Afton Elementary School - Yardley, PA

Afton Elementary School, a suburban K -5 school, located in Yardley, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, is home to approximately 600 students and 75 staff members. For the past ten years, on-going professional development focused on curriculum, instruction, and assessment has evolved into a school-wide data culture that has transformed and sustained student achievement. The past five years of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) reflects consistent double-digit results, well above the state averages in language arts, writing, mathematics, and science. Data evidences that universal student performance on the PSSA has been historically twenty to forty percentages above state averages. This incredible growth and achievement is the direct result of teachers' diagnostic abilities to interpret real meaning from data and their prescriptive abilities to design and deliver engaging lessons directly guided by data results. As principal,Dr. Joseph Masgai states, "The three interconnected lenses of collaborative strategic planning based upon data, effective staff development, and a shared instructional improvement plan are the tools that have set high standards and expectations at Afton Elementary School, and, more importantly, have shattered stereotypes to yield outstanding results for all students. An emphasis on these three elements provides an egress to simplify work by always focusing on the essentials of good planning and teaching." The community of Afton teachers intuitively follows a problem-solving cycle that has evolved into transformational practices, that not only correlate with the tenets of National Blue Ribbon Schools, but also cultivates a culture that promotes continuous learning, empirical creativity, and innovative practices.