Scotchtown Hills Elementary is located in Laurel, Maryland. Teachers provide the students at Scotchtown Hills with a rigorous instructional program aligned with the Maryland Content Standards and the Voluntary State Curriculum (VSC). Students follow a schedule that supports uninterrupted reading and language arts instruction for 150 minutes in grades K-1, 120 minutes in grades 2-3, and 90 minutes in grade 4-6. Mathematics instruction has been expanded in order for teachers to utilize 90 minutes of uninterrupted instruction for grades K-6 and 110 minutes for all children in Pre-Kindergarten. In order to prepare our students for the upcoming science assessments on the Maryland State Assessments (MSA), we will continue to provide students with engaging exploration and investigations that will enhance their ability to question, make observations, as well as communicate accurate and systemic findings. Our vision as a community of educators is to increase student achievement across each grade level content area by selecting research-based instructional activities that will enhance the performance of all subgroups making Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) during the 2005 academic school year.