THE OPPORTUNITY: From “Brutal Facts” to the Best Schools We’ve Ever Had Dr. Mike Schmoker [email protected] 928/522-0006 Calhoun ISD Marshall, Michigan.

THE OPPORTUNITY: From “Brutal Facts” to the Best Schools We’ve Ever Had

Dr. Mike [email protected]/522-0006

Calhoun ISD Marshall, Michigan March 5, 2008

INTRODUCTION: DO WE TRULY WANT BETTER SCHOOLS?

Because organizations only improve…

“where the truth is told and the brutal facts confronted”

Jim Collins

BRUTAL FACTS:

Only 7% of low-income students will ever earn a college degree

BRUTAL FACTS:

Only 32% of our college-bound students are adequately prepared for college

“Understanding University Success” Center for Educational Policy Research

COLLEGE SUCCESS: ANALYTICAL READING & DISCUSSION PERSUASIVE WRITING

Drawing inferences/conclusions from texts

Analyzing conflicting source documents

Supporting arguments with evidence

Solving complex problems with no obvious answer

David ConleyCollege Knowledge

BRUTAL FACTS:

“The TEACHER EFFECT makes all other differences pale in comparison”

William Sanders

Five years of effective teaching can completely close the gap between low-income students and others.

Marzano; Kain & Hanushek

IMPACT of TEACHING

Pittsburgh Schools: 69% range of difference

Mortimore & Sammons: teaching has 6 to 10 times as much impact as other factors

Dylan Wiliam: 400% “speed of learning” differences

REALITY CHECK

“Effective practices never take root in more than a small proportion of classrooms and schools”

Tyack and Cuban

“Effective teaching is quite different from the teaching that is typically found in most classrooms”

Odden and Kelley

THE REAL OPPORTUNITY…

“Most of us in education are mediocre at what we do”

Tony WagnerHarvard Graduate School of Education

EVERY STUDY of classroom practice reveals that most teaching is mediocre--or worse

Goodlad; Sizer; Resnick; Powell, Farrar & Cohen; Learning 24/7 Classroom Study

BRUTAL FACTS After decades of initiatives, programs & plans, we still

DO NOT INSPECT instruction, i.e.:

1. WHAT we teach (essential standards)

or

2. HOW WELL we teach (effective lessons/units)

Gordon; Elmore; Marzano; Tyack & Cuban; Hess; Berliner

The case of SEAN CONNORS

EFFECTIVE LESSON: WHAT & HOW

Clarity @ essential standard being learned that day (“introductory paragraphs”)

“Scaffolded” (step-by-step) instruction “Check for understanding”/formative assessment

during the lesson Models/exemplars: students studied these in pairs

Engagement & attentiveness—students monitored/called on randomly

Students write own intro. paragraph…

only when most/all students are ready

WHY IS MOST TEACHING MEDIOCRE?

“The administrative superstructure of schools …exists to ‘buffer’ teaching from

OUTSIDE INSPECTION”

Richard Elmore

YOU CAN’T EXPECT WHAT YOU DON’T

INSPECT

Peter Senge

PRIMARY TASK: Improve WHAT and HOW we teach

I. REPLACE “IMPROVEMENT PLANNING” WITH TEAM-BASED EFFORTS TO IMPROVE

WHAT IS TAUGHT and HOW WELL

II. “GUARANTEED & VIABLE CURRICULUM” (“WHAT”)

III. SIMPLIFY “LEADERSHIP”

IV. RADICALLY REDEFINE

LITERACY INSTRUCTION

I. FIRST: TYPICAL “STRATEGIC” or “IMPROVEMENT PLANNING” MODELS… SUCKorganizations into superficial; time-consuming counterproductive, distracting

actions that PREVENT

rapid, team-based cycles of instruction assessment improvement of instruction

I. LEARNING COMMUNITIES: AN ASTONISHING CONCURRENCE

“The most promising strategy for sustained, substantive school improvement is building the capacity of school personnel to function as a professional learning community.”

