Applying Baldrige: Des Moines Public Schools – Abraham Lincoln High

School

Renita Darrah

EDL 272: Organizational System

Behavior Dr. Doug Stilwell

May 9th, 2023

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Organizational Profile

What is your key organizational characteristics?

Abraham Lincoln High School’s (ALHS) diverse population of customers receive

rigorous educational experiences. Through relevant instruction, students are equipped

with the tools needed to be global citizens. ALHS stakeholders: students, parents, and

community members, can access many of the resources that the school provides to

support educational and personal needs. Stakeholders of ALHS have the support of 122

certified staff and forty-nine classified staff members who strive to maintain the core

values to include the community and common collectives that uphold the building

mission within the school.

Abraham Lincoln High School’s mission is “To empower all students by providing

rigorous and relevant experiences in preparation for success in a global society.” The

shared vision with the district is to, “Become a community leader in urban education.”

ALHS’s Core Beliefs:

 “We believe in high expectations for all students without exception.

 We believe students learn in different ways and in different time frames.

 We believe our school community is responsible for equity.

 We believe in supporting all students in overcoming past and present obstacles to

achieve success.

 We believe involvement in school and community activities inspires creativity,

positive behavior, and fosters a sense of belonging.”

As a collective, staff revisit each core belief of ALHS and share their successes and
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struggles with peers through professional development workshops, department

meetings, and PLC meetings. These core values were created and implemented by staff

and are an important part of the building culture and embraced by the school’s

stakeholders. ALHS is the largest school in the Des Moines Public School District

(DMPS) with an enrollment of over 2400.

The demographics of Abraham Lincoln High School staff are as follows:

 There are 122 certified staff and forty-nine classified staff:

o 84% white

o 3% Black

o 6% Hispanic

o 6% other.

The organizational structure is below:

Team Members Purpose

At-Risk Coordinators, Improve universal

Tier 1 Team Teachers (unpaid, instruction and behavior

voluntary) intervention for the

Tier 1 system

At-Risk Coordinators,
Instructional supports to
Tier 2 Team Behavioral
improve student
Interventionist,
performance beyond Tier
associate principals,
1.
success worker,
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counselors

Teachers and

Counselors (by Develops building goals

School Leadership Team application), Behavior and plans for achieving

Interventionist, goals.

instructional coaches, At-

Risk

Coordinators

Teachers and counselors

Professional Learning (application required), Deploy classroom

Community Leader Team instructional coaches, processes as developed by

associate principals, other leadership teams.

athletic director, principal

Instructional coaches, Develop teaching

Instructional Leadership Team
principal, associate instructional

principals capacity.

Principal, associate
Administrative Team Govern and manage ALHS.
principal, athletic director
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 The student population is as follows:

o 44% white

o 31% Hispanic and Latinx

o 13% Black

o 7% Asian

o 5% mixed race.

Of the 2,400 enrolled students, 78% of students qualify for free and reduced

lunch, 14% are considered English Language Learners, and 15% receive for special

education services. ALHS’s diverse and everchanging population pose many challenges

and advantages for the building which require and have aided in the development of

strong community partnerships.

ALHS partners with organizations within the community to support students and

families. During the height of the Covid Pandemic, two of the school’s local community

partners, The Food Bank of Iowa and Iowa Food Pantry helped ALHS create a food pantry

within the school that students can access during school hours to receive food and other

necessities for them and their families. In addition, ALHS works with DMPS to provide health

services, legal services, financial assistance, childcare, and many more services, so that

students can feel safe and ready for rigorous activities within the classroom.

What is your organization’s strategic situation?

The school created a school leadership team to help staff meet the building’s

mission and DMPS created goals. The goal of these boards was to create consistency

and a positive climate at the school. While the committees are taking the necessary
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action steps to improve school culture, communication is a driver between these

groups. The struggles and areas for growth will be discussed in the leadership and

strategy category. Lincoln routinely sends Panorama surveys to stakeholders to aid in

building improvement.

ALHS’s main competition are the four other high schools within DMPS. Roosevelt High

and East High Schools are the closest in proximity to ALHS and are often compared in test

scores when determining access to resources. With open enrollment students in DMPS can

enroll at ALHS’s competitor schools which leads to schools competing for the same

resources. Data used to compare ALHS with its competitors include the District Interim

Assessment, ISASP, behavior referrals, and failure rates. This data information is used to

write goals aid committees within the building for improvement.

Customers

How do you listen to your students and other customers, and design programs

and services to meet their needs?

ALHS incorporates many systems to listen to the needs of the students, with the

Panorama survey being the focus. Other forms of feedback from the customers of ALHS

include student surveys, and student leadership participation. The Panorama is given

once per year to staff and students. The key findings from the survey are in regard the

energy and fairness of the staff towards students. Results from the Panorama survey

have been key motivators behind goals and action steps taken by Lincoln leadership.

During the 2022-2023 school year, leadership has introduced community town halls that

meet once per month as well as Coffee Talk with Paul, where staff can meet monthly

during one of three sessions with Paul Williamson the school principal in a casual
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conversation about school happenings and concerns.

In addition to these changes, innovative programs were developed for the 2022-2023

school year that will provide students with learning in creating change through action and

research. For the 2022-2023 school year students had previously requested instruction

on social-emotional learning and healthy relationships. The Tier 1 team has responded

to these requests with a series of student created lessons that are implemented

sporadically throughout the school year. The intention of this was to help students grow

and feel welcomed and apart of ALHS. The goal was to resurvey students once per

month to determine the effectiveness of these lessons.

