Learning-Focused Connections Newsletter

In This Issue

The Learning-Focused Connections Newsletter is a weekly link to exemplary practice and ideas that will help you as an educator to increase achievement in your classrooms and schools. Some weeks there will be a mix of articles in the mailer, other weeks we will follow a theme. If there are questions you want answered, or strategies you want to know more about please let us know. We are all working with the same goal in mind, continuous improvement in student achievement.

Why "Connections"?

Over twenty years ago Dr. Max Thompson was conducting school improvement research and he found that many schools were having some minor successes raising achievement by implementing one or two exemplary practice strategies. The problem, he found, was that teachers had difficulty knowing when to do the strategies, how to plan for them, and how to have students use them most effectively. Dr. Thompson also discovered that when combined, exemplary practices have a much greater impact of achievement. Thus, he set out to make connections between all of the most effective exemplary strategies. After years of development finding the best combinations for student performance, a framework for learning was in place. The framework and the exemplary practices connections are known as the Learning-Focused Schools Model.

It is with this in mind, that we are offering additional resources that will make "Connections" for teachers, administrators, and students.

Creating and Sustaining Change
by Max Thompson

Research and exemplary practice offers policymakers and district leaders many guidelines on how to enact sustainable change.

In 1962, Bob Dylan asked, "How many times must a man look up, before he sees the sky?" Educators and policymakers are struggling to find ways to implement and sustain educational changes and make significant differences in children's lives. But to paraphrase Dylan, how many times can we continue to enact policies that fly in the face of years of research on change? How many times can we ignore what has been proven to work in exemplary schools because of perceived resistance to change, and therefore, not changing in order to keep the peace in a district or school? How many times can we continue to not act on what we know about facilitating sustainable change? This knowledge needs to be widely understood by all stakeholders in public education.

Lessons about Managing Change

1. Develop a Reform-Support Infrastructure

· Reorganize district policies, practices, norms, communication mechanisms, support structures, and incentives

· Identify and change dysfunctional structures and practices

· Develop a creative communication networking system for a high level of information sharing

· Focus on the ability to adapt innovations to fit local needs

· Create an atmosphere of consistent and pervasive use of formative assessment, reflection, and action research that captures the lessons of implementation and change

· Provide abundant professional development by facilitating an on-going, interactive, flexible, learning environment for developing new knowledge and skills

2. Use Instructional Coaches / Facilitators To Build Capacity

· Because of the complexity of implementing and sustaining large-scale change initiatives, district and school administrators cannot do it alone. Numerous studies have found that in addition to principal and teacher leadership, a combination of external and internal instructional facilitators or coaches play a crucial role - and are necessary for supporting teachers in the change process.

· Designated instructional coaches provide support, technical assistance, and clarity about new change projects.

· Many studies and documentation from exemplary schools has found that the presence of an instructional coach contributed to internal capacity building and to a greater sense of personal mastery, confidence, and ownership in school staff.

· Key to coaches' effectiveness is their ability to provide abundant, school-based professional development that features formal training, coaching, modeling and demonstrations, collaborative reflection, and formative evaluation. These allow for adult learning and a most active, sustainable change process.

· Coaches and school administrators working together can balance pressure with support. For more than two decades, research has shown that large-scale educational innovations live or die by the amount and quality of assistance and coaching that teachers receive. Policymakers need to understand that pressure without support can lead to resistance and alienation. Conversely, support without pressure can result only in maintaining the status quo.

· Facilitators provide the vehicles and structure for the provision of adult learning time. As we attempt to implement new innovations, we must provide teachers with adult learning time that is structured time for planning, reflection, application with coaching, and peer discussions.

3. Increase Clarity and Reduce Fragmentation and Overload

· As solutions get piled on top of other solutions and frequent changes occur, it creates overload and clutter. Justifiably, educators respond to this clutter with "This too shall pass."

· When teachers do not readily see the connections or do not know the priorities, they respond with inertia and fall back to what they know best.

· Goal should be clear, well-stated priorities and policy coherence and coordination.

· Define school expectations and reform ownership in terms of school-wide data and hold everyone accountable for the data benchmarks.

