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Schoolwide Improvement Model (SIM) K–8, Stage 1

Schoolwide Improvement Model—K–8— Stage 1 | 1

Table of Contents

Pearson’s Schoolwide Improvement Model (SIM)

What SIM Is Designed to Do....................................................................2

The Ingredients of Improvement: An Overview of SIM’s Components...................................................................................3

A Component-by-Component Walk Through of SIM.............................5

Getting to the Core of Things: Implementing SIM...............................19

Examining Efficacy: Evaluating SIM.....................................................26

SIM Scope of Work.................................................................................27

Attachment 1: Foundation SIM for K–8 School in Action: Stage One Implementation Focus, Settings, and Supports................30

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Pearson’s Schoolwide Improvement Model (SIM): A New and Innovative System of School Improvement Designed to Build Your School’s Capacity to Create its Future The Schoolwide Improvement Model (SIM) from Pearson is a new school improvement model built on the foundations of the research-proven America’s Choice and Learning Teams school improvement models. SIM draws on the extensive experience gained implementing these models in more than 1,000 schools over the past 20 years and is purpose-built to be responsive to the current needs and circumstances of schools seeking to improve their performance.

What SIM Is Designed to Do

Get Your Students on the Pathway to College and Career ReadinessThe path to college and career readiness begins in the primary grades. SIM is focused on helping schools assist all students to prepare for college and careers. It takes its lead from the definition of college and career readiness that is articulated in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the standards for college and career readiness established by specific states.

Help Your Students Achieve the Common Core State StandardsConsistent with the focus on college and career readiness, SIM is designed to help schools meet the demands of the CCSS. SIM has been crafted from the ground up to support CCSS implementation. Content-area concentrations in literacy/English language arts (ELA) and mathematics provide scaffolding to help teachers align their instruction to the CCSS. In addition, SIM features a schoolwide instructional focus on academic language and learner competencies that lays the groundwork for college and career readiness further down the road. The model also provides support for teachers to adapt their own curriculum materials to achieve the curriculum and instructional alignment that is required for students to perform at high levels on the new assessments.

Provide High-Quality Instruction for All StudentsSIM focuses on high-quality instruction for all students by placing a primary emphasis on building the quality of the core instructional program—Tier 1 as defined in Response to Intervention (RtI). At the foundation of RtI is the concept that the instructional needs of the vast majority of students should be accommodated within the core instructional program. If we take seriously the idea of high standards for all students, then we need to focus on how to organize instruction and learning within the core instructional program to meet that expectation. When the quality of “first” instruction is maximized, the number of students requiring supplementary support through Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions is likely to be reduced as more students’ learning needs are met within the regular classroom. In this way Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions can be reserved for students whose needs cannot be met within the regular classroom and targeted specifically to these students’ needs.

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Reach Every Student, Every Subject, Every DayComprehensive and sustainable school improvement requires more than a focus on ELA and mathematics. Essential as these core subjects are, they occupy only a portion of each student’s day at school and involve only a fraction of the teaching faculty. Schoolwide improvement requires a schoolwide approach: One that impacts—every day—teaching and learning for all students across all content areas (both core and elective) and leads to change in the systems that organize and link programs and practices throughout the school. SIM is designed to achieve schoolwide, high-quality instruction for all students in your school.

The Ingredients of Improvement: an Overview of SIM’s ComponentsSIM has five components, each contributing to comprehensive, schoolwide improvement.

Standards-Aligned Curriculum, Instruction, and AssessmentStandards-based learning and the alignment of curriculum, instruction, and assessment to standards forms the foundation of SIM. The model builds a collective commitment to systemic improvement to provide high quality instruction for all students by combining content area concentrations in math and literacy/English language arts (ELA) with a schoolwide focus on instructional practices that support students’ development of college and career readiness. The concentrations in math and literacy/ELA include alignment of Tier 2 and Tier 3 academic interventions with the core (Tier 1) instructional program.

High-Performance Leadership, Management, and OrganizationSIM trains leadership teams to support school improvement efforts at every level by:

Empowering staff through distributed leadership

Balancing support and pressure to help teachers transform their practices

Focusing the school on organization-wide activities proven to positively impact student success

High Achievement and EngagementSIM complements its focus on standards-aligned instruction with a schoolwide focus on high expectations for student achievement and strategies to build parent and community commitment to high expectations for student achievement. Support for students’ commitment to their academic success, particularly when it comes from their parents, galvanizes learning. Strong family and community support, coupled with standards-aligned instruction, connects students’ engagement in learning with their social and emotional development. The result is a stable and healthy learning environment that promotes academic achievement.

Data-Driven CultureSIM supports the emergence of a data-driven school culture by initially centering on the work of the school leadership team. This focus on building habits of appropriate and effective use of data to guide decisions extends over time to an ever increasing number of teachers and school staff, thereby impacting and improving all aspects of school policy and practice. Data sources include both academic progress and achievement data and information related to students’ engagement in learning. Special attention is given to how academic interventions support students’ progress toward meeting the standards.

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Sustainability for Continuing ImprovementCapacity building for continuing improvement is a primary focus of SIM’s design. Our proprietary, validated technical support system promotes continuous improvement via distributed leadership and collaboration, as well as through professional development, coaching, and technical support. The technical support system incorporates structures and processes for monitoring, adjusting, and sustaining implementation over time to ensure school-level capacity building and a gradual transfer of responsibility from Pearson staff to school staff that enables the school in take the driver’s seat in its improvement process.

The wheel below depicts the relationships among SIM’s five components: (1) Standards-Aligned Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment; (2) High-Performance Leadership, Management, and Organization; (3) High Achievement and Engagement; (4) Data-Driven Culture; and (5) Sustainability for Continuing Improvement.

Helping Students Succeed. The five components of the SIM model interact to promote academic success and to prepare students for college and careers.

Three concentric circles surround SIM’s “hub” of College and Career Ready Students. In the middle circle, Standards-Aligned Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment (also referred to as Standards-Aligned Instruction) and High-Performance Leadership (also referred to as Leadership) are locked together to show their tight connection. The primary role of Leadership is to provide the guidance and support needed to achieve Standards-Aligned Instruction.

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The component of High Achievement and Engagement overlaps with both Standards-Aligned Instruction and Leadership to underscore the role of the latter two components in building parent and community belief in the importance of establishing high expectations for all students. The overlap also emphasizes the critical connections between students’ in-class and out-of-class life and experiences in shaping their engagement in learning and their belief in their capacity to keep learning, both of which are critical to their development of commitment to college and careers.

The fourth component, Data-Driven Culture, also overlaps with both Standards-Aligned Instruction and Leadership. A “data-driven culture” means a culture in which data collection and analysis—and the use of this information to inform decisions about all aspects of school operations and activity—is both systematic and customary. Systematic data use and analysis cannot become “the way we do things around here” without Standards-Aligned Instruction to provide the underpinning and High Performance Leadership to show the way.

Sustainability for Continuing Improvement is about the “how” of SIM rather than the “what.” This fifth component encompasses the other four and describes how the tasks of the other components are achieved. It reflects that the ultimate aim of building capacity is to sustain schoolwide improvement beyond the formal period of SIM implementation and reach the point of self-directed, self-managed improvement.

A Component-by-Component Review of SIM

All About Teaching: The Standards-Aligned Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment Component of SIM Features a Focus on Literacy and Math and a Unifying Schoolwide Instructional FocusSIM’s first component Standards-Aligned Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment has two sub-components:

Literacy Focus

Math Focus

Unifying the approach in these content areas is a Schoolwide Instructional Focus (SIF) on academic language and independent learner competencies, paving the way to for student development of college and career readiness.

SIM Moves Your School toward Achieving the CCSS in Literacy and MathThe SIM component of Standards-Aligned Instruction focuses primarily on literacy/ELA and math. The focus on these core content areas provides support for achieving strong alignment of curriculum and instruction with the CCSS and related assessments.

The Literacy Focus Provides Teachers Hands-On Experience with Standards-Aligned Curriculum and Instruction and Enables Students to Achieve the CCSS in Literacy/ELASIM’s Literacy Focus helps the school create a program that will enable all students to achieve the high levels of student performance in reading, writing, and speaking required by the CCSS. The following aspects of teaching reading and writing in K–8 are included in this focus:

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Focusing on Literacy in Early Childhood Development and the Primary Grades. A strong focus on oral-language development in the primary years is the fundamental building block for literacy. With SIM, this focus begins in pre-K and extends through third grade. Benchmark expectations for students in both speaking and listening at each grade level from pre-K to grade 3 provide a framework for development of oral language. Videotaped samples of student work together with explicit guidance on strategies for building students’ skills in speaking and listening illustrate these benchmark expectations.

