Building a Culture of Success
Genoa-Hugo School Shifts From Low- to High-Performing in Just Two Years
Genoa-Hugo is a one-building, one-school district located on the eastern plains of Colorado in the seat of Lincoln County. In this low-income ranching community with an agriculture-based economy, houses sell for $30,000. The county's three primary employers are the school district, a hospital, and a prison.
When Dave Finley, K-12 Principal and Counselor, came to Genoa-Hugo in 2009, academic achievement was so low that the school was on the brink of being taken over by the state. They were not using data to measure growth and therefore were unable to monitor progress or benchmarks.
With a long history of successfully using NWEA's MAP data in other school districts, Finley introduced MAP to Genoa-Hugo when his tenure began. Teachers learned the value of MAP academic data, how to interpret it, and how to apply these insights to inform academic planning such as levels of instruction and breakdown of students by performance.
Just two months after Genoa-Hugo completed its first MAP assessment and introduced MAP-aligned instruction, student scores grew from 15 to 30 points.