STEM
Michael C. Riley Elementary School is proud to have received AdvancED STEM Certification in 2010 and recently passed reaccreditation through COGNIA in 2021.
Program Summary
As a Leader in Me® school, Michael C. Riley Elementary School embraces a philosophy and culture of student-driven learning on a daily basis. Our teachers facilitate instruction rather than direct it, and an inquiry-based model allows students to construct understandings and build twenty-first century skills such as collaboration, problem-solving, critical thinking, and communication.
COGNIA/ AdvancED STEM Certification is a mark of distinction and excellence that provides institutions and programs within institutions a research-based framework and criteria for awareness, continuous improvement and assessment of the quality, rigor, and substance of their STEM educational program.
For the past eight years, M.C. Riley has offered STEM investigations and challenges to all third, fourth, and fifth grade students, and within the last four years, we have expanded this offering to all students in kindergarten through fifth grade. STEM and inquiry-based learning are integrated into everyday instruction in classrooms through The Leader in Me’s Empowered-Learning Approach and the “3i” model of instruction, in which all lessons involve components that first Invite Curiosity, then Investigate Content, and finally Invite Connections so that students can solidify their understanding. Our STEM labs also provide opportunities for project-based challenges to extend the concepts that are being investigated within regular classrooms. Teachers visit STEM lab with their science and/or social studies classes so that not only can students engage in applications of the content that they are currently exploring, but teachers can use those experiences in STEM lab to further their instructional strategies in their own classrooms. This model was developed as a collaborative model to promote professional development in inquiry-based learning and the Engineering Design Process for teachers across the school. Connections can be made before and after STEM projects to help students create meaning from the new concepts they are exploring and make connections to real-world applications.
Our philosophy with our diverse population at M.C. Riley is to grow the whole child, helping students develop skills that will make them problem-solvers and passions for science, technology, engineering, and math, achieving not only within the classroom setting but setting them up for successful endeavors through their future years as students and as contributing members of society.
- STEM Community Standard 1
- STEM Community Standard 2
- STEM Community Standard 3
- STEM Outcomes Standard 14
- STEM Community Standard 4
- STEM Learning Culture Standard 5
- STEM Learning Culture Standard 6
- STEM Learning Culture Standard 7
- STEM Learning Culture Standard 8
- STEM Experience Standard 9
- STEM Experience Standard 10
- STEM Experience Standard 11
- STEM Experience Standard 12
- STEM Outcomes Standard 13
- STEM Outcomes Standard 15
- STEM Outcomes Standard 16
STEM Community Standard 1
INITIATIVE NAME: Inclusion of all students in STEM lab and inquiry-based learning
Michael C. Riley has adopted an inclusive model of STEM education that includes all students and is representative of our school community. This is one of our strengths, as we have established a format in which all students engage in STEM lab and inquiry-based learning in the regular classroom. Since initial accreditation, we have added a K-2 STEM lab which has grown inquiry skills from the early grades, so all students (representing all demographics, including ELLs, resource students, all ethnicities, and both genders) are regularly engaged in STEM learning in K-5 classrooms.
View the STEM Lab Schedule in larger view:
Enrollment Summary
The attached enrollment summary illustrates M.C. Riley’s demographics and student makeup based on ethnic background, income level, and language proficiency. This diversity is reflected in STEM learning across grade levels. Our female students in grades K-5 are regularly engaged in STEM learning, in STEM labs, and in inquiry-based learning throughout the school. Similarly, Our STEM labs and 3I model of instruction serve all English Language Learners, students in poverty, and students of ethnicities that are typically underrepresented in STEM learning and professions.
Science test data
As a Title 1 school with a continuously growing ESOL population, our students face challenges in terms of language barriers when taking standardized tests. Since SC PASS Science is now administered only to fourth graders at the elementary level, our data focuses on the fourth grade. Overall student scores have shown great improvement over the four year period, with a reduction of 18.5% in the Not Met category. There has also been a continuous increase in the percentage of students scoring Met and Exemplary from 2017-2019, increasing by 29.4% over the three year period.
