WEBVTT

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My name is Sarah Bailey. I am principal of
T.R. Sanders Elementary here in Hollandale, Mississippi.

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Before I was principal—before I became principal,
quite honestly, T.R. Sanders was a failing

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school. There were high teacher absences.
I think we had about over 500 absences the

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previous year and over 1,100 referrals the
previous year as well, and collaboration was

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at a minimum as well as accountability for
student performance. So those challenges directly

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impacted student achievement here at T.R.
Sanders, and that's what we've worked

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to improve over the past four-and-a-half years.

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I was given a coach, a leadership coach as
well as a data coach to make sure that I understood

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expectations at the elementary level and that
I understood how to analyze data. I was a

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secondary-trained teacher, so I transitioned
to the elementary level. Although I had leadership

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training, I did not have any training in the
areas of literacy at the elementary levels.

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So those trainings were provided for me through
the State Department of Education...Mississippi

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State Department of Education.

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The vision was set forth by the district with
respect to what needed to be done at our school,

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and training subsequently followed and support
from the district staff. Our superintendent

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has always been hands-on with data as well
as the path that we're going down, and he's

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been transparent throughout the whole process.
And that has trickled down to our school,

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and I operate the same way as leader of T.R.
Sanders Elementary.

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James Johnson-Waldington [to group]: What
we're having to deal with in the upcoming

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school term is a mandate from the legislature
dealing with third grade reading gate. What

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that means is that...what we have is that
our third grade students are going to have

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to read on the proficiency level before they
would be allowed to move to the fourth grade.

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Sarah Bailey [to group]: We need to find a
research-based intervention for our children

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here at T.R. Sanders Elementary to ensure
that all students, regardless of how they

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enter or what level they are when they enter—in
pre-K or kindergarten—that we are able to

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get them up to grade-level expectations with
respect to literacy by the end of the third

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grade.

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Our school leadership team is comprised of
teachers, district-level administration, and

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school-level administration. So our superintendent
is a member of our School Transformation Team,

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our school leadership team. We have a large
number of people who are on our team, and

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they bring a wide array of perspectives to
education and they make sure that we provide

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input and that...they are also gatekeepers
for other teachers at the school who need

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to know and who want to provide input as to
how we're moving our school.

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Sarah Bailey [to group]: We have two proposals
that we have been given, and we're going

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to refer to them as Proposal 1 and Proposal
2. We did ask for a digital demo for each

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of the programs and both of them have online
demos that we can view today. And we must

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score each proposal using our rubrics, and
each of the five areas that I read to you

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are listed on here with the possible points
available.

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This team-based approach is something that
came about as we were beginning this path,

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beginning this journey four years ago. And
our School Improvement Grant and this team

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has provided more structure and has ensured
that we have followed all of the guidelines,

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and thus, you can see the growth and improvement
that we've seen.