Elementary Initiative

Taylor is part of the Superintendent's Elementary Initiative (EI). As an EI school, the classroom schedules are set up to give 90 minutes of math and reading every day.

Within the 90 minutes, the time is subdivided so that the students rotate through small-group stations where they work on different targeted skills at each station. Each station has a different focus — from manipulatives (math) to worksheets, reading, listening, and computers. Working in small groups with the teacher at the "Teacher Station" is part of the rotation for each student. Small-group stations are also used for science and social studies.

Learning Teams

Teachers meet in Learning Teams twice every month to design, evaluate and improve their instructional practices continually.

The teachers work together to write lesson plans, teach the lesson and then evaluate the lesson's effectiveness based on students' work samples. The teachers follow up by revising the lesson as needed. This process helps teachers evaluate and improve their instructional practices continually.

Teachers are grouped into Learning Teams by content area and grade levels.

Fifth Quarter

This four-week full-day extension of the school year is designed to improve students' academic achievement and keep students actively learning beyond the school year.

Students are in the same schools, with their same teachers, so the transition is seamless. Students are better prepared to do well in school in August because of less time away from the classrooms during the summer.

The array of afternoon activities that aim to make learning fun is what helps make this non-mandatory Fifth Quarter appealing to students and families.