Robertson Elementary principal reports substantial ELL reading gains, outlines interventions

Principal Kari Davis told the Yakima School Board on May 4 that Robertson Elementary narrowed reading proficiency gaps for English language learners through aligned grade‑level teams, targeted interventions and regular progress monitoring.

Davis said the school set a goal to raise English language arts growth to a 57 student growth percentile and used DIBELS accuracy checks (given three times per year) to track progress. “We moved to 57% of our English language learners at benchmark, which is very exciting,” she said, describing work by grade‑level PLCs and a reading and ELL interventionist working closely with classroom teachers.

She gave specific fall‑to‑winter comparisons: non‑ELL students met accuracy benchmarks at roughly 62% in the fall while ELLs were at about 30%; winter monitoring showed substantial improvement for ELLs. Davis said the count of ELL students meeting the benchmark rose from about 32 in the fall to 58 in the winter, and that late‑April checks showed nearly 70 students on target to meet the end‑of‑May goal.

Davis highlighted large gains in two grade levels: fourth‑grade ELL accuracy improved from 17% in the fall to about 72% at winter monitoring, and fifth‑grade ELLs rose from 38% to 64% by winter. She attributed the gains to a combination of guaranteed standards, unit planning, small‑group interventions, and collaboration between teachers and interventionists.

Board members asked which interventions proved most effective; Davis described in‑class small groups, targeted reading lessons from interventionists, para support and alignment of vocabulary work between ELL interventionists and classroom instruction. She said math and other goals show progress but will be a focus for future work.

The school remains in progress monitoring and will re‑assess in late May. The board toured Robertson Elementary briefly after the presentation and thanked staff for the site visit.