U.S. Department of Education November 2002September 2003
2003-2004 No Child Left Behind—Blue Ribbon Schools Program
Cover Sheet
Name of Principal Mr. Lucas DeWitt
(Specify: Ms., Miss, Mrs., Dr., Mr., Other) (As it should appear in the official records)
Official School Name Lincoln Elementary School
(As it should appear in the official records)
School Mailing Address 615 4 Ave SW, PO Box 200
(If address is P.O. Box, also include street address)
Spencer Iowa 51301-0200
City State Zip Code+4 (9 digits total)
Tel. ( 712 )262-3752 Fax ( 712 )264-3055
Website/URL www.spencer.k12.ia.us 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______
(Principal’s Signature)
Name of Superintendent* Mr. Glen Lohman
(Specify: Ms., Miss, Mrs., Dr., Mr., Other)
District Name Spencer Community Schools Tel. ( 712 )262-8950
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______(Superintendent’s Signature)
Name of School Board
President/Chairperson Mr. Ross Brockhus (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______
(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 of 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 2003-2004 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 1998.
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: 3 Elementary schools
1 Middle schools
Junior high schools
1 High schools
1 Other (Briefly explain)
Pre-school program
6 TOTAL
2. District Per Pupil Expenditure: $6,669.14
Average State Per Pupil Expenditure: $6,929.98
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
[ ] Suburban
[X ] Small city or town in a rural area
[ ] Rural
4. 1 Number of years the principal has been in her/his position at this school.
6 If fewer than three years, how long was the previous principal at this school?
5. Number of students enrolled at each grade level or its equivalent in applying school:
Grade / # of Males / # of Females / Grade Total / Grade / # of Males / # of Females / Grade TotalK / 24 / 19 / 43 / 7 / NA
1 / 14 / 18 / 32 / 8 / NA
2 / 23 / 24 / 47 / 9 / NA
3 / 23 / 20 / 43 / 10 / NA
4 / 23 / 20 / 43 / 11 / NA
5 / 12 / 17 / 29 / 12 / NA
6 / 27 / 22 / 49 / Other / NA
TOTAL STUDENTS IN THE APPLYING SCHOOL ® / 286
6. Racial/ethnic composition of 91 % White
the students in the school: 1 % Black or African American
6 % Hispanic or Latino
2 % Asian/Pacific Islander
0 % American Indian/Alaskan Native
100% Total
7. Student turnover, or mobility rate, during the past year: 7.09% %
(This rate includes the total number of students who transferred to or from different schools between October 1 and the end of the school year, divided by the total number of students in the school as of October 1, multiplied by 100.)
(1) / Number of students who transferred to the school after October 1 until the end of the year. / 13(2) / Number of students who transferred from the school after October 1 until the end of the year. / 7
(3) / Subtotal of all transferred students [sum of rows (1) and (2)] / 20
(4) / Total number of students in the school as of October 1 / 282
(5) / Subtotal in row (3) divided by total in row (4) / .0709
(6) / Amount in row (5) multiplied by 100 / 7.09%
8. Limited English Proficient students in the school: 4.5 %
13 Total Number Limited English Proficient
Number of languages represented: 3
Specify languages:
Spanish, Chinese, French
9. Students eligible for free/reduced-priced meals: 47.8 %
138 Total Number Students Who Qualify
If this method does not produce a reasonably 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: 17 %
48 Total Number of Students Served
Indicate below the number of students with disabilities according to conditions designated in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
4 Autism ____Orthopedic Impairment
____Deafness 3 Other Health Impaired
____Deaf-Blindness 22 Specific Learning Disability
____Hearing Impairment ____Speech or Language Impairment
10 Mental Retardation ____Traumatic Brain Injury
4 Multiple Disabilities ____Visual Impairment Including Blindness
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 0
Classroom teachers 13 0
Special resource teachers/specialists 6 7
Paraprofessionals 5 13
Support staff 3 3
Total number 28 23
12. Average school student-“classroom teacher” ratio: 20.93:1
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.)
2002-2003 / 2001-2002 / 2000-2001 / 1999-2000 / 1998-1999Daily student attendance / 95.3 / 96.2 / 95.6 / 95.7 / 95.9
Daily teacher attendance / 93.2 / 97.3 / 93.04 / 94.6 / 94.7
Teacher turnover rate / 7.69 / 28.57 / 14.29 / 14.29 / 7.14
Student dropout rate / NA / NA / NA / NA / NA
Student drop-off rate / NA / NA / NA / NA / NA
14. (High Schools Only) Show what the students who graduated in Spring 2003 are doing as of September 2003.
