Finley Road SIC Report to Parents
April 2019
Who We Are
Finley Road Elementary school was established in 1957. We are currently a Title 1 and Priority school and serve 345 students and their families.
The following quote best personifies the mindset of the faculty and staff at Finley Road:
“We are here because we love the children. Teaching is woven into the tapestry of who we are. We need it. We love it. We were called to teach. It has never been about the salary, the recognition, or the misconception of only working nine months and having summers free with our families. Rather, it is the joy of knowing that we are not only teaching young minds, but we are also touching tender hearts."
Purpose of the School Improvement Council
Mandated by law, the School Improvement Council (SIC) serves as an advisory group to the school. The SIC brings together parents, school faculty, and community stakeholders to work together to collectively establish, monitor, and evaluate specific long and short range goals for student achievement. In addition, the SIC is a resource for parents, community members, and faculty members to share ideas and concerns about the school. Other functions of the SIC are to provide an annual school report to parents and the community and increase parental awareness and involvement of SIC initiatives.
Our 2018-2019 Members
2018 SC READY Scores
About Us
Finley Road is helping all students develop the world class skills and life and career characteristics of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by providing a safe, caring, and academically challenging learning environment.
Students in grades K-5 receive specifically planned instruction in ELA and Math. We created an intervention time to differentiate math instruction. Academic Interventionists were used to provide small group instruction for students who needed more intensive reading and math support. Our planning was purposeful and strategic with the intent to increase student learning and make academic gains as measured by the use of Measure of Academic Progress (MAP).
Our staff has focused this past year on refining our balanced literacy and math instruction. Through previous work of defining Essential Learnings for each standard, developing unit plans for each quarter and common assessments, it has helped our teachers gain clarity and deliver targeted, purposeful instruction.
During the 2019-2020 school year, we will refine the work completed this past year and continue to improve upon these five areas: 1) data driven instruction, 2) technology integration to enhance instruction, 3) targeted instruction for struggling students, 4) continue to promote character through our positive school-wide behavior plan, and 5) differentiated professional development.
We will continue our partnership with Winthrop University as a Partner School. This partnership not only benefits Winthrop students, but Finley Road’s teachers and students as well. We were privileged to host four exceptional Winthrop University interns. All of these interns were able to work the entire year with our teachers and students. We look forward to hosting more students and strengthening this important partnership in the future.
Our plan of action continues to be to increase the percentage of students meeting or exceeding target growth on ELA and Math Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) tests, increased continued refinement of our balanced literacy instruction and math instruction, providing intervention services for struggling learners, promoting character education through our positive school-wide behavior plan, modeling the use of technology to enhance instruction, and continuously finding ways to improve through differentiated professional development.
Ivory Latta - Author Visit
Ivory Latta, sharing her book Despite the Height with FRES students.