Milbrey McLaughlin (cited in Professional Learning Communities at Work by Dufour and Eaker)


“Professionals do not work alone; they work in teams… to accomplish the goal—to heal the patient, win the lawsuit, plan the building.”

Arthur Wise: Teaching Teams: a 21st – Century Paradigm For Organizing America’s Schools

I. FIRST: ADOPT “SIMPLE PLANS” to create

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES

1. DATA - driven (academic!) priorities

2. GOALS: that are measurable/tied to an assessment

3. TEAMWORK that produces short-term assessment results

…Anchored by a

GUARANTEED & VIABLE CURRICULUM

DATA: “S.M.A.R.T.” GOALS

1. SET measurable, annual goals for: Math; Art; Writing; P.E.—tied to an ASSESSMENT

GOAL: Our team will improve in (Physics; Math; Writing; French; )

from: 62% (2007)

to: 66% (2008)

Peter Senge: “More than ? goals is the same as none at all.”

DATA DRIVEN PRIORITIES

2. IDENTIFY lowest - scoring standards—from ASSESSMENTS

MATH: “measurement; operations with negative and positive integers”

WRITING: “voice”; “word choice” P.E. “volleyball unit; personal health plan”

“maim your opponent in dodge ball”

3. USE formative assessment data (results from lessons, units, etc)

Stiggins; Wiliam & Black

AUTHENTIC TEAM-BASED PLC’s: plan lesson/unit teach it assess its impactadjust instruction

Amphi High: Thesis statement/introduction

Adlai Stevenson: Physics: how a rainbow works

Lake Havasu High School: Operations with negative & positive integers

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES: FACTS

The “PLC” concept (by whatever name) is indisputably the STATE OF THE ART for improving instruction but alas…

authentic, team-based PLC’s are EXCEEDINGLY RARE.

II. “GUARANTEED & VIABLE CURRICULUM”

How important is this?

The NUMBER ONE FACTOR

for increasing levels of learning

Marzano; Porter; Lezotte

II. GUARANTEED…?

Do America’s schools now ensure that a “guaranteed & viable curriculum”

actually gets taught?

II. GUARANTEED & VIABLE CURRICULUM? BRUTAL FACTS:

ROSENHOLTZ: teachers provide a

“self-selected jumble” of standards

BERLINER/WALBERG: wild variation from teacher to teacher; no alignment with agreed-upon, viable curriculum standards

LITTLE; SIZER; ALLINGTON; CALKINS:

“curricular chaos" in English & language arts

II. GUARANTEED CURRICULUM: MAP the STANDARDS*1st quarter: NUMBER SENSE

DATA ANALYSIS & PROBABILITY

2ND quarter: PATTERNS, ALGEBRA & FUNCTIONS

GEOMETRY

3rd quarter: MEASUREMENT & DISCRETE MATH

MATHEMATICAL STRUCTURE/LOGIC

4th quarter: REVIEW: for YEAR END ASSESSMENT

END OF EACH QUARTER: common assessment…with ample “higher-order” component (analysis, evaluation etc.)

III. LEADERSHIP in theProfessional Learning Community

“No institution can survive if it needs geniuses or supermen to manage it. It must be organized to get along under a leadership of average human beings.”

Peter Drucker

THE LEADERSHIP ILLUSION

The actions of administrators, including all forms of improvement planning & staff development, have virtually no impact on the quality of teaching in the school.

Richard Elmore 2000

This is not a matter of work ethic;

it is a matter of misplaced priorities.

MONITORING 1. INSTRUCTION and 2. GUARANTEED & VIABLE CURRICULUM

LEADERS (administrators, dept. heads) must

1. Conduct at least one unannounced classroom walk-through each month, looking for schoolwide patterns of strength/weakness with regard to…

Clear focus on essential standards College prep: critical reasoning/higher-order reading,

writing, thinking Essential elements of an effective lesson

September: “4 of 15 classes teaching essential standards”

October: “__ of 15 classes…” (SMART goal)

MONITORING 1. INSTRUCTION and 2. GUARANTEED & VIABLE CURRICULUM

“If you can not measure it, you cannot improve it.”

