F W Gross is a medium-sized elementary school in Victoria, near the Texas gulf coast. They have around 350 K-5 students, with over 90% economically disadvantaged children. The school’s mascot is the bumblebee, and they are led by a very passionate principal, Mary Noble.
Gross Elementary began using Formative Loop in January of 2016 in grades 1-5. They were concerned about their 5th graders who were struggling with basic addition, subtraction, and multiplication skills. They wanted to help those stragglers, and begin to build up confidence in the early grade levels to solve the problem much sooner in the students’ tenure.
At the end of the 2016-17 school year, Principal Noble wrote,
“We had another AMAZING year with Formative Loop! Our teachers all agree that it is the one program we cannot live without! It has increased our benchmark scores and we have noticed our students are working problems much more efficiently.”
Each morning from 8-8:05, all of the students do their daily individualized math practice in their classroom. Math Interventionists assist the classroom teachers by going and collecting their papers at 8:06. They share space in the front office where they grade, taking about 25 minutes for the whole school. By 8:30, the interventionists are ready to return to their classroom assignments to work with students. The next day papers are printed and put into folders along with homework sheets that are utilized during that day's intervention time. Like clockwork, the teachers have data on which skills a student is stuck on and the next day’s practice ready by 8:45 am.
Mrs. Noble went on to write,
“Formative Loop has made such a difference on our campus! This program allows teachers and staff to target specific areas of need for each child. Teachers are able to utilize immediate, targeted data to pinpoint student struggles in math. Instruction is differentiated with each child working at their own pace.”
Her interventionists are scheduled to pull students throughout the school day during small groups in class. They use the Formative Loop daily report to give the teachers a quick look at the targeted needs of each student who is struggling. It helps pinpoint how they spend their time with those students.
In the 2016-17 school year, they have already seen significant progress. Their 3rd grade Texas STARR scores were up 8.6% year-to year. Their 4th-grade students increased 15.5% from when those students were in 3rd grade the previous year. Even the % of students who were designated with "Mastered" (the highest status on STARR) were up 20-30% or more in all grade levels!
We love hearing stories of student progress like this! Congratulations to the teachers and students of F W Gross Elementary. It’s your dedication and focus on improving that is making a difference.
