The University of the State of New York 2015-2016 School Year

The University of the State of New York
The State Education Department
DIAGNOSTIC TOOL FOR SCHOOL AND DISTRICT EFFECTIVENESS (DTSDE)
2015-2016 School Year
BEDS Code
421800010020
School Name
Danforth Middle School
School Address
309 W Brighton Ave. Syracuse NY 13205
District Name
Syracuse City School District
School Leader
Ronardo Reeves Ed. D.
Dates of Review
10/20-10/21
School Accountability
Priority School
Status
Focus School
Type of Review
District-led Review
Review Team
Name
Representative for the District responsible
for the quality of the report and the
adherence to DTSDE protocols
Eric Kalenze
Additional members
Special Education School Improvement
Amy Evans
Specialist (SESIS) Representative
Regional Bilingual Education Resource
Network (RBE-RN) Representative
Additional Team Members (Add rows as necessary) Anthony Tolbert
Zheadric Barbra
Nick Stamoulacatos
Dana Corcoran
Deb Montroy
Affiliation/Title
District Employee
District Outside Educational
Expert
SCSD Director of Special Education
SCSD Director of School Reform
SCSD Education Director
SCSD Director of Curriculum &
Instruction
SCSD STEM Coordinator
SCSD Coordinator, McKinney Vento
Liaison
School Information Sheet for
School Configuration (2015-16 data)
Total Enrollment
358
SIG Recipient
Types and Number of English Language Learner Classes (2015-16)
# Transitional Bilingual
# Dual Language
# Self-Contained English as a Second Language
Types and Number of Special Education Classes (2015-16)
# Special Classes
# SETSS
# Integrated Collaborative Teaching
Types and Number of Special Classes (2015-16)
# Visual Arts
# Music
# Drama
# Foreign Language
# Dance
# CTE
School Composition (most recent data)
% Title I Population
88.8
% Attendance Rate
% Free Lunch
88.3
% Reduced Lunch
% Limited English Proficient
11.7
% Students with Disabilities
Racial/Ethnic Origin (most recent data)
% American Indian or Alaska Native
0.6
% Black or African American
% Hispanic or Latino
10.9
% Asian or Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander
% White
5.0
% Multi-Racial
Personnel (most recent data)
Years Principal Assigned to School
3
# of Assistant Principals
% of Teachers with No Valid Teaching Certificate
2.2
% Teaching Out of Certification
% Teaching with Fewer Than 3 Years of Experience
37.0
Average Teacher Absences
Student Performance for Elementary and Middle Schools (2014-15)
ELA Performance at levels 3 & 4
1
Mathematics Performance at levels 3 & 4
Science Performance at levels 3 & 4 (4th Grade)
NA
Science Performance at levels 3 & 4 (8th Grade)
Student Performance for High Schools (2014-15)
ELA Performance at levels 3 & 4
NA
Mathematics Performance at levels 3 & 4
Global History Performance at levels 3 & 4
NA
US History Performance at Levels 3&4
4 Year Graduation Rate
NA
6 Year Graduation Rate
Regents Diploma w/ Advanced Designation
NA
% ELA/Math Aspirational Performance Measures
Overall NYSED Accountability Status (2014-15)
Reward
Recognition
In Good Standing
Local Assistance Plan
Focus District
√
Focus School Identified by a Focus District
Priority School
√
Grade Configuration
6-8
YES
99.5
0.6
15.6
80.4
2.2
0.8
2
2
10
NA
NA
NA
NA
Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)
DID NOT MEET Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in ELA (2013-14)
American Indian or Alaska Native
Black or African American
Hispanic or Latino
Asian or Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander
White
Multi-Racial
Students with Disabilities
ᵡ
Limited English Proficient
Economically Disadvantaged
ᵡ
ALL STUDENTS
DID NOT MEET Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in Mathematics (2013-14)
American Indian or Alaska Native
Black or African American
Hispanic or Latino
ᵡ
Asian or Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander
White
Multi-Racial
Students with Disabilities
ᵡ
Limited English Proficient
Economically Disadvantaged
ᵡ
ALL STUDENTS
DID NOT MEET Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in Science (2013-14)
American Indian or Alaska Native
Black or African American
Hispanic or Latino
Asian or Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander
White
Multi-Racial
Students with Disabilities
Limited English Proficient
Economically Disadvantaged
ᵡ
ALL STUDENTS
ᵡ
ᵡ
ᵡ
ᵡ
ᵡ
ᵡ
ᵡ
ᵡ
Identify the school’s top priorities (no more than 5) based on the school’s comprehensive plans (SCEP, SIG, DIP, etc.):
1. Establishing instructional non-negotiables and aligning all professional development and accountabilities accordingly.