Building on Oral Language Development and Creating a Bridge to High School. SIM’s initial focus on oral-language development provides the foundation for a comprehensive standards-based approach to literacy/ELA that builds consistently from the primary years through to the bridge to high school. A workshop approach that incorporates reading, writing, oral language, and skills development provides the structure for this evolution in literacy/ELA. The workshop approach incorporates a balance of whole group, small group, and individual instruction and employs strategies for scaffolding the development of students’ academic behaviors to allow them to act as independent and responsible learners.

Developing Independent Readers. In the primary grades, reading focuses on establishing all students as independent readers by no later than third grade. SIM approaches this focus comprehensively by enhancing both students’ skill development and their development of the habits and behaviors of effective, independent readers.

Close monitoring of student progress is coupled with assessment using the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) or a similar tool that supports consistent, standards-based monitoring through to eighth grade. Progress monitoring in this manner helps ensure that students are making appropriate advances and allows for the use of timely interventions. This two-pronged approach to monitoring works with any reading program a school may use. It is complemented by careful consideration of the alignment of interventions to the core instructional program.

Complementing the instructional program is a schoolwide initiative to cultivate independent reading as a daily practice. Connecting closely with the school’s Media Center, this initiative is designed to help students expand their literary preferences, explore new genres and become habitual readers. This practice is closely associated with continuing student engagement and academic achievement.

Comprehending Complex Informational and Literary Texts. Alignment with the CCSS reading standards requires attention to text complexity. Accordingly, SIM’s Literacy Content-Area Concentration targets compatible close reading strategies that improve student comprehension, especially the comprehension of complex informational and literary texts. Model lessons illustrate how to teach students to do the following:

○ Make ideas in different parts of a text cohere

○ Paraphrase and summarize texts

○ Use visual representations and graphic organizers to enhance comprehension

Emphasis is also placed on facilitating classroom discussions to enhance text comprehension.

Writing for K–8. SIM’s support for writing includes foundation units designed for kindergarten through grade 8 that are aligned with the CCSS. These units focus on the literary techniques and writing styles of leading authors and on the essential features of selected writing types and their respective text structures.

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The standards-driven foundation units guide teachers in providing students with a scaffolded sequence of learning experiences in which students (i) study literary techniques and writing styles of leading authors, and (ii) learn to write proficiently in selected text types. Each study includes pre- and post-tests, rubrics for a scaffolded set of tasks and work products throughout, and class profiles to assist in progress monitoring.

Instructional Scaffolding to Support Language Development. Research shows that learning gets better traction when new information is connected to and assimilated with what a student already knows. Accordingly, the foundation units are frontloaded to augment and/or activate prior knowledge. Extensive use of instructional scaffolds such as graphic organizers and read-aloud/think-alouds encourage students to make connections between what they know and what they are learning. The foundation units also pay close attention to language development and academic vocabulary.

The emphasis the foundation units place on language development and academic vocabulary is especially beneficial for English language learners (ELLs), as is the in-depth focus on the essential features of writing types and their text structures. The explicit use of instructional scaffolds, small group and partner work, and the intentional use of metacognitive strategies are particularly supportive of the needs of students with disabilities.

The foundation units serve as instructional models that teachers can use as foundations for building their own curriculum units. As teachers become familiar with the instructional approach and strategies embedded in the units, they work on using these strategies in conjunction with their curriculum materials to develop yearlong and vertically aligned literacy instruction reflecting the requirements of the CCSS from kindergarten through grade 8.

The Math Focus Provides Teachers Hands-On Experience with Standards-Aligned Curriculum and Instruction and Challenges Students to Achieve the CCSS in MathematicsEffective implementation of the CCSS for Math focuses attention on the following:

The need to balance skills

Problem solving

Conceptual understanding

The CCSS also highlight the importance of establishing a coherent sequence of mathematical study to move students toward higher mathematical proficiency.

SIM’s Math Focus assists teachers to align their curriculum and instruction with the requirements of the CCSS and related assessments. Key to this process is the development of an instructional environment that fosters effective learning of math. Accordingly, the Math Focus includes strategies for the following:

Establishing a climate of disciplined inquiry that brings to life the Standards for Mathematical Practice included in the CCSS

Providing differentiated instruction

A workshop approach to classroom instruction balances whole class, small group, and individual instruction, as well as independent work. The math workshop is framed by routines and rituals that are

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consistent with those used in literacy/ELA; however, it is specifically designed to establish effective learning environments for math.

Professional development focused on strengthening teachers’ content and curricular knowledge proceeds in concert with the alignment of the school’s math curriculum to the demands of the CCSS. Special attention is paid to building teachers’ understanding of core math concepts that are critical to laying the pathway to students’ achievement in advanced mathematics. It also examines the alignment of math interventions to the core instructional program.

As implementation proceeds, the Math Focus incorporates yearlong and vertical curriculum planning to achieve effective alignment of curriculum and instruction with the CCSS and its related assessments.

SIM’s Schoolwide Instructional Focus (SIF) Emphasizes Academic Language and the Pathway to College and Career ReadinessSIM’s Schoolwide Instructional Focus (SIF) unites the approaches to Literacy/ELA and math by helping teachers weave the following two vital aspects of college and career readiness into their instruction:

Academic Language

Independent Learner Competencies

SIF’s dual foci of Academic Language and Independent Learner Competencies help to create a schoolwide approach to getting students started on the pathway to college and career readiness. These shared supports for students’ growth and age-appropriate expectations for performance can be extended beyond literacy/ELA and math to inform instructional improvement in other content areas, while preserving and enhancing the unique characteristics of teaching and learning in each content area.

Development of Academic Language Starts Early and Crosses All Content AreasAcademic Language is the formal discourse, both written and oral, that is used in schools, colleges, and work settings. It is the vehicle used in these contexts to convey complex information (as well as analyze it), express ideas, present arguments, propose solutions, and defend points of view. It differs from conversational language in terms of informational density, grammatical complexity, and use of technical and abstract vocabulary.

Academic Language does not come naturally. It must be learned. Students with a strong foundation of literacy can make the transition relatively easily, but they are still likely to need explicit instructional support to become competent users of Academic Language. Students who finish elementary schooling with a limited foundation of literacy struggle with Academic Language. ELLs require carefully scaffolded instructional support to meet the challenge of learning Academic Language.

SIF provides a coherent approach to the early introduction and development of Academic Language. Strategies taught consistently across grades and content areas from kindergarten through eighth grade serve as the best preparation for students’ continued development of Academic Language as they move into high school, and eventually on to the even more rigorous demands of college and careers.

Development of Independent Learner Competencies Starts Early and Crosses All Content Areas

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Independent Learner Competencies strengthen students’ capacity for self-directed, independent learning. They align with the concept of building executive functions and higher-order thinking. These are the competencies that allow people to be self-managing and tackle complex tasks, alone or in collaboration with others, without the need for constant direction. Examples include planning and organizing, prioritizing, collaborating and seeking feedback.

Students can develop Independent Learner Competencies from an early age provided they have consistent support to meet age-appropriate expectations. With a strong foundation built from the primary grades through to eighth grade, students will be more than ready to become responsible for their learning in high school.

SIF Responds to the Diverse Needs of LearnersSIF embraces the needs of all students striving to achieve college and career readiness. By scaffolding access to Academic Language and Independent Learner Competencies, the approach pays specific attention to the diverse needs of learners. In particular, SIF focuses on the needs of:

English language learners

Students with disabilities

The SIF strategies embed scaffolds to support access for ELLs and students with disabilities. These are highlighted in the schoolwide professional development and continuing collaboration helps teachers practice incorporating the scaffolds into their instruction.

Scaffolds to support ELLs are built on the following five research-based practices for language learning (also referred to as the Essential Practices for Language Learning):

Five Essential Practices for Language Learning1. Develop oral language through meaningful conversation and context.

