Spotlight Reading School A

At the inception of the Spotlight 3-Tier Project in the fall of 2004, School A was the largest of six elementary schools in its district, and had the largest number of bilingual Spanish students and classes. School A was one of the implementation sites for the earlier Research 3-Tier Project (a federally funded effort to examine the effectiveness of a 3-tier model). School A's involvement in the Spotlight Project has centered on implementation of a 3-tier reading model in bilingual Spanish classrooms. To build capacity in the district, all K-3 bilingual Spanish teachers from the other elementary campuses in the district were invited to the Spotlight 3-Tier professional development sessions offered to School A teachers.

In the spring of 2005, an initial needs assessment revealed that few components of the model were in place for kindergarten through grade 3 bilingual Spanish classes. One challenge was the discovery that neither a consistent curriculum nor assessment procedures to identify struggling students were in place in the bilingual Spanish program. The campus leadership team identified the need to focus on effective core instruction and assessment in its initial action plan.

Over time, School A experienced success with bilingual Spanish students passing the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) exams; however, the principal and other members of the campus leadership team indicated that many gaps in the program interfered with meeting the diverse needs of bilingual Spanish students, especially as they move through the upper grades.

In the fall of 2006, the district underwent several changes that dramatically changed the student population at School A. The district rezoned and built a seventh elementary school. The district also added bilingual Spanish classrooms in all of its schools, so that bilingual Spanish students now attend classes in their neighborhood schools. Thus School A's population reduced from 1,050 to 660 students; and its bilingual Spanish population changed from 80% to 45% of the total population. In addition, the district set the expectation for School A to deliver all-English instruction in second- through sixth-grade classrooms. Finally, School A administrators set the goal for the 2006-2007 school year to sustain the 3-tier reading model for both bilingual Spanish and regular education classrooms in kindergarten through third grade.

School A responded to these changes by rethinking and revising the action plan for the school as a whole. Related action plan areas that were revisited include: alignment of the core reading programs, professional development needs, and assessment needs.

In the 2007-2008 school year, the campus leadership changed.  The assistant principal moved into the role of principal, and a new assistant principal was hired.