Davison Avenue featured in best practices case study

Malverne’s Davison Avenue Intermediate School was recently featured in the “Know Your Schools-For NY Kids Project” as a case study in best practices for meeting critical needs at the elementary level. The article features an overview of the school, including its transition to an intermediate school last year, the school’s current successes and its plans for future success.

The article focuses on how Davison is helping its students achieve at higher levels and how one of this year’s goals is to increase the number of students on the honor roll. Putting a strong focus on academic achievement while educating the whole child, the staff honors students who exemplify the rules of respect, impulse control, compassion and equity (RICE) at a monthly Peacemakers Assembly. A teacher of the school is anonymously quoted in the article as saying, “We have a long-standing belief that we can meet the needs of every single child. We are going to keep the bar high for our students.”

Some of the “Best Practices” highlighted in the article include a look at the school-wide commitment to success, individualization of instruction and services, colleague collaboration and balancing test preparation with teaching skills, strategies and content. These best practices are conducive to achieving the districtwide goal of raising the bar.

This case study was one of a series of studies conducted by Know Your Schools-for NY Kids since 2005. Schools were selected for the study based on the performance of critical needs subgroups on New York state assessment exams of English Language Arts and mathematics from 2007 to 2009. Interviews with staff and research were gathered during the 2010-11 school year. Conducted by the University at Albany School of Education, the full guide can be found at www.albany.edu/aire. Davison is proud to feature its notable programs as a case study for other districts to model and achieve success.