2. Improving school behavioral and disciplinary structures to more efficiently and effectively address disruptive student behaviors.
Syracuse City School District – Danforth Middle School
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Information about the review
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The review was led by Eric Kalenze, a Senior Associate with Insight Education Group. The team also included
a district representative, a district-selected Outside Educational Expert, a Special Education School
Improvement Specialist (SESIS) representative and a representative from the Regional Bilingual Education
Resource Network (RBERN).
Anthony Tolbert (SCSD, Director of School Reform) was responsible for providing oversight on this review to
ensure it aligned to the DTSDE vision and review protocols.
The review team visited a total of 31 classrooms during the two-day review.
Reviewers conducted focus groups with students, staff and parents
Reviewers examined documents provided by the school, including curriculum maps, lesson plans, schoolwide
data, teacher feedback, and student work.
Tenet 2 - School Leader Practices and Decisions: Visionary leaders create a school community and culture
that lead to success, well-being and high academic outcomes for all students via systems of continuous and
sustainable school improvement.
#
Statement of Practice
2.2
The school leader ensures that the school community shares the Specific, Measurable,
Ambitious, Results-oriented, and Timely (SMART) goals/mission, and long-term vision
inclusive of core values that address the priorities outlined in the School
Comprehensive Educational Plan (SCEP).
2.3
Leaders make strategic decisions to organize programmatic, human, and fiscal capital
resources.
2.4
The school leader has a fully functional system in place aligned to the district's Annual
Professional Performance Review (APPR) to conduct targeted and frequent
observation and track progress of teacher practices based on student data and
feedback.
2.5
Leaders effectively use evidence-based systems and structures to examine and
improve critical individual and school-wide practices as defined in the SCEP (student
achievement, curriculum and teacher practices; leadership development;
community/family engagement; and student social and emotional developmental
health).
Stage Stage Stage Stage
4
3
2
1
OVERALL RATING FOR TENET 2:
2
Tenet 3 - Curriculum Development and Support: The school has rigorous and coherent curricula and
assessments that are appropriately aligned to the Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS) for all students
and are modified for identified subgroups in order to maximize teacher instructional practices and studentlearning outcomes.
#
Statement of Practice
3.2
The school leader ensures and supports the quality implementation of a systematic
plan of rigorous and coherent curricula appropriately aligned to the Common Core
Learning Standards (CCLS) that is monitored and adapted to meet the needs of
students.
Syracuse City School District – Danforth Middle School
October 2015
Stage Stage Stage Stage
4
3
2
1
3
3.3
Teachers develop and ensure that unit and lesson plans used include data-driven
instruction (DDI) protocols that are appropriately aligned to the CCLS and NYS content
standards and address student achievement needs.
3.4
The school leader and teachers have developed a comprehensive plan for teachers to
partner within and across all grades and subjects to create interdisciplinary curricula
targeting the arts, technology, and other enrichment opportunities.
3.5
Teachers implement a comprehensive system for using formative and summative
assessments for strategic short and long-range curriculum planning that involves
student reflection, tracking of, and ownership of learning.
OVERALL RATING FOR TENET 3:
2
Tenet 4 - Teacher Practices and Decisions: Teachers engage in strategic practices and decision-making in
order to address the gap between what students know and need to learn, so that all students and pertinent
subgroups experience consistent high levels of engagement, thinking, and achievement.
#
Statement of Practice
4.2
School and teacher leaders ensure that instructional practices and strategies are
organized around annual, unit, and daily lesson plans that address all student goals
and needs.
4.3
Teachers provide coherent, and appropriately aligned Common Core Learning
Standards (CCLS)-based instruction that leads to multiple points of access for all
students.
4.4
Teachers and students work together to implement a program/plan to create a
learning environment that is responsive to students’ varied experiences and tailored to
the strengths and needs of all students.
4.5
Teachers inform planning and foster student participation in their own learning
process by using a variety of summative and formative data sources (e.g., screening,
interim measures, and progress monitoring).
Stage Stage Stage Stage
4
3
2
1
OVERALL RATING FOR TENET 4:
2
Tenet 5 - Student Social and Emotional Developmental Health: The school community identifies, promotes,
and supports social and emotional development by designing systems and experiences that lead to healthy
relationships and a safe, respectful environment that is conducive to learning for all constituents.
#
Statement of Practice
5.2
The school leader establishes overarching systems and understandings of how to
support and sustain student social and emotional developmental health and academic
success.
