- Mount Nittany Elementary
- Mount Nittany Elementary School
Lemont/Houserville designated a National Blue Ribbon School
Lemont Elementary School teacher Donna Bryan stepped from one conversation to another, each an integral part of her lesson.
While her first graders wrote about their favorite fall activities, Bryan moved down tables discussing ideas, sometimes bending over or kneeling to hear better. Together, the students had first read a story about autumn leaves before brainstorming ideas for their booklets.
Then came individual expression — and personalized attention, the kind of responsive teaching that helped propel Lemont and its sister school, Houserville, to national acclaim.
Recently, the U.S. Department of Education designated Lemont/Houserville a National Blue Ribbon School, placing it among 342 schools so honored for their academic excellence or progress in closing achievement gaps among student subgroups such as English language learners and students with learning disabilities.
Of the 18 Pennsylvania schools on the list, just six are public elementary schools. Lemont/Houserville, a joint K-5 community, was the sole representative from the 814 area code.
“National Blue Ribbon Schools are active demonstrations of preparing every child for a bright future,” U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said in a statement. “You are visionaries, innovators and leaders. You have much to teach us: Some of you personalize student learning, others engage parents and communities in the work and life of your local schools and still others develop strong and forward-thinking leaders from among your teaching staff.”
Officially, Lemont/Houserville was named an Exemplary Achievement Gap Closing School — one of two Pennsylvania schools to earn the accolade.
“It’s a real testament across the board to our hard-working teachers who care about kids, our hard-working kids, our parents and our community, and our school district,” Lemont/Houserville Principal Todd Dishong said.
Superintendent Bob O’Donnell and Assistant Superintendent for Elementary Education Vernon Bock visited each school to congratulate teachers and staff members and help celebrate. On Nov. 6-7, Dishong will be in Washington, D.C., to accept a National Blue Ribbon School flag and a plaque at a U.S. Department of Education awards ceremony.
“I think it’s quite an accomplishment to be nominated for Blue Ribbon status,” Bock said. “This is a reflection of the hard work of students, staff and families, who are dedicated to learning at high levels. We’re very proud of the Lemont/Houserville community.”
To qualify, Lemont/Houserville ranked in the top 15 percent of all schools, for each student subgroup, in making progress over the past five years on closing the performance gap on the Pennsylvania System of Statewide Assessment reading and math tests.
It also ranked in the top 40 percent of all schools in the state with each student subgroup’s performance on the 2017 PSSA reaching and math tests, and it saw a five-year change in PSSA performance for all of its students that was equal or better than the same measure statewide.
“We’re always looking to improve, maximize our minutes, use all the resources that are available to us, continue to hone in on the professional development that teachers need, and look at all of our kids and differentiate and adjust curriculum,” Dishong said. “How can we be better? How can we help support these students?”
Bryan said differentiated instruction has been a key to closing reading and math achievement gaps. Students hear the same mini-lesson, then break into small groups, one-on-one instructional sessions or independent projects “to push them to where they need to go” via the most effective way, she said.
With reading practice, for example, students may be grouped by specific strategies to best meet their needs and goals.
“You set goals with each child so the goals are individualized for what they need at the time,” Bryan said. “Then you revisit them and move on to the next one when they’ve mastered them.”
Bryan, who helped prepare the award application after the schools were nominated, said teachers were excited to hear news of the honor.
“We were extremely happy, and even the kids were,” she said. “When Dr. Dishong came on and announced it, they were cheering, and one little boy said to me, ‘Well, you worked really hard. You deserve the day off tomorrow.’ That was the cutest thing, out of a first-grader’s mouth. The application was a lot of hard work, but it was very rewarding.”
If Dishong has his way, though, nobody will rest on laurels any time soon.
“We want to bask in the sunshine of this acknowledgment, but we still have lot of work, a lot of growth,” he said, a commitment that comes with being part of what he calls a “blue ribbon district.”
“I think we all hold each other accountable. We challenge each other’s thinking, and we want to get better. I think (the blue ribbon award) could really be any of us probably, at any given year, because I think we’re a really good district. But we don’t want good to be the enemy of great. We want to keep striving and pushing forward and pressing on.”