British scientist Lord Kelvin

LEADERSHIP: Team Management for “GUARANTEED & VIABLE CURRICULUM”

(D. Reeves; R. Marzano; R. DuFour)

QUARTERLY CURRICULUM REVIEW: Leaders & Teams discuss…

quarterly assessments (success rate; areas of strength/weakness)

grade books (lowest-scoring assessments)

scored work samples (weak/strong areas)

IS THIS A FAIR, REASONABLE REQUIREMENT?

MEETINGS: STRATEGIZE TO ACHIEVE—& to RECOGNIZE/CELEBRATE every “SMALL WIN”

____ of 6 elementary teams: developed team meeting protocols

____ of 28 middle school teams completed “standards map(s)”

____ of our 25 course-alike teams have created a SUCCESSFUL LESSON (e.g. 87% mastery/proficiency)

MARCH: 6 of 15 classrooms—essential standard being taught APRIL: 13 of 15 classrooms—essential standard being taught

NO SMALL WINS = NO PROGRESS

RECOGNIZE & CELEBRATE measurable “SMALL WINS” to overcome resistance & promote MOMENTUM

The #1 LEVER FOR IMPROVING MORALE AND EFFECTIVE PRACTICE

Nelson; Blasé and Kirby

The single best, low cost, high- leverage way to improve performance, morale, and the climate for change is to dramatically increase the levels of meaningful recognition for educators

Robert Evans

RESULTS of Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum; Effective Teamwork; Frequent

Recognition & Celebration

ADLAI STEVENSON HIGH SCHOOL

10+ years of record-breaking gains on every national, state & end-of-course assessment

800% increase in AP success

Average ACT score: 21 to 25*

IV. UNPARALELLED OPPORTUNITY: LITERACY INSTRUCTION

“Under-developed literacy skills are the number one reason why students are retained, assigned to special education, given long-term remedial services and why they fail to graduate from high school.”

Ferrandino and Tirozzi: presidents of NAESP and NASSP

BRUTAL FACTS; GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY*

“Reading and Writing vs. ‘stuff’ ratio”

Lucy Calkins: 1/15 reading to “stuff” ratio

“Literature based Arts and Crafts”:

dioramas; game boards; worksheets; posters; presentations; coats-of-arms; mobiles; movies; cutting, pasting; designing book jackets; skits; collages

The CRAYOLA CURRICULUM

“I can only summarize the findings by saying that we’ve been stunned…

kids are given more coloring assignments than mathematics and writing assignments…I want to repeat that, because I’m not joking, nor am I exaggerating.”

Katie Haycock

HIGH SCHOOL English

9th grade: To Kill A Mockingbird (100 points total)

Draw “head or full body shot” of any character—use “crayons, colored pencils” (20 points)

Create a model of Maycomb (wood, plastic or styrefoam) (20 points)

HIGH SCHOOL English

“Honors” Sophomore English:

Two schools—collage as 6-week assessment of literary unit

Frankenstein assessment: make a mobile or collage

Siddhartha Assessment8-pages of worksheets (96 questions) ¾ of an inch of space to answer each question

NO DISCUSSION OR WRITING

HIGH SCHOOL English

AP Literature: “Memories” Scrapbook (200 points)

Second-semester project

For each page of text [no criteria for quality of written work] draw illustration (using various media)

LITERARY TERMS: essential?

indirect characterization

direct characterization

static character

internal conflict

external conflict

rising action

omniscient point of view

third-person limited point of view

complication

foreshadowing

suspense

resolution

climax

plot

anadiplosis

chiasmus

synecdoche

A BETTER WAY: READ, WRITE and TALK

After close reading of innumerable books and articles, students

“wrote and talked, wrote and talked” their way toward understanding.