5.3
The school articulates and systematically promotes a vision for social and emotional
developmental health that is aligned to a curriculum or program that provides learning
experiences and a safe and healthy school environment for families, teachers, and
students.
5.4
All school stakeholders work together to develop a common understanding of the
importance of their contributions in creating a school community that is safe,
conducive to learning, and fostering of a sense of ownership for providing social and
Syracuse City School District – Danforth Middle School
October 2015
Stage Stage Stage Stage
4
3
2
1
4
emotional developmental health supports tied to the school’s vision.
5.5
The school leader and student support staff work together with teachers to establish
structures to support the use of data to respond to student social and emotional
developmental health needs.
3
OVERALL RATING FOR TENET 5:
Tenet 6 - Family and Community Engagement: The school creates a culture of partnership where families,
community members, and school staff work together to share in the responsibility for student academic
progress and social-emotional growth and well-being.
#
Statement of Practice
6.2
The school leader ensures that regular communication with students and families
fosters their high expectations for student academic achievement.
6.3
The school engages in effective planning and reciprocal communication with family
and community stakeholders so that student strength and needs are identified and
used to augment learning.
6.4
The school community partners with families and community agencies to promote and
provide training across all areas (academic and social and emotional developmental
health) to support student success.
6.5
The school shares data in a way that promotes dialogue among parents, students, and
school community members centered on student learning and success and encourages
and empowers families to understand and use data to advocate for appropriate
support services for their children.
Stage Stage Stage Stage
4
3
2
1
2
OVERALL RATING FOR TENET 6:
Tenet 2 - School Leader Practices and Decisions: Visionary leaders create a school
community and culture that lead to success, well-being, and high academic outcomes for
all students via systems of continuous and sustainable school improvement.
Tenet Rating
2
The school is in Stage 2 for Tenet 2 – School Leader Practices and Decisions.
 Danforth is currently developing collaborative systems that address the needs of the entire school
community. As part of the school’s NYS receivership requirements, the principal has worked with the
newly formed Community Engagement Team (CET) to construct new strategies and long-term
improvement recommendations. The CET includes administrators, faculty, parents, and community
members as stakeholder-members. School-proficiency and -behavior targets have been set according
to this process. There are separate targeted operational goals—and one SMART goal, to reduce
student discipline issues and office referrals by 10% by year’s end—that have been constructed by the
school leader and his team and posted around the school. Despite the school leader’s collaborative
efforts with the school turnaround team to develop the school’s mission, vision, and improvementfocused SMART goals last year, no members of parent focus groups conducted during the school
review could articulate Danforth’s mission, vision, or goals statements. While there are clear signs of
improvement with regard to strategic goal-setting and student discipline, and while benchmark targets
Syracuse City School District – Danforth Middle School
October 2015
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have improved the school’s ability to rigorously monitor their progress, these goals and targets are still
not understood and internalized by each stakeholder group.
The school leader has made strategic decisions to improve organization and apportionment of school
resources through a number of collaborative processes. The school leader determines and prioritizes
needs through a team approach via Community Engagement Team (CET), Turnaround School Team
(TST), etc. The school leader noted his intentionality behind resource allocation by stating “Much of the
time we make adjustments to resources by re-allocating them to different areas: distributing staffing to
different floors, changing layouts and building placements (ISS rooms, BIC rooms in particular—
direction, locks of doors, also, to reduce distractions in certain hallways)”. The team has also increased
operational and facility resources to maximize instructional time. There is evidence of the following:
changes to door locks and hallway access points that reduce traffic in strategic, previously highdisruption areas; bus routes, drop-off points, breakfast distribution, school-entry points, and
supervisory staff adjusted and re-coordinated to streamline beginning of school day; and floors
assigned to grade levels, along with corresponding support personnel. Danforth has also shifted its
human capital in an effort to maximize instructional capacity. School leaders have shifted staffing and
transition schedules to ensure the best possible hallway coverage and student assistance.
Administrators and sentries are stationed strategically to more evenly and, by student and
administrative need, cover various school areas. School leaders have moved staffing and scheduling
resources around to offer a mix of pull-out and push-in supports to students based on needs. Also, to
reduce students missing course time in core areas (a pressing need identified in 2014-15), school
leaders moved Advisory classes from the end of day to beginning of day, moved enrichment courses to
not run concurrently with intervention periods, and created space to ensure that all students received
daily coursework in Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) principles. (As opposed to
offering via separate classes, additional AVID-driven support is infused into core classes’ expectations).
School leaders have taken steps to strategically allocate and organize resources that address the needs
of students and the school community; their impact has improved significantly, and improvements in
student learning have begun.
