Last year, Fort Hall Elementary was the only elementary school — out of the seven elementary schools in Blackfoot School District 55 — to show reading improvement in every grade level. Further, each grade level at Fort Hall Elementary scored higher than at least two other schools in the district.
The third grade showed the greatest improvement by raising their reading proficiency from 20 percent to 57 percent. Other grades showed changes of 14 percent and 17 percent as well. Collectively, they have moved from the bottom of the district to the middle third of elementary schools in reading abilities — in just one year.
Blackfoot School District Superintendent Brian Kress called this an “incredible achievement by the students and staff at Fort Hall elementary School.”
Achieving this accomplishment involved a many-faceted approach, led by Principal Debbie Steele, herself a former first grade teacher.
On the students’ and parents’ part, regularly being in school and on time made a significant difference. The typical school attendance rose from the school year 2022-23’s average attendance of 63 percent to about 85 percent in 2023-24.
How? Friendly competition between classes. Each Tuesday morning the percentage attendance from the last week was posted in the hallway. The class with the highest percentage was given the spirit stick to keep for that week. The class with the highest percentage for the month earned a party.
Competition was stiff. Two classes each had 100 percent attendance for one week, and one class had 100 percent attendance for three weeks in a row — in May!
Not only were the students there more regularly, they were there on time. Steele drew a hard line on this. For all the students through the door by 8 a.m. sharp, they received a bun-gu ticket. Bun-gu is Shoshone for pony, a playful take on their Bronco mascot. All the tickets were combined in one jar, and once a week two bun-gus tickets were drawn, and their owners were allowed to pick a small, much desired reward.
Those that arrived after 8 a.m. received a tardy ticket instead. Steele said she wanted to recognize the students’ efforts to be there and be there on time. When that happened, the classes could start without interruptions.
Another facet of Steele’s program that was new this last year was her focus on the teachers engaging the students. She wanted the students to become involved with what they were learning. She succeeded. Student engagement was up in every classroom and Fort Hall Elementary was the only school in the district to achieve that milestone.
To assist the teachers to shift their approach from content focus to engagement focus, they had an English Language Arts coach and an Idaho State University math coach. These coaches guided the teachers toward engagement during their Monday prep-time as they planned their week’s lessons.
Add in the school’s STEM play centers that encouraged engagement with science, technology, engineering and math concepts. Having hands-on time with these concepts reinforced the book learning and increased retention of the new skills.
Additionally, once a month on Thursday afternoon the whole school broke into eight groups for learning STEM skills. Students signed up in advance for the topic they wanted to explore.
Another facet of Fort Hall Elementary’s success is that they have only lost one teacher and one interventionist in the last five years. All the students and teachers know each other well, and this provides great stability and consistency in the classrooms and learning groups. They also have a paraprofessional in each classroom, doubling the teachers to student ratio.
You might be asking what an interventionist is. It is a former teacher that has taught at least five years in a classroom, preferably in the kindergarten through second grades where foundational reading skills are taught.
At Fort Hall Elementary, the interventionist ran the twice daily 30-minute Walk to Intervention classes. The day started with reading groups of six students who all needed practice on the same skill, regardless of grade level. Likewise, the school day ended with math study groups.
The interventionist used Istation’s Indicators of Progress (ISIP), an online automated assessment tool, to pinpoint the individual skills each student needed to learn and then to form the study groups. After 21 days of group instruction, the students were tested for mastery and new learning groups were formed for the next six weeks.
Tangible rewards also played a part. For example, this last year the student with the most ISIP growth earned a scooter. Each year, the Lillian Vallely Youth Foundation, formerly a native private school in the Riverton area, donates $3,500 to Fort Hall Elementary for incentives for students who meet their goals or for those who show the most academic growth.
Kress also noted that last year the district spent $13,470 per student at Fort Hall Elementary School — which is on average $3,041 more per student than for any other district elementary school. Is better funding another part of Fort Hall Elementary’s incredible achievement?
All together — district support, parental support, student engagement, targeted teaching, strong leadership and dedicated teachers — are setting a standard of excellence for the district. Can this success be duplicated across the district?
Concerning the new school year at Fort Hall Elementary, Kress remarked, “We can’t wait to see what comes next.”
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