Sweetwater Elementary School

School Strategy Map

Map Name: 2025-2026 Sweetwater Elememtary School
Time Period: 5/1/2025 - 4/30/2026
Vision

To empower students, families, staff, and our community based on our student-centered values. Students will strive for growth by building resiliency, advocacy, and 21st-century learning skills. As a result, every student will be equipped to positively impact their community.

Mission

To nurture students by supporting their individual growth.

Beliefs

We believe in life-long learning, relationships, and integrity, where all students are valued in a safe and supportive environment.

Reading
To ensure all students achieve reading proficiency, both classroom instruction and interventions must be intentional, targeted, and aligned to student needs.
Math
To help all students achieve math proficiency, classroom instruction and interventions must be purposeful, targeted, and responsive to individual learning needs.
Project-Based Learning
To prepare students to positively impact their communities, we must offer innovative, hands-on learning experiences—like Genius Hour—that nurture problem-solving, creativity, grit, and perseverance.
Objectives
  • Establish and clearly communicate learning goals. Utilize scales and rubrics to monitor student progress, and celebrate achievements along the way.
Objectives
  • Clearly define and communicate learning goals. Utilize scales and rubrics to monitor student progress, and recognize and celebrate their achievements.
Objectives
  • Implement an instructional model that builds students' capacity to apply their knowledge and skills in meaningful ways.
Critical Initiative
  • Administer a Universal Screener to all students to identify individual learning needs. Use the academic pathway to guide targeted instruction and ensure interventions are appropriate and effective.
  • Align interventions to each student’s specific needs in areas such as phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, and comprehension.
  • Develop scales, rubrics, and formative assessments aligned to prioritized standards during weekly PLC meetings.
  • Regularly monitor student progress using both formal and informal assessments aligned to their specific areas of need, such as FastBridge and running records.
  • Review student progress and the effectiveness of interventions during monthly team PLC meetings. Use teacher-collected data to make informed adjustments to student support and instruction as needed.
Critical Initiative
  • Administer a Universal Screener to all students to identify their individual needs. Create an academic pathway that ensures targeted instruction is provided and evaluated for effectiveness.
  • Align interventions with students' specific needs in areas such as number sense, operations, and overall math skills.
  • Consistently monitor student progress using both formal and informal assessments aligned to their specific areas of need, such as FastBridge and exit tickets.
  • Review student progress and evaluate the effectiveness of interventions at monthly team PLC meetings. Use teacher-collected data to make adjustments to instructional plans and support strategies.
Critical Initiative
  • Create opportunities for students to engage with real-world problems, fostering inquiry, solution development, and the creation of meaningful products that address authentic challenges.
  • Participate in inquiry-based lessons that promote the application of knowledge and skills.
  • Promote student-centered projects that build independence and the development of 21st-century skills through approaches like Genius Hour and Project-Based Learning.
Key Measures
  • A developed pathway of interventions
  • Completion rates for interventions
  • Interventions, assessments, clear learning goals
Key Measures
  • A developed pathway of interventions
  • Completion rates for interventions
  • "Frequently monitor progress of students. "
  • Interventions, assessments, clear learning goals
Key Measures
  • "Interdisciplinary approach to solve problems. "
  • "Rigorous application of knowledge and skills. "
  • Student completion and communication of learning
The Strategy Map has been created in collaboration with The North Dakota Department of Public Instruction and Cognia™.

All schools in North Dakota participate in a Continuous Improvement process. Continuous Improvement means examining a school’s current reality including demographics, culture, technology, finances, and academic progress, among many other factors. In addition, Continuous Improvement means looking into the future and predicting what may change – what will be different a year from now, or 10 years from now.

 

During the 2018-2019 school year, all schools in North Dakota participated in this Continuous Improvement journey. School personnel participated in training and collaborated with diverse stakeholders such as community members, teachers, parents and students to map out what the school’s priorities are, what the school’s objectives are and what critical initiatives needed to be implemented to achieve those objectives. This planning process resulted in a Strategy Map – a 3 to 5-year plan for the school.

 

It is important to note that the Strategy Map is a snapshot in time. It is documentation of what the school’s priorities were the past school year. In this case the Strategy Map below was captured and submitted on May 1, 2019. It is equally important to note that the Strategy Map below may have changed since its submittal. This is because priorities may have changed quickly depending on numerous factors. Factors can include, but are not limited to, a natural disaster, a high staff turn-over rate, or an influx or decrease of students. To obtain a copy of this schools current and update Strategy Map, please contact the local school administrator.



Please contact North Dakota's Department of Public Instruction with any questions and feedback via email to the following address: dpidashboard@nd.gov