Ledyard Center School - Strategic Profile

740 Colonel Ledyard Highway • Ledyard, Connecticut 06339 • (860) 464-8080 • Fax: (860) 464-5140

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Strategic School Profile 2006 - 2007

Elementary School K-6 Edition

Ledyard Center School
Ledyard School District

MARY FORT BOYLE, Principal

Telephone: 860-464-8080

This profile was produced by the CT State Department of Education in accordance with CT General Statutes 10-220(c).

STUDENT ENROLLMENT School Grade Range Total Enrollment 5-Year Oct. Enrollment Change	K - 6 431 -11.5%	School Type	Traditional/Regular
		School Grade Range	K-6

SCHOOL NEED

Current and Past School Need	Year	School	District K-6 Schools	State K-6 Schools
% of Students Eligible for Free/Reduced-Price Meals	2006-07 2002-03	6.0 0.0	5.6 3.2	27.7 28.8
% of K-12 Students with Non-English Home Language	2006-07 2001-02	0.2 1.8	1.8 1.7	13.5 14.1
% of Students above Entry Grade who Attended this School the Previous Year	2006-07 2001-02	91.8 88.8	91.5 86.5	87.7 86.2
	Year	School	District	State
% of Kindergarten Students who Attended Preschool, Nursery School or Headstart	2006-07 2001-02	87.2 71.9	78.5 87.0	79.3 75.1

Enrollment in Special Programs	Students in School	Percent in School	% in District K-6 Schools	% in State K-6 Schools
Bilingual Education and English as a Second Language Services (K-12)	0	0.0	1.2	6.9
Compensatory Education	100	23.2	18.2	23.6
Full or Extended Day Kindergarten	0	N/A	N/A	N/A
Gifted and Talented Program	0	0.0	0.0	1.8
Special Education	42	9.7	11.2	10.8
Prekindergarten	0	N/A	N/A	N/A

STUDENT RACE/ETHNICITY

Race/Ethnicity	Number	Percent
American Indian	38	8.8
Asian American	25	5.8
Black	15	3.5
Hispanic	12	2.8
White	341	79.1

Total Minority 2006-07 20.9%

Total Minority 2001-02 22.2%

EFFORTS TO REDUCE RACIAL, ETHNIC, AND ECONOMIC ISOLATION
Below is the description submitted by this school of how it provides educational opportunities for its students to interact with students and teachers from diverse racial, ethnic, and economic backgrounds.

Students at Ledyard Center School have several educational opportunities to appreciate diverse racial, ethnic, and economic backgrounds. Some activities involve one class and one session, other projects were yearlong ventures through which friendships with students from other communities were formed.

Fourth and fifth grade students wrote to penpals throughout the year. One of these penpal classes was from Minnesota and the other from Juliet Long School here in Ledyard. Students were able to communicate regularly via email with their pen pals and fourth grade students met at the end of the year for cooperative games and fun.

Two second grade classes participated in a LEARN interdistrict program titled "Number Kids" with partner classes from Norwich.

A school wide program designed to provide explanations of what character traits look like/sound like was continued this year. Each month, a character trait such as "courage, honesty, fairness" was featured during all school morning meetings hosted by a grade level team. Students were recognized by having a "brick" with their name displayed in our front hallway to "Build our school community - one brick at a time".

Ledyard Center students and faculty are always open to new and exciting ways to interact with students of diverse ethnic and economic backgrounds. For the 2007-2008 school year we are looking to increase the number of classes partnered with a class from a more urban setting and for including opportunities for co-teaching with our in district pen pals.

SCHOOL RESOURCES

Instructional Time*	School	District K-6	State K-6
Total Hours of Instruction Per Year	972	972	985

*State law requires at least 900 hours for grades 1 through 12 and full-day kindergarten, and 450 hours for half-day kindergarten.

TECHNOLOGY

% of Classrooms, Libraries, and Laboratories Wired for:	School	District K-6	State K-6
Video Voice Internet Access Multi-Room Network (LAN)	0.0 100.0 100.0 100.0	32.2 39.1 100.0 100.0	64.6 74.8 97.3 81.3

Computers	School	Dist K-6	State K-6
# of Students Per Academic Computer	3.3	4.2	3.6
% of Computers that are High or Moderate Power	23.1	47.0	89.5
% of Computers with Internet Access, All Speeds	100.0	100.0	97.3
% of Computers with High Speed Internet Access	100.0	100.0	96.1
% of Internet Computers with Filtering Software	100.0	100.0	98.6

This school does not have a functional satellite link.

