Callanan Middle School

3010 Center Street

Des Moines, Iowa 50312
Andrew Wade

Des Moines Public School Case Study
Des Moines Public Schools is the largest school district in the state of Iowa.
DMPS is made up of 32,062 students. It is made up of 38 elementary schools, 11 middle
schools, 5 high schools, and 10 special schools/programs. Many of the elementary
schools also have preschool programs.
Student population of Des Moines Public Schools Race/Ethnicity Report
Race/
Ethnicity
Hispanic/
Latino
Native
American
Asian
African
American
Pacific
I slander
White
Mixed
Race
#of
Students
7246 128 2116 5515 32 14909 2020
Percent 22.6% 0.4% 6.6% 17.2% 0.1% 46.5% 6.3%

The districts students that are eligible to receive free or reduced lunch is at 70.6%
and increasing each year. There are 9 elementary and 2 middle schools that are over 90
percent or higher. DMPS also has a diverse immigrant population where over 60
different languages/dialects are spoken and this comprises 16.3 percent of the districts
population. Special Education students account for 15.5 percent of the population.
Many schools in the Des Moines Public School district have been labeled as a
Title I and/or SINA buildings. A Title I school is a building where Title I funds provided
by the federal government are allotted to a school based on the number of students on
free or reduced lunch. Currently, DMPS has 2 high schools, 4 middle schools, and 25
elementary schools that are considered Title I/SINA (School In Need of Assistance)
schools. Currently, DMPS has two elementary schools, three middle schools, and one
high school that are PLAS (Persistently Low Achieving School) Tier 1 schools. This
means that their free and reduced lunches is above 75 percent and are accepting federal
funding. There are three high schools and three middle schools that are considered PLAS
Tier 2 schools. These are schools that are eligible for Title I but are not receiving
funding. SINA buildings are those which do not meet the annual yearly progress in
reading or math in any one of the subgroups for two consecutive years. In the DMPS
there are 47 schools that are considered a SINA school and 31 schools that are considered
both a Title 1/SINA school.
Currently, DMPS has several district programs that are expected to be taught in
all schools. Instructional strategies used in the district to improve reading include
Writing to Learn Strategies, Gradual Release of Responsibility Instructional Model,
Pre/Post data analysis to select or group students, and ongoing formative data to monitor
progress. Strategies used in the district to improve mathematics include Instructional
methods that support mathematical reasoning and problem solving and Differentiated
math instruction. The district also has a focus in literacy, math, and science for the
underrepresented groups in higher level courses, as well as other curriculum specific to
elementary students.
Callanan Middle School
Callanan Middle School is part of the Des Moines Public School district and is
located at 3010 Center Street, Des Moines, Iowa. Callanan currently serves 604 students.
Callanan Middle School students will attend Roosevelt, Hoover, North, and Lincoln high
schools after the eighth grade. The free and reduced lunch population at Callanan is 385
students. Callanan also has an enrollment of 24 percent who are receiving special
education services and 17 percent of students are receiving English Language Learner
services. The minority enrollment at Callanan is 351 students (58%).




Student population of Callanan Middle School Race/Ethnicity Report
Race/
Ethnicity
Hispanic/
Latino
Native
American
Asian
African
American
Pacific
I slander
White
Mixed
Race
#of
Students
93 0 24 181 2 253 51
Percent 15.4% 0.0% 4.0% 30.0% 0.3% 41.9% 8.4%

The atmosphere at Callanan has been one of low achievement among the students
over the past several years. Callanan is currently a PLAS school for low performance in
reading and mathematics. Students are not engaged in their own learning and many times
behavior interrupts classroom instruction. Referrals and suspensions have increased over
the past 5 years by 17%. Parent involvement has been very low to non-existence and
there are few community supports in the area.

