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McCracken County Public Schools

Paducah, KY

Concord Elementary School is part of the McCracken County Public Schools School District and is located in Paducah, Kentucky.


In 2012, Kentucky became the first state to adopt the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in English/Language Arts and math. Despite the challenges of mastering these new standards, Paducah’s Concord Elementary School recently ranked 19 out of 733 elementary schools on Kentucky state assessments, which are closely aligned to the CCSS. The school has been marked in the top three percent of schools in Kentucky and named as a School of Distinction, as well as a Distinguished School.

“Renaissance has definitely played a role in our accomplishments,” said Principal Ginger Stewart. “We have excellent students, master teachers, involved parents, and a supportive district team, but the Renaissance solutions work if you work them. Each year, we refine the fidelity with which we use them.” What started with Renaissance Accelerated Reader® five years ago is now an umbrella of Renaissance solutions at Concord Elementary, all in play to support the school-wide initiative of “Every child, every day.”

Accelerated Reader and Renaissance Accelerated Math® provide critical reading and math practice on a personalized level, while Renaissance Star Reading® and Renaissance Star Math® are instrumental in screening, diagnostics, progress monitoring, and overall growth measurement.

“Teaching begins and ends with assessment,” Stewart said. “Through Star Assessments, we get extremely accurate information in 20—25 minutes.” Concord Elementary uses Star Reading and Star Math for baseline testing within the first few days of school to gain an imperative starting point and to set the appropriate goals for each child. They repeat assessments every nine weeks, compare growth, and make necessary adjustments to levels and goals.

The Screening Report sits on Stewart’s desk every single day. Not a week goes by that she doesn’t review reports, especially the Student Progress Monitoring report that shows data trends with students. Stewart and her teachers are also able to see each child’s performance against state benchmarks, critical information for projecting scores at the end of the year on state assessments.

Through the Instructional Planning Report, Concord Elementary can even gain valuable recommendations for the skills each student has currently mastered and those skills ready to be tackled next.

Through Star Assessments, we get extremely accurate information in 20—25 minutes.

Ginger Stewart, Principal – Concord Elementary School

“This is comparable to a skills-based report card that allows a student, teacher, and parent to see the learning progression at work,” Stewart said, adding that insights from Star Reading and Star Math are especially critical to Concord Elementary’s Response to Intervention (RTI) planning and implementation. Her team begins and ends each RTI meeting with Star data, which takes the guesswork out of how they edit their RTI rosters.

“Teachers no longer say, ‘I think he could use the help,’ because data shows us who needs it. The success of our RTI program is a result of our interventionists having reliable and up-to-date information through Star Assessments,” Stewart said. “Star Reading and Star Math are cost effective and easy-to-implement ways to ensure that our students get the necessary help immediately.”

She is not exaggerating when she says immediately. In each one-hour grade level meeting, the team reviews urgent intervention names, following the data line by line. In one day, the team covers almost 600 students.

“We are able to implement RTI the very next day to an updated roster of students,” Stewart said. “The reports save our team of teachers tons of valuable time.” Time is precious, and Concord Elementary makes every minute count. Students who arrive to school early work on their math facts. “We are very prescriptive and intentional about assigning this as practice,” Stewart said. “Students must meet benchmarks as they move through the program.”

Accelerated Reader is also implemented with fidelity, and students, teachers, and parents follow the protocol to the letter with respect to reading practice, levels and goals, and progress monitoring. Stewart believes strongly in the importance of staying on top of best practices with implementation, and she and her teachers have attended an abundance of professional development opportunities through Renaissance. They have found the training valuable, but Stewart also has this recommendation for other schools seeking the kind of success Concord Elementary has achieved.

“Visit a school using Renaissance solutions, talk to the principal and teachers, and take a notebook to jot down feedback from their implementation,” Stewart said. “We’re always happy to have guests visit our school. We love to share.”

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