Polk County Public Schools

Boswell, Dixieland, Sandhill Named Learning-Focused Presidential Preferred Schools

February 8, 2010

Three Polk schools are among 33 nationally that were named Learning-Focused Presidential Preferred Schools by the North Carolina-based Learning-Focused organization.

Learning-Focused chose Auburndale’s Boswell Elementary, Lakeland’s Dixieland Elementary and Haines City’s Sandhill Elementary for this elite status based on the schools’ successful implementation of the Learning Focus Schools (LFS) model and on observations by LFS associates during school site visits.

The LFS model is a school improvement model utilized by the school district.

Boswell, Dixieland and Sandhill exhibited exemplary performance in student achievement in classroom and standardized assessments, reduction of student discipline issues and teacher retention. Boswell, Dixieland and Sandhill were also chosen for the designation based on effective planning, curriculum, instruction, assessment and school organization.

Highlighting each school’s achievement was the following:

Boswell

• Achieved 100% Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in the federal government’s stringent No Child Left Behind (NCLB) guidelines
  
• Improved to an A grade in the 2009 FCAT, up from a B in 2008
  
• Had the largest increases of any Polk school in FCAT categories that included: meeting high standards in math, math learning gains, math learning gains of the lowest performing students and percentage of lowest performing students making learning gains.

Dixieland

• Achieved 100% AYP in NCLB guidelines
  
• Improved to an A grade in the 2009 FCAT, up from a B in 2008
  
• Improved in every FCAT category in 2009 that measures student achievement with the exception of one and that category remained the same from 2008

Sandhill

• Achieved 100% AYP in NCLB guidelines
  
• Maintained an A in the 2009 FCAT, the same grade the school earned in 2008
  
• Had the largest increase of any school in Polk of students meeting high standards in reading.

Click here for further information on LFS Presidential Preferred Schools.