There is also a notable positive trend in closing the gap of fourth grade students scoring Not Met in the Hispanic, Students in Poverty, and Limited English Proficiency subcategories between 2016 through 2019, with a 23.6% decrease in Hispanic students, 23.9% in LEP’s, and a 31.3% decrease in Students in Poverty. We feel that student academic growth can be attributed to the fact that our focus on STEM instruction provides opportunities for all students to make deeper connections to content and better apply their learning. While English Language Learners may not have a firm grasp on the academic language for the subject matter, they are able to learn concepts through hands-on application. Not only does the inclusive model of STEM instruction reach underrepresented populations at M.C. Riley, but those populations have also shown measurable growth overtime to support that their inclusion is effective and beneficial for growing STEM competencies.
View Science Data Trends in larger view:
STEM Community Standard 2
First Grade Example of Unit of Study
STEM Community Standard 3
STEM COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: School/program engages diverse STEM community in order to support and sustain STEM programs and initiatives.
INITIATIVE NAME: May River Cleanup
Michael C. Riley participates in a partnership with the Town of Bluffton Water Quality Division. Stormwater experts have worked with students on lessons to help them understand the importance of taking care of the water around us and solving problems through the steps of the engineering design process. With this hands-on partnership, students are able to build real-world connections to the environment and people in our community while immersing themselves in a relatable topic with experts as their guides.
Through this partnership, students and their families participate in the annual May River Cleanup every April. Between twenty and forty families generally attend the May River Cleanup (as evidenced by the attached sign-in sheets). Other families clean up their neighborhoods and post their pictures on social media or send them to school to demonstrate their participation. To help build an understanding of a safe and efficient clean-up, teachers have their classes participate in practice clean-ups at school. This encourages students to become leaders at home and promote participation with their families. Photos of each of these types of participation are attached.
As a reward for participation in the cleanup, MC Riley students got to participate in a special animal presentation by Tony Mills from the Coastal Kingdom! Click here or the image to see the students engaging with our local Lowcountry wildlife!
STEM Outcomes Standard 14
INITIATIVE NAME: Public Speaking Goals and Rubrics
As students seek to “Find their Voice,” which is the eighth Habit from the Leader in Me, they are strongly developing the twenty-first century skill of communication. M.C. Riley has adopted a schoolwide public speaking goal, in which scaffolding is provided to help students build confidence in communicating with others by focusing on first speaking within small groups in their classrooms, then to the whole class, and finally to the entire grade level, primarily by sharing their accomplishments at goal-sharing ceremonies during the third and fourth quarters.
Communication is not only an area of focus as it prepares our learners for collaborating with others in future grades and careers, it is a primary life skill of particular importance for our large population of English language learners. Just as these students are supported through the various stages of language acquisition and production, their confidence is encouraged in speaking with others through the school’s focus on public speaking. STEM instruction also lends itself to refining public speaking skills, as students need to be able to communicate with other members of their team, their teachers, and also to their whole class when they share out during the test phase of the Engineering Design Process.
Included below is data from the 2018-2019 Leader in Me Measurable Results Assessment that demonstrates a decrease of 10.71% from the previous year in the area of Public Speaking. In order to support our students in helping them build confidence in themselves and their ability to speak in front of others, rubrics were created for student use and reflection. These rubrics are used age-appropriately schoolwide to keep all students and teachers aware of and striving for the best communication skills that students can develop.
STEM Community Standard 4
INITIATIVE NAME: Staff Shared Leadership Teams
As a Leader in Me school, Michael C. Riley fosters a culture where all students and staff members, as well as our community stakeholders, are encouraged to take on leadership roles in our school. Twenty student leaders, grades 1st-5th, serve on our student lighthouse team which is our student leadership team. The student lighthouse team acts as the voice of the student body and serves as liaisons between students and staff, delivering suggestions and ideas to improve the academic and social climate of the school.
Our entire faculty also serves on leadership teams of their choosing, where goals are set to improve the academic environment, enhance student leadership in our school, and encourage community and family involvement in our school. The attached Staff Leadership Team Lotus highlights the “big rocks” which are our staff selected goals for the current school year. This shared leadership structure supports all of the activities of the school, including clubs that are STEM oriented, 3I professional development, and presenting events.
