Oriole Lane Elementary School - Mequon, WI

Oriole Lane is a 4K-5th grade elementary school. In 2012, our students were achieving at high rates, as was the expectation for a school in our high performing school district. However, that year, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction identified Oriole Lane as a Title I 'Focus School' for disproportionate gaps in achievement among student subgroups -- a designation that was troubling, but one that ultimately led to a transformative journey.

The first step in our transformation was to develop a plan for improvement informed by research and best practices. Our leadership team identified our greatest areas of need by looking closely at schoolwide and student group data. Next, we identified the research-based strategies that would have the most significant impact or effect size. Following the identification of strategies, we developed school growth plan goals with detailed action plans for improvement aligned to those strategies. Educators used professional learning communities to collaboratively analyze student work, review data, develop measurable goals for individual students and create action plans for all students. Our intentional practices also grew to include extended planning time built into the schedule to engage in reviewing school-wide, grade level, classroom, and individual student data.

Today, regardless of what our students come to Oriole Lane knowing or not knowing, they are achieving. Not only have we succeeded in closing achievement gaps, but we have also found that our full student population has benefitted from this intentional focus. In four years, we were able to make changes that positively impacted every child in the school.