Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

GPS Garners Good Marks In Evaluation

Gurdon Primary School received good marks from the North Central Association's Comprehensive Outcome Education evaluation team recently.

GPS, along with Gurdon's middle and high schools, was evaluated by the team for accreditation by the NCA in four areas: school climate, high expectations, clear school purpose and the monitoring and assessment of student achievement.

The evaluation team also listed recommendations for areas to be bolstered.

Looking at school climate, the team found GPS to be neat, bright and clean. It also said the program is being developed to keep the school clean involves all students as well as the janitor.

The DEARS Program (Develop Enthusiastic and Responsible Students) involves using students to lead the pledge of allegiance over the intercom each morning. This, the team said, should encourage other students to participate in the program.

Another strength the team found was a strong professional relationship between and among the principal and teachers.

It recommended the school's committee consider rewriting one of the goals for the NCA/COE, expanding it to more clearly identify what the goal is and making it measurable.

The COE team said consideration should be given to expanding the actions taken for a three-time repeat offender for detention.

It's final suggestion for school climate was for the school to explore using other forms of data to arrive at the discipline scores used for NCA/COE evaluation.

In the area of high expectations, the strengths found by the NCA team were good parental involvement being incorporated into the program, with grants secured to improve the school.

It was also evident, the team said, through classroom visits much attention was given to displaying students' work.

The trio of recommendations were for the principal to be considered as the facilitator in action of the instructional services equity goal.

The high expectation committee, the NCA team said, should consider conducting pre and post effective surveys to monitor self-esteem in children, as well as test grades and honor roll. The COE team suggested using the counselor as a resource in this area.

The last suggestion was to consider expanding the data base by including grades along with standardized test scores.

Turning to clear school purpose, the COE crew said it was obvious the students knew the mini-mission statement and were anxious to recite it.

It said the parent/student handbook, which includes the handbook, is an excellent idea which should be continued.

It was also noted resources used for the purpose were recent publications.

The team recommended the subgroup be more clearly defined as either "free" or "reduced;" possibly considering concentration on free lunch students who scored in the 25th percentile or below.

The last area of consideration by the COE team was in the monitoring and assessment of student achievement.

The panel found three strong areas, including one of the involvement of parents and school board members in the school's improvement plan (SIP).

It also said the goals were attainable throughout the SIP, and the mini-mission statement is short and strong enough to be meaningful to young and old alike.

The recommendations were for consideration of adding a teacher "Read-Aloud" daily to the principal's monthly "Read-Aloud."

The team also suggested changing the name DEARS to BEAR -- Be Everything and Read to help eliminate confusion between the programs.

Instead of formatting a test requiring an answer to open-ended questions, the team suggested getting help interpreting test results to improve instruction.

It also suggested to teach listening skills.

According to the school's committee, the COE team liked "Parent's Night Out," held in August, and said the school used its resources well.

By and large, the COE team from the NCA found GPS to be an excellent primary school overall.