PreK-12 Case Studies

In order to align and advance systems, all districts can continue to look at Connecticut’s Next Generation Accountability System, which is a broad set of 12 indicators that will help tell the story of how well a school is preparing its students for success. While it is challenging at times to think beyond the test scores, there are other important indicators that can be the focus of improvement. Jennifer Michalek, the math consultant for the State Department of Education, notes that the most relevant indicators are the following:

Indicator 1: Academic Achievement

Indicator 2a-d: Academic Growth

Indicator 5: Preparation for College and Career Readiness (CCR) through coursework

Indicator 6: Preparation for CCR through exams

For more information, contact Jennifer Michalek at jennifer.michalek@ct.gov.

In order to advance students' math identities and achievement, particularly for our multilingual learners (MLLs), starting in 2010, Danbury supported extensive teacher professional learning. We started with SIOP® and have evolved, including training on culturally responsive teaching, partnering with REL-NEI in their studies on MLLs, and more. In math, this means we look at language routines.

We have also looked at Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Protocols. (Focused on the workd of Sharroky Hollie). Some of these aren't math specific, but our coaches and leads developed examples in math to help educators see how to make this happen. We connect this work directly with our curricular resources. We use Illustrative Math. You can find some of our presentations on Illustrative Math at various conferences (ATMNE Presentation). We also use iReady to support as well. We administer this in English and Spanish- though we wish we could do this for even more languages. 

To support students, and particularly MLs, we focused on prerequisite skills and have seen positive results. The growth for those who have received supports in their native language Is fantastic. For example, our data shows at the mid year diagnostic, the median percent progress towards Typical Growth for the group taking the diagnostic in Spanish was 108% at one of our middle schools and 88% at the other, compared to median percent progress toward typical growth for the overall population being 62% at each school.

As for areas to continue to improve, we have a lot of initiatives that are "in pockets" and we need to get these to be more district wide and systematic for greater impact.

For more information, contact Rachel Saunders at saundr@danbury.k12.ct.us.