“What we found was that the teachers felt like a lot of things in the lesson plan template were unnecessary, and the group from MDE agreed with that,” Fields said. “So we sat down together and came up with our own lesson plan template that clearly outlines what objectives the teachers will be teaching, how they’re going to teach those objectives and what the teachers are going to do to plan for the students who learn at a different pace.”

One of the major strengths listed in the report included high-teacher morale and well-behaved students.

Fields said increasing student, teacher and staff morale was vital for him when he took over the role of principal in July.

One way Fields said he was able to create a common goal with teachers and students was to use a simple saying and the logo of one of his favorite superheroes.

“We started this year saying, ‘Everything we do is super,’ and everybody has really bought into that,” Fields said, speaking about the Superman logos scattered throughout posters at the school and T-shirts staff wear throughout the week. “That’s gone into the goal of making school enjoyable for the kids, and the staff, students as well as parents have really bought into that.”

Fields, who will present results from student benchmark assessments on March 13 to the NASD Board of Trustees, said he is confident in the growth he’s seen from the students.

“The most important thing we can do is to be doing what’s best for our students and making sure they get quality instruction every day, because if we do that, the school rating will take care of itself,” Fields said. “I’m just happy with our progress and the goals we’ve set, and I’m very confident we won’t be an ‘F’ school next year.”

At West Elementary School, the MDE findings listed whole-group instructional settings with no accommodations for individual learners and a lack of instructional methods that meet the needs of all students as concerns.

Morrison, who was at McLaurin Elementary School for 12 years and is in her first year at West, said the key to addressing the school’s issue was to begin analyzing student data from assessments.

Morrison implemented a universal screening program called STAR that is administered once a month and helps give projections on how students will do on the Mississippi Curriculum Test 2, which is used to calculate the school’s annual rating.

“But we can also go even deeper with that data and look into a specific class and look at individual students to see which students had deficiencies on certain areas,” she said. “And that’s how we’ve been able to work with the specific groups of students who are struggling or need that extra attention.”

Data boards containing class test scores are displayed in most West classrooms, showing students where they are and where they need to be.

Morrison said she’s also using the school’s auxiliary staff, such as the art and physical education teachers, as tutors for individual classes to break away from the whole-group teaching method.

Those staff members, Morrison said, are able to enter a classroom and provide additional assistance to teachers, who separate the class into smaller learning groups.

“When our students are working in a large group, it’s not totally effective because they are receiving blanket instruction,” Morrison said. “But with that small group method, you get that one-on-one attention, and they’re able to get more individualized instruction.”

West’s findings report well-behaved students and staff and administrators with positive attitudes as strengths.

Morrison also uses a school-wide motivational system to help boost morale and keep teachers and students accountable for their scores.

Once a week, normally on Fridays, teachers and administrators wear camouflage pants and black shirts with bright letters on the back that say, “West is combatting test scores.”

“We suggested the idea and there was overwhelming support from everyone,” Morrison said. “Everybody bought in, and it’s helped motivate everyone.”

Morrison will also present results from student benchmark assessments to the school board this month. Morrison said she’s proud of the amount of growth students have shown so far.

“The buy-in from teachers and students has been awesome simply because they realize that they don’t want to be a part of a failing school either,” she said. “I’m just excited that everyone has bought in to what we’re doing and everyone believes that we can and will do better.”