2. Teach targeted skills through contextualized and explicit instruction.

3. Build vocabulary through authentic and meaningful experiences with words.

4. Build and activate background knowledge.

5. Teach and use meaning-making strategies.

These practices provide critically important lifelines for ELLs, helping them gain access to content as they acquire English language proficiency. They also have value for students in general because they serve to further clarify and/or reinforce concepts. Thus, these five intentional supports for academic language development enhance instruction across the curriculum for all students.

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The scaffolds that support access to learning for students with disabilities are based on the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). These principles, listed below, have value for all students, but provide vital supports for students with disabilities.

UDL Principles Scaffolding Access to Learning for All StudentsI. Provide multiple means of representation: Provide options for perception Provide options for language, mathematical expressions, and symbols Provide options for comprehension

II. Provide multiple means of action and expression: Provide options for physical action Provide options for expression and communication Provide options for executive functions

III. Provide multiple means of engagement: Provide options for recruiting interest Provide options for sustaining effort and persistence Provide options for self-regulation

SIF’s Foundation of Instructional Supports (Learning Routines and Rituals and Effective Instructional Practices) is the Cornerstone of Improved Performance in the Classroom SIF’s foundation of instructional supports for helping all students learn Academic Language and develop Independent Learner Competencies includes the building of learning routines and rituals and the development of effective instructional practices.

Learning Routines and Rituals refer to how learning time is organized and how learning is conducted in the school. The idea of “rituals” applies especially to the roles and responsibilities of teachers and students working as a learning community. Consistent and effective Learning Routines and Rituals help establish and maintain a safe and orderly learning environment. Their benefits, however, extend well beyond classroom management. They contribute to a strong learning-focused school culture that is evidenced by the following features:

○ Effective use of time during the school day to maximize students’ time for learning

○ Classes conducted as robust learning communities that build students’ capacity for independent learning and simultaneously allow teachers to provide differentiated instruction for students, based on need, as a regular part of daily instruction

Effective Instructional Practices refer to a concise set of instructional practices that correspond to current understanding of how people learn. Effective Instructional Practices have application to learning at all grade levels and across all content areas. Articulated at the lesson level, they help emphasize the importance of lesson planning and review in the context of both unit and course planning. Effective Instructional Practices also provide a common language to support communication about effective instruction across grade levels and content areas without compromising the important differences between them.

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SIF Strategies Reinforce and Build on Each Other Over the Course of Implementation to Create a Robust Instructional CultureFor each stage of implementation, SIF targets defined areas that foster the development of Academic Language and Independent Learner Competencies. These are combined with complementary areas of focus that specifically support access to learning for ELLs and students with disabilities, as well as enhance the foundational instructional supports of Learning Routines and Rituals and Effective Instructional Practices. Over the course of a three-stage implementation, the school’s work builds cumulatively to create a robust, schoolwide instructional culture focused on college and career readiness.

The focus for Stage One implementation is “Talking to Learn.” This includes strategies for developing students’ capacity to reason and justify, to collaborate effectively on learning tasks, and to work productively without needing constant direction from the teacher. This focus includes scaffolds for ELLs’ vocabulary and oral language development and scaffolds that apply Universal Design for Learning principles to support access for all students to using language to learn.

In Stage Two, SIF focuses on “Reading and Writing to Learn” with a complementary focus on students’ planning and organizing their work and taking responsibility for self assessment and revision to improve their work products. Connected with this focus are scaffolds for building and activating students’ background knowledge and using contextualized and explicit instruction to help ELL students access academic language. Similarly, teachers are supported to apply Universal Design for Learning principles in order to support all students’ access to learning.

“Learning through Research” is the focus of Stage Three. Research and the use of evidence to build and support claims and arguments are central to college and career readiness. This focus helps schools build research activities into learning across the curriculum. It incorporates age-appropriate strategies for building students’ capacity to determine priorities, reflect on their work practices, and set goals for learning. Supporting this focus are scaffolds to support students’ meaning making strategies and consideration of multiple means of engagement that provide access to learning for all students.

How Teachers Work on Developing Standards-Aligned InstructionProfessional development provides a rich source of instructional support for teachers. This support is anchored by professional development for all teachers that focuses on practices that bridge literacy and math and have application to other content areas too; thus helping to unite learning across the school. This is followed by sessions targeted to literacy and math that provide targeted support for the primary grades and upper grades. Periodic professional development conducted throughout the year and organized in the same way helps teachers refresh and extend their knowledge and skills.

SIF strategies are threaded through all of the professional development. The strategies are brought to life in literacy and math and teachers are encouraged to see how they can support effective learning at all grade levels and across content areas in addition to literacy and math.

During the professional development activities, teachers work in their grade-level groups to promote “job-alike” thinking and deliberation. In the upper grades, if appropriate, the teacher groups may be organized by content area. These groups, known as “Teacher Workgroups” continue throughout the year, meeting on a regular basis to continue the work initiated through the professional development. The Teacher

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Workgroups provide a setting for teachers to plan and discuss ways of incorporating strategies to build more rigorous learning into their teaching, such as using sentence frames to help students learn to use reasoning and justification to back up their ideas in collaborative discussions. At subsequent Workgroup meetings, teachers share student work arising from their lessons, reflect on their experience, and plan anew. Over the course of the year, the Workgroups enable teachers to collaborate on developing and refining their instruction toward stronger standards alignment and to refine their practice through discussion and study of the work their student produce and other instructional artifacts from their classrooms.

All About Leadership: The High-Performance Leadership, Management, and Organization Component of SIM Drives Implementation and ChangeWhile the Standards-Aligned Instruction component of SIM provides the focus for much of its content, SIM’s Leadership component serves as the engine that drives the implementation process and monitors progress toward improved student achievement, supporting the principal’s capacity to develop the role of strategic instructional leader. The school’s “Leadership Team,” in turn, serves as the Leadership component’s ignition and navigator. The Leadership Team for SIM implementation should be the key leadership team in the school.1

Research strongly supports the concept of distributed leadership as a critical support for school improvement. Schools in which the principal distributes roles and responsibilities for making decisions and accomplishing tasks are more successful at transforming themselves. The practice of distributed leadership is characterized by interconnectedness. In other words, the results of decisions and practices made in the context of distributed leadership impact everyone involved in those decisions and practices.

Because distributed leadership involves more people in the process of change, resistance decreases and buy-in increases. Its success depends upon individual members of the Leadership Team accepting responsibility to communicate, share information, participate, follow through on tasks, and do their jobs.

Schools with well-functioning distributed leadership are characterized by the following:

More staff members communicating with one another about teaching and learning

More colleagues discussing and implementing strategies to improve student performance

The school fully employing the professional expertise of staff, especially subject-area expertise, to move forward

Principals benefit from distributing responsibilities, because it leaves them with more time to focus on instructional leadership. An additional benefit of the strategy is that it builds capacity across the school as a whole and contributes to the preparation of future school leaders.

Led by the school principal, the Leadership Team includes the principal, assistant principal(s) and key stakeholders. For SIM implementation, these key stakeholders include representation of each grade level (who will also serve as workgroup facilitators) and content areas as well as designated leaders for

1 We use the term “Leadership Team” throughout descriptions of SIM, but understand that the title of this group of school leaders may differ from school to school to accommodate existing naming conventions. Because the SIM Leadership Team should serve as the key leadership team in the school, SIM’s implementation may result in some role adjustments of decision-making groups.

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functions related to student services and community engagement. The members of the Leadership Team share in the responsibilities of problem solving, decision making, and communicating a unified and clear message to the school community.

The Leadership Team has the following five key roles:

Establish and maintain the vision of improvement for the school

Drive and manage the implementation process

Provide the organization needed to support SIM implementation

Monitor the progress and quality of implementation, and redirect the work of school improvement as needed to maintain progress toward improved student achievement

Develop and nurture collaboration by using a systems approach to change that actively engages the entire school in shared responsibility and shared learning

Each of these roles is developed through professional development and systematic technical support provided by Pearson Education Specialists throughout implementation on a systematic basis to create an ongoing loop of information and response to information that fosters a continuous cycle of improvement. This support is an integral part of the SIM Technical Support System, which is designed to guide implementation and build the school’s capacity to sustain its process of improvement. With its crucial role as driver of implementation, the Leadership Team is a primary focus for the SIM Technical Support System 2.

