2025–2026 Annual Report
At West Kingston we RISE! Growing Together. Learning Together. Thriving Together!
A Message from the Principal
Dear West Kingston Families and Community,
As I reflect on the 2025–2026 school year, I am filled with pride and gratitude for everything our students, staff, and families accomplished together. Everything we do at West Kingston is guided by three simple yet powerful beliefs:
-Every student who walks through our doors should feel welcome, safe, and know they belong.
-All students work toward their potential, whatever that may be.
-Our faculty should function as a true Professional Learning Community dedicated to improving outcomes for every child.
This year was marked by tremendous academic growth, innovative instructional practices, stronger systems of support, and an unwavering commitment to building relationships. Together, we celebrated important milestones while remaining focused on continuous improvement.
Building Community
West Kingston continues to be much more than a school—it is a vibrant community where students, staff, and families celebrate learning together. Throughout the year, students and families came together through experiences that celebrated learning, strengthened school pride, and reinforced our belief that every child belongs. From welcoming families during Popsicles on the Playground to honoring our first responders during High Five for Heroes, students experienced the joy of learning beyond the classroom. Our record-breaking Hawk-a-thon, Night of the Arts, Multicultural Night, numerous concerts featuring our chorus, band, orchestra, and recorder students, and monthly PBIS assemblies provided countless opportunities for students to showcase their talents, celebrate one another, and strengthen the partnerships that make West Kingston such a special community.
To support our newest families, we launched a website for incoming kindergarten students and their families. The website serves as a resource hub for families and includes information regarding curriculum, staff members, and all the ins and outs of becoming a kindergarten student at West Kingston.
Supporting Every Student
At West Kingston, academic success begins with ensuring students are present, connected, and supported.
This year our School Improvement Team refined and expanded our Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) for attendance, creating clear systems for early identification, teacher support, family collaboration, and individualized interventions for students experiencing attendance challenges. This year, we also piloted a Connections Survey to ensure that each and every Hawk is feeling connected to our school, peers, and trusted adults. We believe that 100% of our students should feel connected, a goal that we strive toward each and every day. The survey provides our staff with actionable information to ensure every student has meaningful relationships with peers and trusted adults, allowing us to intervene before students become disconnected from school.
Attendance Highlights
-Student attendance improved by 9% during the 2025–2026 school year.
-West Kingston finished in the 88th percentile statewide for student attendance.
-Our attendance systems now serve as a foundation for expanding MTSS supports into academics and social-emotional learning.
These results reflect the power of early intervention, strong family partnerships, and a school culture where every day matters.
Connections Survey Highlights
-99.7% of students identify a close peer relationship at school.
-98.3% of students identify a trusted adult at West Kingston that they feel safe talking to.
-86% of students report that our staff care about them.
Investing in Great Teaching
Outstanding schools are built upon outstanding educators.
Throughout the year, teachers met regularly in Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) to analyze student work, examine assessment data, refine instructional practices, and collaboratively plan interventions that responded to student needs.
Professional learning focused on strengthening instruction for all students through:
-Executive functioning strategies
-Differentiated instruction
-Small-group instructional practices
-Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
-Literacy and mathematics best practices
Teachers also participated in a three-part professional learning series on supporting students with executive functioning needs, facilitated by Dr. Borden. These workshops provided practical classroom strategies to strengthen students' organization, planning, task initiation, self-monitoring, and independence.
Academic Excellence
West Kingston experienced one of its strongest years of academic growth in recent history, as reflected in our STAR assessment results.
For the first time, every West Kingston student participated in a schoolwide goal-setting process using STAR assessment data. Students worked with their teachers to analyze assessment results, establish individualized reading goals, identify action steps, and monitor their progress throughout the year. This initiative helped students become active participants in their learning while contributing to significant improvements in reading growth across the school.
Together, these efforts contributed to some of the strongest reading outcomes West Kingston has experienced in recent years.
Reading Achievement
-75% of students demonstrated typical growth or greater in reading from Fall to Spring, an increase from 72% the previous year.
-68.5% of students met or exceeded the state benchmark in reading during the Spring STAR assessment.
