Camp1

Grace Camp

Dr. Harris Garad

Ed 299

13 February 2023

School analysis; Nora elementary school

Slides

For my school and community analysis project I decided to research Nora Elementary

School which is located in Indianapolis, IN. Nora Elementary is a Public school within

Washington Township, with the school’s grade being a B and the total enrollment of students is

409. The district follows a balanced calendar which means they have a summer, fall, winter, and

spring break. Nora Elementary is a k-5 school with multiple diverse students ranging from 20

different languages with English not being their native language. The Washington Township

district was founded in 1955 and then later merged the city and county in 1970. Washington

Township's mission statement, “The mission of Washington Township Schools is to develop

lifelong learners and globally-minded citizens by fostering the academic, creative, and social

skills needed to achieve excellence in a multicultural environment”(About).

Nora elementary school’s ethnic diversity and racial demographic shows that the school

is inclusive in their work. The school has 41% hispanic students, 28% african american/black

students, 20% white students, and a little over 10% in asian and multiracial students. At the

school about 75% of students are economically disadvantaged, meaning most student families
 Camp2
use assistant programs such as the free or reduced-price lunch programs, Social Security

Insurance, Food Stamps, Foster Care, or Refugee Assistance. In Marion County 61% of the

population of Washington Township is living in poverty, meaning more than half of Marion

county is taking advantage of these resources offered at the school. Also 45% of Nora’s student

population are English learners and 16% of their students have disabilities. Only 1.5% of

students have received out of school suspension for disciplinary action. Washington Township is

within Marion County which has a total population of 971,102 and within that total population

about 62% of people are white and only about 30% are african american/black. This knowledge

about Marion county tells us that the majority of minority groups go to Nora elementary and

other schools in the Washington Township district.

As of 2020 Nora Elementary school spends $12,148.20 per student meaning they have

increased by $2,000 dollars since the 2019 school year. Nora elementary school spends

$6,001,211.95 on the total instructional and operational expenditures and most of the funding for

Nora elementary school comes from state and local funds ranging at about 90%. Nora wants the

best for their students and to do that they are at a 14:1 ratio of students to teachers. At Nora

Elementary school there are 42 full time educators, with a little less than 50% of their teachers

having 6-10 years of experience. About 58% of the teachers at Nora elementary are effective in

their classrooms and the average salary a teacher makes in Washington Township is $42,074. On

average a fifth grade teacher, Ali Camp, puts in about 40 hours a week to bring the best activities

that support the curriculum.

Washington Township's Purpose for their improvement plan is posted on their district

website stating: “The purpose of the School Improvement Plan is to evaluate the effectiveness of
 Camp3
our initiatives, develop goals based on data analysis, establish priority for improvement, identify

strategies and create an action plan for deployment”(About). Some of the big ideas discussed in

the 2022-2023 improvement plan are parent participation goals, stakeholder partnerships,

Comprehensive assessment, ILearn, priority goals, Cultural Competency, action plan, and

NWEA. ILearn is a state wide test through Indiana that measures a student's knowledge of

grades 3-8 standards. At Nora Elementary about 9% of students are above proficiency in english,

14% mathematics, about 5% science, and 12% social studies. The school averages at about 95%

participation in these stateside assessments. Unfortunately Nora Elementary has not reached the

state average of proficiency on any of the assessments but every year the students are showing

massive growth.

The students at Nora Elementary school use student resources such as Canvas, Reflex for

math facts, LLI for specific interventions in Reading, Orton Gillingham for phonemic academic

support in Grades K-2, Epic for our online reading, DreamBox for math lessons, GrapeSEED,

Raz-PlusELL Edition, Pioneer Valley Books, Flocabulary, and IXL for all subjects in 5th grade.

Nora also offers 5 different specials which are art, music, media, physical education, and world

language. Nora's has an ENL program which a lot of the students participate in, ENL is English

as a new language and the purpose is to give students opportunities to develop academic and

social language to construct meaning and improve performance.

Nora Elementary offers a lot of extracurriculars like clubs, artistic opportunities, and

athletic opportunities. The clubs they offer are choir, artistically talented, garden club, running

club, after school tutoring, student council, news club, material arts, and math bowl. An artistic

opportunity that is not choir or artistically talented is folk dancing. There are a ton of athletic
 Camp4
opportunities such as WT little league, youth football, FBA youth sports, panther youth

basketball, starz diving club, community tennis, and swim club.

Nora Elementary vision statement is Equitable, Affirming, Responsive. Through my

research I can confirm they are a great example of their vision statement. Nora is working to

make students achieve more than the generation before them. Nora offers new and invasive

programs within the Kelly program, which is what the school follows, to help students achieve

personal and academic goals. Personally I have been able to go experience classroom

environments at Nora Elementary because my mom, Ali Camp, is a fifth grade teacher. She

allows me to sit in on classroom instruction and work in small groups. The students in these

classrooms work at their own pace but are also challenged everyday by teachers setting

achievable goals for each student. I have seen multiple different types of instruction including

lectures, worksheets, visuals, videos, physical activities, and partner/group projects. Each kid

benefits from the instruction because they give multiple opportunities to learn the way that is

best for them. Washington Township is creating a more successful, creative, and intelligent

generation to conquer the world everyday.

 Camp5

Works cited

About – Nora Elementary School. no.msdwt.k12.in.us/about/. Accessed 13 Feb. 2023.

“Nora Elementary School (5427): Indiana.” Nora Elementary School (5427) | Indiana,

https://inview.doe.in.gov/schools/1053705427/finance. Accessed 13 February 2023.

‌School Improvement Team and Participation (Title I Components 6a, 6b, and 6c) • School

Improvement and Schoolwide Planning Team • Description of Parent Involvement and

Participation to Support Goals • Stakeholder Input Opportunities to Support Goals •

Description of Stakeholder Partnerships and Programs to Support Goals Comprehensive

Needs Assessment (Title I Components 1 and 8) • Three-Year Trend Data •

Comprehensive Needs Assessment Summary • Priority Goal Summary and

Decision-Making Process School Improvement Priorities (Title I Components 2, 4, and 9)

• Equitable Achievement Goal 1B • Equitable Achievement Goals 1C-NWEA Reading and

1D-ILEARN ELA • Equitable Achievement Goals 1C-NWEA Math and 1D-ILEARN Math

• Hiring & Retention of a High Quality & Diverse Staff Goal 2B • Partnerships Goal 3A

Appendices • Using Results for Continuous Improvement • Title 1 Schoolwide Plan

Components (Title I Components 3, 5, 7, and 10) • Definitions • Link to School QAR

Document • Link to IDOE CNA-SIP Template • NO SIP Feedback.

 Camp6
https://no.msdwt.k12.in.us/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/sip-no.pdf . Accessed 13

February 2023.

‌“U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Marion County, Indiana.” Www.census.gov,

www.census.gov/quickfacts/marioncountyindiana .Accessed 13 February 2023.