SALISBURY, N.C. – Rowan-Salisbury Schools took a hit in the school performance grades released this week with grades dropping in all but one school.
Superintendent Lynn Moody say newly-implemented changes take time to spark improvement and, for now, the measure of success for now is the growth among individual students.
“We jumped feet first into the digital conversation and also into the balanced literacy approach,” said Granite Quarry Elementary School Principal Catherine Hinson.
The school now uses tablets in their collaborative reading circles in hopes of improving literacy as part of Rowan-Salisbury's three-year strategic plan. But after a year of implementation, performance grades showed a decline overall.
“When you change things dramatically and really disrupt everything you're doing, teachers have to work through that process,” Moody said.
Granite Quarry Elementary School is the only school in the entire system to improve its performance grade, moving from a D to a C. None of the schools received an A.
Moody says the scores show an implementation gap that reflects all the changes.
“Keep everybody motivated and excited about where we're going. When they see that, it's kind of a punch in the stomach,” she said.
Reading design coaches also work with teachers by modeling lesson plans and assignments.
“I mean, you can read things out of a book but it's not as powerful as actually seeing it in person,” said Jessica Bolen, a reading design coach at Granite Quarry.
The goal for teachers is to find the best ways to reach students as they move forward in year two of the three-year plan.
“The poverty that is within our school system is very powerful and we are not going to use that as an excuse any longer. So we are going to move forward past that measure and understand that good instruction works for everybody,” said Hinson.
Eighty percent of the performance grades are measured by proficiency, which are test scores, and 20 percent is growth.