By: Randy R. Muffley, Principal at Heart River Elementary
Last month, I received a wonderful call from the North Department of Education informing me that Heart River Elementary (HRE) was being recognized as a high-performing Title One School. The criteria for the Title I High Performing School highlights success within the top 5-10% of Title I schools based on North Dakota’s accountability framework in the school performance indicators. These indicators include:
- Demonstrated improvement during the last three years.
- Fall with the top 10% of Title I schools experiencing growth in the performance indicators.
- Have a significant number of economically disadvantaged students.
As a result of this recognition, Heart River is receiving an additional 65,000 dollars in Title One funding. Our staff has already begun brainstorming how we can best utilize this additional funding to continue to improve student academic achievement.
Reflecting on this recognition, it has been many intentional efforts that have helped propel Heart River forward. Over 40 percent of our student population receives Free or Reduced lunch. We utilize much of the new brain research on the impacts on student learning in schools that experience higher levels of poverty and utilize evidence best practices. The staff at HRE have taken this knowledge and intentionally worked collectively on creating systems where each student has the opportunity to succeed academically, emotionally, and socially.
Our Heart River Instructional Model, created by our staff through our High Reliability Schools (HRS) journey, has led to systems of excellence for cultivating relationships, academics, a collaborative work environment, and a safe and civil school. Our efforts have led us to create a wellness room and break boxes, along with a sensory hall that provides opportunities for our students to practice self-regulation skills. Our staff have been trained and asked to utilize the Zones of Regulation in congruence with these tools and create predictable learning spaces for students.
At Heart River we focus on positive thinking affirmations every day because research on the brain shows affirmations can significantly increase feelings of hopefulness. In one study, a short affirmation exercise boosted the problem-solving abilities of “chronically stressed” subjects to the same level as those with low stress. Affirmations have been used to successfully treat people with low self-esteem, depression, and other mental health conditions. Evidence suggests that affirmations can help you perform better at work and school.
The continuous professional learning opportunities for all staff around trauma-informed practices, interactive read-aloud, Love and Logic and utilizing teaching and learning strategies from The Art and Science of Teaching have provided intentional opportunities for everyone to continue to grow professionally. Our interventionists have been flexible and have worked to adjust practices to ensure effective interventions and opportunities for students to understand their expected learning.
Finally, systems are only as good as the people working within them. Taking pride in a clean school, serving our students healthy meals, building connections with our students at recess or in the lunchroom, providing additional support services, taking pride in a beautiful library, and having intentional amazing learning opportunities in every classroom for students all serve in creating a high performing school.
I am excited about our future at Heart River. Our intentional new efforts to become a Full Service Community School will only continue to serve our students and their families. In addition, we continue to review and improve our instructional practices with more emphasis on student ownership of their learning. Last month our second grade students conducted student-led conferences with their parents. It was awesome! Our work learning more about how the brain learns to read, and our work on effectively reviewing data and making adjustments when needed is exciting! As we continue to build future systems of excellence, it will continue to propel our school into future success and increase our collective staff efficacy.
Thank you to our families and community for your continued partnership in helping us make Heart River Elementary a school we can all continue to be proud of.