Document review indicates a uniformity of message around instructional non-negotiables. This set of
non-negotiables guides school leader’s walkthrough and observation protocols, serving as a consistent
touchstone for feedback to teachers and professional development planning. It has been impactful,
and school leaders are purposeful about scheduling walkthroughs for consistent monitoring.
Observations are currently scheduled through early into 2016, and administrators are on track with
regard to the schedule they’ve set. The goal of school leaders is to make sure they are “ramping up
instruction so it’s strongest near test time.” School leaders observe classroom operations, then touch
base with teachers when practices aren’t being executed as preferred. Lesson plans are reviewed (due
every Thursday afternoon) to make they are being used and are at correct levels of rigor. Based on
evidence gathered from teacher focus groups, there is evidence of a system in place to observe
teachers multiple times per week for evaluative and developmental purposes. Following those
observations, coaches and administrators align through weekly coaches meetings. Observations focus
primarily on school priorities and non-negotiables, and instructional supervision/support is supporting
teacher practices school-wide.
The leader is developing systems to track and monitor individual and school-wide practices related to
improvements in key areas, such as student achievement, behavior, and instruction. As part of this
Syracuse City School District – Danforth Middle School
October 2015
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strategy, the school leader has started to collect, analyze, and use data in multiple ways. For example,
the school leader maintains a rolling list of “Top Ten” profoundly struggling and/or disruptive students,
and these students receive particular supports in the form of mentorship groups. SIT teams routinely
monitor students in need of certain academic/behavioral interventions. The two teams (academic and
behavioral) act fairly separately, as there is not necessarily common data to unite their identification
processes. In reviewing school documentation, there was evidence showing the SIG plan’s ambitious
targets for increases in ELA and Math proficiency—from 2.1% to 15% and 1.7% to 15%, respectively. In
addition to addressing immediate concerns about school climate (institution of school uniforms, for
example), receivership recommendations presented to district leadership address long-standing
improvement issues like countering long-standing community perception in an effort to build better
parental/family engagement. Although the school is taking actions to improve teacher effectiveness,
systems are not used consistently to identify the aspects of the school’s performance that are most in
need of improvement and strategies for monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of school-wide
initiatives and student performance are beginning.
Recommendation:
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In order to create a truly unified school-community effort toward school goals, efforts should continue
to better articulate and communicate the school’s mission, vision, and administrative directions.
Though a number of large-scale actions are under way—and running well—to improve operations
toward these goals, essential stakeholders (i.e., parents, teaching staff) must be more aware of these
operations’ rationales and guiding principles to fully engage. To present and reinforce such messaging,
consider innovating more standard approaches, perhaps leveraging the receivership-required
Community Engagement Team as an originating source.
Tenet 3 - Curriculum Development and Support: The school has rigorous and coherent
curricula and assessments that are appropriately aligned to the Common Core Learning
Standards (CCLS) for all students and are modified for identified subgroups in order to
maximize teacher instructional practices and student-learning outcomes.
Tenet Rating
2
The school is in Stage 2 for Tenet 3 – Curriculum Development and Support.
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The school leader has developed a plan to ensure that professional development for staff, the
students’ class schedule, and collaborative planning time and access to pedagogical support for
teachers is in place to support the implementation of CCLS-aligned curricula. Document review shows a
clear effort to shape staff’s lesson planning. To guide lesson planning school-wide and to create an
efficient system for monitoring, a uniform lesson template has been provided (based on elements from
several researched models, according to the school leader’s interview) and been made an expectation
of all teaching staff. Document review provided evidence that this template encourages very sound
instructional-planning practices, and provided teacher samples showed high levels of planning efficacy.
However, there was no direct emphasis on CCLS alignment until more recent iterations of the template
(which the school leader mentioned in interview as a work that is adapting continuously). Targeted
CCLS standards and checks for CCLS-level textual/content rigor are not included in template (except in
a few more recent-to-review examples), but evidence in classrooms—particularly in math classrooms—
Syracuse City School District – Danforth Middle School
October 2015
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indicates that teachers are designing instruction according to CCLS shifts. In a large majority of
classrooms, lesson plans were readily available, providing evidence that teachers had used the
provided templates and thus the pedagogical support, materials, and training aligned to CCLS curricula
and instructional shifts. Many steps have been taken to support the quality implementation of rigorous
curricula, and there is evidence of curricular adaptations based on data in order to meet student need.