All About Data: The Data-Driven Culture Component of SIM Makes Data Use “The Way We Do Things” at Your SchoolResearch provides substantial evidence of the importance of an effective data-driven culture as a necessary driver of a high performing school. Having a data-driven culture means that systematic use of data is embedded into the daily functioning of the school. Data use stops being a separate, isolated activity and is, instead, incorporated into meetings, curriculum planning, professional development, and, most importantly, into daily teaching and learning as a matter of course. The school understands that quality data are an integral part of teaching and learning and emphasizes collaborative use of data as a keystone for success. There is an atmosphere of openness, where all are viewed as learners and are open to examining their practice in order to build on strengths and make needed improvements. There is an institutional willingness to use data systematically to reveal important patterns and answer questions about policy, methods, and outcomes.

Attributes of a strong data-driven culture include the following:

Vision: A clearly articulated vision for data use and belief about the value of data in improving teaching and learning

Commitment: Commitment from all staff to use data to guide ongoing instructional and programmatic improvements

Modeling: Modeling of use of data by school leaders

2 The SIM Technical Support System is discussed in greater detail in the Implementing SIM section below.

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Conditions: Protected time collaboration and regular professional development to improve data literacy among staff

Focus: Focus on data quality, security, utility, and timelinessBeginning with an initial focus on the Leadership Team as the vital setting for establishment of cultural norms for the school, this component of SIM sows and grows the elements necessary for the creation of a Data-Driven Culture. The strategy entails the following:

Building an understanding of the role and value of a data-driven approach to progress monitoring and instructional problem solving

Building the Leadership Team’s capacity to oversee, monitor, evaluate, and support school improvement through SIM implementation

Improving the Leadership Team’s ability to use data from multiple sources to identify and think critically about SIM implementation

Activities designed to develop the capacity of the Leadership Team to systematize the processes of connecting performance and instruction scaffold the Leadership Team’s learning about data use. These activities are conducted in series that are repeated throughout the year. Each series of activity starts with a knowledge-sharing professional development module. These modules include the content, information, techniques, and protocols for effectively using data. The topics developed in these modules reflect the building blocks of an effective Data-Driven Culture. The modules are:

The Language of Assessment and Data

Investigating Data

Analyzing Student Work:

Triangulating and Reframing

Describing Current Practice

Identifying Strategies to Address Problems of Practice

Measuring and Improving

Each of these knowledge-building modules connects to a cycle of guided practice and application by the Leadership Team. These cycles of knowledge-building, guided practice, and application are connected together in a recursive cycle that lays the foundation of a schoolwide data culture.

As implementation deepens, the focus of building a Data-Driven Culture widens to include teachers and their classrooms and people with responsibility for functions beyond the classroom, including student services. From these settings, the process of connecting performance and instruction progressively becomes embedded in the daily functioning of the school.

In addition to its work with the data knowledge modules, the Leadership Team meets quarterly for Progress Monitoring Meetings. These meetings occur regularly throughout implementation and use information from systematically and continually employed progress monitoring tools and techniques (the SIM Progress Monitoring System) to improve implementation. Multiple data sources help the Leadership

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Team investigate, track, and address critical areas of SIM implementation throughout the year. These activities, in turn, foster growth of the school’s Data-Driven Culture.

All About Being There for the Students: The High Achievement and Engagement Component of SIM Invites Broad Community Support and Builds Students’ Belief in Their Ability to AchieveLike Data-Driven Culture, the High Achievement and Expectations component overlaps with both the Standards-Aligned Instruction and Leadership components of SIM. The High Achievement and Expectations component draws together the complex web of connections between students’ engagement in and commitment to learning and their circumstances and experience outside the classroom environment, including the messages they absorb about the importance of doing well in school and their capacity to do so.

On the one hand, High Achievement and Expectations concerns macro-level school policies and programs that connect the school with its larger community. On the other hand, this component revolves around the most individual of issues, personalization. That is, the question of how students develop confidence in themselves as learners so they can create ambitions and cultivate hope and promise for their futures. Integrating the macro with the micro requires close linkages between work on this component and the work of the school’s Leadership Team and between this component and the work of teachers and students on Standards-Aligned Instruction.

Work on High Achievement and Engagement centers on the following three areas:

Connecting a classroom culture of engagement to a school culture of high expectations and support for achievement

Including parents as a part of the team

Engaging the community in supporting high expectations

Expanding Classroom Engagement to a Schoolwide Culture of High ExpectationsConnecting the work on building a classroom culture of engagement to a school culture of high expectations takes into account students’ sense of belonging to the school, their connections to teachers and other adults, their friendships with peers, their sense that they are known both as learners and as people, and their belief in their ability to succeed academically. This is an important aspect of the work of the Engagement Workgroup, whose members are the staff who provide student services: the social worker(s), psychologist(s), and community outreach coordinator, if the school has one. The specific membership will vary from school to school. But the intention is to include the staff whose roles impact students’ experience of school outside of classrooms and whose roles involve contact with community groups and agencies. Membership should also include the principal and/or an assistant principal who has responsibility for the functions and student services reflected in the membership of the workgroup.

The Engagement Workgroup participates in professional development on student engagement, including what research indicates about the importance of relationships, connections and supports in building and sustaining children’s commitment to school. This includes factors in the elementary and middle grades that can lead to breakdowns in commitment to school once students reach high school.

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From this foundation, the Engagement Workgroup embarks on a collaborative process of investigating school policies and practices that relate to cultivating strong connections between home and school in supporting children’s engagement in school and learning progress. This may lead to consideration of policies and practices across many aspects of school operations, from procedures for entering the school building to management of the hallways and lunchroom, to policies for handling tardiness, absences, and discipline referrals, to the ways the school communicates with parents and partners with parents in support for students’ learning progress and engagement in school.

The Engagement Workgroup’s collaborative investigative process mirrors the cyclic approach of the Leadership Team and Teacher Workgroups. The Engagement Workgroup shares its progress and findings with the Leadership Team on a regular basis. The Leadership Team also provides the setting for drawing connections between the Teacher Workgroups’ efforts to support students’ classroom engagement and the Engagement Workgroup’s focus on students’ commitment to school overall.

The Principal’s Book of the Month contributes to development of a schoolwide culture of high expectations and engagement. Each month the principal introduces the school community to a book selected for its relevance to a theme that is significant to the school’s specific community, to the process of growing up, to our nation, or that highlights a universal human experience or value. The goal is to build community through the shared experience of these books. Teachers plan activities that will build on the theme of the book and enable students to respond in age-appropriate ways at all grade levels in the school and to share their responses with the whole school community.

Making Parents Part of Their Child’s High Achievement TeamA further vital function of the Engagement Workgroup is building parents’ involvement in their children’s learning. To help parents become familiar with the expectations for students’ achievement at specific grade levels; and, in particular, with how they can help their own children achieve them, SIM employs a Home-School Notebook. The Notebook builds regular, positive communication between home and school about academic growth and the development of academic readiness behaviors. It can be maintained in hardcopy or be electronic.

The Engagement Workgroup devises strategies for providing assistance to parents specifically designed help them foster their children’s development of basic skills in reading, writing, and mathematics. This assistance can take the form of formal communications, as well as practical, hands-on experiences. It may include, for example, offering evening courses for parents on how to help their children’s academic achievement, both immediately and in the longer term.

Parents play a vital role in helping their children develop the habit of reading daily. The Engagement Workgroup assists in the schoolwide independent reading initiative by actively building partnerships with parents to support their children’s reading.

Bringing the Community Along on the Journey to a Culture of High ExpectationsA school must broadcast its mission of college and career readiness clearly and repeatedly to the community. Its communication strategy should be designed to help parents and the wider community understand the critical importance of this mission for each student and for the wellbeing of the community as a whole. Persuasive, effective conveyance of this message can enlist a wide spectrum of community organizations in support of the mission. This aspect of the High Achievement and Engagement

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component rests with the school’s leadership. But the Engagement Workgroup also has a role to play, especially in helping to build partnerships with agencies that can provide supports for students’ continuing engagement in their education.Partnering with community organizations can take the form of contractual engagements or more informal relationships. Partners can range from businesses to cultural and religious groups to organizations providing social services to sports associations. Collaborations with community organizations can help identify practical ways of connecting with adults in their role as parents by reaching out to them in settings they frequent, rather than asking them to make special trips to the school.