STEM Learning Culture Standard 5
COMMUNICATION: Leaders ensure that all stakeholders have ongoing opportunities to access information and learn about STEM implementation.
INITIATIVE NAME: Cardboard Challenge
Cardboard Challenge has been a popular annual STEM event in which students collaborate with their family members to design interactive games, activities, and models. The goal of the challenge is to use the Engineering Design Process to create an engaging event that includes many science and math concepts. Students lead the project from concept to presentation, making improvements until arriving at a successful project. The project extends beyond the regular school day to allow for outside collaboration and invites the school community to take part at home. Final projects are displayed and played during an at-school evening event open to families and the community.
On reflection, needs are noted for documenting our success in creating such an engaging and inclusive event. Further data will help us to make specific decisions regarding the timing and focus of the Cardboard Challenge, as well as to embed it within practices throughout the year.
Click here for a larger view of the Cardboard Challenge participation letter.
STEM Learning Culture Standard 6
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Educators and leaders participate in an ongoing system of STEM-specific professional learning.
INITIATIVE NAME: Empowering Instruction trainings on the 3i Model of Inquiry-based instruction from The Leader in Me ®
All teachers are involved in professional development related to the “i3” model of instruction, which is the structure of The Leader in Me’s Empowered Learning approach to learning as well as Cognia’s recognized evaluation rubric. This training occurs through our The Leader in Me ® initiative, and teachers are encouraged to build efficacy in practices such as student-led learning and inquiry models of instruction. Each teacher has worked through the Field Guide to Empowering Instruction in quarterly training with a regional consultant/coach from the Leader in Me ®.
The implementation aspect of the professional development sessions included grade level commitments to specific steps for collaboration and feedback on the efficacy of “Igniting Curiosity,” “Investigating Concepts,” and “Inviting Connections” within lessons at specified intervals.
These agreements are included to demonstrate how teachers committed to working together to plan i3 lessons and what benefits were gleaned from peer observations.
As this is a relatively new initiative (introduced to staff within the past two years), more data from multiple sources will be a resource for further reflection and improvement of integrating this teaching model.
Click here to view the Leader in Me Coaching Day Agenda - January 22
Click here to view the Leader in Me Coaching Day Agenda - September 18
Reflections on i3 Lessons
First, grade levels offered feedback on how the commitments to plan 3I lessons together and observe other teachers had turned out in practice.
Then, teachers reflected on how their students had responded to 3I lessons and new realizations and learning accomplished as facilitators of learning.
Brainstorms also captured initial reactions to 3I lessons, as well as “wishes and dreams” for making the process of peer observations smoother and more beneficial.
STEM Learning Culture Standard 7
PROJECT-BASED AND INQUIRY LEARNING: Students engage collaboratively in authentic inquiry during ongoing units of study.
INITIATIVE NAME: Students synergize to complete every STEM Lab challenge collaboratively.
Students are immersed in opportunities to engage in authentic inquiry both in their classrooms and in STEM lab. Grade levels develop their units of study at the beginning of the year and create inquiry-based activities that allow the students to apply content knowledge to solve problems. Regarding collaboration, one of the most well-known habits to students is Habit 6, Synergize, as this is a core approach to all learning in STEM lab and many activities in science, social studies, ELA, math, and Related Arts throughout our school day. More information about Habit 6 - Synergize - from The Leader in Me is included below.
Click here to view the units of study
Challenges in STEM lab always require students to work collaboratively. In fact, collaboration has been fostered and directly taught through the use of student roles within groups. When these roles were first introduced, cards were used to determine which student held each role, direct instruction was given regarding the responsibilities of each role, and rubrics were used to help students self-reflect and improve their collaboration skills. As synergy has become more deeply ingrained in the culture of learning at M.C. Riley throughout all classrooms, such scaffolds are no longer needed, and students are able to grow and demonstrate collaborative skills without devoting as much time to rubrics, direct lessons, and the like. Similarly, most students demonstrate progress with their synergy skills throughout their learning career at M.C. Riley. The main goal in kindergarten STEM lab (and classrooms) is to successfully communicate and work together to complete a challenge, and this goal continues to need some support from learning facilitators. As students progress through the grades, their responsibilities in collaboration grow, while the scaffolds are needed less.
