Cypress Elementary School has a multicultural population consisting of PreKindergarten-5th grade within a suburban community of single-family homes in southwestern Miami-Dade County.  We serve a student population comprised of 79.8 percent Hispanic, 16.7 percent White-Non-Hispanic, 3.3 percent other.  Fifty percent of our students qualify for free or reduced lunch.  Special programs housed at Cypress Elementary include two Varying Exceptionalities units, SPED Inclusion model in grades 3 -5, Academic Excellence Program (AEP) and two part-time Gifted units.

            Given instruction using the Sunshine State Standards, students in grades three through five will increase or maintain their reading skills as evidenced by improved performance at the mastery level on the 2006 administration of the FCAT Reading Test as compared to the 2005  administration, while 44 percent of each subgroup identified in the "No Child Left Behind" requirements will score at or above or above the state mastery level.

             Given instruction using the Sunshine State Standards, students in grades three through five will maintain or increase their mathematics skills as evidenced by improved performance at the mastery level on the 2006 FCAT mathematics test as compared to the 2005 administration, while 50 percent of each subgroup identified in the "No Child Left Behind" requirements will score at or above the state mastery level.

             Given instruction using the Sunshine State Standards, the Cypress Elementary fourth grade students will maintain the percent of students scoring at the mastery level on the 2005 administration on the 2006 administration of the FCAT Writing test, while all members of the identified "No Child Left Behind" subgroups will improve their writing performance by 1 percent.

            Given instruction using the Science Sunshine State Standards, there will be a 2 percent increase in the mean scale score from 301 in 2005 to 303 on the 2006 FCAT administration.

           Cypress Elementary will maintain or increase the number of volunteer hours documented by school volunteers as evidenced by 2004 - 2005 Volunteer Log Sheets and qualifying for the Golden Volunteer Award for 2005 - 2006.

          Given the impact that appropriate discipline and safety have on student achievement, Cypress Elementary will decrease the number of indoor/outdoor suspensions by 1 percent.

         Given school wide emphasis on technology and project-base learning, each grade level will use long range plans integrated with technology to complete four project -based learning units as documented by teachers' Project Based Completion Log.

             Given a societal emphasis on the importance of good health and fitness, Cypress Elementary will increase the percentage of students eating free breakfast from 26 percent in 2004 - 2005 to 28 percent in 2005 - 2006.

            Given the emphasis in providing opportunities for growth in creative and critical thinking, Cypress Elementary will promote elective and special areas so that 20 percent of the eligible student body participates in extracurricular activities.

                 Cypress Elementary will improve its ranking on the State of Florida ROI index publication from the 44th percentile in 2003 to the 46th percentile on the next publication of the index.

                 The staff, together with our parents and community, are committed to improving student achievement in order to encourage lifelong learning.