As implementation proceeds, the Engagement Workgroup explores these and other ways of forging bonds between the school and its community in jointly supporting the goals of high achievement and student engagement.

All About Your Future: The Sustainability for Continuing Improvement Component of SIM Envisions a Future Where Your School Continues on the Road to Achievement Independent of PearsonSustainability for Continuing Improvement focuses on the “how” of SIM. From the outset, SIM puts the school in the driver’s seat of its own evolution. How does SIM do it? It incorporates structures and processes for sustaining, monitoring, and adjusting implementation over time to ensure school-level capacity building and a gradual transfer of responsibility from Pearson staff to school staff.

SIM provides a framework for improvement through which a school builds capacity gradually in an organic and sustainable way:

SIM starts with a College and Career Readiness-focused approach to CCSS-aligned instruction, curriculum and assessment, and engagement

It fortifies this foundation with a schoolwide approach to schoolwide improvement designed to touch every student in the school, as well as the systems that link and organize the school’s programs and practices

SIM then overlays this framework with distributed leadership and collaborative practices developed from Learning Teams that foster trust and shared responsibility, thereby creating stable settings (called “Workgroups” and discussed in greater detail in the “Implementing SIM” section below) in which the important work of school improvement can get done

Stable settings give rise to systems, which have a longer life than the individuals who created them. Systems make it possible for practices to be shared across the school community, and for the school community to become less dependent on the knowledge and commitment of specific individuals. Systems help to sustain a program or practice after the people who initiated it have moved on to other roles.

The operation of the SIM Technical Support System reinforces and promotes change by creating an infinite loop of implementation data gathering and adjustment that keeps implementation on track and is designed to support development of the school’s capacity to monitor and direct its improvement process.

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Each of the above aspects of SIM has sub-aspects and/or areas of overlap with other features of the model’s design. For example, the focus on standards-aligned instruction includes responding to the diverse needs of ELLs and students with special needs. The schoolwide approach to school improvement not only contemplates content-area instruction, it highlights the key role parents can play in advancing the literacy and math skills of their children.

The impact of systems on school culture can be as personal as a teacher’s taking standards-aligned instructional practices learned through her Teacher Workgroup and using them as a foundation for creating instructional units that employ the school’s own curriculum materials to align instruction to the CCSS. This supports her students on their pathway to college and career readiness. Or, it can be as far-reaching as the cycle of data knowledge development, guided practice, and implementation monitoring, which touches nearly every aspect of school organization, as depicted in the following chart.

Effective distributed leadership and collaborative practices, in turn, have a ripple effect that, with time, reaches the furthest corners of school attitudes and operation. Distributed leadership and collaborative practices are, therefore, not only important in and of themselves, they are consistent with a schoolwide approach to schoolwide improvement.

Finally, the SIM Technical Support System—especially given its focus on strengthening Leadership and using the latest technology to enhance efficiency—is one of the strongest drivers of a Data-Driven Culture. It connects data and its analysis to action in repeatable and dependable ways.

The interconnectedness of SIM’s five components with their myriad intersections with the model’s operational features is its great strength. SIM is comprised of wheels within wheels that generate their

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own momentum and feed continual improvement (sometimes with one part nudging another to get it moving).

Throughout implementation, Pearson Education Specialists provide technical support on a systematic basis to help get implementation practices underway, to monitor practice and provide feedback on progress together with scaffolding as needed in order to maintain progress, and to nurture the development of strong linkages among all of the school’s settings for SIM implementation.

Informed by data and reflecting our joint commitment to the goals and plans of your school, you and Pearson Education Specialists will work together. Our mission? To continually evaluate and refine the combinations of distributed leadership and collaboration, professional development, and coaching and technical support that will best serve your school as it progresses from the point at which it started toward the goal of and self-managed continuing improvement.

Getting to the Core of Things: Implementing SIMThe following description sets out the core for all SIM implementations. The core described below may be “flexed” to include additional components of school improvement or to increase the intensity of onsite support. Increased intensity of onsite support may be broadly implemented or limited to a select area, such as leadership support or support for a specific content area. Any and all decisions relating to the flexing of SIM are made collaboratively with the school and district through the process of the Requirements Conference.

Requirements ConferenceThe Requirements Conference is a focused consultation between appropriate representatives of the school, the district and Pearson. This consultation is guided by protocols designed to clearly identify the school’s needs and goals and to help determine the set of services and programs that offers the most effective match to the school’s requirements. The Requirements Conference sets the stage for development of a plan and contractual agreement. Implementation proceeds once an agreement is in place. It has three phases.

The Three Phases of SIM in Each StageEach Stage, SIM follows a predicable implementation cycle, consisting of the following three phases, organized to support successful implementation:

Implementation Phase One: Planning ConferenceThe Planning Conference takes place as soon as possible following completion of the contract to provide SIM. This conference is a full-day meeting of the principal and key school and district personnel with Pearson Education Specialists. The purpose of the meeting is to develop a detailed implementation plan, set a schedule of cooperative activities and project milestones, and establish shared accountability.

Implementation Phase Two: Launch Institute—Seven Professional Development Activities that Reach Your Entire SchoolThe Launch Institute initiates the school’s process of improvement. It provides face-to-face professional development for the full school faculty led by Pearson Education Specialists. Dates for the Launch Institute are established in consultation with the school and district. Where possible, the Launch Institute

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should be completed before school opens for the year. The Launch Institute incorporates these linked professional development activities, as follows.

1. Leadership Team InstituteAnchoring the Launch Institute is a one-day institute for the Leadership Team designed to launch its work in steering the implementation process. The Leadership Team includes the Principal, Assistant Principal(s), grade level representatives (who also serve as workgroup facilitators) and designated leaders for functions related to student services and community engagement. The institute’s content includes:

○ Leadership supports for the SIM components

○ The roles and responsibilities of Workgroups

○ Supporting CCSS implementation

○ The Schoolwide Instructional Focus (SIF) (including its purpose, goals for Stage 1, and role of the Leadership Team in supporting it)

○ Planning for the High Achievement and Engagement component

○ Establishing development of a Data-Driven Culture

○ Implementation expectations, including progress monitoring processes and systems

○ Implementation planning

2. Workgroup Facilitators TrainingA “Workgroup” is a job-alike group of school staff with a shared focus and area of responsibility for implementation of SIM. This session provides an introductory training for the individuals who are designated the facilitator of a Workgroup. The teachers on each grade level form a Workgroup. In addition, staff with responsibility for student services collaborate as the Engagement Workgroup.

This full-day training session is designed to help Workgroup Facilitators become familiar with the function of the Workgroups, with the role of the Workgroup Facilitator, and to practice using shared protocols for supporting the success of the Workgroups.

3. Overview and Visioning Session for the Entire School FacultyAn Overview and Visioning session brings the entire school faculty into the Launch Institute, setting the stage for the school’s work and serving as a prelude to the two-day session for all faculty that follows. Conducted over a half day, this session provides an overview of SIM and how the work on implementation unfolds. It builds on this foundation with an exercise that engages the school in creating a shared vision for teaching and learning in their school and the culture of high achievement and engagement that they will work to create.

4. Schoolwide Instructional Focus InstituteThis two-day institute provides a unifying focus for instruction across the school. Teachers plan to launch their year’s work on building standards-aligned curriculum and instruction. The activities incorporate strategies for helping all students to develop the ability to use Academic Language and for helping them develop Independent Learner Competencies, including scaffolded support for ELLs and students with disabilities. The establishment of effective learning routines and rituals and instructional practices is emphasized throughout the institute.

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5. Primary Grades InstituteThis institute lays the foundation for implementing curriculum and instruction aligned to the CCSS in kindergarten through grade 3. The institute focuses on literacy and math—each for one half day. Institute activities revolve around lessons that model standards-aligned instruction consistent with the CCSS.

6. Literacy/ELA Institute for Grades 4–8This institute lays the foundation for implementing curriculum and instruction aligned to the CCSS ELA standards and related assessments. It focuses on improving the quality and rigor of instruction. Institute activities revolve around lessons that model standards-aligned instruction consistent with the CCSS.

7. Mathematics Institute for Grades 4–8This one-day institute for math teachers in grades 4–8 lays the foundation for implementing curriculum and instruction aligned to the CCSS math standards and related assessments. It focuses on improving the quality and rigor of instruction. Institute activities revolve around establishing effective learning environments for math.

