West Blocton Elementary School

A 2001-2002 National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence

828 Cahaba River Road     West Blocton, Alabama 35184
Phone (205) 938-9005         Fax (205) 938-2653
Bibb County Public School District

West Blocton Middle School

4721 Truman Aldrich Parkway
West Blocton, AL 35184
(205) 938-2451
(205)938-3261 (FAX)

West Blocton High School

  Home of the Tigers

4734 Truman Aldrich Parkway
West Blocton, AL 35184

Phone (205) 938-9002

Meeting/Adoption Date: Thursday, June 14, 2001

Resolution:
 
WHEREAS, West Blocton Elementary School, Bibb County Schools, has been selected as a Blue Ribbon School by the United States Department of Education; and
 
WHEREAS, the Blue Ribbon is the most prestigious education award in the country; and
 
WHEREAS, West Blocton Elementary School was selected for its excellence in leadership, teaching, curriculum, student achievement, parent involvement, and community support:
 
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, That the State Board of Education does hereby commend the Bibb County Board of Education; Donald R. McCalla, Superintendent; Carol Belcher, Principal; the faculty; staff; students; and parents of West Blocton Elementary School on the occasion of West Blocton Elementary School achieving recognition as a Blue Ribbon School.

West Blocton Elementary — What’s Best for Every Student

In this small rural community in Bibb County, something extraordinary is going on at West Blocton Elementary School. As one of the first 16 schools involved in the Alabama Reading Initiative (ARI) four years ago, West Blocton is committed to improving the learning of every child who enters their door.

According to first-grade teacher Pam Smitherman, before West Blocton became involved in the ARI, "we were just beginning to look more at continuous assessment [of our students]." Before that time, according to Smitherman, "I was using assessment mostly as a way to get a grade – not necessarily using it to guide instruction, but to have something to document why they had a B or C or whatever."

Karen Hubbard, who has taught third, fourth and fifth grades, tells much the same story. "In the later grades, we just used the traditional grading system. At the beginning of the year we looked at the records from the year before. If we were fourth grade teachers, we dug into that fourth grade curriculum. We didn’t really think about what level the children were on that much.

With the ARI, times have changed. Today, a description of West Blocton’s continuous assessment strategies fills six pages. The assessment toolkit is filled to overflowing with tools like the Dominie Letter Knowledge Assessment, Dictation Test, Segmentation Test, Phonics Test (Onsets), Test of Phoneme Identities, Core Reading Words, Reading and Writing Assessment Portfolio, Spelling, Accelerated Reader and many more.

Every teacher maintains a "Reading File Box" with folders on every child. At each grade level, results from a dozen or more assessment tools (many of them administered multiple times) are included in the folders, which follow students from grade to grade. "We can look at the assessments from the end of the previous year," says second-grade teacher Tammy Morton, "and it doesn’t take us long to figure out where students are and focus in on what they need. It saves is four to six weeks."