• Category 3

    Selected in 2016

  • Grades: pre k - pre k
    School Setting: urban
    Town Population: 175,000
    Student Enrollment: 670
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 27%
    White/Caucasian: 29%
    Hispanic: 16%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 15%
    Native American: 5%
    Other: 8%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:24
    % Reduced Lunch: 70%
    % ELL Learners: 35%
    Founded: 1994
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Dr. Kirk Zeeck
  • CONTACT:
    3701 E. 3rd Street
    Sioux Falls, SD 57108
    605-367-6084
    kirk.zeeck@k12.sd.us
Anne Sullivan Elementary
Sioux Falls, SD
"We try. We learn. We grow." We must be safe enough to take risks and learn from our mistakes.
Describe specific programs in place to ensure that families are involved in the success of your school and students.
Family and Cultural Nights provide opportunities for families to participate in school functions and share their backgrounds. Families are encouraged to volunteer in the classrooms and participate in field trips.
Describe the most successful activity your school has initiated to strengthen ties to your community.
Anne Sullivan Elementary has partnered with the City of Sioux Falls since our inception just over 20 years ago. Two meetings are held each year at the school with representatives of different city departments. Each meeting provides an opportunity to review past efforts and brainstorm new possibilities. City employees are always welcome to volunteer at family nights, character assemblies, and PTO events. Fourth grade students sing holiday carols in December at City Hall, local businesses, and a retirement home. City employees write each student a valentine in February and each class creates a BIG Valentine's Day card to be displayed in each City department to be viewed by all. Monthly 5th grade career cafes provide City employees, as well as others, an opportunity to share their talents and experiences with students during a lunch at the attached community center. Firefighters help with an annual food drive in early February aptly titled The "Soup-er" Bowl.
Describe your philosophy of school change or improvement.
Our staff is dedicated to our mission - to build a nurturing community committed to the academic success of each student. Strong relationships (student-to-student, staff-to-student, and staff-to-staff) are critical attribute of achieving our mission. Additionally, the entire building. students and staff, has internalized the following purpose statement: "We try. We learn. We grow." We must be safe enough to take risks, as students and staff, and learn from our mistakes. Goal-setting, combined with specific and immediate feedback, help us to identify our current reality and strive for possibilities.
What are your school’s top two goals for the next year?
Our top goal: All students proficient or advanced on the state assessment by the end of 3rd grade.

Our next goal: Increase 5th graders' Hope score on the Gallup Poll.
What is the single most important factor in the success of your school that others could replicate?
The single most important factor would be our intervention schedule. Intervention teachers either push-in or pull-out during this time. For example, 5th grade intervention begins each day (8:15-9:00), followed by 4th grade (9:00-9:45), and so on. Kindergarten and 1st grade teachers determined it would be best to divide their intervention into two 30-minute time frames. All intervention teachers flood into the classrooms during these sessions. As you might imagine, collaboration between classroom teachers and intervention teachers is extremely important. Time must be set aside for this type of collaboration. Google Documents have also made it convenient to share curriculum maps between classroom and intervention teachers.
Describe the program or initiative that has had the greatest positive effect on student achievement, including closing achievement or opportunity gaps, if applicable.
In 2013, Anne Sullivan classroom and non-classroom teachers began ELA block scheduling with 45-60 minute intervention sessions (both ELA and math). The intervention sessions allow for ELL, SPED, and reading specialists to flood into grade levels throughout the day to provide intense intervention with small groups of students.
Explain how Title I funds are used to support your improvement efforts.
Title I funds are used to reduce class size in kindergarten (18-20 students per room), fund 28 Early Childhood spots, and hire English language learner and reading specialist intervention teachers. In addition, Title I funds partially fund support staff such as a success coordinator to support behavior intervention, a social worker, and a school liaison to support students whose first language is not English. Finally, Title I funds substitute teachers and time beyond the contract day for teachers to participate in data informed collaboration, Boys Town training, workshops, and Solution Tree conferences.
Identify the critical professional development activities you use to improve teaching and student learning.
Each teacher is trained in the Developmental Reading Analysis (DRA) and teachers who have contact with K-3 students are currently training in Word Analysis through a literacy grant. All teachers are trained in Add+Vantage Math Recovery. Instructional coaches work with all teachers, with a focus on 1st year teachers, to develop professionally on topics of need. The Instructional Leadership Team, comprised of a representative from all areas, is participating in a Common Formative Assessment book talk this school year.
Describe how data is used to improve student achievement and inform decision making.
Anne Sullivan Elementary teachers believe that we must collaborate consistently in our Professional Learning Community in order to improve teaching and learning. Teachers engage in a formal collaboration twice per week on power standards and use the data cycle when answering the four questions: What do we want students to learn? How will we know when they have learned it? What will we do for those students who have yet to reach mastery? What will we do for those students who have reached mastery? Common formative assessments are the backbone of our dialogue. Also, a 1/2 time data instructional coach provides guidance and reflection opportunities for teachers. A K-5 data wall makes our data visible.
Describe your school culture and explain changes you’ve taken to improve it.
Our school culture is immersed and wrapped in our building's shared mission 'To create a nurturing environment dedicated to the academic success of each student'. All teachers have received training and continue to study the principles outlined in PAGE (Peer Alliance for Gender Equity), a premier National Science Foundation-funded leadership program for educators in the upper Midwest. In addition, our focus statement, "We try. We learn. We grow.", combined with a strong emphasis on students attending college (apprenticeship, technical school, or university), strives to instill hope in all of our students.
Stats
  • Category 3

    Selected in 2016

  • Grades: pre k - pre k
    School Setting: urban
    Town Population: 175,000
    Student Enrollment: 670
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 27%
    White/Caucasian: 29%
    Hispanic: 16%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 15%
    Native American: 5%
    Other: 8%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:24
    % Reduced Lunch: 70%
    % ELL Learners: 35%
    Founded: 1994
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Dr. Kirk Zeeck
  • CONTACT:
    3701 E. 3rd Street
    Sioux Falls, SD 57108
    605-367-6084
    kirk.zeeck@k12.sd.us