Checotah Intermediate Elementary School - Checotah, OK

At Checotah Intermediate School, we believe that we can grow every student at least a year during the year that we have them. This is not only academically, but also socially and emotionally. One of the things that our staff does well is staying focused on this goal. It is easy to stray from our initial goals as the day-to-to routine grinds throughout the year, but our focus remains clear through the use of monthly academic benchmarks as well as continual tracking of social and emotional issues.

We use individualized student goals to help foster relationships to engage families. Since the goals are not tied with regular grades, parents cannot simply check the online gradebook for a snapshot of their student's performance. Instead, there has to be continual communication between home and school. This process entrenches the parents with us, engages them in our process, and allows us to include them in celebrating their child's achievements.

CIS has been 1:1 by providing every student with a computer workstation for over a decade, giving us the ability to independently assess our students, which has been invaluable. The workstations also enable the use of a couple of programs that provide our staff with the ability to continually reinforce their instruction and not lose any extra time in class. There are several moving parts that have enabled our success, but most important is having an awesome staff who continually engage students to grow more than a year in a year.