The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the education of an entire generation, and impacted school districts throughout the country and world. When the pandemic hit, 55 million school children were sent home to learn, which increased learning loss and social emotional challenges. The issues facing educators, students, and families have impacted our school community as well. As a result, the Fairborn City School District continues to plan and be strategic in examining both qualitative and quantitative feedback.
By regularly looking at data, we provide the support our students need to be successful. This data-driven decision making process helps our team of educators make important decisions regarding teaching, learning, and other interventions. With input from teachers and building administration, the Fairborn City School District is designing educational supports which address individual student needs (both academic and social emotional) to help students be successful.
K-3 Success Program
(Students at Fairborn Primary and Fairborn Intermediate Schools)
The Success Program at FPS and FIS helps students that are below grade level in literacy by using an explicit, systematic approach to teach foundational skills of phonemic awareness, phonics, high frequency words, and comprehension. This program assists students who are below grade level in literacy skills. The Success Teachers at FPS work with 480 students, and the Success Teachers at FIS work with 150 students.
- Students work with dedicated Success Teachers in small groups
- Success Teachers build and improve personal relationships with their students
- The students have been increasingly excited about their learning and progress
- The program is flexible, and thus builds student confidence by individualizing student learning
- The program works on securing core academic foundations that are necessary to grow and increase rigor in literacy
- The Success Teachers utilize diagnostic assessments to identify learning needs, which leads to individualized interventions and support
- There are 15 Success Teachers at Fairborn Primary School
- There are 5 Success Teachers at Fairborn Intermediate School
- While students in the Success Program are with their small groups and Success Teachers, the other classroom teachers have additional time to focus on students who are at or above grade level, allowing them to extend their learning
Growth from the first semester:
- 105 Kindergarten students moved to on track
- 73 First Grade students moved to on track
- 54 Second Grade students moved to on track
- 77 Third Grade students moved to on track
Overall Growth:
- Fairborn Primary School helped 35 students reach grade level
- Fairborn Intermediate School helped 30 students reach grade level
K-8 Instructional Coaches
(Students at Fairborn Primary School, Fairborn Intermediate School, and Baker Middle School)
Instructional Coaches are teachers that assist with professional development and growth. Their work supports classroom teachers by offering mentorship, new ideas, research-based best practices, classroom management support, and more. FCS has 12 part time instructional coaches at FPS, FIS, and BMS. There are four in each building, with two focusing on English Language Arts and two focusing on Math for each developmental level. Our Coaches observe, model, co-plan, co-teach, and develop teacher resources for our faculty. When they are not serving as Instructional Coaches, they are serving as classroom Teachers. These teachers are experts in their content area, and continue to learn and develop their methods as they guide other faculty.
- Coaches support Teachers in Literacy and Math curriculum implementation
- Coaches analyze data from iReady Academic Diagnostic Assessments to guide individualized instruction (iReady is an online diagnostic assessment for reading and mathematics that identifies core content skills and standards that students need support with, ensuring that their learning is personalized)
- This teamwork ensures that all Teacher goals support student growth
- iReady Diagnostic assessments support student growth because they make it measurable and trackable
Baker Middle School Academic Foundations & Social Emotional Growth
(Students in grades 6-8)
Middle School Academic Foundations
The Middle School Academic Foundations Program utilizes iReady Diagnostic Assessment data to find foundational skills that students need support with, thus allowing those students to further increase in rigor and grade level work.
- English Language Arts: Working with students to teach phonics, reading fluency, and reading comprehension skills
- Mathematics: Closing the achievement gap in Math by focusing on core math skills that are foundational for current and future math skills.
SMART Lab for Social Emotional Support and Growth
Students utilize the SMART Lab for various reasons, but most are experiencing anxiety, panic attacks, trauma reactions, and aggression (not physical). Baker Middle School attempts to provide the social-emotional intervention before any discipline happens, or in lieu of, if discipline is assigned. Students are reporting positive feedback for the SMART Lab, indicating that they feel higher levels of support and engagement from/by the school and its staff and faculty.
Once in the SMART Lab, a student signs in on a Google form. From there, students choose a research based activity to try to destress and calm down. After 10-15 minutes, they check their stress levels again. (Stress levels are monitored using a reader that classifies student distress with a color-coded system.) Most students are at the red level upon entering the SMART Lab. Once checked, if they have reduced stress and anxiety levels, they are given the option to return to the classroom or speak with a counselor or administrator.
The final step in the SMART Lab process is analyzing what techniques worked to calm the student. If these techniques and strategies were successful, our counseling staff works with faculty to implement the strategies in the students' classes. Prior to the implementation of the SMART Lab, students were in the office for an entire class period (45-60 minutes), whereas now, they are missing less class and practicing self-regulating skills. Students, faculty, and staff have reported positive qualitative feedback for this process, and furthermore students experiencing distress have learned improved and expanded self-monitoring and self-regulating practices.
Fairborn High School Social Emotional Learning & Academic Credit
(Students in grades 9-12)
SEL Core Advisory Work
- SEL Core Project for Advisory Classes: All students spend 20 minutes, twice per week, learning how to work with anxious thoughts and negative emotions, in addition to other social emotional skills aimed at supporting students' emotional and social well-being. IN addition to these projects, two days per week are solely dedicated to Social Emotional Learning during Advisory classes (i.e. a homeroom class that meets every day.)
- Counseling staff continues to work with
-Credit Recovery-Helps students earn credits to graduate. The format changes yearly based on recommendations from the team.