Godfrey Elementary School
1920 Godfrey Street SW
Wyoming, MI  49509
Phone: (616) 243-0533
Fax: (616) 475-6618

  (Click on the video image to play)

A Message From The Principal... 
Carol Lautenbach 

Godfrey Elementary School is a place for children in grades 3, 4, and 5 to learn about themselves and the world they live in. Students study the traditional areas of learning and gain new knowledge through rich experiences, collaborative learning, and timely feedback.

Teachers encourage exploration and individual decision making, and they emphasize the knowing and doing that students will need to be successful in a dynamic world. Students here soon find out that caring adults will help them as they discover the ways they learn best. At Godfrey Elementary, instruction is informed by assessment; multiple measures of growth are used to understand the whole child.

As in all powerful learning situations, the teachers not only teach, they also learn--from colleagues, from students, and from families. We value respect for each person, and we invite families to participate in every aspect of school life.

  Office Staff:

	Nancy Poelman   Building Secretary x2320	Sylvia Perez Attendance Secretary x2321	Officer Chris DeBoer Police Liason x2326

Annual Education Report (AER)

August 11, 2011

Dear Parents and Community Members:

We are pleased to present you with the Annual Education Report (AER) which provides key information on the 2010-2011 educational progress for Godfrey Elementary School. The AER addresses the complex reporting information required by federal and state laws. The school’s report contains information about student assessment, Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) and teacher quality. If you have any questions about the AER, please contact Dr. Carol Lautenbach, Director of Elementary Education and building principal for assistance.

The AER is available for you to review electronically by visiting the following web site

Godfrey Elementary Annual Education Report (AER)

or you may review a copy from Dr. Lautenbach's office at your child’s elementary school.

For 2010-2011, Godfrey Elementary did not made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in English language arts. We plan to continue our emphasis on literacy through our successful Response-to-Intervention (RTI) approach at the early elementary level and implement the Scholastic Read 180/System 44 research-proven reading intervention program. We appreciate the continued support of parents, staff and our community in this effort. We also feel strongly that our district's fully-subsidized early-elementary programs such as pre-school and all-day-every-day kindergarten will continue to mak great strides in preparing our children for grades 3-5 and beyond.

State law requires that we also report additional information.

1. PROCESS FOR ASSIGNING PUPILS TO THE SCHOOL. This is not applicable to our school buildings since the district operates only one early elementary, one upper elementary, one middle and one high school. Students are assigned based on achievement of learning standards and promotion to the next grade.

2. THE STATUS OF THE 3-5 YEAR SCHOOL IMMPROVEMENT PLAN. Our focus is on literacy and mathematics. We are entering the second year of our school-wide Title I improvement plan and have made great progress in both areas. Our future emphasis will be on strengthening teaching and learning at the elementary level to raise our reading and math MEAP scores in grade 4, 5 and 6 to better prepare our students for middle school and beyond.

3. IDENTIFY HOW TO ACCESS A COPY OF THE CORE CURRICULUM, A DESCRIPTION OF ITS IMPLEMENTATION AND AN EXPLANATION OF THE VARIANCES FROM THE STATE’S MODEL. Our district and our elementary schools utilize the Kent County Collaborative Core Curriculum (KC4) at all grade levels, focusing on the most essential standards necessary for student success. The KC4 is constantly under review and revision to ensure it aligns fully with the state's Grade Level Content Expectations (GLCEs) for grades K-8 and High School Content Expectations (HSCEs) for grades 9-12. The curriculum is documented through the Kent ISD on-line Curriculum Crafter program provided at no cost to the district. Parents are always welcome to request a copy of the KC4 standards or state standards from our building principals or your child's teacher.

4. IDENTIFY THE NUMBER AND PERCENT OF STUDENTS REPRESENTED BY PARENTS AT PARENT-TEACHER CONFERENCES:

Teachers, students, support staff and parents in our elementary schools are to be congratulated for the excellent work you continue to do each year in school-readiness, reading and mathematics. We should recognize at the same time that we always have room for improvement and our focus should continue to improve learning at a higher level to ensure our students are well-grounded in content area skills and ready for middle school by the time they complete the 5^th grade.

It's also important to understand that EdYES!, AYP, and NCLB only measure proficiency in reading and mathematics on one single assessment administered on one day during one school year, and by themselves do not statistically or adequately represent a true measure of overall student achievement or school performance. Our elementary students, despite the highest percentage of limited English proficiency in the county and second highest only to Grand Rapids in percentage of economically disadvantaged, continue to excel at very high levels in all areas of learning.

I look forward to reporting on even greater levels of success in the coming months and years.

Sincerely,

Dr. Carol Lautenbach

Director of Elementary Education &

Principal for the ECC and Godfrey Elementary