Lessons from Exemplary Practice

1. Clear priorities with benchmarks

· Clear prioritized and mapped K-12 curriculum for all teachers

· Benchmark assessments to state and local curriculum standards

· Common grade-level expectations for all students

2. Research-based literacy curriculum K-12 with significant focus on K-3 reading and writing

· Number One Goal = All children reading and writing on grade level by the end of third grade

· Literacy focus in grades K -12 on reading/writing across curriculum

3. Significant extra-help component for acceleration and remediation

· Multiple opportunities for students to get extra help and tutoring

· Consistent, pervasive use of acceleration and previewing to increase scaffolding of grade-level learning

4. Sustained, school-based staff development with coaching

· Provides coaching, modeling, demonstrations, collaborative planning and reflection

· Forms an instructional leadership team with school administrators as well as a bridge between school and central office

5. A focus on organizational smallness within a school

· Goal = Sustained relationships over time

· Multi-grade teams, looping, multi-aged classrooms or teams

Questions for Administrators and Teachers:

1. How many of the Lessons about Managing Change has your organization adapted into its change plans?

2. How does your organization deal with building capacity and support for new ideas with principals and teachers?

3. What are two examples of how your organization has worked to increase clarity and reduce fragmentation?

4. Can you take each of the five components of the Lessons about Exemplary Practice and match it with your organization's implementation plan?

References:

Cawelti, G. (1999). Improving achievement. The American School Board Journal, July, 34-37.

Elmore, R., & McLaughlin, M. (1998). Steady work: Policy, practice, and the reform of American education (Paper presented to the National Institute of Education.) Santa Monica, CA.: Rand

Fullan, M. (1993). Change forces: Probing the depths of educational reform. London: Falmer Press.

Fullan, M. (1999). Change forces: The sequel. London: Falmer Press.

Fullan, M. (1992). Getting reform right: What works and what doesn't. Phi Delta Kappan, 73(10), 744-752.

Institute for the Education of At-Risk Youth (1999). Practice in exemplary schools: What did they do and how did they get there? Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.

Johnson, J. & Asera, R. (1999). Hope for urban education: A study of nine high-performing, high poverty, urban elementary schools. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.

Joyce, B. & Showers, B. (1988). Student achievement through staff development. New York: Longman.

Louis, K. (1989). The role of the school district in school improvement. In M. Holmes, K. Leithwood, & D. Musella (Eds.), Educational policy for effective schools (pp 145-167) Toronto, Ontario: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education Press.

Marzano, R., Zeno, B., & Pollack, J. (1999). Research into practice: Assessment, grading, and record keeping in the classroom. Aurora, CO: McREL.

McLaughlin, M. (1990). The Rand Change Agent Study revisited. Educational Researcher, 5, 11-16.

McLaughlin, M. & Talbert, J. (1993). Contexts that matter for teaching and learning, Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University, Center for Research on Secondary School Teaching.

Mizell, H. (1999, December). What key reformers have learned about reform. Panel Presentation at the National Staff Development Council Conference, Dallas TX.

National Commission on Time and Learning, (1994). Prisoners of time. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.

Newmann, F. & Wehlage, G. (1995). Successful school restructuring. Madison, WI: Center on Organization and Restructuring of Schools.

Sarason, S. (1990). The predictable failure of educational reform. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Wolk, R. (1998). Strategies for fixing failing schools. The Pew Forum on Educational Reform. New York: The Pew Charitable Trusts.

Max Thompson is the founder of the Learning-Focused Schools Model and author of many books on raising achievement and school improvement reform.

Getting The Most From Your Curriculum

By Jim Riedl

Even though most schools and districts have curriculum documents, many do not use them well. One of the key reasons is that they contain far too much content and teachers realize they cannot possibly cover everything. As a result there is a tendency to teach what the teacher is most familiar with or likes best. In either case, there is a real danger that students do not learn what is most important to their success. Students must be provided with the knowledge, skills and understandings that are assessed in the high stakes testing we use to measure student achievement. If the curriculum is to be effective, the content of the curriculum should have a very strong correlation to the content that is tested.