Teachers are beginning to develop unit and lessons plans that incorporate the CCLS instructional shifts
and data-driven instruction into English Language Arts (ELA), math, and science curricula. Lesson and
unit plans list teaching points, the content to be covered, and include a common planning structure
which indicate a level of collaboration. Also, the teacher focus group provided evidence that interim
assessment data (i.e., ANet, Ascend [math], Language! Live [ELA], etc.) further informs instructional
decisions, but that such assessments are still forthcoming this year and have not yet been leveraged.
Despite observed structures and systems driven by data study, instruction is not consistently adapted
to meet the different learning needs of students or in response to student data. Though evidence from
classroom observations existed to show that student work informed instructional action steps and
activities, and that teachers across teams were aligning class work and activities (PLC observations also
yielded evidence that teachers used a defined student work review protocol to assess students’
progress and design according action steps), they did not show clear or consistent instructional
differentiations for students based on data-expressed needs. Implementation of data-informed
differentiation was inconsistent: even in settings where Individual Education Plans were completed and
provided, they were not necessarily carried out. Although the school is developing systems to gather
and utilize data for instructional planning, those systems have not been fully implemented across grade
levels. As a result, instructional plans do not yet consistently demonstrate data-informed instruction
designed to meet the demands of CCLS instructional shifts and the needs of all students.
The school leader and staff are in the early stages of developing interdisciplinary curricula, which will
be carried out through (1) the creation of targeted learning opportunities for students and (2)
providing opportunities to individually reflect on the impact of these experiences. The school leader
provided evidence about planning sequences for sixth-grade teams, whose Math-Science and ELASocial Studies collaborate to plan interdisciplinary class activities and learning experiences. It was
observed that the sixth grade does have integrated Math-Science and ELA-Social Studies. During
teacher focus groups, they reported that they have time to plan together and they are encouraged to
plan across content areas. Coaches play strong roles in facilitating collaboration processes. The school
is beginning to provide interdisciplinary learning opportunities for students; however, evidence of
increased student achievement due to these experiences has yet to be realized.
Very little about assessment strategy and application surfaced from provided teacher planning
documents in document review or the documentation made available in classroom observations.
During lesson and documentation review, there was also limited or very general information about
formative assessment data. It is important to note that the timing of this review comes before the
acquisition of interim assessment information (i.e., ANet, STAR Math & Reading), which may affect this
planning later in the year. Furthermore, in documents provided during classroom observations,
assessments of any type were not consistently noted; and those that were did not fully align with the
stated objectives for the lesson. Due the lacks of aligned and frequent assessment and of stated
mechanisms for providing feedback to students based on such assessment, teachers’ plans do not
provide sufficient information about how their curriculum/lessons will adjust to improve students’
Syracuse City School District – Danforth Middle School
October 2015
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achievement.
Recommendation:

In order to create the most accurate and immediately actionable data on students’ progress—and thus
inform the most appropriate next instructional steps—stronger emphases must be placed on building
practitioners’ capacity as formative assessors. Building teachers’ abilities as formative assessment
designers, deliverers, analysts, and reactors will grow their ability to meet students at their current
places and craft instruction to move them forward.
Tenet 4 - Teacher Practices and Decisions: Teachers engage in strategic practices and
decision-making in order to address the gap between what students know and need to
learn, so that all students and pertinent subgroups experience consistent high levels of
engagement, thinking, and achievement.
Tenet Rating
2
The school is in Stage 2 for Tenet 4 – Teacher Practices and Decisions.
 The principal and teacher leaders are beginning to engage teachers in conversations about aligning
plans to data and supporting them in this process to provide instructional interventions for students to
meet targeted goals. Documentation review revealed considerable evidence regarding common lesson
plan template, format, expectations, and feedback mechanisms. Additionally, weekly communications
to staff emphasize focus areas based on previous weeks’ observations, trends, and patterns. During
principal interview it was observed that the administrative team aligns their observations with the
school’s common lesson plan template and Danforth’s Instructional Non-Negotiables. All walkthrough
observations and observation-feedback tools (Promise & Praise form) are based in the language of the
non-negotiable instructional expectations. Coaches meet with admin weekly to discuss needs among
teachers and to route necessary support, resources, and modeling, with administration intervening
when necessary (when non-negotiables are not being followed). Administratively preferred classroom
practices are growing accordingly, though are not yet able to be observed consistently: classroom visits
indicated that teachers inconsistently challenge students with higher order questioning and more
complex tasks. The school is developing systems to monitor and support planning and classroom
instruction, and those lesson-planning efforts and data collection/analyses are becoming integrated
processes toward increasingly more high-quality practices and thus higher levels of student
engagement and achievement.