Implementation Phase Three: Continuing Implementation through Stage 1Support for continuing implementation throughout the year builds on the foundation established by the Launch Institute and includes the ongoing work of the Leadership Team, the Teacher Workgroups, and the Engagement Workgroup.

What the Leadership Team DoesThe Leadership Team, as constituted in the Leadership component described above, is expected to meet on matters relating to SIM implementation for approximately one hour at least three times each month and for an extended period of two hours four times during the year (with intervals of approximately three months). These extended meetings are for the purpose of progress monitoring (Progress Monitoring Meetings).

Leadership Team meetings incorporate three important settings: Professional development, progress monitoring, and implementation.

Professional Development. The team participates in a study of data knowledge and use to build the foundation necessary to establish a Data-Driven Culture. Content includes the language of assessment and data, investigating data, analyzing student work, and triangulating data to reframe performance problems into instructional issues.

Progress Monitoring. The process of progress monitoring begins prior to the start of school with data gathered during the early engagement conversations between school leadership and Pearson. This data becomes crucial to the Leadership Team as they develop an initial action plan for implementation prior to the beginning of school. Progress Monitoring Meetings, conducted quarterly, allow the team to track and analyze implementation of SIM across the whole school using various tools, as well as data gathered from Workgroup meetings and classroom visits conducted by the principal and assistant principal(s).

Implementation Meetings. These leadership meetings occur at least every other week. Led by the principal, team members engage in decision making about the status of SIM implementation and problem solve issues where needed. During these meetings, the principal and assistant principal(s)

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share findings from classroom visits where they looked for evidence of the Workgroup learning and practices in which staff members are engaged. Workgroup Facilitators, in turn, report on implementation progress and challenges from their Workgroup meetings. The Leadership Team applies knowledge from Data-Driven Culture modules as team members analyze student work, address issues relating to the creation of a data collection system and/or engage in periodic Focus Walks to monitor implementation schoolwide.

What Teacher Workgroups DoA Workgroup is made up of teachers who share responsibility for a grade level. In the upper grades, if appropriate, the Workgroups may be organized by content area. Workgroups support collaboration among teachers to build the quality of Literacy/ELA and Math curriculum and instruction. They also stimulate collaboration among teachers to work on the Schoolwide Instructional Focus instructional strategies to support students’ development of Academic Language and Independent Learner Competencies.

Each Workgroup meets 12-15 times during the year on a cycle that allows for flexibility in scheduling while assuring continuity of work. Meetings are designed to fit into a class period to allow them to be held during the school day, but they can also take place before or after school.

Meeting protocols guide a process of teachers’ trying out strategies in their classrooms, sharing their experience with reference to student work and other artifacts, revising their approach based on their discussion and reflection and beginning the cycle of exploration anew.

The initial emphasis is on establishing and maintaining effective Learning Routines and Rituals, including taking into account the similarities and differences between the Learning Routines and Rituals of literacy/ELA and math. Additional topics in literacy/ELA include independent reading, monitoring students’ progress in reading, and analyzing student writing. Math-specific topics include selecting rich problems and analyzing students’ misconceptions in order to plan further instruction.

Additional Professional Development Supports Continuing Implementation in Literacy/ELA and MathProfessional development in literacy/ELA and math injects support for continuing implementation at intervals throughout the year. As with the initial institute, the continuing professional development is organized by content area and grade span, K–3 and grades 4–8. These half-day professional development sessions are scheduled three times during the school year to provide timely support for teachers as they strive for deeper implementation, but also with an eye to flexibility to suit the school’s calendar.

Each professional development session extends teachers’ knowledge and skills relevant to the CCSS. Within this context, strategies that support students’ development of academic vocabulary and their capacity for independent learning receive particular attention as essential aspects of college and career readiness. Work on these strategies includes deliberate and systematic scaffolding of access for ELLs and students with disabilities.

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What the Engagement Workgroup Does The Engagement Workgroup investigates and recommends school policies and practices that relate to cultivating strong connections between home and school in supporting children’s engagement in school and their learning progress. This includes working on building parents’ involvement in their children’s learning and assisting in the schoolwide independent reading initiative by actively building partnerships with parents to support their children’s reading. This is coordinated with the Principal’s Book of the Month. The Engagement Workgroup also helps to build partnerships with community agencies that can provide supports for student’s continuing engagement in their education. The Engagement Workgroup meets 12 times during the year.

For a sample work plan for the key stakeholders in a SIM implementation, including a breakdown of the focus, settings, and support school leaders, teachers, and other staff will experience in Stage 1 of SIM implementation, see Attachment 1 of this document.

SIM Technical Support SystemThe SIM Technical Support System leverages the tight linkages among the components of SIM and between the Leadership Team and Workgroups. With these design and operational synergies as the foundation, Pearson Education Specialists provide technical support throughout implementation on a systematic basis to create an ongoing loop of information and response to information that fosters a continuous cycle of improvement.

Pearson Education Specialists:

Help get implementation practices underway

Monitor practice

Provide feedback on progress

Provide scaffolding as needed in order to maintain progress

Nurture the development of strong linkages among all of the school’s settings for SIM implementation

The SIM Technical Support System also includes reports that are generated on a systematic basis and shared with the principal and other stakeholders in real time. These technical support reports are designed to provide information relevant to goal achievement, to pinpoint specific issues, and to support timely response to keep implementation on course.

Gradual increase in the responsibility of school personnel for implementation guides the provision of technical support. For example, the purposes and use of protocols and other tools to support implementation are made explicit to facilitate their widespread use. Data is shared to support communication and problem solving. Education Specialists provide scaffolding in the context of a plan for passing responsibility to the principal or other staff member(s), as appropriate. In this way, the SIM Technical Support System actively supports Sustainability for Continuing Improvement.

Leadership Gets Special AttentionAs the engine for change, Leadership receives primary attention in terms of technical support. An Education Specialist participates in three Leadership Team settings each month. That participation

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includes facilitating the Data-Driven Culture professional development module, as well as providing technical support for the progress monitoring and implementation activities of the Leadership Team.

Allied with these activities, is guided practice by the Education Specialist. The Education Specialist works closely with the principal, assistant principals and other Leadership Team members in classroom visits to establish systematic practices for data gathering, analysis, and triangulation that are aligned to the Schoolwide Instructional Focus.

Technical support provided by Education Specialists reaches into the operations of the Workgroups on an as needed basis via participation in selected meetings and communication with Workgroup Facilitators, and as indicated by data gathered in the course of progress monitoring. The Leadership Team setting provides a venue for the continuing communication about needs and progress by and between the Education Specialist and the Leadership Team.

SIM Uses the Latest Technology to Support ImplementationTo increase the effectiveness and efficiency of your school educators and administrators in their school improvement efforts, SIM includes these tools and services:

Powerful, cloud technology-based progress monitoring capabilities customized for the iPad and laptop that use observational protocols from Johns Hopkins University

Anywhere, anytime 24/7 access to online tools and resources for Leadership Teams, Workgroup Facilitators, teachers, and staff engaged in SIM work

Webinars on key implementation topics, delivered live periodically and recorded for accessing later

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The Progress Monitoring SystemThe Progress Monitoring (PM) system is a comprehensive approach to monitoring, measuring, improving and reporting on program implementation as well as short and long-term outcomes related to SIM. It is used throughout all three stages and includes a suite of data collection tools and reports that will provide school Leadership Teams and Pearson Education specialists with information to support, investigate, and track implementation throughout the year. Objectives of the PM system include the following:

Link explicit evidence of change in behavior/practice at the school site to outcomes

Collect and report data (using variety of tools and modalities) to identify strengths and needs related to implementation

Stage 2 and Stage 3 Implementation: The Evolution Continues Implementation of SIM takes place over approximately three years to provide for full incorporation of each of the components described earlier. The establishment of a data-driven school culture focused on achieving college and career readiness for all students with closely-linked structures to support students’ progress that collectively generate sustainability for continuing school improvement is a process of evolution.

Implementation for Stage 2 and Stage 3 begins with a late winter/early spring Planning Conference, grounded in the information gathered through site-based progress monitoring and the Post-Assessment Survey (discussed below). Analysis of this data informs the process of consultation to determine the appropriate combination plan for supporting continuing implementation in the coming year.