Click here to view the Rubrics for Evaluating and Self-Reflecting on Collaboration
Continuing to teach collaboration in early grades and give continuous opportunities for practice are our goals to continue building capacity in this area. Documentation of our successes in facilitating collaboration is also a focus for the future.
STEM Learning Culture Standard 8
INITIATIVE NAME: 3i Model of Instruction for student-directed learning
All teachers at M.C. Riley are working to implement the 3i approach to learning, which is the structure of the Empowered Learning model from The Leader in Me ®. The goal of this model is to “empower students to lead their own learning and engage in higher-order thinking through key Paradigm Shifts and progressive instructional methods,” and allows teachers to act as facilitators as students direct their own learning. Through this collaborative approach in which lessons “Ignite Curiosity,” give opportunities to “Investigate” topics and skills of focus, and “Invite Connections” through academic discussions and dialogue, students are engaged with twenty-first century skills and become directors of their own learning in STEM disciplines and across the curriculum. Sample 3I lesson plans for each grade level show some activities which guide and support students as they create their own learning.
3i Lesson Plans
PreK 3i Lesson Plans
Kindergarten 3i Lesson Plans
First Grade 3i Lesson Plans
Second Grade 3i Lesson Plans
Third Grade 3i Lesson Plans
Fourth Grade 3i Lesson Plans
Fifth Grade 3i Lesson Plans
SPED 3i Lesson Plans
An extension of the Empowered Approach is the way in which students track their own learning and accomplishments through their leadership notebooks. They are able to track data reflecting their academic performance and progress and their achievement of goals, making them agents of change in their own academic careers. A sample of a student’s leadership notebook showing ways the student tracks his or her progress is attached. The format and information kept in student notebooks at each grade level has been a work in progress and has adapted as needed to best fit students’ needs and goals. Over time, WIG tracking has become ingrained in our school culture and in students’ daily routines. Student, class, and schoolwide data is regularly collected to evaluate our strategies, and continuing to monitor these for sustained growth and improvement is our continued focus.
First Grade Leadership Notebook
STEM Experience Standard 9
INITIATIVE NAME: Sharpen the Saw Clubs
The Sharpen the Saw Clubs initiative at M.C. Riley allows all students the opportunity to “Find their Voice” and expand their learning to real-world applications through monthly meetings of student-selected clubs. Many of these clubs are guided by teachers using their extracurricular interests and expertise to spark new passions in students, and some clubs are guided by community members who have particular passions beyond our school offerings. One such example is our gardening club, which involves students in cultivating the many gardens surrounding both school buildings on our campus, and is guided by local Master Gardeners. Other club offerings include STEM Club, which focuses on students leading the Cardboard Challenge initiative and connecting to the international Imagination Foundation, baking and cooking clubs which help students make practical applications of their STEM learning, LEGO Robotics, Sphero, and Dash and Dot clubs for experiences in programming, and Science Experiment Club, letting students investigate scientific learning beyond what is done in regular classrooms.
View a larger image of the list of Sharpen the Saw Clubs
As we strive to constantly improve our club programs to meet students’ needs and interests, as well as expose them to new styles of learning and more opportunities to engage with STEM curriculum (and other topics), adjustments have been made each semester. Students completed a feedback survey at the end of the 2018-19 school year, and suggestions for clubs were taken into account when teachers selected which clubs they would offer for the upcoming year. Similarly, when the club sign-up choices revealed that more students were interested in certain clubs (STEM club, pixel art creation, and baking, as well as others) than we had space available, modifications were made to shift adult leaders so that more students could join each of these. While some aspects of Sharpen the Saw Clubs remain flexible to meet students’ needs, the dates for each year’s monthly club meetings are determined at the end of the previous year as part of developing the overall school calendar. This is evidence of the importance of Sharpen the Saw clubs to developing the whole child and our commitment to offering opportunities to extend STEM learning (as well as other real-world skill application) beyond classrooms.
View the Sharpen the Saw Survey Results
Collecting data to analyze and continue to grow the Sharpen the Saw clubs is a focus for further extending this initiative.
