Frank Elementary School 

Frank Elementary School is a place where diverse learners show remarkable growth through deeper learning due to our strong partnership with EL Education. 

The Frank Elementary School Mission

The mission of Frank Elementary School, a community of life-long learners that value diversity, is to educate each student to reach their greatest potential and contribute to society through students, staff, families, and the community working together on engaged learning, meaningful academic and social interventions, and service learning projects.

The Frank Elementary School Journey

Where we started...

Ten years ago, Frank Elementary School was Focus School, labeled by the Wisconsin Department of Instruction as not meeting expectations for student outcomes. We knew our students were capable of growing and learning and as a school we needed to make a change. Leadership and staff needed the tools necessary to unlock the potential of our students. We had to find ways to empower the teachers to help students increase the complexity and quality of their work. Our students struggled with behavior and we wanted to be less reactive and give students the tools to understand their character and how it impacts their learning. Frank Elementary was always known as a place where the leadership was strong and long-lasting and the staff was an extremely close-knit group but we needed to do more for our students, families, and community. 

Transforming our school...

Driven by the goal of making Frank Elementary the school that our students needed, a small group of staff began a journey to transform every aspect of our school. We wanted to provide the academic and character rigor our students so desperately needed from us. District leaders had imposed different models of improvement that either did not show growth or did not remain in place very long. In order to transform Frank Elementary School into a school that could better serve our students, school staff attended listening sessions, did research into different school models, spoke to peers at a variety of schools, and came up with our ideal school design. The components of the EL school model fit everything we needed as a school and community and we began our partnership with EL Education in the 2011-2012 school year. 

Frank as an EL School...

When Frank Elementary School transitioned to an EL school in the 2011-2012 school year, we started the journey with our partner school, Wilson Elementary, and had a great mentor school within our district, Harborside Academy. These local relationships along with new relationships with EL staff helped us transition into a very different school design. Our partnership with EL Education has taken us from the school that was on the bottom of the list within our district to an educational community where students and staff are sought out for their leadership and knowledge.  Students showcase their character in our local community with service, their final products, and partnerships with other EL schools. Student academic work and service to the community is often showcased within the school district and in the greater Kenosha community. District leaders bring visitors to tour Frank Elementary School and meet with staff and students. The local press highlights our accomplishments and innovations (See news articles at the bottom of this page).  Members of our staff have earned grants and awards for their accomplishments and have been invited to speak at Carthage College, DPI CESA 2 conferences, teach master classes at the EL National Conference,  and panel discussions for district trainings. The transformation of our staff while using the EL Model has lead to the most significant change for students.  

This transformation is directly linked to our yearly work plan goals crafted by the School Leadership Team (SLT).  Clearly defining our work plans over the past seven years has proven to be vital in closing the achievement gap for our students and supporting our student achievement growth goals.  We have a clear vision of what our faculty, students, and leadership roles are in supporting our students in their academic successes.  We center all of our professional learning, coaching cycles, and collaboration time together to meet our goals as stated in our work plan each year.  

One of our work plan priorities in year two shifted from teacher centered coaching to student centered coaching.  The teacher and the coach select a student achievement goal based on the work plan targets, determine the standard(s) being focused on, set-up pre-assessments, post-assessments, and instructional lesson plans for the 6 weeks.  By being both data driven and student centered, the impact that this has had on our students shows in our MAP data, Student Led Conferences (SLCs), and presentations of their learning. 

Ten years ago, we did not believe students were capable of creating high quality work products, that foundational skills alone were how to instruct, students could not handle high rigor, and a behavior management system meant students were automatically sent to the office and then sent home. We hid behind our high poverty levels instead of seeing that we had the potential to unlock learning for our students.  While we still face challenges, we are more equipped to process through them for positive outcomes. Our students continuously meet growth expectations and reflect on their learning and character. 

The journey continues...

We continue to have long lasting leadership and a close staff but now our students and parents are seen as a part of our remarkable growth and school journey.  When visitors come to Frank Elementary they often comment on the quality of the products and work on display, they compliment our student ambassadors, and are impressed by the student engagement that they see. Visitors from other schools often ask for guidance on how to change the culture in their own school communities to be more like the one we have created at Frank Elementary School.  

The Frank Elementary School Community

Nestled in the center of Kenosha, Wisconsin, Frank Elementary School serves a very diverse population. The "Frank Neighborhood" is a very transient neighborhood, with a large percentage of homes which are landlord owned. In the past, families moved out of our school neighborhood and they would not continue attending Frank but would transfer to the school in their new neighborhood. We now see that when families move out of our school boundary area, many request a transfer to stay at our school. Families value the level of education and opportunity for growth Frank provides their children and we attribute that to our partnership with EL Education. Throughout our portfolio we will showcase the remarkable growth our students have made and we will feature some sub-groups of our school population for their achievement and for their growth towards "closing the gap." Below you will find the most recent demographic data that provides a "snapshot" of the diverse community at Frank Elementary School. 

Implementation of the EL Model at Frank

What Makes Us "Frankly" Unique?

We have implemented valuable school programs and utilized resourceful community partnerships that make Frank Elementary School a unique and special public school in Kenosha. A few of these are highlighted below:

Academic Parent Teacher Team meetings for our pre-k through grade 1 families provide group sessions on foundational literacy and math skills. The meetings provide time for parents to set SMART Goals, receive activities to use at home, and it creates a community environment where parents interact with each other. 

The Frank Neighborhood Project is a partnership with the YMCA, the Kenosha Sheriff Department, and Frank School. This program provides evening and weekend programming for our students and their families.

The Feeding Families Program is a partnership program with Gordon Food Service and  provides weekly food distribution for 25-30 families. 

We house the YMCA after school program. Students who need more instructional time in reading and/or math are recommended for the program by their classroom teacher.  This programs assists in closing the achievement gap. Classroom teachers support academic and tutoring sessions for the students while YMCA staff provides homework help and extension activities. Students also receive an after school health snack and participate in physical fitness activities.  The program also offers STEM Lego classes, arts and crafts, chess, and other social entertainment classes. In 2016-2017, 85% of students in the YMCA partnership met their reading growth MAP goal and 65% of the students met their growth MAP growth goal in math.

Our school book store sells books to our students for only 50 cents in an attempt to help families build home libraries.  Students can buy up to 2 books each Tuesday to add to their home library. 

“I used to get bad and good grades, but since I’ve been going to the YMCA, I’m getting help and a lot of improvement,” Yamileth said.