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Once agreement is reached, the cycle of work begins anew with professional development focused on the content and tasks of the year ahead. Continuing implementation is supported through the established settings of the Leadership Team and Workgroups, connected by systematic processes of knowledge development and goal-setting, action planning and implementation, and followed by data collection and analysis to form a united approach to achieving high-quality instruction for all students consistent with the requirements of the CCSS and directed toward college and career readiness for all.

Examining Efficacy: Evaluating SIMEvaluation of SIM and of how well implementation is proceeding is integral to the model, because it informs continuing improvement—a fundamental precept of the model’s design. Consistent with the tight linkages that characterize SIM in other areas (e.g., the interlocking nature of its five components and the interconnections between the defined settings, such as Teacher Workgroups) for implementation, evaluation extends across all aspects of SIM and engages all participants in the process of evaluation. Comprehensive program evaluation is built into and included in every implementation.

Evaluating SIM involves two discrete streams of activity. The first stream focuses on all schools implementing SIM and has three data events. During the engagement and implementation process, “pre” data is collected on a series of variables including leadership practices, data culture, teacher collaboration, quality of instruction and student engagement. “Post” data on these variables is collected at the end of the year. Throughout the school year, information and data (including client perception data) on progress towards achievement of SIM goals is accumulated continually using, among other tools, the site-based progress monitoring techniques of the SIM Progress Monitoring System.

The second stream of evaluation activity is focused on a stratified random sample of schools implementing SIM. An evaluation team, composed of evaluation specialists, content specialists, and field specialists from Pearson’s School Achievement Services group, visits the schools in the sample to collect data and validate findings. The team uses both quantitative and qualitative methods, tools, and approaches to gather data on implementation of SIM goals, leadership practices, data culture, teacher collaboration, quality of instruction, student engagement, and perception data.

The evaluation team uses the rich and multifaceted information to conduct a multi-level evaluation of SIM in order to examine a) the efficacy of the model itself and b) the quality of site-specific implementations. Actual outcomes are measured against expected outcomes to determine impact across a variety of data (including student achievement, instructional quality, use of data, and student engagement). Implementation reports will document implementation strength and fidelity, provide feedback to the schools for the purpose of celebrating successes as well as to improve implementation and inform SIM planning for the subsequent year. Education Specialists collaborate with school and/or district administrators to analyze the data, and to use it to guide further implementation.

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SIM Scope of WorkThis figure contains a summary of the Scope of Work for a SIM K–8 model implementation.

SIM Foundation Program for Each Implementing School—K–8

Implementation Phase 1:Planning Conference

1 Day for the principal, key school and district personnel and Pearson Education Specialists to develop a detailed implementation plan, set a schedule of cooperative activities and project milestones, and establish shared accountability.

Implementation Phase 2:Launch Institute

3.5–6 Days for every administrator, teacher, and support staff to participate in face-to-face professional development led by Pearson Education Specialists to initiate the school’s process of improvement. The Launch Institute includes all Institute materials and access to all online resources for one stage of implementation. The Launch Institute consists of:A. Leadership Team Institute1–Day Institute for the Leadership Team designed to launch the work of the Leadership Team in steering the implementation process. B. Overview and Visioning½–Day Session for the Principal, Assistant Principal(s) and all staff. This session provides an overview of SIM and how the work on implementation unfolds. It builds on this foundation with an exercise that engages the school in creating a shared vision for teaching and learning in their school and the culture of high achievement and engagement that they will work to create. C. Workgroup Facilitators Training Session1–Day Session for Workgroup Facilitators to become familiar with the function of the Workgroups, the role of Workgroup Facilitator, and practice using shared protocols for supporting the success of the Workgroups.D. Schoolwide Instructional Focus Institute2–Day institute for all teachers to provide a unifying focus for instruction across the school that is built on a foundation of Learning Routines and Rituals combined with Effective Instructional Practices and incorporates strategies for helping all students develop the ability to use Academic Language and develop Independent Learner Competencies. Teachers also learn how to provide scaffolded support for English language learners and students with disabilitiesE. Primary Institute1–Day institute for teachers of grades K-3 to lay the foundation for implementing curriculum and instruction aligned to the Common Core State Standards. One half-day each is devoted to Literacy and Math.F. Literacy/ELA Institute1–Day institute for grades 4-8 Literacy/ELA teachers, plus English as a Second Language and Special Education teachers and other teachers who support English instruction, to lay the foundation for work on aligning curriculum and instruction to the Common Core Literacy/English Language Arts standards and related assessments. G. Mathematics Institute1–Day institute for grades 4-8 Math teachers, plus English as a Second Language and Special Education teachers and other teachers who support English instruction, to lay the foundation for work on aligning curriculum and instruction to the Common Core Mathematics standards and related assessments.

Implementation Phase 3:Continuing Implementation—Leadership

Leadership settings supported annually onsite by Pearson Education Specialists including:Strategic planning sessions with the Principal (and Assistant Principal(s) as appropriate) providing real time support for building strategic leadership of the school’s improvement process, cultivating distributed leadership, aligning resource management to improvement goals, and guiding appropriate and timely interventions to create and sustain improvement momentum.Leadership Team settings supported annually onsite by Pearson Education

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SIM Foundation Program for Each Implementing School—K–8

Specialists (includes materials, online access to resources, data management and reporting) including:A. Leadership Team Professional Development MeetingSessions focused on study and use of data, facilitated by a Pearson Education Specialist, to build the foundation necessary in establishing a Data-Driven Culture including the language of assessment and data, investigating data, analyzing student work, and triangulating data to reframe performance problems into instructional issues.B. Guided PracticeGuided practice, facilitated by a Pearson Education Specialist at least six times during the year, provides the school’s administration with expert partnership support during classroom observations. Guided Practice assists leadership with building linkage between implementation of the Schoolwide Instructional Focus and additional focus areas for Standards-Aligned Instruction in English and Math, and classroom practice. C. Leadership Team Progress MonitoringExtended sessions, conducted quarterly, plus a pre-engagement baseline establishment to develop an initial action plan, analyze whole school implementation of SIM, and analyze data gathered from Workgroup meetings and classroom visits conducted by the principal and assistant principal(s). These sessions are facilitated by a Pearson Education Specialist.D. Leadership Team Implementation Meetings Bi-monthly settings (facilitated by a Pearson Education Specialist at least once each month), led by the principal to debrief Workgroup meetings and classroom observations, learn methods of implementing solutions to issues, apply knowledge from Data-Driven Culture module in real time, and develop plans to be carried out between meetings with teachers.

Implementation Phase 3:Continuing Implementation—Department Workgroups, High Achievement and Engagement Workgroup

Continuing Implementation for Workgroups consists of 12-15 meetings of grade level Teacher Workgroups and 12-15 meetings of the Engagement Workgroup (including Workgroup materials, online resources, and support for Workgroup Facilitators) and onsite support of six meetings among all workgroups per month by a Pearson Education Specialist.A. Teacher Workgroups 12-15 meetings annually focusing on the implementation of standards-aligned curriculum and instruction and incorporating the Schoolwide Instructional Focus through a recursive, disciplined process of inquiry, guided practice, and assessment. 3 half-days of continued professional development in Literacy/ELA for teachers of K-3 to provide more focused content on standards-aligned instruction (conducted approximately quarterly). 3 half-days of continued professional development in Literacy/ELA for teachers of grades 4-8 to provide more focused content on standards-aligned instruction (conducted approximately quarterly). 3 half-days of continued professional development in Math for teachers of K-3 to provide more focused content on standards-aligned instruction (conducted approximately quarterly). 3 half-days of continued professional development in Math for teachers of grades 4-8 to provide more focused content on standards-aligned instruction (conducted approximately quarterly). B. Engagement Workgroup12 meetings annually investigating school policies and practices that relate to cultivating strong connections between home and school in supporting children’s engagement in school and learning progress, and building strategies for engaging parents and the community in supporting high expectations.

