School improvement is a top priority at Central Elementary, and kicking off the school year with a staff retreat has helped in the collaborative efforts of the entire school faculty to remove barriers to learning. Central Elementary School sits in the rural community of Sugar City, Idaho, located in eastern Idaho. This small school serves approximately 350 students, 75 percent of whom qualify for free and/or reduced lunch. Its effort to create a responsive and effective school involves reaching out to the entire school community to build and attain success. At the center of its push is the NEA KEYS initiative.

Central Elementary was one of three schools selected by the Idaho Education Association (IEA) to pilot the KEYS initiative. IEA staff provided training and preparation for the KEYS survey. Parents and staff took the survey in December of 1998. The results indicated a number of areas for improvement. The entire staff took the information and put together a plan to create a collaborative environment focused on student achievement.

In an effort to build a more cohesive school team, each year, for the past several years, staff members at Central Elementary have held an annual retreat, where staff members generate ideas for overcoming previously identified barriers to learning. Staff members used data from the Idaho Reading Indicator (a 10-minute assessment given three times each year to all kindergarten, first, second, and third graders across the state) to set a goal to improve the assessment results for a high percentage of at-risk readers.

The KEYS team, under the direction of the principal and the superintendent, established a “Reading is Central"committee. This group spent four months evaluating reading programs, visiting schools, and establishing an action plan to help all students read at grade level by the end of the third grade.

As a result, staff and administration at Central approved and implemented reading programs and strategies that have resulted in great success. KEYS gave the staff at Central Elementary the opportunity to identify areas of weakness and to turn those weaknesses into strengths. The data staff members have collected on IRI scores tells the story and attests to the power of the KEYS initiative.

In 1999, 42 percent of all students at Central Elementary were reading at grade level; 36 percent were reading below grade level. Just one year later, 78 percent of students were reading at grade level; 21 percent were reading near grade level; and only one percent of students were reading below grade level. When the IRI scores were disaggregated, the staff found that both the Hispanic population and the Special Education population also improved their reading skills.

Like many schools involved in KEYS, the Central Elementary school community found that focusing on a few indicators can mushroom into attention to some or all of the indicators. The staff and parents of Central Elementary took the KEYS survey for a second time in February 2001. Their results were astounding. There was marked improvement on every KEY and much greater agreement among staff regarding the conditions in the school as outlined in the KEYS survey.

KEYS team members credit the NEA KEYS initiative with other benefits, as well. According to Jill Moss, first grade teacher and KEYS team leader: “Because of KEYS there is a better relationship among our staff. All educational support professionals are now involved in decision making and committee work. This has resulted in a total staff awareness of and focus on ongoing school improvement goals."