Rincon Elementary School

1. Rincon Elementary School  Tradition + Technology + Dedicated Staff = Success

2. Effingham County Overview Located in southeast Georgia, just south of the South Carolina border and 20 miles northwest of the historic city of Savannah, Effingham County is one of the fastest growing communities in the State of Georgia. 

3. Effingham County Schools Overview • The Effingham County School District holds grades pre-school to grade twelve, that consists of eight elementary schools, three middle schools, and two high schools. The district has 511 full-time teachers and over 9,037 students. • Over the past few decades, Effingham County school enrollment has nearly doubled, with about 280 new students enrolling each fall. Despite the growth, Effingham has maintained a student-oriented focus in delivering instructional programs, keeping student/teacher ratios lower than the state average • The district consistently ranks as a high performing district on state assessment instruments.

4. Rincon Overview • Once a small, turn-of-the-century railroad town, Rinconnow is Effingham County’s largest municipality. As of the 2010 Census, Rincon had a population of 8,836. • Rincon Elementary School has one of the smallest enrollments of Effingham County’s eight elementary schools. We currently have 587 students. However, the county is considering redrawing district lines, which would adjust the projected 2014-2014 enrollment to 669 for Rincon. • Residents with income below the poverty level in 2009: Rincon – 13.6% Georgia - 21.6% • Residents with income below 50% of the poverty level in 2009:Rincon – 7.9%Georgia – 7.3%Source: United States 2010 Census

5. School Overview

6. School Overview

7. School Overview

8. Students come first at RES. To make certain this occurs, our entire school family, including teachers/staff members, parents, and administrators, work together to provide the best possible educational environment for our students. • Based on our test results, our challenging academic program is clearly meeting the needs of our students. Rincon Elementary School has been recognized at a Title 1 Distinguished School for eleven consecutive years.

9. The teachers at RES engage their students in meaningful and interesting lessons across the curriculum. • Rincon Elementary’s current focus is on increasingly incorporating technology into the classroom for everyday lessons. All students in grades K- 5 have interactive classrooms.   • Students have access to the internet as a whole group and do work via technology devices in two computer labs and at their deskswith Chromebooks available for checkout by classroom teachers. • Students can answer questions using RF student response systems (clickers). • This is proving to be extraordinarily motivating for the students at RES.

10.  At RES, the instructional plan is data driven and allows for differentiation for all students. All students participate in instruction that is: • Standards-based • Differentiated • Evidenced-based • Guided by progress monitoring & balanced assessment • Planned to address all developmental domains (academic, communication/language, social etc.) • Enrichment and acceleration as well as remediation is offered at every grade level.

11. Gifted Education Program: Basic Facts • Gifted students are provided challenging learning experiences to address their sequential and developmental needs in kindergarten through 5th grade. •  Students are served by the GT certified classroom teacher as well as a resource GT teacher. Thegifted education resource and the classroom teacher collaborate on the instruction received by the students. • Gifted students in the class have contracts describing differentiated strategies and expectations.

12. Reading Recovery: Basic Facts • Two Reading Recovery teachers serve the lowest-achieving first graders—the students who are not catching on to the complex set of concepts that make reading and writing possible.  • Individual students receive a half-hour lesson each school day for 12 to 20 weeks with a specially trained Reading Recovery teacher. As soon as students can meet grade-level expectations and demonstrate that they can continue to work independently in the classroom, their lessons are discontinued, and new students begin individual instruction. 

13. RES’ Response to Intervention (RTI) Plan • Three resource teachers and three paraprofessionals provide additional resources to help students who are performing below grade level to obtain the necessary academic skills in order to reach grade level performance. • Two delivery models are employed: • Pull-Out - less than 15 students are served by a resource teacher and a paraprofessional . • Augmented- team teaching or co-teaching (inclusion)shortest time possible.”

14. Assessment Process of RTI • Universal screening data help pinpoint high-priority areas of concern. Screening provides data that help answer fundamental questions: What should we keep and what needs to be dropped or updated? Which students are in danger of falling through the cracks if we do not intervene quickly? • Progress monitoring provides continuous feedback about how successfully the selected intervention is promoting student growth and closing achievement gaps. It also helps determine when a change in strategy is required.

15. RES receives services from an intervention team that provides tutoring for qualifying students. Students targeted for intervention participate in instruction that: • Uses established intervention protocols • Provides enhanced opportunities for extended learning • Uses flexible, small groups • Includes more frequent progress monitoring

16. The Student Support Team (SST) • Team members draw from a broad array of research-validated interventions and assessment tools to evaluate the adequacy of the RTI plan and make adjustments based upon progress monitoring and diagnostic data collected. • Student Support Teams help teachers and families identify appropriate interventions to suit individual learners.

17. At RES, students are building a solid foundation for their educational future. • Each morning, happy faces enter our building ready to learn from some of the most dedicated professionals in the business. • With the ongoing support of our parents and the consistent hard work of our students and teachers, we look forward to continued success in meeting the continually evolving and demanding academic goals that will enable our students to become accomplished and productive citizens.