Enrolled in a 4-year college or university / _____%
Enrolled in a community college / _____%
Enrolled in vocational training / _____%
Found employment / _____%
Military service / _____%
Other (travel, staying home, etc.) / _____%
Unknown / _____%
Total / 100 %
PART III SUMMARY
The Spencer Community School District is located in Clay County in Northwest Iowa and educates an increasingly diverse student population. It is one of the 64 largest schools in the state and 2000 students are educated here each year. The high school houses grades 9-12, the middle school grades 7-8, and three neighborhood elementary buildings house grades K-6. Lincoln Elementary has a current enrollment of 286 students including the majority of the district’s ELL students and all K-6 special needs students in a self-contained classroom setting. Lincoln also has the highest percentage of low socio-economic students with 47.8% of the students qualifying for the free and reduced lunch program this fall.
The district mission statement is, “The Spencer Community Schools in cooperation with parents and community will provide a safe and nurturing environment where all students will develop maximum knowledge, skills and abilities to become life-long learners.” Lincoln school operates under this motto and has undergone some changes over the years to accommodate each student’s learning needs. Lincoln Elementary demographics have changed significantly in the past few years with a majority consisting of working parents. There are considerably more transition and special needs students than in earlier years, as there are many more single parent families. Many students are considered at-risk and efforts have been made to support them through extra help from teachers, summer school, and better assessments of their individual needs. Unlike many districts that have a continual turnover of staff, this is not the case in Lincoln Elementary School. The staff is stable and extremely hard-working.
As a result of a committed staff, many changes have taken place in an effort to help maximize student learning. The staff has made reading their primary focus, and in conjunction with the federally funded Comprehensive School Reform Grant, has made tremendous growth in the reported 4th grade Iowa Test of Basic Skills scores. The teachers are undergoing continual staff development by volunteering to be part of Iowa’s Every Child Read Initiative and self-imposing the same regulations as Iowa’s Reading First Schools to improve student learning and maximize their teaching efforts. Lincoln has incorporated small-group instruction, and the district has allowed the building to have additional staff to support its programs. Consequently, not only have Lincoln’s test scores improved, but also the overall climate of the building is positive, and students are working hard to learn. Lincoln school has made great improvement in their test scores, but teachers and administration feel that the best days of the building are still ahead as teaching focused on the student needs as demonstrated by data will continue to drive the building instruction.
PART IV – INDICATORS OF ACADEMIC SUCCESS
1. The achievement of our students in math and reading in the elementary grades is measured by various assessment methods. The Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) are given to students K-6 and are used as our comparison at the local, state and federal levels. Other assessments such as benchmark tests, Test of Oral Reading Fluency (TORF), Basic Reading Inventory (BRI), and the Iowa Collaborative Assessment Modules (ICAM) are also used to provide us with information about our students. A variety of assessment methods help us to make sound decisions on what we can do to provide students with the best learning climate and instructional strategies. Our state requires us to report publicly on our ITBS information which is what is included in this document.
The ITBS is a clear mark of the depth of instruction being taught in the classroom because the teacher’s instruction, benchmarks and standards are aligned to the test. This means that the skills being identified as essential to know for the test are part of the curriculum. The state has set its areas of focus based on the essential components found on the ITBS. Consequently, the Spencer District has intertwined these components into their curriculum and assessed on their depth of understanding during the ITBS. ITBS scores of Lincoln students are then compared to the national norms and the Iowa average and the latter is a considerably higher mark each year.
Last years test results demonstrated remarkable improvement in proficiency results. Proficiency on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills means a student has scored at the 41st percentile or better. Lincoln students have shown a continual trend of improvement over the past five years, but the number in proficient students went from 65.2% in 2001-02 to 91.2% this past year. This means that 91% of the class can read successfully at the fourth grade level. This is an increase of 26% in this number of proficient students! In math, the jump was similar with 69.5% of the students being proficient in 2001-02 compared to 86.9% in 2002-03. This was an increase of 17.4% . Similarly, this test demonstrates that 86.9% of the class is proficient in math at the fourth grade level.
Lincoln Elementary had the highest percent of proficient students in the district, while having the highest number and percent of low SES students of the Spencer Elementary Schools.