STEM Experience Standard 10
INITIATIVE NAME: Engineering Fair
The Michael C. Riley Engineering Fair is a performance assessment of students’ understanding and application of the Engineering Design Process. All fifth graders participate in the Engineering Fair, and the event serves as a culmination of their work in STEM disciplines and processes from kindergarten through fifth grade. Not only do the students apply the Engineering Design Process to independently solve a problem of their choosing, they document each step of the process and share it with peers, teachers, and a judging panel made up of scientists and engineers.
Since its inception six years ago (when we changed from a traditional science fair to an engineering focus), we have always offered the students a “class project idea” option. Knowing that one problem can have a large variety of unique solutions, this problem suggestion was a scaffold for students who may not have another idea for a problem to solve. Examples have been containers to collect rainwater, sports equipment made from recycled materials, ways to clean oil spills from water, or other suggestions that aligned with the grade-level curriculum. As students have gained more expertise with the Engineering Design Process and STEM thinking in general, some have still relied on the offered “class problem,” but more and more have developed their own problems to solve, based on topics that interested them, or on challenges that they had attempted in previous years but wanted to continue to improve.
During the 2015-16 school year, nearly 100% of 5th graders chose to complete the class problem. This year’s fair included 78 projects completed by 105 students. Fewer than 40 of those students chose the “class problem” this year, which was a covered wagon aligning to social studies curriculum and drawn by a Sphero robot to control force. Many more students chose topics of their own choosing aligning to their interests, or that they had seen during their past five years of STEM integration.
During the Engineering Fair Judging event, students had the opportunity to share the projects with a panel of 12 community members from science and education backgrounds. These judges serve to evaluate projects at schools around the region as members of the Sea Island Regional Science Fair. In addition to giving regular feedback about how our students are well-prepared, organized, and well-behaved during judging, the judges also offer constructive feedback each year about ways that our Engineering Fair process and projects can be enhanced. This feedback has led to changes in the project ideas that are offered to students, the way that criteria and constraints are outlined for students, and the overall format of judging from year to year.
Included below are artifacts such as the template which is used by students to navigate the Engineering Design Process, the rubric by which the projects are evaluated within the classrooms, a few examples of digital presentations from the past few years to demonstrate the progression of student mastery, and photos of students sharing their projects with judges on the day of the Engineering Fair.
View the Engineering Fair Packet
View of the Engineering Fair Project List.
Digital Presentation Progression
2017 Project Example 1
2017 Project Example 2
2018 Project Example 1
2018 Project Example 2
2019 Project Example 1
2019 Project Example 2
View the 2019 5th grade testing covered wagons for the 2019-20 Engineering Fair.
Upon reflection, thorough data collection and connecting this initiative to performance assessments throughout the school and year are ways we can make the Engineering Fair a more authentic practice and a stronger culminating demonstration of learning.
STEM Experience Standard 11
INITIATIVE NAME: Engineering Design Processes taught and applied through STEM challenges
Schoolwide, the curriculum at M.C. Riley engages students with concepts through inquiry-based learning and challenges that incorporate the Engineering Design Process. Students are regularly tasked with iteration, reflecting on the outcomes of their particular strategy and changing some elements to improve the results. The Engineering Design Process is taught explicitly in the STEM Lab settings and is applied to problem-solving and challenges related to many topics across classrooms.
Attached are lesson plans from STEM Lab outlining the specific steps of the Engineering Design Process and the ways that students are invited to engage with each step of the iterative process. Examples of STEM challenges using the Engineering Design Process done within regular classrooms are also provided and aligned to grade-specific units and content.
View the STEM Lab Lesson Plan
While regular reflection and modification of STEM lessons and applications of the Engineering Design Process are already in place, enhancing our processes for data collection directly related to the Engineering Design Process is a way that we can improve this initiative.
STEM Experience Standard 12
INITIATIVE NAME: STEM activities in STEM Lab and Classrooms aligned to Units of Study.
In addition to following a district-wide curriculum map that ensures that all classrooms offer opportunities for students to interact with all grade-level standards throughout the year, each of our grade levels has developed a comprehensive layout of their units of study or themes throughout the year, aligning concepts from across grade levels. In turn, real-world problems and design challenges are aligned to those curricular units. These problem-solving opportunities are offered both through STEM lab integration and within classrooms.
