CALIFORNIA SCHOOLS TO WATCH
California Schools to Watch is a statewide program implemented by the California League
of Middle Schools, California Department of Education, California Middle Grades Alliance, National Forum, and the California Schools to Watch model schools.
Redesignated: 2021, 2024
Designated 2018
Downey Unified School District
Los Angeles County
Allison Box, Principal
11985 Old River School Road, Downey, CA 90242
(562) 904-3565
School Characteristics
Community: Urban fringe; Enrollment: 1,310; Grade Levels: 6-8; School Schedule: Six period schedule with an optional zero period. Shortened instructional day on Wednesday to allow two hours for staff collaboration. Period two has an additional 115 minutes for the Spartan TV broadcast, and period 5 has an additional 11 minutes for sustained silent reading.
School Demographics
Free/reduced lunch 72%; English learners: 10%
Replicable Practices
School utilizes an “academic support index” to identify the needs of individual students and provide intervention classes focused on the whole child in ELA and math.
Through staff development days, common preps, and weekly scheduled collaboration time, staff identify and prioritize standards through their curriculum maps, create common formative assessments, and use data to reflect and identify areas for re-teaching.
Stauffer’s instructional leadership team leads the staff in creating and implementing evidence-based practices and implementing the school-wide focus: “Read, Lead, Succeed.”
Teachers can be involved in the Downey Unified “fellows” program an intensive program pairing individual teachers in a PLC with an instructional coach. Participants intentionally carry out the teaching cycle by working collaboratively through a lesson study process that includes lesson preparation, implementation, reflection, and re-teaching.
Through a “21st-century learning initiative” teachers receive support for three years from a district Instructional technology coach serving students at Stauffer in three of their core classes.
Students are exposed to “Career Technical Education/Pathways” that prepare students to enter high school and begin pathways of their choosing. Among the choices for students are: law/mock trial, introduction to culinary arts, foundations of animation, Project Lead the Way Units, and math 7 and 8 computing. In addition, the school offers AVID, drama, marching band, jazz band and music.
With the support of the administration and the leadership team, Stauffer has trained staff and implemented AVID strategies school-wide with teachers and students embracing the practices.
Stauffer supports student organization and goal setting through “Organizational Wednesdays” which consist of binder checks, the reviewing of Spartan guide planners, and creating individual SMART goals with students. Each month a different department takes charge of organizational Wednesdays making the clear statement that expectations are the same in every room and every subject.