Applying Operating Principals
Focus on I nstruction
Callanan Middle School has a School Instructional Leader who assists in the
implementation of instruction as well as observing and evaluating staff. Callanan also
has a Parent/Community Liaison who implements a PTO within the school to help
connect families and the community to Callanan in hopes for greater involvement in the
school. Callanan also has an after school program; 21
st
Century, which offers different
activities for students to get involved in. Students begin receiving help on academics for
the first 45 minutes before starting their activities.
There has been the implementation of data teams to provide more immediate
identification of skill deficit areas and classroom strategies to improve those deficit areas.
Each staff member has a data partner that meets once a week to discuss what is being
taught, and if the students know the content being taught. These data teams also create
common formative assessments to give to students weekly, and look at the data from
these assessments to see where the deficits are in what is being taught. Callanan also
meets in vertical teams once every three weeks to align content and discuss a common
focus in what is being taught from the 6
th
to 8
th
grade, making sure there are no gaps or
overlaps in content.
Callanan has used grant money to purchase new mobile labs, digital presenters
and projectors for every teacher. There has also been the adoption district wide of new
7
th
/8
th
literacy curriculum, as well as non-fiction writing across the curriculum, and the
implementation of I CAN statements (Smart goals) in every classroom.
Participative Decision Making
Callanan has several teams that drive what decisions are made to improve student
instruction. Callanans Building Leadership Team meets every 2
nd
Tuesday of the month. The
focus of the BLT is to make student driven decisions based on data, and increased support in
instruction and learning. The BLT members at Callanan are the four administrators, grade level
team leaders, FAA team leader, ELL leader, and SPED leader. Some of the goals of the BLT
include, planning and implementing building wide professional development, weekly and ensure
that our goals through our School Improvement Plan are being met. Each team leader that
participates in the BLT meetings are responsible for taking back information to their team of
teachers and make sure what is being communicated is implemented throughout their teams.
Callanan has also developed an Instructional Leadership Team which is made up teachers from
all content areas. These teachers meet; make decisions and communicates back to their
respective departments the direction the building. They work to make sure Callanan is working
toward the goals set for the year.
Simultaneity
Every Wednesday, Des Moines Public Schools dismiss students out of school at 1:00
p.m. so teachers and other support staff are allowed professional development time weekly. Each
week it is district mandated what the focus will be and it alternates every three weeks. The
weekly focus are teacher directed, building directed, and district directed. On district led
Wednesdays building staffs are to meet with their District PLC and develop Learner Objectives
and write common formative assessment problems to be used across the district. Building led
Wednesdays focus has been on developing our implementation of becoming a Pre-AP school,
data teaming, collaborative scoring, and learning strategies across the curriculum. Callanan also
has included three extra days where staff participated in an all day workshop on Pre-AP training,
ELL simulation, and SMI/SRI training. Teacher directed Wednesdays are used to allow teachers
to plan and collaborate with other teachers.
Leadership
Callanan Middle School has three leaders who lead the building in professional
development that focus on student achievement and meeting state and district achievement goals.
These leaders are the Building Principal, School Improvement Leader, and the ELL Instructional
Coach. The Building Principal and SIL have been the leaders in developing Professional
Development in implementing of becoming a Pre-AP school and setting goals for Callanan
students as they enter high school and beyond. The Principal and SIL are also the leaders of the
Instructional Leadership Team that meets and presents the PD on the Pre-AP program. The ELL
Instructional Coach is responsible for giving learning strategies that work for Callanans ELL
population. These strategies also work for all students in Literacy and Mathematics and are
dedicated to the training and coaching of teachers in research based strategies to improve student
achievement in these areas. Callanan has also hired a new Behavior Strategist position to work
with students and staff on different Behavior issues.
The Professional Development Cycle
Each school in DMPS has a School Instructional Leadership Team. Each ILT is
comprised of teachers and administrators. The ILT is responsible for developing a school mission
and vision, as well as the school improvement plan, which has to align with district goals. Each
Building Professional Development Plan also has to align with district and building goals. On
building directed early dismissals, the ILT is responsible for leading the professional
development. Professional Development goals align with the schools mission, vision and building
goals.
Collecting and Analyzing Student Data
Callanan Middle School uses a variety of methods to collect and analyze data for reading
and math. In reading and mathematics, data is collected using SRI/SMI scores which are
administered three times per year and analyzed for student growth. District mandated six week
benchmark assessments and individual progress monitoring is used. Teachers also use a variety of
formative and summative assessment data through their data team. Administrative walkthroughs,
ELL Instructional Coachs reflections, the implementation of pacing guides are used. Data in
reading, math, and science is also collected using the Iowa Assessment.