LIBRARY MATERIALS
Free on-line access to periodicals, newspapers, and other resources is available to all Connecticut schools through the Connecticut Digital Library.

Print and Non-Print Materials	School	Dist K-6	State K-6
# of Print Volumes Per Student*	33.9	35.6	28.0
% of Print Volumes Purchased in the Last Three Years	6.2	3.6	12.2
# of Print Periodical Subscriptions	15	18.3	15.1
# of Non-Print Materials	1,255	1,123.7	406.8

*Because a certain number of volumes are needed for a library of adequate breadth and depth, a small school may need a higher number of volumes per student.

STAFFING RESOURCES

School Staff Count	2006-07	2005-06
Full-Time Equivalent # of Certified Staff
Teachers	27.9	29.0
Administrators	1.5	1.6
Department Chairs	0.0	0.0
Library/Media Staff	0.5	0.5
Counselors, Social Workers, and School Psychologists	1.2	1.2
Other Professionals	2.8	2.8
# of Non-Certified Instructional	8.8	7.6

Average Class Size		School	District	State
Gr. K	2006-07 2001-02	13.3 14.3	17.3 16.0	18.2 18.3
Gr. 2	2006-07 2001-02	18.3 23.3	19.8 22.0	19.5 19.6
Gr. 5	2006-07 2001-02	22.0 21.8	20.6 23.2	21.2 21.5

Professional Staff Race/Ethnicity	2006-07	2005-06	2001-02
% Minority	2.4	2.3	2.4
Professional Staff Experience and Training	School	District K-6	State K-6
Average Number of Years Experience in Connecticut and Other Locations	15.7	17.2	14.0
% with Master’s Degree or Above	92.7	87.7	81.0

SCHOOL PROCESSES

Selected Subject Areas, Grade 5	Estimated Hours of Instruction Per Year			Computer/ Technology Supported
Selected Subject Areas, Grade 5	School	District	State	Computer/ Technology Supported
Art*	30	30	31	No
Computer Education*	27	27	17	Yes
English Language Arts*	424	424	427	No
Family and Consumer Science	0	0	1	N/A
Health*	18	18	23	No
Library Media Skills*	21	21	18	No
Mathematics*	180	180	195	No
Music	30	30	32	No
Physical Education	30	30	40	No
Science*	100	100	97	No
Social Studies*	112	112	92	No
Technology Education	0	0	1	N/A
World Languages	0	0	11	N/A

*Interdisciplinary Approach

World Language - Formal instruction (at least 1 hour per week) in a world language is not offered in this school. In Connecticut, 20.0% of K-6 schools offer world language instruction.

Types of Remedial Instructional Services Provided to Students Lacking Basic Skills	Available in Mathematics	Available in Language Arts
Pull-Out Instruction	Yes	Yes
In-Class Tutorial	No	No
After School Program	No	No
Summer School (2005)	No	No
Other	No	Yes

Student and Teacher Statistics	School	District K-6	State K-6
% of Students Retained in Grade after 2005-06 School Year	0.0	0.3	1.5
Teacher Attendance, 2005-06: Average # of Days Absent Due to Illness or Personal Time	6.3	7.5	8.7
% Certified Staff Assigned to Same School the Previous Year	90.2	85.6	83.3

HOME AND SCHOOL COMMUNICATION AND SUPPORT
The following narrative was submitted by this school.

Ledyard Center School fosters an environment addressing the academic, social/emotional, and physical needs of all students. This philosophy guides decisions about the Learning, Climate and Safety at our school. Ledyard Center is fully committed to providing the teaching and learning needed to improve student performance. Getting to know students and families is a key component of this approach. Each year, teachers include intentional activities to have parents share what they want us to know and their hopes and dreams for their children.

An Open House in September is held to share expectations and student outcomes for the year. Our parent teacher organization meets to decide on a Big Goal project and dedicates funds to enhance classroom instruction. Conferences are held for each student in November and again for Kindergarten students in February. Parents are encouraged to schedule individual conferences at any time during the year. Our monthly newsletter as well as classroom newsletters keep parents informed about what we do and why we do it. Report cards are sent home three times a year and include assessment information so that parents have a clear understanding about how their child is performing in relation to grade level benchmarks.

Parents & staff continue to work cooperatively to provide an environment in which children can learn and grow to meet the demands of an ever-changing world. For the 2007-2008, we are looking to increase opportunities to inform parents about academic goals and provide more special topic parent information sessions.

STUDENT PERFORMANCE

Connecticut Mastery Test, Fourth Generation, % Meeting State Goal: The Goal level is more demanding than the state Proficient level, but not as high as the Advanced level, reported in the No Child Left Behind Report Cards.

