Bobby Ray earns state performance award

By WILL STEWART / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard (McMinnville, Tenn.)

COLLIER

For superior performance on an array of state accountability measures, Bobby Ray Elementary is one of 97 state schools to be named a 2003 Incentive Award winner.

“This is exciting, wonderful,” Bobby Ray principal Bonnie Collier said. “This is a tribute to our teachers who start on day one working with the kids to see they move forward as far as they can go.”

The Incentive Award program was created by the General Assembly in conjunction with its 1992 Education Improvement Act. According to state Department of Education official Bruce Opie, as the act set forth a number of specific goals and accountability measures, the legislature thought it only fair that schools that meet and exceed these measures should be rewarded.

“It is a very significant achievement to meet all of the goals set out by the legislature and the state Board of Education. Everyone ought to be very proud of Bobby Ray,” Opie said.

To be named an Incentive Award winner, Bobby Ray had to meet a stringent set of criteria measured by its performance on its 2002 Annual Report Card. Requirements included an attendance rate of 95 percent or greater, a promotion rate of 97 percent or greater, and an average writing assessment achievement score of 4 (on a scale of 6) or greater.

But perhaps most rigorous of all was the requirement to post value added gains scores of 100 percent or greater in all five of the measured areas – math, reading, language arts, social studies and science.

In addition to the hard work of the school’s faculty, Collier said it was her opinion that the school’s 45-15 calendar, under which it has operated for the past two years, played a part in Bobby Ray receiving the award.

“I think it helped,” she said. “With our intersession program, we can begin to help kids who have fallen behind after the first nine weeks instead of having to wait until summer for summer school.”

Another factor helping the school win, she noted, was the high level of support given teachers by former principal Bob Bonner, who retired last month.

In addition to bragging rights, being named an Incentive Award winner entitles Bobby Ray to a cash award of $5,154.63, which will be put in the school’s general fund.