 Teachers are beginning to develop instruction that reflects CCLS shifts and higher-order thinking
questions and learning activities. A majority of classes observed across Social Studies and Science
incorporated higher-order questions and emphases on students’ use of domain-specific vocabulary and
citation of textual evidence, but this was not consistent across grade levels or content areas. Building
students toward accessing such content and rigor was inconsistent across disciplines. Observed math
classes and special education classes, for instance, did not yield evidence that all students were helped
toward effective access. On average, student engagement in learning activities was high, indicating
that students were able to access content/activities readily. Though a minority of classes had low
overall engagement-to-task, where observed it was remarkably low. While content levels were often
complex, the instructional activities and questioning observed were inconsistently complex and
rigorous, resulting in students not experiencing and grasping the depth of the content.
Syracuse City School District – Danforth Middle School
October 2015
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The school has a program in place and teachers are developing strategies to reinforce student
behavioral expectations that are adapted to diverse groups of students. The teacher focus group
provided evidence about how they create safe, peaceful places (adjustments to school opening, for
example; see Tenet 2.2, above). According to teachers in this focus group, Danforth students are being
made to be aware of their own behavior and to take ownership of it. Toward this self-monitoring and
self-ownership, Class Dojo-enabled systems of routines/incentives are being used commonly as an
assistive tool. School leaders also mentioned making adjustments to schedule and support staff’s
deployment to enable more push-in supports, directed toward students’ level of need. Multiple activity
groups (run by faculty in partnership with SU) are in place to support students with social skills, selfidentity, etc. Furthermore, the student focus group reported that teachers are very receptive and
welcoming, and that they always know they can count on being able to go to teachers to help, on any
matter. This focus group also noted that students are being pulled from class less frequently than they
had been accustomed to in previous years, remarking that the adjustment considerably assists
students with high needs. Relatedly (and according to the support staff’s focus group), the support
staff reported that they are working instead to push in to students’ settings, acting to make sure
students miss the least possible amounts of instructional time. The Parent Focus Group reiterated
students’ perspectives, reporting that teachers and administrators are receptive and helpful. Staff,
students and parents generally agreed that the school environment has improved in creating a positive
and safe learning environment, and that significant improvements have been made to ensure that
instructional time is effectively utilized and maximized.
Teachers are developing strategies to gather data through summative and formative assessments to
inform instructional practices and student groupings as well as providing feedback on student
achievement The student focus group reported that they receive regular feedback from teachers in a
variety of ways: on work in progress while in class, written comments onto work artifacts, etc.
However, during classroom observations, little more than formal objective assessment (and very
informal, subjective checks for understanding) was used. Exit Tickets were a commonly used (and/or
planned, per provided lesson plans) protocol. Teachers reported still using spring SRI scores to inform
instruction. They use question items from ANet to design activities and are good about sharing math
and ELA data. And although closure is an explicit section of the uniform lesson template, little evidence
exists that it is being executed well or being used consistently to inform subsequent instruction. As a
result, efforts to engage students in their learning by implementing data-based instruction and
providing relevant feedback are in the beginning stages, but they have yet to translate to increased
student achievement.
Recommendation:

Though the school has made considerable strides in addressing and overcoming disruptive behaviors to
create a sturdy baseline learning environment, efforts should now be concentrated on (1) improving
instruction to be both more engaging and more challenging and (2) targeting students’ data-expressed
learning needs. To ensure that all students stay on track toward college- and career-ready
requirements, and to make sure students significantly off-track are receiving the best possible
assistance back onto track, observing curricula, delivery, and operations for necessary levels of rigor
Syracuse City School District – Danforth Middle School
October 2015
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and support and adjusting accordingly, are a recommended improvement step for Danforth.
Tenet 5 - Student Social and Emotional Developmental Health: The school community
identifies, promotes, and supports social and emotional development by designing
systems and experiences that lead to healthy relationships and a safe, respectful
environment that is conducive to learning for all constituents.
Tenet Rating
3
The school is in Stage 3 for Tenet 5 – Student Social and Emotional Developmental Health.
 The school has developed structures and systems to identify and address the students’ social and
behavioral needs. During the principal interview school leaders mentioned that the first line of SEDH
belongs to teachers. It is then elevated to SIT and subsequently to school-wide SIT framework. School
leaders use the tracking forms and spreadsheet to understand where the referrals are coming from,
how they’re being reacted to, who’s using which reactions, etc. Documentation review revealed
multiple levels of student review to continually monitor students’ SEDH needs and address them
appropriately (SIT 1, SIT 2, Discipline/Climate team). The school also uses a strong, comprehensive
Preventative Strategies Plan template to identify students at risk and to plan according interventions
and actions. The support team focus group mentioned working to be more accessible to teachers and
hoping to lower response times in providing their support. They commented on receiving regular
feedback from school’s administration, and reported a clear awareness of responsibilities and
processes. In addition, they also had considerable professional development around things like serving
kids from traumatic backgrounds, incorporating restorative practices/interactions into classrooms.
