Raleigh Hills
K-8
School Learning Plan
Raleigh Hills K-8
Our Story:
Who We Are Now:
Raleigh Hills K-8 has 306 students enrolled, from Kindergarten to 8th Grade. Our population is very diverse with 18 different languages spoken and 27% Ever English Learners. 39% of the student population qualifies for free and reduced lunch. Our enrollment, like that of much of the district, has dropped. In our case, we are down 11%. This is in part due to the fact that we are phasing out our middle school program. We do not have a 6th or 7th grade class this year.
Academics:
Raleigh Hills has a dedicated and experienced group of teachers who are exceptional at building relationships with students and families. In past years,, we capitalized on this ability to begin working toward making sure students were attending regularly and developing a multi-tiered system of supports for students in the area of reading, writing, math and SEL. We also worked toward increasing student efficacy in the area of math.We have been taking a Street Data view of our school, based on the work of Jamila Dugan and Shane Safir. Each teacher is gathering data at the classroom level about interventions that have been tried and the impact they have on their students. We study these data together during collaboration time.
For the past 2 years and continuing this year, the staff is dedicated to becoming an anti-racist school. We strive to remove the barriers that are in the way of students accessing the curriculum and lessons. Additionally, we are examining our systems and structures to find areas that are exclusive and work toward making our school a place where all students feel safe, welcome and valued so that they can achieve academically at the highest levels. Our students have told us that they want to feel happy, safe and included. We continue to work to make sure each student feels this way every day.
School Climate and Culture: Raleigh Hills is an inviting school that makes an effort to help all students and parents feel safe and welcomed. On our most recent student survey, 83% of 4th and 5th graders report feeling welcome and accepted at Raleigh Hills and 91% report that they feel safe. In addition to creating a caring and safe environment, the staff at Raleigh Hills have increased their level of understanding about helping the social and emotional growth of their students through the use of community circles, collaborative problem solving, and curriculum including Kindness in the Classroom which is new to us for this year.
Over the past 2 years we have been a RULER pilot school. RULER is a system for increasing emotional intelligence among staff and students. It stands for Recognize, Understand, Label, Express, & Regulate emotions. We are working with a staff developer from Yale on implementing an Emotions Matter mindset with our staff. We will continue our deep work with staff in our third year of implementation on how to be emotional scientists so that we can learn to name our emotions in order to regulate them. We’ll collectively teach these skills and strategies to our students as well. In addition, this year the whole-school, classroom and staff charters (norms) are guiding our work with students who present unexpected behaviors. The staff is also ready to implement the final RULER tool, the Blueprint. This is a restorative conversation tool.
Teachers at Raleigh Hills communicate to students that they care for them and believe in their abilities to learn. On the same student survey mentioned above, 88% of 4th and 5th graders report there is at least one adult who really cares about them. 98% of students either agree or strongly agree that their teachers believe they can learn. 91% of teachers on the 2018 TELL survey report that almost every student has the potential to do well on assignments. We will build on this foundation to design engaging, rigorous lessons that will encourage students to participate and will increase teacher collective efficacy. Our aim is to use these skills now and incorporate Dr. Gholdy Muhammad’s 5 Pursuits as well as Dr. Zaretta Hammond’s Ready for Rigor framework to be sure our work with students is culturally relevant. We will continue to hone our craft as a strong staff who is well equipped to meet the emotional and academic needs of students.
Date of Last Revision: October 1, 2019
District Goal: WE empower all students to achieve post-high school success.
WE Expect Excellence
- WE teach students knowledge and skills for our evolving world.
- WE seek, support, and recognize world-class employees.
WE Innovate
- WE engage students with a variety of relevant and challenging learning experiences.
- WE create learning environments that promote student achievement.
WE Embrace Equity
- WE build honest, safe, and inclusive relationships with our diverse students and their families.
- WE provide needed support so that every student succeeds.
WE Collaborate
- WE work and learn in teams to understand student needs and improve learning outcomes.
- WE partner with our community to educate and serve students.