Goal Setting
Callanans School Improvement Plan has several goals as follows.
Goal 1: To raise overall student achievement in mathematics and reading by 5%. There will be a
special focus to raise achievement in subgroups of ELL students and African American students
by 10%. Goal is to increase overall student achievement and close achievement gap. Callanan
Sixth grade students were 49.1% proficient in math and 43.6% proficient in reading. Seventh
grade had proficiency of 56.3% in math and 45.2% proficiency in reading. Eighth grade in math
was 55.7% and 57.5% in reading.
Goal 2: We will decrease the number of students receiving level 2 and level 3 referrals by 30%
from 2396 total (11-12 school year data) to 1680 by the end of the 2012-2013 school year.
Selecting Content
Callanan Middle School follows a rigorous math and literacy program set by the common
core, and science curriculum that is mandated by the district. In reading, DMPS purchased new
curriculum for the 2010-2011 school year. This curriculum has several components that include
an anthology with notable authors of all genres. Within this curriculum there are imbedded active
reading strategies and differentiated assignments. Literacy now uses the common core to guide
their instruction. In 2011-2012, the district decided to go away from the Holt adoption because
the book did not fit the common core. The Holt curriculum is used as a resource for the content
that is to be taught by the common core. DMPS math department decided to develop Units from
the common core in the form of PBITs (Problem Based Instructional Tasks). The key ideas of a
PBIT are to provide a task for students to learn about an important math concept by digging
deeply into it. A PBIT is inquiry-based, in that, the teacher does not provide all the
understandings prior to students solving the task. Instead, the PBIT scaffolds a series of questions
that provide students enough structure to make sense of the concept and discover important
understandings. Work is often done in pairs or small groups with teacher support. After group
work, a whole-class Summary discussion is led by the teacher to help students make connections
to the tasks mathematical content. The Summary discussion is an opportunity for students to
share their strategies and reasoning while the teacher poses critical questions helping students
make connections.
Design Process for Professional Development
Every Wednesday DMPS staff have two hours of professional development, seventeen of
these days are building directed. At Callanan, the focus on building directed days is creating the
mission and vision of the school and the climate and culture of the building. Callanan also has
instructional PD days that deal with data teams, common formative assessments, Pre-AP training,
and research based learning strategies. Callanan also has two additional professional development
days where each staff member participates on a full-day Pre-AP training and diversity ELL
simulation.
On-Going Cycle
Math and Reading goals are monitored in several ways at Callanan Middle School. In
reading, vocabulary, comprehension, and non-fiction writing are monitored through formative
assessments, monthly instructional rounds, weekly analysis of student work, SRI results from fall
and spring, monthly curriculum-based assessments, district benchmark tests, and IA Assessment
scores. Academic assistance for those students who are struggling are monitored through monthly
PLC meetings and weekly data team meetings, formative assessments, and monitoring of grades
on a bi-weekly basis. Independent reading is monitored through daily schedules, reading logs,
library checkouts, teacher observation and conferencing.

To meet the building math goal Callanans staff is doing a number of things. To improve
mathematical and problem solving skills, student achievement is monitored through weekly
formative assessments, weekly analysis of student work during data teams, district benchmark
assessments, and IA Assessment results. In addition to the curriculum, the math department has
decided to do Daily Math Review every day for the first five minutes to increase fundamentals in
mathematical concepts.
To meet the building goal for Level 2 and 3 referrals the administration and staff are
implementing a Positive Behavior System. Staff works with students who are the high flyers and
find supports for those students, which done by reporting these students to the Problem Solving
Team. Parent phone calls, meetings, and counseling sessions with support staff are being used.
Student incentives are used to try to help lower behavior issues.
Collaboration and Implementation
This year has brought many changes to Callanan Middle School. The biggest change has
been getting rid of grade level teaming time. All Callanan teachers now teach an extra class.
Collaboration is done during Wednesday PD or after school. This has been an adjustment for
many teachers because they have less time to discuss student issues or plan interdisciplinary
units. The following chart explains the action and implementation Callanan has for math, reading,
and referral goals.