According to several evidence sources (focus groups, review team members’ previous experiences,
etc.) the school has grown considerably with regard to staff’s awareness of the district’s code of
conduct and school-wide expectations for behavior management. The school exhibits consistent
practices and monitors efforts to ensure that barriers to addressing students’ social and emotional
developmental health are effectively implemented.
 The school has developed programs and materials to support student social and emotional
developmental health, but it is still building cohesive professional development to ensure consistent
adult capacity in these areas. School leaders have designed a systematic approach to tend to students’
emerging needs: both in identifying students and in assigning them to appropriate, differentiated
supports (mentorship groups, partner-provided supports, etc). While there have been partnerships
established between school and SU’s Dr. Haddix to provide PD on working with students from
traumatic experiences; evidence for improvement was not around a programmatic basis, but largely
reactive—at least at this stage of their improvement process. Many actions are in response to family
concerns and a continuing reaction to having been designated ‘persistently dangerous’ school by
NYSED (based on violence index calculated in 2013-14 school year). However, curriculum working to
build character skills incorporated into daily Advisory course for all students was observed. Also, The
school is using Where Everyone Belongs (WEB) to better transition 6th-grade students to middle school.
Professional Development about students’ SEDH provided on conference days and throughout the
year. The school is maintaining programs and supports to address student SEDH needs and continuing
to build adult capacity; the school community is safe, healthy, and able to focus the majority of its time
on student learning.
 Protocols and processes for identifying students’ needs and engaging stakeholders in those procedures
are being implemented at Danforth. Evidence exists that community partners (Contact, Hillside,
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Brownell, etc) are working successfully with the school to provide additional services to students in
need. Another partner, C-Camp, pairs students with mentors to provide guidance, homework help, and
other developmental supports from a nearby engineering firm. During the principal interview it was
mentioned that school leaders have developed an incident-reduction plan. Actions are determined
according to data collected at multiple levels and housed in the school’s comprehensive behavior
tracker. From there, SIT team identifies high-needs students and routes to partnering supports as
available, appropriate. As the school continues to implement school-wide structures for engaging all
stakeholders in meeting the SEDH needs of students, students are also continuing to develop a
common understanding of the importance of their contributions to establishing a safe learning
environment.
The school has a plan to collect, analyze, and use data to identify and meet student social and
emotional developmental health needs. Administration regularly monitors students presenting
profound & persistent behavior issues; studies each student to consider possible social/emotional
developmental health options and routes supports accordingly. SIT teams regularly review data;
behavior tracker organizes and houses all information for regular review and action-planning. Evidence
collected during the support team interview showed that each agency using its own measurements
could use more common means of comparing students’ needs and aligning. This alignment is in
progress by Dr. Reeves to better bring pieces together. Focus group responses indicated that support
groups were aware of this disconnect and were seeking to improve on it moving ahead. Efforts have
been made to create collaborative teams to address SEDH needs of students, and consequently more
students have opportunities to become academically and socially successful.
Recommendation: No recommendation provided, as all sub-tenets rated Stage 3 or higher.
Tenet 6 - Family and Community Engagement: The school creates a culture of
partnership where families, community members, and school staff work together to
share in the responsibility for student academic progress and social-emotional growth
and well-being.
Tenet Rating
2
The school is in Stage 2 for Tenet 6 – Family and Community Engagement.
 The school is developing their efforts and plans to engage parents more effectively and inform them
about the expectations for student achievement. Student Support Group reported how they attempt
to get stakeholders to engage. For example, Monique Wright-Williams, Executive Director of Parent
University, SCSD, led sessions for parents about students’ developmental growth. Furthermore, it was
found that there is no shortage of communication formats and attempts: weekly robocalls, large
school-community-wide events, regular mailers, translated messages for non-English-speaking families,
text-messaged updates from school and individual teachers (app-enabled, using Remind), Facebook
page, etc. These messages regularly repeat key messages about student expectations and school’s
goals. The school leader said that he communicates primarily via robo-calls, texts and emails; however,
there have been limited in-person engagements with parents and in the community. Moreover,
parents were able to speak of expectations for increased performance and improved behaviors but
with little specificity. Parents indicated that they do not receive consistent communication directly
from teachers regarding their students’ progress. Given the lack of feedback provided to parents
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regarding student achievement levels in relation to expectations, families are not able to fully engage
with and support their students’ academic success.
