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Ten years ago De Soto 73 School District was provisionally accredited by the state of Missouri after struggling for many years. Fast forward to 2011 and De Soto has been recognized by the state as a district that has reached “Distinction in Performance” for the past six years. This award for achieving at least 13 out of 14 academic standards for five years in a row was given to only 54 K-12 districts of similar size out of 524 districts in Missouri.

Student achievement in reading and math on the Missouri Assessment Program was in the 20th percentile 10 years ago; now it’s close to 60 percent.

But De Soto, which has two elementary, one junior high and one high school, is not content to stay “good.” It wants to get to “great.” This rural school district, located 40 miles from St. Louis, has 3,000 students, mostly Caucasian, with 58% eligible for free and reduced lunch. When Andy Arbeitman took over the helm four years ago, the district was successful, but the district was determined to take De Soto 73 to the next level.

“We are building toward a collaborative curricular culture focused on accelerating student achievement,” Arbeitman says. To expedite that, the district appointed Stacie Stryhal this past year as director of educational support services.
“I want to make sure everyone is working together to benefit student learning,” she says. “This is a collaborative effort, not a top-down mandate.”

De Soto is focusing on two major efforts this year: differentiated instruction and a walkthrough evaluation process.

Previously, principals and their assistants visited classrooms an average of two to three times per year and evaluations were conducted behind closed doors. Now, 5-10 minute pop-in visits are taking place on a regular basis. Administrators come into a classroom, quickly observe what’s happening, fill out a checklist, leave a copy with the teacher and move on. “This provides a snapshot over time of what is happening in the classroom,” Arbeitman says.

Stryhal agrees: “Walkthroughs provide a true baseline of what is actually occurring in our classrooms. We don’t know how to assist our teachers if we’re not constantly immersed in our classrooms.”

But with the new system, they do. “Walkthroughs are meant to give immediate feedback to help teachers improve teaching and learning right away, not at the end of the year after a formal evaluation,” Stryhal says. “It provides a safe and objective method to have courageous conversations between teachers and administrators.”

Administrators have committed to spending 50-60% of their time observing in the classrooms, to the tune of 400 walkthroughs each month. From the beginning of the 2010 school year through March 2011, there have been 7,548 walkthroughs in De Soto’s school buildings.

Differentiated instruction got a boost in the summer of 2010 when all teachers attended professional development workshops to learn effective strategies to provide instruction to different levels of ability within their classrooms. Assistant Superintendent Trish Burkeen says De Soto has seen a positive change this year in differentiated instruction. In August 2010 there was evidence of instruction being offered based on student interest or choice in approximately 14% of the classrooms; that soared to 57% in February 2011.

Student-teacher engagement has also changed in De Soto’s classrooms. The norm used to be a teacher standing in front of the classroom spouting information to the students. Now, students are encouraged to participate more in their own learning, with teachers often acting as facilitators. Teacher-directed instruction has dipped from 87% to 70%, while student-directed instruction has increased from 12% to 30%. This is also reflected on the walkthrough forms.

“We don’t sit on our hands here,” Arbeitman says. Our commitment to differentiated instruction and student-engaged instruction, he says, will lead to higher order thinking and increased student achievement.

The district also welcomes regular e-mail newsletters from the HOPE Foundation which “have helped us stay abreast of ‘best practices’ in the field and reconfirmed that what we are doing is good.”

Arbeitman especially credits HOPE’s information on Professional Learning Communities. “We were encouraged to gain more involvement with our stakeholders, which has resulted in positive influences to our educational approaches and strategies and renewed our focus on curriculum.”

According to the superintendent, HOPE’s emphasis on Failure is not an Option has encouraged De Soto to seek alternative ways to better reach its at-risk population.

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