Description of
Proposed
Action/Activity
Timeline
Roles and
Responsibilities
Evidence of
Implementation
Resulting
Student
Product(s) or
Student
Action(s)
(What is going to
be done to address
our goal?)

Action/Activity:
Summer/Early
fall 2012
Principal facilitates
these activities to
create clear vision and
collective
commitments
Posters, display case,
copies given to all staff,
and visual behavior that
exemplifies staff
working toward vision
School-wide
atmosphere
focused on
positive
relationships and
high expectations
for all students
Creating School
Vision
Action/Activity:
Fall 2012
Content area
representatives whose
purpose is to promote
effective instructional
strategies through
professional
development &
modeling.
ILT meeting minutes,
building directed PD
minutes, implementation
of effective instructional
strategies from PD,
creation of teacher-
teacher walkthrough
form, Data team
minutes, vertical team
alignment, crafted Pre-
AP plan,
Increased student
achievement and
success

Creation of
Instructional
Leadership Team
(ILT)
Action/Activity:
2012-2013
school year
Teachers are to
actively participate
with their content
partners in following
the data team process
focused on
collaboratively
evaluating student
progress and meeting
Data team minutes,
vertical team minutes,
observations, data
collection and analysis
Increased
effectiveness of
classroom
instruction
focused on
increasing student
achievement
All core curricular
staff will
participate in
weekly data team
meetings
student academic
needs.
Action/Activity:
2012-2013
school year
Instructional
Leadership Team
(ILT) will formalize
plan and communicate
with stakeholders
ILT Meeting minutes,
minutes from staff and
parent meetings, posters
on walls throughout
building, information on
Callanan website,
Increased number
of students
prepared to
successfully
complete at least
one AP course in
high school
Pre-AP direction
formalized &
communicated
Action/Activity:
2012-13
school year
New position focused
on providing
professional
development, support
and coaching to
teachers to assist with
meeting academic
needs of ELL
students. Member of
ILT Also, teaches a
few ELL math
intervention classes
Data collected from
ELL classroom
walkthroughs,
professional
development minutes,
feedback from teachers,
school schedule,
classroom observations,
ILT Meeting minutes
Increased student
engagement and
achievement by
ELL students in
classes. Identified
ELL students
gaining more
knowledge in area
of math and able
to show growth
ELL Teacher
Coach








Description of
Proposed
Action/Activity
Timeline
Roles and
Responsibilities
Evidence of
Implementation
Resulting Student
Product(s) or Student
Action(s)
(What is going
to be done to
address our
goal?)

Action/Activity:
Summer/Early
fall 2012
Principal facilitates
these activities to
create clear vision and
collective
commitments
Posters, display case,
copies given to all
staff, and visual
behavior that
exemplifies staff
working toward
vision
School-wide atmosphere
focused on positive
relationships and high
expectations for all
students
Creating School
Vision
Action/Activity:
Culture &
Climate
Committee
All year
Committee focused on
addressing issues that
impact overall climate
& culture of school.
Focusing on issues to
increase positive
student behavior
School policies &
procedures that focus
on increasing a
positive school
culture, fewer
student referrals to
office, Increased
effective responses
to student behavior
concerns.
Professional
development
provided for staff,
Increase of students in
class learning, decrease
in student referrals to
office, decrease in
number of suspensions,
increase in overall
student achievement
Action/Activity: All year Addresses students Observations, parent Fewer office referrals
Behavior
Strategist
with behavior
concerns. Assists with
duties that maintain
safe, school
environment. Provides
support for staff
through class
observations, PD, and
individual meetings.
Assists with problem
solving process,
member of Culture &
Climate Committee,
meetings, team
meetings, student
behavior data,
created individual
behavior plans,
supervision schedule
and suspensions.
Action/Activity:
All year
Special education
behavior strategist, BD
teacher, and
administration
Special education
students who are
receiving behavior
support will spend
more time in class
learning and increase
Fewer special education
suspensions. More
students in class being
academically successful.
Increase in student
achievement
BMZ Zone

