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Marion Elementary Earns National Recognition for Child Well-being, Improved Test Scores

Marion Elementary School was recently named a 2019 . An honor that only 100 schools throughout the country receive every year.

Jill Quist, third grade teacher at Marion Elementary, says “Life isn’t always easy for some of these kiddos and coming to school and learning is sometimes not where their brain is when they walk in the morning.

Last year the teachers at Marion Elementary noticed their student’s state exam scores were not reflecting what was happening in the classroom.

Marion Elementary principal and district superintendent Chris Arrington says, “Frankly our kids knew a lot more than they were showing on the test so we did a lot of things internally that really addressed the kids first and test takers second.”

They came up with a solution, a complete transformation on the social and philosophical environment in the classroom. Quist says, “We really tried to take away the whole anxiety piece of it and just kind of pump them up, and tell them you’ve been learning you’re entire life for this test, you just have to take it and show it.”

Joanie Whittaker, literacy intervention and coach at Marion Elementary says, “We don’t allow our students to give up, we encourage them to stick with it even though it’s difficult.”

Introducing tools like , a program that addresses the social and emotional needs of the student.

“They can see how other kids would respond in certain situations and then hopefully apply that when they are presented to that situation,” says Quist. “If those needs aren’t met, they’re not going to do well in math or reading because they’re going to be so concerned with just their own well-being.”

Arrington says and the results validated their work, improving both math and reading scores. “They really have been a wonderful staff for a long time so this is just a recognition to all of their hard work and all of their dedication.”

Marion will represent the state in February at the national conference in Atlanta.