COLORADO SPRINGS – Once you get to the top, it’s hard to stay there.
Wildflower Elementary School has figured it out.
The Colorado Springs school has been named a 2016 National Title 1 Distinguished School.
“We’re proud of continuing to take the school to the next level,” said Principal Wendy Godwin.
It’s the only Title 1 school in Colorado to receive the award for “significantly closing the achievement gap” among minorities, low-income students, English language learners and students with disabilities.
Five years ago, the neighborhood school of nearly 500 students on Colorado Springs’ southeast side won the National Blue Ribbon Award, which also recognizes high achievement.
Maintaining that academic excellence has been the goal ever since, Godwin said.
But she didn’t realize how well the school had been doing until she found out recently that Wildflower had been selected for the latest award.
“I was very surprised,” she said. “I didn’t even know we were being considered.”
Schools don’t apply for the annual award. The Colorado Department of Education first whittles down the long list of Title 1 schools – those that have large numbers of low-income students and receive additional federal funding for tutoring.
The state compares data from two years of standardized tests at each Title 1 school in each of the student subgroups, looking for growth. Criteria for closing achievement gaps get applied, and then everything is analyzed.
“It’s a narrowing process,” said Tina Negley, research analysis coordinator for the Colorado Department of Education.
Each year, each state selects one school for the Title 1 award for significantly closing achievement gaps and another school for exceptional student performance for two consecutive years.
“It is a very prestigious award,” said Lynn Bamberry, director of competitive grants and awards for the state’s Education Department.
“It shows how hard the teachers, the administration and parents collaborate and work together to increase achievement of their students,” she said. “And they’re doing a very nice job.”
About 70 percent of Wildflower students qualify for the federal government’s free and reduced meals program, indicating they come from low-income households. Closing the achievement gap is challenging, said third-grade reading and writing teacher Amy Dolbeare, because students come from diverse backgrounds and home situations.
“We have a lot of students that move in, and not knowing what they had before they come here makes it hard,” she said.
Wildflower has experienced improvement and scores above state expectations among not only the four subgroups in reading, writing and math but across the entire student body.
Plain hard work is one of the reasons, Godwin said.
“Everybody, from the lunch room to the custodian to the teachers, truly work as a team,” she said. “We feel like we’re a family here at Wildflower.”
The 33-year-old school is set up a little differently than most elementary schools. Each teacher specializes in teaching one subject, and students rotate classrooms, like in high school or college.
“It helps the teacher become better in that one subject and teach learners of all ranges and get really in-depth with the subject,” Godwin said.
The method has been in place for nine years and fine-tuned along the way.
Another twist is that some classrooms are co-taught by two teachers.
That, Dolbeare said, enables teachers to meet students’ individual academic and emotional needs.
“Whether we get recognized or not, we work really hard here, knowing students will get what they need,” she said.
Wildflower also has the lowest teacher turnover of schools in Harrison District 2, Godwin said, with one out of 30 teachers leaving this school year and typically just two or three moving on.
“We hope this award helps our parents, community members and stakeholders realize what a good job we’re doing and take this job very seriously,” she said.
Ripples of the award’s significance continue for years.
Another local school, Palmer Lake Elementary, captured the Title 1 award last year, out of 750 Title 1 schools across the state.
The small country school with about 320 students also uses a team approach and helps everybody feel like they are an important part of the school, said Principal Peggy Griebenow.
“Our staff certainly has the mentality of all these kids belong to all of us,” she said.
The Title 1 award represents “a validation of when we invest and retain quality staff who are highly trained to work with our most struggling students, there’s a huge payoff with that,” Griebenow said.
A flag announcing the award flies every day below the American and Colorado flags in the schoolyard.
“When we won, they we were given buttons that most staff still keep on their lanyard,” Griebenow said, “so that pride is still evident.”
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