Implementation Phase 3:Continuing Implementation—Instructional Support

Support of all teachers in the context of their classroom practice (through coordinated support for Standards-Aligned Instruction) and strategic, job-embedded, direct onsite support of six teachers per month. Support typically includes some or all of the following in varying combinations, as needed:A. Classroom Observation

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SIM Foundation Program for Each Implementing School—K–8

B. Monitoring of Practice and Provision of FeedbackC. Reporting on ProgressD. Providing Exemplars

Total Price for SIM Implementation (one school)

$150,000

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AttachmentFoundation SIM for K–8 in Action: Stage One Implementation Focus, Settings, and Supports. This table provides a detailed sample work plan for the key stakeholders in a SIM implementation, including a breakdown of the focus, settings, and support school leaders, teachers, and other staff will experience in Stage 1 of SIM implementation.

Foundation SIM for K–8 in Action: Stage One Implementation Focus, Settings, and Supports

Setting Membership Focus Meetings Pearson Onsite Support

Planning Conference

Principal, key school and district personnel

Develop implementation plan

Set schedule and projected milestones

Establish shared accountability

1 full day (FD) scheduled as soon as possible after completion of contract

Education Specialist (ES) facilitates meeting

Leadership Team3

Principal, Assistant Principals (APs), Workgroup Facilitators4, coordinator(s) of ELL, special education, and student services functions(Specific membership determined on a school-by-school basis)

Establish and maintain vision of improvement

Build the foundation of a data-driven culture

Drive and manage implementation

Monitor progress and quality of implementation, and redirect activity as needed

Develop and nurture collaboration, using a systems approach to engage entire school in shared responsibility and shared learning

1 FD professional development (PD) during Launch Institute

At least two one-hour meetings per month (one focused on development of Data-Driven Culture; one focused on implementation)

Quarterly two-hour progress monitoring meetings

ES facilitates PD during Launch Institute

ES facilitates Data-Driven Culture meeting each month

ES facilitates Implementation Meeting each month5

ES facilitates quarterly Progress Monitoring meetings 6

3 The term “Leadership Team” is used throughout descriptions of SIM, but it is understood that the title of this group of school leaders may differ from school to school to accommodate existing naming conventions. Because the SIM Leadership Team should serve as the key leadership team in the school, SIM’s implementation may result in some role adjustments of decision-making groups.4 Workgroups will normally be composed of teachers on a grade, one of whom will take the role of Workgroup Facilitator. Workgroup Facilitators have an integral role on the Leadership Team to assure strong linkages among implementation settings. 5 As implementation proceeds, ES role will transition toward co-facilitation with Principal and eventually to support for Principal’s facilitation of these meetings.6 See note above.

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Foundation SIM for K–8 in Action: Stage One Implementation Focus, Settings, and Supports

Setting Membership Focus Meetings Pearson Onsite Support

Administrative Team

Principal, APs Strategic leadership of improvement

Distributed leadership

Timely intervention to create and sustain improvement momentum

Aligned resource management

Strategic planning sessions, including sessions with ES at least three times per month

Focus Walks to monitor implementation, including Guided Practice Focus Walks with ES at least six times per year

Feedback and planning assistance for Workgroup facilitators with modeling and feedback provided by ES

ES conducts strategic planning with Principal [and AP(s) as appropriate] at least three times per month

ES facilitates Guided Practice Focus Walks for monitoring implementation at least six times per year

Workgroup Facilitators

Workgroup Facilitators

The role and function of Workgroups

The role of Workgroup Facilitator

Protocols to support effective collaboration in Workgroups

Half day training during Launch Institute7

(in addition to Workgroup meetings and Leadership Team meetings)

ES facilitates training

ES attends Workgroup meetings monthly and/or provides feedback and planning assistance to Workgroup facilitator(s)8

All Faculty

All faculty Development of a common vision of improvement focused on establishing students on the pathway to College and Career Readiness

Shared understanding of SIM and implementation plan

Half-day overview and visioning

ES facilitates overview and visioning

7 The Principal and Assistant Principal(s) also participate in this training.8 This support is the same as the support for Workgroup Facilitators cited below.

Schoolwide Improvement Model—K–8— Stage 1 | 32

Foundation SIM for K–8 in Action: Stage One Implementation Focus, Settings, and Supports

Setting Membership Focus Meetings Pearson Onsite Support

All Faculty

All faculty Routines and rituals to support standards-aligned instruction consistent with the CCSS

Goals and strategies for Stage One implementation

1 FD9 PD during Launch Institute

ES facilitates PD

Primary Grades Literacy

All primary grades (K–3) teachers plus ESL, special education, and other teachers who support primary grades classrooms

Standards-aligned instruction, incorporating SIF strategies and using Foundation Units to scaffold instructional practice in Literacy consistent with CCSS

Scaffolds to support access to learning for English language learners and students with disabilities

Independent reading program and monitoring of students’ reading levels

Development of foundation for writing consistent with and aligned to CCSS

1 half-day PD during Launch Institute1 half-day PD quarterly during school year (approximately Fall, Winter, Spring)

ES facilitates each PD

9 Full day is the preferred arrangement for this professional development. However, all professional development is designed in a modular format that allows for implementation in various configurations of time. This note applies to all professional development.

Schoolwide Improvement Model—K–8— Stage 1 | 33

Foundation SIM for K–8 in Action: Stage One Implementation Focus, Settings, and Supports

Setting Membership Focus Meetings Pearson Onsite Support

Primary Grades Math

All primary grades (K–3) teachers plus ESL, special education, and other teachers who support primary grades classrooms

Standards-aligned instruction, incorporating SIF strategies and using sample lessons to scaffold instructional practice in math consistent with CCSS

Scaffolds to support access to learning for English language learners and students with disabilities

1 half day PD during launch Institute1 half-day PD three times during school year (approximately Fall, Winter, Spring)

ES facilitates each PD

Upper Grades Literacy

All upper grades (4–8) teachers of Literacy, plus ESL, special education, and other teachers who support upper grades classrooms

Standards-aligned instruction, incorporating SIF strategies and using Foundation Units to scaffold instructional practice in Literacy consistent with CCSS

Scaffolds to support access to learning for English language learners and students with disabilities

Independent reading program and monitoring of students’ reading levels

Development of foundation for writing consistent with and aligned to CCSS

1 FD PD during launch institute1 half-day PD three times during school year (approximately Fall, Winter, Spring)

ES facilitates each PD

Schoolwide Improvement Model—K–8— Stage 1 | 34

Foundation SIM for K–8 in Action: Stage One Implementation Focus, Settings, and Supports

Setting Membership Focus Meetings Pearson Onsite Support

Upper Grades Math

All upper grades (4–8) teachers of Math, plus ESL, special education, and other teachers who support upper grades classrooms

Standards-aligned instruction, incorporating SIF strategies and using sample lessons to scaffold instructional practices in math consistent with CCSS

Scaffolds to support access to learning for English language learners and students with disabilities

1 FD PD during launch institute1 half-day PD three times during school year (approximately Fall, Winter, Spring)

ES facilitates each PD

Teacher Workgroup

All teachers organized by grade into Workgroups that provide stable settings for focusing on development of practice10 Workgroups include ESL, special education, and any other teachers who support instruction

Teacher collaboration on developing standards-aligned instruction consistent with the CCSS, incorporating SIF strategies, and building on content-focused PD, through cycles of planning, practice, and reflection on practice

12–15 meetings per Workgroup in the course of the year

ES attends Workgroup meetings each month and/or provides feedback and planning assistance to Workgroup Facilitator(s)

ES provides in-class coaching/ co-planning support/feedback (as appropriate)

10 Research on this concept supports workgroups of approximately 3–7 members. In some schools, this may suggest the need for some grades to combine to form a single Workgroup or divide to form two Workgroups, depending on numbers.

Schoolwide Improvement Model—K–8— Stage 1 | 35

Foundation SIM for K–8 in Action: Stage One Implementation Focus, Settings, and Supports

Setting Membership Focus Meetings Pearson Onsite Support

Engagement Workgroup

Principal, staff responsible for student services and related functions (e.g., dean(s), community outreach coordinator, social worker(s), psychologist(s)(Specific membership determined on a school by school basis)

Student engagement and practices that support engagement

School policies and practices that relate to student engagement and personalization and recommend changes as needed

Parent involvement in independent reading program

Communication of importance of strategies for supporting student engagement to school community

2 half-day PD sessions scheduled to suit school schedule, usually after Launch Institute 12 Workgroup meetings in the course of the year

ES facilitates PD ES attends

Engagement Workgroup meetings periodically as part of commitment to attend at least six Workgroup meetings monthly and/or provide feedback and planning assistance to Workgroup Facilitator(s)