• Category 2

    Selected in 2017

  • Grades: pre k - pre k
    School Setting: urban
    Town Population: 38,000
    Student Enrollment: 600
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 59%
    White/Caucasian: 12.5%
    Hispanic: 17%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 2%
    Native American: 0%
    Other: 9.5%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:18
    % Reduced Lunch: 95.1%
    % ELL Learners: 51%
    Founded: 1955
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Jeffrey Sheehan
  • CONTACT:
    955 South State Street
    Dover, DE 19901
    302-672-1690
    jeffrey.sheehan@capital.k12.de.us
South Dover Elementary School
Dover, DE
By being receptive and responsive to students individually, we believe that our success will continue to grow.
Describe specific programs in place to ensure that families are involved in the success of your school and students.
We continually work each year to find successful and innovative ways to connect with families in our community. With the aid of a strong core group of parents, we annually put on events the engage our families and meet their needs. Annual events include a Community Thanksgiving dinner with traditional fare and an authentic Native American presentation, Family-based instructional nights that work to support parents and students at home in Reading and Math, as well as grade level and program Music/Art performances. We have found the most success comes from looking at evening events through the parent lenses. Understanding that evenings at home are fast paced, we make it regular practice to provide dinner for families. knowing that fitting in everything before the early elementary school bedtime can be tough.
What is the single most important factor in the success of your school that others could replicate?
South Dover Elementary houses a large portion of our district's Spanish Immersion Program. Spanning across each grade level this program includes more than 1/3 of our students. We have found success in hiring domestic and international teachers to help grow and develop this program within our school. The impact culturally has been tremendous, with an additional focus on Spanish Language and Culture throughout the building. This program receives a great amount support from our district and Department of Education. Paired with support from DOE Field Agents, the facilitation of a Spanish Immersion PLC has given this program further focus and drive as we work collaboratively to evolve our instruction. With increased rigor naturally embedded within the structure of the program, students are inertly challenged as they work through traditional standards-based lessons during the English portion of their day, while Math and Spanish Language Arts taught exclusively in Spanish during the other.
Describe the program or initiative that has had the greatest positive effect on student achievement, including closing achievement or opportunity gaps, if applicable.
This school year our approach to student assessment included several focuses. First and foremost we worked throughout the school to ensure that students were met at their instructional level by providing prescriptive interventions in both reading and math. Secondly, we made it a goal to create less stressful testing environments with the intent to remove common barriers like test anxiety and fatigue that often impede student’s abilities to showcase their achievement. Our slogan for testing was “Roll to Success” and culminated with 150+ third and fourth grade South Dover students celebrating their success at the roller skating rink!!
Identify the critical professional development activities you use to improve teaching and student learning.
This school year we focused on creating more authentic opportunities for staff to collaborate. We began peer to peer observation cycles that really worked to spotlight and spread the strong instructional practices happening within our school. We scheduled opportunities for staff to visit peers with the focus on sharing great practices and ideas, showcasing strengths and planning new ways to reach students within our classrooms. This practice worked to counter the idea that “You Don’t Know, What You Don’t Know”, by allowing staff to showcase strengths and facilitate open genuine conversations about instructional progress. By being receptive and responsive to students individually, we believe that our success will continue to grow.
Describe how data is used to improve student achievement and inform decision making.
Our school improvement teams meet to review the data of individual students, classes, grade levels and the school as a whole. Without specific data points, informed decisions about instruction cannot be made. Classroom assessments are also considered. For example, data that shows students did not fare well on questions on a reading assessment focused on theme would trigger a teacher to reteach, collaborate with colleagues and approach the lesson in an alternative way. Throughout the year, universal screeners are utilized to determine the zone of proximal development for individual students in reading comprehension, fluency and mathematics. Our goal is to gather specific information for each student to assure differentiated instruction is planned and implemented to meet the needs of said student. Once goals and targets are set, decisions are regarding instruction and intervention and then put into action. Data is again collected as student improvement is cyclical and ongoing.
Stats
  • Category 2

    Selected in 2017

  • Grades: pre k - pre k
    School Setting: urban
    Town Population: 38,000
    Student Enrollment: 600
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 59%
    White/Caucasian: 12.5%
    Hispanic: 17%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 2%
    Native American: 0%
    Other: 9.5%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:18
    % Reduced Lunch: 95.1%
    % ELL Learners: 51%
    Founded: 1955
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Jeffrey Sheehan
  • CONTACT:
    955 South State Street
    Dover, DE 19901
    302-672-1690
    jeffrey.sheehan@capital.k12.de.us