Lastly, the Instruction Leadership Team has provided opportunities for

professional development regarding building relationships with students. One key

ongoing PD has been the implementation of Trauma Informed. All staff have been

learning on how to approach students with known traumas and unknown traumas in a

way not to trigger them. In addition to this, staff have been encouraged to spend

intentional time each day building relationships with students that includes warm

welcomes, agendas, consistency, and warm closings. Staff have been encouraged to

ask students for feedback that drives the design of classroom instruction. There is no

system wide strategic process in place that allows staff to intentionally act on student

feedback.
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How do you build relationships with students and other customers and determine

satisfaction and engagement?

Lincoln has many community relationships that increase student and parent

access to much needed resources. Also, Lincoln collaborates closely with its parent

and stakeholder organization, Building Lincoln Higher (BLH) to raise funds that support

school resources for athletics and extracurriculars. These partnerships allow a space

for various stakeholders to share their opinions about how the needs of the students

should be met. Currently, all other complaints are filtered to various administrators

depending on the complaint and availability of the administrators.

Strengths

ALHS’s strength is it is use of existing measures to determine student needs.

Specifically, Lincoln’s use of Panorama and Listening Sessions to set goals has

expressed to the customers and workforce the importance of responding to the needs

and wants.

ALHS analyzes the responses from the surveys issued to its customer’s and

stakeholders and forms committees to address the bigger concerns from the results.

These committees and teams take these and focus on how they align with the building

goals. The goals of the building are clear within all committees. This consistency allows

for each team to articulate its plans and purpose clearly. Furthermore, the alignment of

goals creates a clear purpose for deployment of strategy when plans are communicated

to staff.

Administration also focuses on transparency with its stakeholders. ALHS

believes that this transparency of nonconfidential information with its customers and

stake holders leads to confidence within the leadership team as well as within the
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school. As a benefit, retention of stakeholders and customers in return.

Opportunities for Improvement

ALHS does not have a strategic process in place to respond and issue

improvements based on customer responses. This arrives from the lack of process for

collecting complaints from all customers. Recently, administration has been asking

students to attend Building Leadership Team (BLT) meetings to gather their input on

building initiatives, however this is a revolving door of students being invited. A way to

fix this would be to have an application process for students to apply to be a part of the

BLT meetings with roles assigned to them. In return, these students can hold town hall

meetings after school for other customers within the building to find out what is

happening with the school as well as plans for school improvement that the leadership

team has. This would also be a positive reinforcement for BLT students to gain

leadership skills and learn how to solicit feedback from their peers.

Furthermore, there are no processes in place for customer or stakeholder

complaints to be utilized to make systemic improvements. The school currently does not

have any stakeholder or customer input in the development of goals. A potential area of

improvement would be to include a process for stakeholders and customers to be

included in the planning and process development of goal. Furthermore, including these

individuals in the strategic development of plans for improvement as it is related to

achieving these goals. The administration team is currently working on this by

implementing semesterly town hall meetings after conferences to serve the

stakeholders in the community. This should be completed multiple times per semester.
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By increasing these meetings, stakeholders’ confidence in the administration will

increase.

ALHS also has a low customer participation rate in extracurricular activities. As

well as lack of family and community engagement in events surrounding the school and

hosted by the students and building leaders. The school Facebook page lacks any

direction. Social media accounts highlight student athletes and seldom others involved

in extracurricular activities and daily life at ALHS. ALHS could improve participation in

extracurriculars by hosting a fair during the first two days of school. Currently staff is

requ8ired to arrange their lessons around SEL practices during those first days to build

community within the classroom. The extra-curricular activity fair should be held during

the school day so students can discover all that ALHS has to offer.
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Improvement Plan Template

Opportunity for Improvement: Customer and Stakeholder Input on School Goals

Action Steps Responsibilities Timeline Assessment Resources Communication

(What Will Be (Who Will Do It?) (By When? Processes Needed Plan
Done? Be Date/Month) (What methods (Resources Needed (Who is involved?
specific) will be used Resources What methods?
assess results?) Available) How often?)

Improvement Sent to both May of the Committees Emails of Community of

Survey customers and current that include stakeholders ALHS.
stakeholders. school year voluntary and customers, Communication
to be members of as well as social will be sent via
worked on stakeholders media accounts email and on
for the and explaining the social media
upcoming customers importance. A platforms to
school year. will review survey tool that address the
the can be sent out importance of
responses. both the survey and
Subgroups to electronically value of
be made up and through customer input.
to analyze the mail.
responses for
improvement.
Formation of Members from May of the Responses Survey Email and Social
a School the ALHS current will be sorted Responses and Media the month
Improvement community, school year. into Volunteers. prior to and
Committee stakeholders, categories weekly until the
that just and customers. and release of the
handles the subgroups survey.
responses to will be
the survey. formed base
off of those
categories.
Analyzation Subgroups from Summer Assessing of Time and Updates through
of the the School prior to the the tools Volunteers. Social media
responses Improvement school year available to Survey platforms to
Committee beginning. meet the responses. address how the
(SIC) requests. As process is going,
well as and if necessary
assessing the follow-up of the
validity of individuals that
the request. took the survey.
Transform Leadership Prior to Leadership Time, PDSA Town hall
manageable Team start of will analyze from meetings with
requests into school year. the results subcommittees stakeholders and
building from the SIC surrounding customers to
goals for the and their goals and address goals
upcoming determine if ideas for and instill
school year. the goals are improvement. confidence in the
feasible. leadership.
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