Ridgemont Elementary School
Randy Pitts, Principal
Ridgemont Elementary School
1285 N Highway 45 By-Pass
Union City, TN 38261
Recipe for Success:
Ridgemont's success in raising value added scores in my opinion can be attributed to an overall dedicated team effort. Teachers, supervisors, para-professionals, and administrators each had integral roles and have contributed significantly to this accomplishment.
Our School Improvement Plan and Southeastern Accreditation of Colleges and Schols plans have reflected a commitment to improving test scores with staff development, in-services, and faculty meetings addressing components and areas of concern focusing on that goal.
Topics addressed through in-service and staff development programs coordinated with instructional supervisors have included:
- curriculum mapping
- interpretation of test scores
- focused skill collaboration.
Analyzing test scores has enabled teachers to identify areas of strengths and weaknesses, as well as to determine selected areas to be given priority through focused skill collaboration and instructional planning. Teacher dedication to the focused skill collaboration process, coupled with emphasis on alignment of goals to the state curriculum, has been a very vital and key component in the overall accomplishment of raising scores.
Administrators have had a role in our success by taking seriously teacher assignments, which has in some situations involved reassignment, and by closely scrutinizing newly hired teachers. School day scheduling has reflected a commitment to our goals by taking into account needed time for planning and focused skill collaboration coordination with common grade-level planning time scheduled during the school day. Students were scheduled to have daily time in either the computer or light span lab if possible, with the emphasis in these labs being on the reinforcement of curriculum objectives selected through collaboration. Underlying Ridgemont's success is the commitment of our staff involved to willingly and seriously be dedicated team players pursuing a common goal.