Chapter 1: Where I came from Once upon a time in a town called Lake Worth stood a small one room

school house. This school house helped the children in the town to read, write and do math. The school attracted so many children that the town had to build 2 12-room schools. One school was named South Grade and the other school was named North Grade.

Im not so sure what happens in South Grade since I dont get the chance to venture out that way. I do have the chance to see what goes on in North Grade Elementary since I am the resident gargoyle. I sit on top of the school, I hear the conversations and I see the students every single day. North Grade is the best school even though its the only school I know.

I do have my reasons why I consider this place a wonderful thing. Many, many years ago when there were two major hurricanes that passed our town, this place opened its doors to the people as a hospital and a shelter. The workers in that school helped the town as best as they can.

Chapter 2: The Palm Beach Reeves The town of Lake Worth was watched over by the Palm Beach Reeves. The Palm Beach Reeves were in charge of the schools. They are town officials who were appointed by the towns people. One day, these officials decided that they wanted to close down North Grade because it was too small and the cost to have it open was a lot.

The workers at North Grade . fought to stay open. They proved that the students needed them. After a long and hard convincing, the Palm Beach Reeves allowed North Grade to stay open. The workers, parents and children were all relieved.

The towns people, who came to love this school was relieved as well. Do you know who was the most relieved? Me! What would I do if the school was destroyed? Where would I go?

Chapter 3: My New Home One day, I saw The Palm Beach Reeves visit my school. I didnt know what to expect but I heard them say that they knew a lot of good things were happening in North Grade. I was obviously proud but I didnt expect what they had planned.

They moved the school! Hundreds of questions were running though my hollow head? Was I going? Where am I going? Alas, a humongous school was built. I was relieved to be going with the school. That building where we stood is now called the Annex Building. It still stands there until now. Im just glad that Im still part of my school.

Chapter 4: The Great Officers of State of Florida As the years passed, I heard more and more of these people called The Great Officers of State of Florida. I heard that these people who used to be jesters and minstrels are telling the Palm Beach Reeves and the schools what to do. There was a time when they said that all these students were to take these FCAT tests.

These tests were supposed to prove . how smart the students are. The student scores will determine how good or how bad a school is. The state has paid a huge amount of money to administer this test. The state truly believes in this test and they talk about the test like its the end all be all. My people were worried. The parents and children were worried. They scrambled to do their best and Im

proud to say that my school did wonderful. In the last 3 years, they were considered an A school. Thats the highest marking you can get!

Chapter 5: My school today North Grade has come a long way from when it was just a one room school house. My school is made up of 52% Hispanic, 26% Caucasian, 16 % African American and 6% other races. The school is offering various programs such as free/reduced lunch for those who qualify, free breakfast for all students, an LEP program which stands for Limited English Proficiency, ESE program for Exceptional Students Education and a gifted program.

Aside from these programs, the school has implemented numerous programs on a day to day basis to help all our students to succeed.

Chapter 6: The Results This past year, 80 % of their students from grades 3 to 5 were considered proficient in both reading and math. A whopping 96% of the 4th graders were considered proficient in writing and 71% of the 5th graders were considered proficient in science. That is an outstanding achievement since 68% of their students made learning gains from the prior year in reading and 55% learning gains in math.

120 100 80 60 40 20 0

Reading Math Writing

2008-2009 2009-2010 2010-2011

Science

If thats not good enough, 58% of the . lowest 25 percentile of the students made learning gains in reading and 50% of the lowest 25 percentile of the students made learning gains in math. What an accomplishment! For a gargoyle who does not really know much about the FCAT and learning gains, I would think that North Grade is doing a pretty good job. The Great Officers of State of Florida felt like that they needed to do more!

Looking at the results of North Grade last year, they are an effective school but the Great Officers of State of Florida is saying that they left some children behind. Since North Grade did not have 86% of their students proficient in both reading and math, then the state is saying that they did not meet the qualifications of adequate yearly progress. So what does the state do? They mandate that North Grade create a School Improvement Plan (SIP) and create a document

that plans out what the school is going to do this year in order to raise student achievement. I think thats a reasonable request, but thats not alltheyre saying that this school year, 96% of their students should be proficient in reading and math. Well now thats unrealistic I might say! But who am I to have an opinion? I am just a gargoyle.

