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Accountability
Targeted Assistance
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Provider: Gill-Montague Regional School District
Gill-Montague Regional District SES Program
35 Crocker Avenue
Turners Falls, MA 01376
Robert "Chip" Wood
chipwood@gmrsd.org
Director of Elementary Education
Phone: 413-863-9207
Fax: 413-863-4560
http:\\www.gmrsd.org
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| Provider Details |
| Program Areas: | Reading, Writing, Mathematics |
| Grades: | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
| Place of Service: | Student's School |
| Type of Organization: | School District |
Experience with:
Limited English Proficient (LEP) students: No
Students with disabilities: Yes |
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| Program Description (written by provider) |
The Gill-Montague Regional School District offers students’ supplementary academic instruction and support before and after school in the areas of reading, writing, and mathematics at the Sheffield Elementary School. Our highly qualified staff plans and coordinates this individualized instructional program with the assistance of qualified para-professionals. Each student has a Student Success Plan and progress is monitored regularly. Effective instructional practices are used along with a wide variety of appropriate learning materials. The program's curricula flow from our Reading First, Houghton-Mifflin Language Arts and Math Expressions programs, all of which correlate with the Massachusetts State Frameworks. To motivate students to attend regularly there are engaging enrichment activities offered at the end of the instructional session. Homework assistance is provided as needed. Parents of students are strongly encouraged to ensure that their children attend the program regularly.
There are four sessions during the school year (Sept.-Dec., Jan.-mid Feb., March-mid April, April-June), and a four-week session over the summer. Students are recommended to the program based on Student Success Plans (which include the MCAS and other tests such as DIBELS and GRADE reading tests), and teacher recommendations. Students are grouped according to need. The GRADE reading test is used as a standardized and validated primary outcome measure of reading skills indexed by three scales including Vocabulary, Sentence Comprehension, and Passage Comprehension. Staff determines student reading progress by examining stanine scores achieved on the comprehension sub-test. |
| Evidence of Effectiveness (written by provider) |
This before and after school program, combined with additional supplementary services during the school day, has improved student performance as measured by the GRADE and DIBELS reading tests, and the Math Essentials Unit Tests. Our SES tutorial services are closely allied with all core curricula and there is close collaboration with classroom teachers.
A survey of classroom teachers indicated that 71% of students who participated in the after school program showed gains in their class work. Teachers reported that 89% of the students who participated in the program completed their homework assignments and that the quality of their work improved. It is clear that students who are academically challenged are better prepared to participate in our regular school day academic program if they participate in our after school program. Teachers also stated that 32% of students showed gains in ELA, 18% in communication skills, and 39% exhibited a greater engagement in learning from their participation in the program.
The supplemental services program strongly supports the Reading First model. Although no longer funded through this program, we still follow all of its best practices, incorporating it into our upper grades as well. An average of 24% all children grade 1-5, and 21% of third and fourth graders, representing nearly all of our struggling students, receive either formal tutoring, supervised independent reading, or homework help on a daily basis before and/or after school. Our DIBELS scores for third grade, low-income, at risk students in the spring 2009 was 67%, as opposed to only 16% in 2004. We believe our increasingly effective supplementary educational services are at least partially responsible for these gains along with the fine work done by regular classroom teachers, reading teachers, special education teachers, and that paraprofessionals within our school. GRADE scores showed equally impressive gains with 80% low-income third graders scoring at Stanine 5 or above in spring as opposed to 55.6% in 2004.
We have a highly qualified, full-time math consultant and coach who works with the SES staff as well as the regular classroom teachers. This is the second year of our new Math Essentials program and 60% to 70% of our students have been scoring 80% or better on the unit tests of this program. The Math Essentials program is ranked as one of the most effective programs in the country. |
| District(s) Served |
Please note that these are the districts this provider is approved to serve through this contract. Not all of these districts may be required to offer supplemental educational services through Title I of the No Child Left Behind Act. Check with your school or district for more details.
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