Cross-curricular connections such as research, application of math skills, or presentation skills can be integrated within the content (often science- or social studies-related) of the problems. For example, fourth grade students learn research skills while researching the characteristics of Mars and types of parachutes, with the goal of building a parachute to land equipment in the next Mars mission. They apply math skills of time interpretation and rounding to hundredths while testing their own parachute ideas, and learn presentation skills when creating slide decks and presenting their projects to their teacher and peers.
Units of Study aligned to STEM challenges and problems for each grade level are attached to demonstrate how learning content is integrated.
View the full Units of Student with STEM alignment
More thorough implementation of interdisciplinary units of study and problem-based learning is an opportunity for growth. Collecting data related to the effectiveness of theme-based and interdisciplinary learning in the areas where it is implemented would be a key factor in building capacity around integrating curriculum and proving its effectiveness to support its expansion.
STEM Outcomes Standard 13
INITIATIVE NAME: SC PASS Data demonstrates student growth and mastery over time and in comparison with similar schools.
STEM initiatives and inquiry-based instruction at Michael C. Riley have resulted in overall growth in the engineering practices, as well as specific content areas related to STEM. Specifically, our students’ significant progress is demonstrated in our fourth grade SC PASS Science scores. As demonstrated on the attached graph, the percentage of fourth graders scoring Meets or Exceeds Expectations on SC PASS Science has increased each year, from 70.3% in 2016 to 88.8% in 2019. Within each subcategory of Hispanic students, White students, students in poverty, and students with limited English proficiency, all have shown similar growth over this time period.
Although fourth grade student data is used to demonstrate the growth of student mastery, the foundations that contribute to the demonstration of learning standards in all STEM disciplines are created throughout the grade levels. Thus, the growth demonstrated through fourth grade data is a result of practices ingrained throughout the school and grade levels.
In addition to demonstrating growth over time, current SC PASS scores present our students’ high level of overall achievement, as evidenced by the fact that our percentage of students meeting or exceeding expectations is greater than the district and state averages for each of the past three years. Furthermore, it should be noted that in the most recent testing year, M.C. Riley ranked second in Beaufort County School District in terms of achievement on SC PASS Science.
Michael C. Riley has had a steadily growing Hispanic student population since 2010, reaching its highest point of 62% in 2018 and maintaining that capacity in 2019. Our Hispanic population is largely comprised of immigrant families from Central and South America, with the majority of the families speaking only Spanish in their homes. The increasing number of Hispanic students has resulted from multiple sources including a surge of “newcomer” immigrants arriving from other countries, rezoning a neighborhood from an overcrowded school, and low-income housing available in the means of a mobile home park in our school zone. The white student population has also decreased by 6% over the past four years due to rezoning. These changes in student demographics have presented challenges in increasing student achievement on SC Ready Math and Reading. However, M.C. Riley has experienced the above-referenced continuous growth on the SC PASS Science assessment.
Michael C. Riley Demographics
We feel that our integrated STEM instructional approach has provided all students with hands-on opportunities to learn and demonstrate their understanding of core science concepts, while also allowing students to make concrete connections to real-world applications. Our students are provided with opportunities to make academic connections to content that they may not otherwise experience outside of the school setting, which further solidifies their learning and helps them continue to increase their academic achievement.
STEM Outcomes Standard 15
INITIATIVE NAME: Science Budgets, Title I and GAP Resources allotted to STEM initiatives
Resource management at Michael C. Riley sets support for STEM programs as a priority. In addition to allotting $1,800 per year for science materials budgets, student activities funds are set aside for STEM projects and needs that come up throughout the year. Our initial STEM Lab teacher position was created from within our staffing allotment, meaning that the STEM lab was set as a priority above other staffing needs. During the last five years, teacher responsibilities and student disbursement have been reassigned again in order to add a second STEM lab teacher so that all students in grades K-5 have access to a STEM lab setting beyond their classroom, and teachers have access to the collaborative professional development that immerses them in engineering practices to apply in their own classrooms. Due to the demographic makeup of our students, M.C. Riley also qualifies for Title I funding, and has qualified for federal GAP funds within the past five years to assist the English Language Learner population to achieve at comparable levels to native English speakers.