Chapter 7: What to do? What to do? North Grade accepted the challengethey didnt really have much of a choice but theyre doing it with a lot of enthusiasm and motivation. The workers, students and parents are all working together to make sure that they dont leave any more children behind. I observe many things but these are some of the things I see them do on a regular basis. The media center is open before and after school so the students have access to a lot of books.

The school is open on Saturday for the students who were not considered proficient in grades 3-5 for Saturday tutorial in both reading and math. North Grade is participating in the battle of the books where theyre getting their students to read a certain amount of books and competing with other schools to see how well they know the stories. I wish I could go to that competition! The students are doing this Think, Pair, Share

strategy where students are given time to think of a topic, pair up with other students and formulate ideas and then share the ideas to their peers.

The school is also making sure that the students are getting the right books into their hands. This is important! I feel the same way since I only like to read books that I can understand. When I peek into the classrooms, there are a lot of visuals and graphic organizers to help students understand what theyre learning. Those bubbles are cute! In the mornings, theres morning math tutorials where the students read and understand math problems. They also use timed drills and workstations to improve the basic facts.

On Fridays, the 4th grade students go to this after school club called the Blue Planet. This is a writing workshop where the students write with their friends in Habla school in the Yucatan. They talk through the computer! They write poems, stories, and letters through this computer that all the kids at North Grade seem to love. Years ago, they used to mail letters, now theyre talking through this screen and typing. How neat!

Chapter 8: What do I think? Even though Im only a gargoyle, as you can tell, I have a lot of opinions. I think that they should keep using these interventions. I think theyre all working because the students are getting smarter and smarter. The school workers tried to track the economically disadvantaged students and tailor their instructional practices to meet the needs of these students but I think the teachers need more training in this part. Its hard to understand the need of these students unless someone whos been in these students shoes tells the teachers.

Ruby Payne is a training that I feel would benefit the teachers. This training focuses on the needs of children in poverty. It gives the workers awareness on what to do in order to reach the economically disadvantaged students. Having a focus calendar would help also since not all the workers are working on the same thing. Theres even this Sunshine Math Program that would benefit the students. Its being offered but not throughout the school.

Only the workers, who want to use it, use it. If everyone used this, that would be so beneficial because this program teaches responsibility and it helps the students use their problem solving/critical thinking skills. The Saturday tutorial is a great program but not all the students who need to go can go. Sometimes their parents cant take them! If only I could pick them up and fly them to the school, I would!

Chapter 9: My final recommendations I believe that North Grade is on the rise ever since the day when we were just a one room school house. The students and the workers at North Grade are working together in order to keep up with the expectations of The Palm Beach Reeve and the Great Officers of State of Florida. The Palm Beach Reeve and the Great Officers of State of Florida really need to come to

North Grade to see all the wonderful things more often. What I see every day at this school cannot be graded.

A letter cannot represent how good this school is. Sometimes I feel down when I think of all the work that the workers, students and parents do for this school and are not viewed as good enough!

Chapter 10: Whats to come? I have now been converted to a pineapple and I still sit on top of the school. Im okay with that. I get more pleasant looks rather than those confused stares. I even have another companion to my side. Shes another pineapple. Now I have someone to talk to.

I might talk a lot about the schoolwell its the only thing I talk about but Im passionate about it. I see good things happening and Im confident to say that Ill be sitting atop this school for a very, very long time. Watch out! My North Grade family will keep going up and up and up

A framework for understanding poverty. Retrieved from: http://www.rethinkingschools.org/restrict.asp?path=archive/21_02/fr am212.shtml. Assessment and accountability briefing book. Retrieved from: http://fcat.fldoe.org/pdf/fcataabb.pdf. Current Student Demographics. Retrieved from: http://www.edline.net/files/_UOCqZ_/16eb12fca4e5d05b3745a490138 52ec4/Demographic_North_Grade_2011.pdf History of North Grade. Retrieved from: http://www.edline.net/files/_lZImX_/09656571ca9fc12e3745a49013852ec4 /History_North_Grade.pdf. North Grade Elementary School Website. Retrieved from: http://www.edline.net/pages/North_Grade_Elementary_School. Welcome to Sunshine Math. Retrieved from: http://www.lcps.org/cms/lib4/VA01000195/Centricity/Domain/8733/ sunshinemath.pdf.