Connecticut Mastery Test % Meeting State Goal in:	School	District	State	Of All Schools in State
Connecticut Mastery Test % Meeting State Goal in:	School	District	State	Lowest %	Highest %
Grade 3 Reading	55.0	58.1	52.3	1.6	92.6
Writing	55.0	66.8	60.8	0.0	93.9
Mathematics	56.7	59.6	59.4	0.0	96.0
Grade 4 Reading	56.9	58.8	57.0	0.0	95.2
Writing	54.9	61.3	65.1	0.0	96.8
Mathematics	52.8	69.4	62.3	0.0	100.0
Grade 5 Reading	65.4	64.5	61.4	2.6	98.7
Writing	61.7	61.6	64.6	2.3	98.5
Mathematics	66.7	70.5	66.0	4.5	95.8
Grade 6 Reading	66.7	74.7	64.3	0.0	100.0
Writing	50.7	63.3	63.0	0.0	97.5
Mathematics	72.5	75.6	63.9	0.0	97.4

These results reflect the performance of students with scoreable tests who were enrolled in the district at the time of testing, regardless of the length of time they were enrolled in the district. Results for fewer than 20 students are not presented.

For more detailed CMT results, go to www.ctreports.com. To see the NCLB Report Card for this school, go to www.sde.ct.gov and click on "No Child Left Behind".

Physical Fitness % Passing All 4 Tests	School	District	State	Of All Schools in State
Physical Fitness % Passing All 4 Tests	School	District	State	Lowest %	Highest %
Grade 4	35.2	31.0	33.5	0.0	86.6
Grade 6	34.3	32.5	35.5	0.0	93.8

Student Attendance	School	District K-6	State K-6
% on October 1, 2006	98.1	97.4	96.3

SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLANS AND ACTIVITIES
The following narrative was submitted by this school.

In order to improve academic achievement for all students, Ledyard Center School faculty: administer regular formal and informal assessments to guide instruction. Grade level teachers met twice a month to share successful instructional strategies and submit examples of student work. The focus for instructional improvement for this year was literacy. Primary grades focused on systematic phonics instruction and upper grades on written response to text. Regular classroom walkthroughs were held and feedback provided re: comments and questions about classroom instruction.

To support implementation of science curriculum, grade 3-6 met throughout the year to review units and suggest additions/changes in materials. K -2 science curriculum revision was completed by the end of the year and most units will be integrated with literacy instruction.

Faculty meetings were restructured to provide time for discussion and collaboration, general information sharing was limited to memo items and questions. Topics needing more discussion were referred to faculty council for operational concerns and LA consultants provided grade level PD for instructional topics.

Student work was posted throughout the school highlighting student efforts and achievement. Explanations of student outcomes were provided during Open House and regular news about academic initiatives were included in monthly school newsletters as well as classroom newsletters.

LCS faculty plans to start the 2007-2008 school year with CMT results as well as spring testing for reading, math and writing to develop grade level improvement plan.

SUPPLEMENTAL SCHOOL INFORMATION
The space below was optionally used by this school to describe aspects of the school not presented elsewhere in the profile. For instance, character education or programs designed to improve school climate may be described.

Ledyard Center School fosters an environment addressing the academic, social/emotional, and physical needs of all students. This philosophy guides decisions about the Learning, Climate and Safety at our school. Ledyard Center is fully committed to providing the teaching and learning needed to improve student performance. During this school year, our school expanded the use of Responsive Classroom techniques. Formative assessments were administered in all grades to provide information about student progress. The whole school continued support for one LINKS (Ledyard Involves Neighborhoods, Kids, and Schools) project to continue restoration efforts of the one room schoolhouse located adjacent to school as well as other projects for community and global relief efforts.

A strong commitment to multicultural education is evidenced through the integration of multicultural themes in content areas. The completion of performance tasks for each social studies theme assisted students in developing rich responses to grade level focus questions. We continued refining our school wide character education program recognizing students for their positive contributions in school continued this year. By June, student names displayed on BRICKS for "building our school community" filled the front hallway.

Our PTO supported a number of yearly activities including classroom cultural arts programs, curriculum related field trips and author visits. Whole school programs to address student interactions and reduce bullying, author visits and wellness programs were highlights for the year. Parents & staff continue to work cooperatively to provide an environment in which children can learn and grow to meet the demands of an ever-changing world.

To view Strategic School Profiles on the internet, go to www.sde.ct.gov and click on Connecticut Education Data and Research . Additional education data are also available at this site. For the school web site, see http://www.ledyard.net/schools/lcs.