-Reading proficiency increased from 58.1% in the Fall, increasing to 68.5% in the Spring.
-Compared to Spring 2025, when 62.2% of students met the benchmark, West Kingston demonstrated significant year-over-year improvement.
Math Achievement
-83.9% of students demonstrated typical growth or greater in reading from Fall to Spring, an increase of 16% from the previous year.
-60% of students met or exceeded the state benchmark in math during the Spring STAR assessment.
-Math proficiency increased from 55% in the Fall, increasing to 60% in the Spring.
-Compared to Spring 2025, when 52% of students met the benchmark, West Kingston demonstrated significant year-over-year improvement.
Behind these results is the incredible work of teachers, interventionists, specialists, support staff, students, and families who worked together to ensure every Hawk continued to grow.
Looking Ahead
Our School Improvement Plan provides a clear roadmap for the next phase of West Kingston's growth. Over the coming year, we will focus on strengthening systems that improve instruction, support every learner, and ensure every student continues to thrive.
Strengthening Tier 1 Instruction
Teachers will continue refining instructional practices through Professional Learning Communities, where grade-level teams regularly analyze student work, examine assessment data, identify effective instructional practices, and collaboratively plan interventions. This work, combined with ongoing collaboration with district curriculum specialists, will strengthen literacy, mathematics, writing, and science instruction while ensuring high-quality Tier 1 instruction in every classroom.
As part of this commitment, a team of teachers representing multiple grade levels will attend the Get Your Workshop On (GYWO) regional conference, a nationally recognized professional learning experience focused on evidence-based instructional practices, innovative teaching strategies, and student engagement. Teachers will participate in differentiated learning sessions tailored to their grade levels and instructional needs before returning to West Kingston to share new ideas, resources, and best practices with colleagues. By building internal teacher leadership and expanding instructional capacity across the school, we aim to make learning even more engaging while continuing to improve outcomes for every student.
Expanding Multi-Tiered Systems of Supports
Building upon our successful attendance framework, we will implement comprehensive MTSS systems for literacy, mathematics, and social-emotional learning. Grade-level teams will meet regularly to review student data, monitor interventions, and ensure timely support for students who need it most.
Our Connections Survey will be fully implemented this school year with students being screened in Fall, Winter, and Spring using a simple, brief survey to gauge their feelings of connectedness to our school, their peers, and staff in our building. Our educators will review this data and correlate it with additional indicators such as attendance, discipline, and academic concerns to identify students who may be at risk and provide timely, targeted supports.
Intervening Early
Through our new Kindergarten Boost initiative, universal screening and targeted six-week intervention cycles will provide our youngest learners with early literacy and numeracy supports before learning gaps widen.
Increasing Student Voice and Ownership
Students will continue participating in academic goal setting and teacher data conferences, while new Hawk Talks will give students opportunities to help shape school improvement efforts through meaningful feedback and collaboration.
Supporting the Whole Child
Our commitment to the whole child will continue through expanded social-emotional learning supports, stronger adult-student connections, continued implementation of enhanced digital citizenship instruction, and a comprehensive SEL MTSS framework designed to ensure every student feels connected, supported, and successful.
Cosmic Sensory Path
Self-regulation in students is the vital ability to manage emotions, focus attention, and control impulses. It forms the foundation for academic achievement, emotional resilience, and positive social relationships. Our PTO secured a grant through the South Kingstown Educational Foundation to purchase and install an incredible indoor sensory path for our Hawks to use and enjoy!
Thank You!
The accomplishments highlighted throughout reflect the extraordinary dedication of our students, faculty, staff, families, and community partners. Together, we continue to create a school where children are challenged academically, supported socially and emotionally, and inspired to become lifelong learners.
As we look ahead to the 2026–2027 school year, we remain committed to ensuring every Hawk feels welcomed, challenged, supported, and inspired. Together, we will continue building a school where every child belongs, every educator grows, and every student has the opportunity to RISE.
Thank you for your continued partnership and unwavering support of West Kingston. We look forward to another exceptional year of learning, growth, and success for every Hawk.
Ryan R. Borden, Ed.D.
Proud Principal