30 Elementary schools
Middle schools
4 Junior high schools
5 High schools
3 Other*
42 TOTAL
2. District Per Pupil Expenditure: $6,457
Average State Per Pupil Expenditure: $6,983
SCHOOL (To be completed by all schools)
3. Category that best describes the area where the school is located:
[ ] Urban or large central city
[ ] Suburban school with characteristics typical of an urban area
[X ] Suburban
[ ] Small city or town in a rural area
[ ] Rural
4. 2 Number of years the principal has been in her/his position at this school.
1 If fewer than three years, how long was the previous principal at this school?
5. Number of students as of October 1 enrolled at each grade level or its equivalent in applying school only:
Grade / # of Males / # of Females / Grade Total / Grade / # of Males / # of Females / Grade TotalPreK / 12 / 11 / 23 / 7
K / 40 / 34 / 74 / 8
1 / 35 / 44 / 79 / 9
2 / 31 / 31 / 62 / 10
3 / 47 / 31 / 78 / 11
4 / 42 / 36 / 78 / 12
5 / 51 / 51 / 102 / Other
6 / 58 / 38 / 96 / Total With PreK / 592
TOTAL STUDENTS IN THE APPLYING SCHOOL ® / 569
[Throughout the document, round numbers to avoid decimals.]
6. Racial/ethnic composition of 39 % White
the students in the school: 4 % Black or African American
38 % Hispanic or Latino
17 % Asian/Pacific Islander
2 % American Indian/Alaskan Native
100% Total
Use only the five standard categories in reporting the racial/ethnic composition of the school.
7. Student turnover, or mobility rate, during the past year: 24 %
[This rate should be calculated using the grid below. The answer to (6) is the mobility rate.]
(1) / Number of students who transferred to the school after October 1 until the end of the year. / 72(2) / Number of students who transferred from the school after October 1 until the end of the year. / 65
(3) / Total of all transferred students [sum of rows (1) and (2)] / 137
(4) / Total number of students in the school as of October 1 / 569
(5) / Total transferred students in row (3) divided by total students in row (4) / .2407
(6) / Amount in row (5) multiplied by 100 / 24.07
8. Limited English Proficient students in the school: 18 %
103 Total Number Limited English Proficient
Number of languages represented: 11
Specify languages: Armenian, Farsi, Greek, Hmong, Korean, Telugu, Punjabi, Russian, Spanish, Urdu, and Vietnamese
9. Students eligible for free/reduced-priced meals: 53 %
Total number students who qualify: 299
If this method does not produce an accurate estimate of the percentage of students from lowincome families or the school does not participate in the federallysupported lunch program, specify a more accurate estimate, tell why the school chose it, and explain how it arrived at this estimate.
10. Students receiving special education services: 11 %
60 Total Number of Students Served
Indicate below the number of students with disabilities according to conditions designated in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Do not add additional categories.
1 Autism Orthopedic Impairment
Deafness 7 Other Health Impaired
Deaf-Blindness 13 Specific Learning Disability
Emotional Disturbance 33 Speech or Language Impairment
1 Hearing Impairment Traumatic Brain Injury
3 Mental Retardation Visual Impairment Including Blindness
Multiple Disabilities
11. Indicate number of fulltime and parttime staff members in each of the categories below:
Number of Staff
Full-time Part-Time
Administrator(s) 1
Classroom teachers 25 2
Special resource teachers/specialists 4 ____1___
Paraprofessionals 1 6
Support staff 6
Total number 37 9
12. Average school student-“classroom teacher” ratio, that is, the number of
students in the school divided by the FTE of classroom teachers: 18:1
13. Show the attendance patterns of teachers and students as a percentage. The student dropout rate is defined by the state. The student drop-off rate is the difference between the number of entering students and the number of exiting students from the same cohort. (From the same cohort, subtract the number of exiting students from the number of entering students; divide that number by the number of entering students; multiply by 100 to get the percentage drop-off rate.) Briefly explain in 100 words or fewer any major discrepancy between the dropout rate and the drop-off rate. Only middle and high schools need to supply dropout rates and only high schools need to supply drop-off rates.