Formative Data Collection
Reading
How will we know that the learning has changed? How will district formative
assessments that align content standards and benchmarks be used to measure growth on
an on-going basis?
Data from SRIs will be given three times/year and analyzed to gauge student
growth in reading.
Teachers will use the formative data gained from their study of administrative
walkthroughs, ELL instructional coachs reflections, implementation logs and
recorded use of literacy pacing guides to assess their teaching and planning.
Common classroom literacy benchmark assessments and individual student
progress monitoring will be used to gauge growth.
These formative assessment data will be disaggregated by sub groups to provide
grouping structure for supplemental and substantial intervention measures


Math
How will we know that learning has changed? How will district formative assessments
that align with content standards and benchmarks be used to measure growth on an
ongoing basis?
Math benchmark test will be given for all students and data will be analyzed and
reported to district to gauge student growth in math.
Teachers will use the formative data gained from their study of administrative
walkthroughs, use of math resource guide, and implementation logs from math
collaboration sessions with data and vertical teams.
Building developed formative math tests, based on the math resource guide for
each unit, will be given to all general education students prior to the beginning of
each unit as a diagnostic test (pre-assessment) to determine the skill needs of
students.

Summative Data Collection
Reading
How will we know that learning has changed over time? What are the indicators and
measurement tools that align to that question? Have the combined reading
comprehension scores for grades 6, 7, and 8 increased the targeted 5%? Have all
subgroups met the state average? Have 95% of students at Callanan MS participated in
the IA Assessment?
Students will take the IA Assessment in April; the test results will then be used to
show efforts in identified goal areas.
Proficiency will be indicated by 41
st
percentile or above using national norms
(using the IA Assessment Reading Comprehension Test as the measurement tool).

Math
How will we know that learning has changed over time? What are the indicators and
measurement tools that align to the question? Have the combined math total scores for
grades 6, 7, and 8 increased the targeted 5%? Have all subgroups met the state average?
Have 95% of students at Callanan MS participated in the IA Assessment?
Students will take the IA Assessment in April; the test results will then be used to
show efforts in identified goal areas.
Proficiency will be indicated by 41
st
percentile or above using national norms
(using the IA Assessment Math Total score as the measurement tool).


Summary
The staff at Callanan Middle School cares about the achievement of each student.
What I found out was the staff does not know what our goals are that is in the CSIP plan.
I asked the School Instruction Leader (SIL) for the plan and to my surprise, she did not
know where it was. I figured this would be a document that she would have. As I talked
to other leaders in the building other than the principal, they did not know where it was,
or what the goals were. I find this to be a problem; how are we as a staff able to meet or
work to those goals if we dont know what they are.
We are doing things in our building which will help get to or goals in the plan, but
we have a long ways to go. First, we have to make sure all the stakeholders know what
our goals are and how we plan to get there, and not just assume everyone knows.
Second, I believe it will be easier for staff to get on board with our PD if we would have
known what our goals were and try to attain them by getting better at instruction. PD this
year has felt as we were just doing something else just to do something, and not for a
purpose. Third, we need to do more for our students to help them increase their math and
literacy achievement. Finally, we need to have a better plan for the behavior issues we
are experiencing at Callanan.
I believe we are on the right track for next year on most of the issues we are
facing and the low achievement by the students. I believe the Behavior will get better as
the Behavior Strategist position grows and matures. This was his first year in the
building and he has stated how he would do things differently starting next year. He will
be in more classrooms and helping teachers with strategies to deal with student behavior.
He also wants to do more groups for the chronic behavior students. We have also begun
to change the master schedule to bring in an intervention period for math and reading for
both low and high students. This will help increase math and reading scores as long as
we do it with fidelity. We have also been able to build time in the day for teachers to
meet and talk about achievement and behavior. This master schedule change has great
promise to achieve our goals for the students. Lastly, we will have our Pre-AP program
starting next year. This s a common goal we as a staff have been working on this past
year.

Names of People I Interviewed for this FBLA
Doug Calaway Principal
Tambi Greene Vice Principal
Cheryl Modlin School Instruction Leader
Joseph Ortega Behavior Strategist
Nikki Westcott ELL Instructional Coach
Kathy Jones English Teacher

Time: 20 hours