Mina Elementary is a large public school serving the Bastrop community in central Texas. It has over 500 students in attendance, with grades kinder through fourth. The school has a mixed population with about 45% economically disadvantaged students. It’s a school who clearly cares deeply about their students and community. You should see the pictures from the fall festivals, parades, and science fairs on their website!
Mina Elementary began using Formative Loop about 1.5 years ago. Their math scores were doing well, but they had heard about other schools in the area seeing lots of success closing skill gaps through daily practice.
In the last year alone, they saw their third-grade students improve 18% on the Texas STARR test from the previous year when they were in second grade! They also saw the number of students who were highlighted as “Mastered” by the STARR test go up 33%. This is amazing progress in only one year.
Their principal, Reba King says,
“Formative Loop is loved by students, parents, and teachers. Students are motivated. Parents can easily assist with the homework and appreciate that we are putting an emphasis on holding students accountable for foundational math skills. Teachers see the impact on student learning, and value the real-time data to drive intervention.”
Mrs. King has implemented the program campus wide in grades 1-4. Each day, the entire school does their math practice at 7:35 am. Once the paper-practice is complete, support staff helps enter the progress in the computer for the 3rd and 4th graders. The other grade levels just have the teachers manage it. They print out the next-day’s practice using the Formative Loop website.
4th Grade Teacher, Jennifer Leisure writes,
“Formative Loop is the best program I have seen to practice numeracy skills on a daily basis. As a teacher, I can appreciate the easy implementation of Formative Loop. The program is individualized and students go at their own pace. It definitely has built math confidence in my students.”
Many of the grade levels include a daily homework practice from the program. These are also individualized for each student. Jennifer went on to say,
“I have found Formative Loop to be a powerful tool when meeting with parents in conferences. It is easy for a parent to monitor the 5-minute nightly homework requirement and to track their child's progress through the skills.”
It’s not just the 3rd graders who saw a large improvement. Their 1st grade population meeting their district end of year academic targets for math went up 11% and their 2nd grade population increased a total of 27% from 2015-16 to 2016-17.
We’re proud to partner with Mina Elementary. We know student improvement doesn’t come simply from tools like Formative Loop, but also requires the dedication and skill of great teachers. Congratulations to the students and staff of Mina Elementary on your success!