2004-2005 / 2003-2004 / 2002-2003 / 2001-2002 / 2000-2001Daily student attendance / 96% / 95% / 96% / 96% / 96%
Daily teacher attendance / 96% / 97% / 93% / 97% / 96%
Teacher turnover rate / 4% / 0% / 0% / 0% / 0%
Student dropout rate (middle/high) / % / % / % / % / %
Student drop-off rate (high school) / % / % / % / % / %
PART III – SUMMARY
Welcome to Nelson Elementary, home of the Roadrunners – BEEP! BEEP! In recent years, Nelson has been awarded State Distinguished School in 1998 and 2004, the Bonner Center for Character Education Award in 2000, 2002, and 2004, and the Clovis Exemplary School Award in 2003 and 2004. Nelson enjoys a long tradition of providing its community with a learning environment committed to excellence. Impressive growth in student achievement over the last three years give testament to Nelson’s reputation for substantial student and school achievement, strong community support, as well as for retaining its professional, cohesive staff.
The shared mission of Nelson Elementary is “to provide exemplary programs and services that align all resources to assure that each student achieves at her or his highest level academically and socially.” The mission statement serves as the guiding force for school-wide goals and priorities. Our ultimate goal is to prepare individuals to become contributing members of society who value diversity of ideas and cultures and possess an enduring quest to learn. Nelson serves a unique and diverse population. Our busy and colorful playground of enthusiastic children is indicative of the mosaic quality of our school.
A core value of Clovis Unified is educating the whole child “in mind, body, and spirit.” Known as the Sparthenian concept, emphasis is placed on academic, physical, and character development. At Nelson, a comprehensive awards program recognizes student performance not only in academics, but also in athletics, and character. Our comprehensive co-curricular programs, including vocal/instrumental music, extensive athletics, and academic enrichment activities, support the academic program. Accordingly, we have established clear grade-level achievement goals for all students to meet proficient and advanced levels of academic performance. Each student will: 1) Read and comprehend a variety of materials, locate, and apply information; 2)Write, speak, listen, and use technology to communicate; 3) Apply mathematical skills to analyze and solve problems; 4) Think creatively and analyze tasks to solve problems; and 5) Develop and demonstrate personal responsibility for learning and self-management.
Teachers differentiate instruction, regrouping within the grade level, to better personalize the learning experience. A protected, daily, 3-hour literacy block enables teachers to deeply align the written, taught, and tested curriculum into powerful units of study engaging students in rigorous material. Student achievement is assessed frequently in reading, language arts, writing, math, and science through a robust formative assessment system utilizing technology to produce immediate reports and disaggregated information. Teachers use results of frequent assessment to reteach and accelerate skill development.
Pro-active leadership, data-driven decision-making, and an emphasis on continuous improvement, empower us to accomplish our mission and achieve our goals. Leadership supports and promotes innovation in the school program. Grade levels meet weekly to share student work samples, analyze academic progress, and discuss effective instructional strategies. Ongoing professional development ensures that the Nelson staff keeps abreast of new learning strategies, innovative teaching techniques, and applied technology in the field of education. Such focus on professional development ensures that Nelson students have equal access to the core curriculum and appropriate instruction matched to their individual learning levels.
Nelson embraces the old African saying, “It takes a village to raise a child.” Parental support is a critical component to the success of any school. Nelson enjoys the benefits of an extremely supportive parent community and provides a variety of options for parent involvement. Equally, neighboring businesses and the local university serve as partners in promoting student success. By providing a quality, comprehensive educational program to a diverse population through exemplary curricular programs, co-curricular activities, and comprehensive services, we achieve our mission.
A famous Nelson slogan says it best: “BEEP! BEEP! The B is for the best school anywhere, the E is for extraordinary, the other E is for exemplary and the P is for perseverance, because nothing ever keeps us down. We always say it twice. Why? Just in case you didn’t hear it the first time! GO NELSON! BEEP! BEEP!”
PART IV – INDICATORS OF ACADEMIC SUCCESS
1. Assessment Results
Nelson participates in California’s Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) program. The California Standards Tests (CST) in English-Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and History-Social Science are administered to all students in Grades 2-6. Except for a writing component that is administered as part of the Grade 4 English-Language Arts test, all questions are multiple choice. CST scores are reported as one of five performance levels: advanced, proficient, basic, below basic, and far below basic. Performance levels of advanced and proficient are indicated as “at or above proficient” on the Data Display Tables in Part VII-Assessment Results. The scores are used for calculating Nelson’s Academic Performance Index (API). Only the results of the California English-Language Arts and Mathematics Standards Tests are used to determine the progress elementary schools are making toward meeting the federal No Child Left Behind adequate yearly progress (AYP) requirement that all students score at proficient or above (advanced) on these tests. The following website provides additional information regarding California’s Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) program: http://star.cde.ca.gov/star2005/AboutSTAR.asp.