Achievement Snapshot #1
Justine represents a group of students who have attended numerous schools in their short academic life. Because of this, identifying and intervening in her areas of struggle have been minimal, as has charting her growth and successes. This was Justine’s second year at Oakmont Elementary and her third school in four years. Justine showed significant improvement across all curricular areas. This substantial growth can be attributed to various educational factors. Justine participated in our after-school tutoring program where the emphasis was on Language Arts and Mathematics. She also had the “gift” of an American Reads one-on-one tutor two times a week. In addition, Justine received small group remediation from a Title I Instructional aide. Justine was taken through the Student Study Team (SST) process near the middle of the school year, due to mutual concerns regarding her academic progress. Her strengths and weaknesses were discussed by a team of regular education teachers and her parents. It was determined that the above multiple intensive intervention strategies would benefit Justine. Her parents committed to work harder and invest more time reading each day. They also promised to check her homework nightly, and immediately reinforce or correct the assignments. Our team congratulates Justine on the remarkable progress/growth and contributes her success to the combined efforts of school and dedicated parents.

Achievement Snapshot #2
Our second success story is of Alex, a fourth grade English Learner student who identifies with a group of multi-age students with nonexistent, limited or emerging English language skills. Alex has been at Oakmont Elementary for three years. He comes from a Spanish-only speaking home. Alex is very shy and had difficulty making friends. He spent considerable time, two years ago, participating in Oakmont’s Special Friends program. Healthy Start has been instrumental with the family in finding medical and dental care. They’ve also provided a support network of translators, parent education classes and social support. Alex receives the services of an English Language Development instructional aide in a “push-in” model program and participates in the University of La Verne tutoring program. Alex also receives assistance in mathematics from an America Counts tutor. Alex’s teacher has her Bilingual Cross-cultural, Language and Academic Development (BCLAD) certificate and modifies assignments to accommodate his learning style. Alex attended Readers are Leaders (RAL) which allowed reading instruction to be tailored to his specific instructional level. He also is very consistent in completing the weekly requirements of the school wide expectations of Really Radical Readers (20 minutes of reading nightly, seven days a week, with a parent signature.) Alex volunteers to read with his cross-age buddy on a weekly basis and while improvement is always warranted, he is rapidly becoming a very successful student in all areas.