In the accountability rating system, a school’s grade is based in part on whether students performed better on that year’s test compared to the previous. But that growth, while good for students, will not be a major factor when the time comes for the state to grade the school. Rocketship has told parents how to monitor their students’ progress and to expect a certain amount of academic growth. Other curveballs are headed in the school’s direction, too. But Dennis Dunkins Elementary had the added twist of being the first Rocketship school to open in Texas. In any school, the start of a new school year means getting to know new teachers and students. One word comes to Miller’s mind when thinking about the first few weeks of school - rough. School transfer report data for the current academic year is not yet available through the Texas Education Agency. Many of Rocketship’s students come from surrounding neighborhoods, such as Stop Six, and previously attended Fort Worth ISD campuses, according to Rocketship. “Kids are moving around getting exactly what is tailored to them based on their data and lessons that are pulled from class,” Hanson said. Students cycle through each of these different ways of learning throughout the week. Older students may receive it through a laptop, while younger grades use a tablet. Some days, students also receive instruction through an online learning program. (Jacob Sanchez | Fort Worth Report)įor example, in one learning lab, third graders toyed around with brightly colored cubes and pyramids to apply a math lesson. Students play with cubes, pyramids and other shapes during a learning lab inside Rocketship Public Schools’ Dennis Dunkins Elementary in Fort Worth on Nov. Then, they move over into a learning lab where lessons are reinforced in practical ways. First, they learn their lessons in a classroom. Principal Christina Hanson views this approach as double-dipping students. Acceleration is when a student is at or above grade level and they get an extra push to keep moving higher.īoth of these methods are used on top of the core instruction students receive every day. Intervening is used when students are struggling. This intervention is one way Rocketship is trying to fill learning gaps. Together, they were nailing down a concept that they had not yet grasped. In the back corner, a handful of students sat at a circular desk with their teacher at the center. He did not want to disturb students as they worked on an assignment. Miller slowly opened a door to a classroom. “But we’re still maximizing that growth, but we also want to maximize the growth of all other students.” ‘Tailored to them’ “Even though 40% of our students are at the bottom decline, we are going to maximize their growth, understanding, though, that two years’ growth is seldomly attained,” Miller said. Each group - from the lowest to the highest performing - needs to grow, Miller said. Then the next group of students needs to grow about a year to meet grade level. This approach means all students will receive instruction to, as Miller describes it, maximize their growth.įor example, one group of third-graders needs to grow between one and two years in math to be near meeting grade level. To reach its goal, Rocketship determined how much academic growth students within a percentile need to achieve by the end of the year. Meets grade level is one of several marks students can reach on the STAAR tests. Miller and other Rocketship administrators look at the MAP results as whether students are at or below grade level. The test is an indicator of students’ eventual performance on the STAAR exams. MAP is administered three times a school year: the beginning, middle and end. The charter uses the testing group Northwest Evaluation Association’s Measures of Academic Progress exam to track students’ academic progress throughout the year. Overall, 15% of students at Dennis Dunkins Elementary, which opened in August and will grow to eventually have fourth and fifth grade, met grade level on their first test of the year.
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