The answer to this dilemma is a prioritized and mapped curriculum based on state standards and the use of state test results to focus on what students need to know, do and understand. The Learning-Focused Toolbox Tool for Power Curriculum helps school districts develop their curriculum documents.

Having the curriculum is only the beginning of the process necessary to help students learn. How you use the curriculum is the most important factor.

Once the curriculum is developed everyone in the school needs to know the expectations of how they will use the document. They need to understand where it came from, what's included, what it can do, what it can't do and who was involved in the original development. They also need to know how the curriculum supports the development of units, lessons and assessments. Beyond this they must realize they can be a part of the ongoing revisions that need to be done to improve the initial document.

A process for Getting the Most From Your Curriculum might look like this:

Introduction - Identify the source, the process, elements and developers
Implementation Process - Outline the steps in distribution, uses and connections to instruction
Feedback - Decide what parts of the curriculum work well, what needs to be revised and focus on student results
Revisions - Establish who, when and how revisions will be done
Applications - Articulate the uses of the curriculum in the further development of Units, Lessons and assessments.
Accountability - Delineate how teachers will be held accountable for the implementation of the curriculum

Define expectations
Provide support
Frequent classroom visits
Review of teacher units
Look Fors/ Ask Fors

As with most school based initiatives the burden of this process will ultimately fall to the leadership of the district and the schools. When the leaders take these tasks seriously and are willing to hold everyone accountable the quality of the curriculum initiative will be significantly enhanced.

Jim Riedl is the co-author of Supervising for Achievement, Monitoring for Achievement, Power Curriculum, and is author of the upcoming book Learning-Focused Unit Study. Jim is also a National Learning-Focused Consultant.

Vocabulary Instruction: Which Words?

by Cindy Riedl

Although we accept that consistent and pervasive attention to building word knowledge has tremendous potential for raising achievement for ALL our students, we often wonder whether we have selected the best words for critical attention. The following questions may act as a helpful guide as teachers make word selection of 'key vocabulary' for instruction.

How much background knowledge might students have about each word or related concept (and how will I evaluate this prior-knowledge)?
Which words are most critical for understanding the content or text?
How frequently is the word encountered?
Is it a word that has multiple meanings or has the potential to mislead or confuse students?
Does the word have synonyms that can be substituted in context?
Does the word or concept require previewing to develop background knowledge before instruction, i.e. photosynthesis, satire?
What words or concepts will require more guided practice before students can use them independently?
What connections can be made with words students already know?
What words are difficult for students to grasp the meaning of and are frequently misunderstood?

During the creation of a content map for a topic or before a piece of literature or text segment, it is helpful to create two lists of words: critical and supportive. Critical words typically require planned instruction and extensive practice before students are able to apply them successfully. More time is therefore designated for these words, whereas supportive words require less time for mastery because they are linked in some way to prior-knowledge of a concept or topic and simply require a review or explanation. These are the words teachers typically refer to as 'words students should have learned in the grades before, but didn't'. If time is wasted on direct instruction of supportive words, little time is left over for those words that are most critical to advancing the acquisition of new word knowledge.

Successful vocabulary instruction requires teachers to make wise choices as they select the 'key vocabulary' and related instruction that will have the greatest impact on raising student achievement. Possibly the above suggestions will be helpful as teachers prepare for daily instruction and word walls.

Cindy Riedl is the author of the book Vocabulary Instruction: A Learning-Focused Model, co-author of Mapping and Prioritizing Curriculum, and author of the upcoming book Advancing Vocabulary Instruction. Cindy is also a Learning-Focused Instructional Specialist and National Consultant.

A Principal Looks Back: Standards Matter
by Kim Marshall

Reflecting on his years as principal of a Boston elementary school, Kim Marshall identifies 10 barriers that blocked major gains in student achievement: teacher isolation, lack of teamwork, curriculum anarchy, weak curriculum alignment, low expectations, negativism, HSPS (hyperactive superficial principal syndrome), not focusing on outcomes, mystery grading criteria, and lack of a school-wide plan. It was only when Massachusetts introduced high-stakes tests, Marshall asserts, that he had some success pushing back these powerful forces.
Read the entire article on this website!