SPANISH FORK — A lot of schools have created "professional learning communities" to assist teachers' performance.

But the way Spanish Oaks Elementary School principal RaShel Tingey implemented the concept, which basically means that a group of administrators and school staff works in tandem to improve student learning, earned her the Instructional Leader of the Year award from the Utah Association of Elementary School Principals.

Tingey was given a plaque, a check for $100 and a bouquet of roses at the association's annual conference.

A former Spanish Fork High School math teacher and Springville High School counselor, Tingey has been principal at Spanish Oaks for six years. To enhance learning beyond the school curriculum, she has brought in after-school clubs. Among them are the literacy, math and science clubs.

But Tingey says the state award is more focused on what she has done with teachers at the school.

They share ideas and assessments of students' progress, and if students fail to be 80 percent proficient in a topic, they are sent back to relearn that subject, she said.

"My teachers are so amazing. They're the ones who should have received the award," she said.

In addition, the principal meets in small groups with her teachers on a regular basis, including during lunch.

The school has partnered with Brigham Young University, which has motivated the professional learning environment.

BYU is teaching principals how to be better leaders, she said.

Tingey also has implemented programs for at-risk students, among them an early-morning tutoring program in which fourth- and fifth-grade students tutor younger kids in the first to third grades.

The exercise not only assists the younger students, but it also helps the older kids strengthen their reading skills.

Many of the older students become friends with the younger ones so then "they have a buddy they can stay friends with for the school year," she said.

"The interesting thing is that many of the tutors were in the program when they were younger," she said.

They're now tutoring others.

With school trust lands money, school administrators also hired adult tutors to work with weak readers, rotating every 20 minutes. The STAR Reading Program, or Student Tutoring Achievement for Reading, is researched-based, Tingey said.

Meanwhile, an interactive computer-based program also assists kids to learn to read.

"It's exciting. It's done some great things," she said.

---

E-mail: rodger@desnews.com