Farmington School Principals Shannon Cantrell and Julia Williams received word on Thursday that Folsom Elementary and Lynch Middle School have been selected as recipients of the 2022 RISE School Award by the Arkansas Department of Education-Division of Elementary and Secondary Education. Both schools will be recognized this July at the 2022 Arkansas Department of Education Summit being held at the Hot Springs Convention Center. Folsom Elementary School and Lynch Middle School are two of only ten schools in Arkansas receiving this award for excellence in literacy.
The Reading Initiative for Student Excellence, RISE Arkansas, fosters a culture of reading by coordinating a statewide reading campaign with community partners, parents, and teachers to establish the importance of reading in communities, homes, and schools. The first goal of RISE Arkansas is to “sharpen the focus and strengthen literacy instruction.” RISE training was developed in 2017 to bring evidence-based teaching practices to the classroom.
RISE Arkansas recognizes schools that have successfully implemented the RISE literacy practices. Farmington had two of the 31 schools in the state to submit an application for the award and were two of 22 schools that advanced to the second round of the application process. A team of RISE specialists spent a day visiting looking for schoolwide implementation of RISE strategies and practices aligned with the science of reading based on a rubric that looked closely at the reading instructional shifts across twelve different areas. Both campuses excelled in literacy instruction and were selected as 2022 RISE Award winners!
The RISE team gave this feedback after their visit: ”The administration in the district has done a good job leading the RISE implementation and the staff has increased the effectiveness of literacy education by being open to questions and feedback and training to improve literacy. These schools are a great example of combining the PLC process and RISE training and implementing it for the benefit of students.”
Congratulations to the staff, students, and leadership at Folsom and Lynch Middle School! Thank you to our teachers for putting in the hours and effort needed to positively impact literacy success for our students, our school, our community, and our state!