Parents have multiple opportunities to participate in school direction, visioning, and decision-making,
but participation and engagement is overall low and limited. Parents and community members are
engaged to act as stakeholders on the school’s Turnaround School Team and Community Engagement
Team. On such teams, participants review plans and actions the school is looking into taking and help
them to form consensus about their implementation. The school leader admits that the school is
continuing to work on ways to bring more parents into building to receive messages and understand
goals. They are working to find out what works over time like piggybacking PTO meetings onto student
talent shows, for instance. Also, school leaders are working with personnel from outside Danforth
(Monique Wright-Williams) to offer parent workshops on child development, assistance. Teachers also
noted that they keep parent contact logs, and have a directive to call home at 3:1 ratio—3 positive calls
to every 1. School newspaper (soon to be released), community BBQ, emails, mailers home are also
new attempts to engage families in communication with the school.
Principal has designed academically focused parent communications (i.e., data presentations, content
assistance, etc) to happen at school events that include student performances, which he reports have
increased participation but not significantly. Parents surveyed mentioned that the school makes good
efforts, but that it’s very hard for many parents of the school community to engage due to their
circumstances. Because most communication strategies have been one-directional and few parents are
able to attend in-person meetings with school staff, there is little opportunity for parents to share their
thoughts and to deepen the partnership between school and home.
School staff is only beginning to share and integrate data systems to communicate about student
progress and needs in a way that families can understand and advocate for their students accordingly.
School academic data is publicly displayed in school hallways. During principal interview, school leader
shared overview of school achievement data at Welcome Ceremony in the Fall. Teachers use Class Dojo
to share in-class behavioral data—and progress toward behavior goals—with parents. While attempts
are apparent, parents could not produce information when asked that could confirm this impact has
been achieved. No parents were aware of anything more than very general information about the
school’s performance, goals, mission, vision, etc.
Recommendation:

In order to more effectively engage parents in the Danforth school community, and to encourage them
toward providing the types of support the school needs to see for student behaviors to improve and
students’ outside-of-school academic needs to be met, Danforth should comprehensively reconsider its
engagement actions and aspirations. Preferably, parent engagement would begin with a root cause
analysis, seeking to determine both (1) why Danforth parents typically don’t engage and (2) what,
precisely, the school needs out of parents in light of answers to #1. Actions should be designed
according to the types of answers harvested through such root cause analyses, in full
acknowledgement of that past strategies will likely remain inadequate toward reaching engagement
goals.
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Remarks on How to Prioritize the Recommendations:
Though there is no single way to approach school improvement, in order to achieve optimal results efficiently, here is
how the Outside Educational Experts would have thought about prioritizing the provided recommendations (note:
you will have to put some thought into which of these recommendations can be implemented concurrently, and
which may only be able to be addressed partially for the time being given your available time and capacity):

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The recommendations for Tenets 3 and 4, which concern improvements to instructional areas like [1]
building engagement through delivery, [2] creating more level-responsive instruction based on [3] stronger
formative assessment practices, may be the quickest fixes suggested of all the recommendations and could
be a good choice for high prioritization. Additionally, Danforth’s considerable structural improvements to
guide, monitor, and build preferred instructional practices provide effective means through which to plan
priority-related professional development, coaching points and observation criteria,.
Promoting ideas of what effective formative assessment looks like, and challenge teachers to reconsider
current practice. Make the training and continual improvement of (with administrative follow-up on) sound,
productive formative assessment processes a central focus for the second half of 2015-16. In the shorter
term, consider how resources and time might be used to build in-staff expertise around effective formative
assessment principles and processes. Once capacity is built, begin designing the best means for the larger
staff’s subsequent professional development.
To better engage families/parents, consider the population and the goals of your engagement more carefully.
Also, leverage the Community Engagement Team for planning stakeholder-engagement actions in the short
and long terms.
Report Quality Assurance from the District
I certify that I have led this review on behalf of the district and assert that this District-led Review aligns with NYSED
expectations and protocols.
Name
Eric Kalenze
Title
Senior Associate, Insight Education Group
District Lead
Credential status
Issued by NYSED on _________________________
(choose one)
Pending -- The requirements have been fulfilled, but I have yet to receive word from NYSED
Pending -- I have not yet fulfilled the requirements, but plan on doing so by the June 30,
2016.
N/A This is the only School Review with District Oversight and District-led review I am
responsible for.
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