Spinning Tires in Iowa

As most ABPTL readers know, I spend a lot of time in Des Moines, Iowa.

Last week the Des Moines Public Schools released a five-year district improvement plan designed to improve learning for kids enrolled in the Iowa’s largest district.

The Des Moines Register reported that,

“The Des Moines Public Schools community has received its first look at the district’s new five-year strategic plan for improving education.”

“The Cultivating Success: A Strategic Plan for Des Moines Public Schools – unveiled Tuesday during a board work session – focuses on district goals for student educational outcomes; the well-being of students and staff, staff retention and recruitment; and building partnerships with the businesses and the school community.”

“’This strategic plan represents a bold step forward for Des Moines Public Schools,’ said Superintendent Ian Roberts in a district news release. ‘It is a reflection of our commitment to providing every student with the resources, opportunities and support they need to thrive.’”

“A committee has been working on the report, and gathering information and feedback since last school year, officials said during [last] Tuesday’s meeting. A focus group made up of board members, families, teachers and school leaders assisted with the work.”

“The strategic plan is also meant to complement the district’s coming Reimagining Education initiative, said Robert Lundin, chief academic officer at Des Moines Public Schools and a member of the committee. Both aim to improve academic outcomes for students, and better utilize school and community resources.”

“’This plan is intended to set up the future of Des Moines Public Schools,’ Lundin said.”

“The plan comes as Iowa’s largest and most diverse school district deals with chronic absenteeism, ongoing budget shortfalls and declining student enrollment.”

“Here is what to know about the new strategic plan:

Priority No. 1: Cultivating equity and excellence through high-quality teaching and learning –

At the top of the district officials’ priorities is ensuring 100% of students graduate with the skills to go to college, enter the workforce or join the military.”

“Steps toward this goal include more training for staff, expanding course offerings for students and making students aware of programs such as Diploma+ – which allows students to earn dual credits and explore possible job opportunities.”

“Officials will continue to use the 9^th Grade on Track program to keep freshmen on track to graduate in four years, according to the report.”

“The priority also sets a goal of having 90% of students meet ‘grade level proficiency on literary outcomes,’ according to the plan. This includes making sure staff are using the science of reading.”

“Priority No. 2: Cultivating well-being –

The priority aims for 100% of student and staff to feel safe, according to the plan.”

“Meeting this goal includes making sure 100% of staff are trained in ‘culturally responsive, trauma informed, restorative practices,’ and ensuring that staff learns how to identify implicit bias.”

“Officials also want 100% of students to feel they belong in their schools.”

“Experts say that students are more likely to attend class if they feel connected to the staff and what they are learning in school.”

“Officials would also like to boost average daily attendance to 95% by 2030, the plan states.”

“Priority No. 3: Cultivating transformative talent –

This priority aims to bring the number of district teachers and leaders of color to 40% by spring 2030 by creating ‘an equitable staff recruitment and selection process.”

“The percentage of teachers and school building administrators who are persons of color is 8.4%; that’s been trending upward,’ said Phil Roeder, Des Moines schools’ spokesperson, in a text message. ‘For example it was 6.4% in the spring of 2021, 6.7% in the spring of 2022, and 7.3% in the spring of 2023.’”

“Priority three also calls for designing a plan for retaining these new hires.”

“Additionally, the plan aims for 90% of staff to be able to report a ‘sense of well-being’ by 2030.”

“Priority No. 4: Cultivating organization effectiveness –

The next priority focuses on ensuring the number of students who are open enrolling out of the district will not exceed the number of kids open enrolling into DMPS by 2030.”

“To reach this goal, officials want to help students in all grades create a plan for life after high school.”

“The strategic plan also calls for reviewing current district building use, enhance safety and technology infrastructure, and improve students’ participation in athletics and/or activities.”

“Priority No. 5: Cultivating community and collaboration –

This priority aims to have 100% of student have a ‘meaningful connection to the community through life, college and career opportunities.’”

“Officials hope to achieve this by building relationships between families and students and community organizations and local businesses.”

“Officials also want to involve families and community members more in students’ education.”

“Each priority has a different suggestion for tracking results including surveys, establishing committees and tracking students’ state assessment scores.”

“Officials knew ‘that unless we set the goals high, that it becomes an excuse to settle for something less,’ Lundin said in an interview after the meeting. ‘And…it’s really hard to look a group of kids in the eye and say, ‘Which 20% are we going to leave behind?’ We won’t do that. And it was the consensus of our committee and its members that we be bold and direct in setting the standards high for what our performance is going to look like.’”

Cultivating equity and excellence through high-quality teaching and learning, cultivating well-being, cultivating transformative talent, cultivating organizational effectiveness, and cultivating community and collaboration.

Sounds like a district improvement plan from the 1990’s.

Hey Des Moines, how about committing to these desired outcomes for your kids?

Priority No. 1: Making sure every young learner in the Des Moines Public Schools is a strong reader, writer, and problem-solver.

Priority No. 2: Building individual learning plans for every young learner in Des Moines, which includes the young learner’s family’s input.

Priority No. 3: Hiring generalist and specialist learning coaches for every 25 young learners in the Des Moines Public Schools and paying them $100,000 as a starting salary.

Priority No. 4: Re-engineering places called schools and central office to make sure every position hired supports the relationship between Des Moines’ young learners and their learning coaches. And stop spending so much money on school and district positions that have nothing to do with supporting young people getting smarter and stronger with their reading, writing, problem-solving, and character development skills.

Priority No. 5: Build relationships with families and communities by taking learning outside of schools and into the city of Des Moines.

Finally, I heard an interview with Des Moines Superintendent Ian Roberts last week. The topic was chronic absenteeism.

You know what? Not once during the interview did Superintendent Roberts once question whether Des Moines’ students weren’t coming to school because they found school boring, which national data suggest is a primary reason for kids not attending public schools these days. Roberts talked about a host of other reasons, but not pure boredom.

Des Moines can come up with as many strategic plans as possible, but if they don’t admit that the reason lots of kids aren’t showing up to their school these days – especially black, brown, and poor kids – is because of learner boredom, then they aren’t really interested in improving learning for the kids living in the largest city in Iowa, are they?

Til tomorrow. SVB