These funds have been largely earmarked for STEM after-school and summer programs, professional development in the area of STEM, and resources needed to implement these initiatives.
Finally, we have taken advantage of district STEM resources when available to order classroom supplies and kits for students to use in their hands-on activities and challenges.
The attached table details prioritized STEM expenditures from these various sources.
View the STEM expenditures table
STEM Outcomes Standard 16
INITIATIVE NAME: Test data for evaluating resource management
Regular analysis of and reflection on our school-wide student achievement and engagement data is undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of the programs we have in place, including our STEM programs and initiatives. Students’ performance on the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) test gives a snapshot three times per year to gauge the progress that students are making with math skills (directly related to STEM) and ELA skills (a secondary benefit of the communication skills built though our STEM initiatives, particularly with our large ELL population, who have broader opportunities to communicate with content and peers through hands-on, inquiry-based activities than with traditional learning methods. MAP scores, along with annual SC Ready scores for math in third, fourth, and fifth grades, and SC PASS scores in science in fourth grade, are focus areas in professional learning communities at each grade level in the fall and spring. Instructional decisions and resource management decisions are then guided by student performance and demonstrated areas of most need.
During the 2014-2015 school year, a Root Cause Analysis by the State Department of Education identified Michael C. Riley as a Gap Focus School within the Title I Schools. We qualified as a gap school due to the percentage of LEP students that fell below the mean gap plus a standard deviation. Listed below is a table documenting the mean state gaps between subgroups and our school’s gap within subgroups.
Group |
Average GAP |
Our GAP |
African American |
40.9 |
36.1 |
Hispanic |
41.3 |
38 |
American Indian |
21.1 |
- |
Disabled |
61.5 |
51.3 |
LEP |
24.9 |
30.1 |
Subsidized Meals |
45.2 |
36.6 |
Based on that information, a plan was developed to offer students in the LEP subgroup additional STEM instruction through an after-school enrichment program and a summer learning STEM camp. Analysis of test scores after implementation of these programs demonstrated their effectiveness, as the percentage of LEP students falling below the gap decreased, and we have closed the achievement gap between the performance levels of our LEP learners and native English speakers.
Similarly, our analysis of SC PASS science scores over the past four years (during schoolwide STEM implementation) has shown overall growth in fourth grade science scores for all students, including our LEP subgroup and other groups traditionally underrepresented in STEM education. Much of that growth can be attributed to the hands-on experiences and opportunities to build background knowledge that the STEM Summer Program and Afterschool Enrichment Program offered to students. The use of resources to fund these experiences helped to close the gaps and promoted achievement growth for many of our LEP students.
One other data point related to our English Language Learners is the growth in English communication skills that our students have made over the past few years, as demonstrated by their ability to exit the ESOL program by scoring 4 or higher on all domains (reading, speaking, listening, and writing) and scoring 4.4 overall. STEM activities offer students with limited English opportunities to interact with other students and solve problems in ways that may not materialize as often during traditional instruction. As our STEM lab program has increased from 3-5 to K-5, and more inquiry-based teaching strategies are used in classrooms, our English Language Learners have shown increasing growth in the number of students able to demonstrate proficiency in English on the ACCESS test to the level of exiting the ESOL program. As shown in the attached document, the percentage of fourth and fifth graders exiting the ESOL program has increased over the past three years from 17.9% (2017) to 22.7% (2018) to 24.4% (2019). By the time students reach fourth and fifth grades, many of them have participated in the many programs that we support at M.C. Riley, such as the above-referenced STEM camp and enrichment program, STEM labs, and student-driven instructional models. The interactive components of these programs are proving successful in helping students practice essential communication skills and make significant progress.
Such demonstrated growth from multiple data sources (attached) validates our resource allocation toward STEM programs and encourages our continued focus on spending available funds on STEM initiatives and prioritizing STEM in staffing decisions.
While reflection on this data provides much support for our STEM programs and daily initiatives, more frequent reflection on this data and recognizing this growth throughout the school environment are ways to keep improving our reflective practice.
SC PASS Science Growth 2016 - 2019
Students exiting ESOL due to ACCESS Scores 2016 - 2019