News and information about Bradie Shrum Elementary

By Abagale Elliott

First of all, what is a Title 1 school? Title 1 schools are federally funded to be able to help those who struggle with academics. Bradie Shrum qualified as a Title 1 school when they hit 40% of the students having free or reduced lunch. 

As a Title 1 school, BSE teachers will identify students who need extra help and a Title 1 team member will be that extra help in reading skills and some math. The extra help is for 20-30 minutes a day in small groups. According to Title 1 teacher Amy Craig, the group work is largely focused on the individual needs of students, letting them go at their own pace. “We love working with students in small groups… It's great to see the ‘lightbulb’ go off when a student realizes they understand a concept and their confidence increases.”

There is an annual meeting for parents and guardians to ask questions. This year the attendance was 132 people. When Craig was asked why the attendance was higher this year than in the past, she said, “We shared the Title I information through a ‘scavenger hunt’ and families were able to participate with the children. At the end each child was able to choose a brand new book to take home. Families seemed to really enjoy the activity. We are really looking forward to being able to get parents involved and have some great events planned for the rest of the school year!”

Craig said they are working to improve phonics skills with students. The skills and tricks to learning and studying taught by the Title 1 team members are extremely important for the rest of the academic futures of BSE students. These are real-world skills being taught. They do hands-on activities following Science of Reading Methods They also provide help with math. 

Being a Title 1 school will greatly improve the education of all students at Bradie Shrum. The staff, students and parents will all benefit from the Title 1 team and its actions. 

When asked about the best thing to come out of the Title 1 team Craig said, “We enjoy seeing the growth and progress the students make over the year and through their time here at BSE.” 

For the last couple of weeks, parents may have heard their children talking about NWEA testing. NWEA stands for Northwest Evaluation Association and it is an assessment program that helps students set learning goals and guides educators on the best way to help them meet those goals.

Salem Community Schools Assistant Superintendent Jill Mires explained that NWEA is a progress monitoring formative assessment. Formative means it is given multiple times throughout the year to gauge student learning and how teachers help them build on their skills.  This test is different from the summative assessments like the state tests ILEARN and IREAD, as well as high school finals. 

“There is a goal-setting piece to this,” explained Mires. “We take the assessment, set benchmarks, and look at where kids are excelling and where there is a deficit.”

She said the information helps school staff choose intervention strategies that best fit each child. The information gathered from the tests allows teachers to adjust their lessons based on how students are learning. 

“These assessments allow for reteaching moments for a whole class as well as mini lessons for small groups and individual students,” said Mires.

The test is also computer adaptive, meaning that if a student is struggling with a question, then questions are adjusted to be easier. If they are answering all the questions right, the adjustment is made to make them more challenging. 

“There is also a skills component where each student gets individual results,” said Mires. Students take a test in the fall, another in December and then the final one in the spring. They are given a target to try to hit with each test. “If they hit the target, they have met their goal. We are going to celebrate that accomplishment!”

NWEA is given in math and English. Mires said gauging how students do on these tests gives an indicator report of how they may do on state testing in the spring. 

“The test  can be predictive as well as informative,” she said, adding that this information is so important for both teachers and families.” 

The test is paid for through a Formative Assessment Grant by the state. Mires explained that there is a big push by the state to have 95% of students passing the IRead by 2027.

“It’s so important for kids to learn how to read,” she said, adding that research shows that students who are proficient readers by third grade are more successful. 

SCS is hoping to use the results from NWEA to help students meet their learning goals and in turn, improve their state testing scores.

“We hope to improve their state testing growth, as well as proficiency,” said Mires.

Copies of students’ results will be sent home for parents to review.