Mike Rose: Lives on the Boundary

K-12/COLLEGE SUCCESS: ANALYTICAL READING & DISCUSSION PERSUASIVE WRITING

Draw inferences and conclusions Analyze conflicting source documents Solve complex problems with no obvious answer (Prepare students to) Write multiple 3-5-page

papers supporting arguments with evidence Read far more books, articles & essays than they

now read in high school [in class!]

College Knowledge by David Conley

WRITING: IMPORTANT?

Writing is the litmus paper of thought …the very CENTER OF SCHOOLING

Ted Sizer Writing aids in cognitive development to such an extent that the upper reaches of Bloom’s taxonomy could not be reached without the use of some form of writing .

Kurt and Farris 1990

BRUTAL FACTS Writing is rarely assigned, even more rarely

taught. William Zinsser; National

Commission on Writing

Even U.S. student’s “best writing is mediocre.”

NAEP report on “best” US high school writing

Students “with 3.8 GPAs,” in highly selective colleges, write poorly.

NAEP writing Study

BRUTAL FACTS

“If we could institute only one change to make students more college ready, it should be to increase the amount and quality of writing students are expected to produce.”

David Conley

author of College Knowledge

K-12/COLLEGE SUCCESS: ANALYTICAL READING & PERSUASIVE WRITING

SIMPLE STEPS MAJOR REVOLUTION

“Who would make a better friend—

Spider or Turtle?”

“Old Dan or Little Anne: which admire most?”

“What do you think are the most important lessons of WWI?

Evaluate for most/least effective, significant; interesting--presidents; explorers; scientists etc.

SIMPLE STEPS MAJOR REVOLUTION: EACH QUARTER

DEVELOP ARGUMENTS/PROPOSALS:

SCIENCE: PRO/CON: Drill in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Environmental sustainability

HISTORY/SOCIAL STUDIES: Illegal Immigration; Middle East issue(s) Evaluation of two presidents Case for liberal/conservative policy/politics

THE OPPORTUNITY

“We don’t know the half of what these kids can do”

Ted Sizer

“We now have 100/100/100 schools – every kid poor and minority, and every one of them meeting standards – including 100% of special education kids (the typical average is about 15%)” Doug Reeves/e-mail

FOR SWIFT, DRAMATIC IMPROVEMENT, FOCUS ON:

TEAM-BASED PLC’s (“WHAT” & “HOW”)

GUARANTEED & VIABLE Curriculum

RADICAL changes to literacy instruction

CELEBRATE every “SMALL WIN” in these areas at EVERY faculty & admin. meeting

WHY?: 35-50 percentile gain in

THREE YEARS (Marzano; Sanders; Bracey)

Instruction is the pivotal factor, but it is not nearly what it should be

It is not adequately supervised Training has limited impact on instruction Underachievement, droputs etc are largely

the result of the fact that poor and mediocre teaching are manifestly, almost universally tolerated

TEAMS OF TEACHERS Solution: build, share questions and detailed, “scaffolded” lessons, i.e. read to answer an interesting question, underline, annotate or take notes; share with partner while teacher walks around; write own conclusions with support/quotations from text…etc.

THE OPPORTUNITYThe question is not, “Is it possible to educate all children well?” But rather

“Do we want to do it badly enough?”

Deborah Meier

K-12/COLLEGE SUCCESS: ANALYTICAL READING PERSUASIVE WRITING

Drawing inferences; Interpreting results; Analyzing conflicting source documents; Supporting their arguments with evidence;

Solving complex problems that have no obvious answer; Drawing conclusions; Offering explanations; Conducting

research; Writing multiple 3-5-page papers that are well reasoned, well organized, and provide evidence from credible sources; Thinking deeply about what they are being taught;

Reading 8-9 books in the same amount of time they read one in high school; Working with other students on complex problems and projects; Making presentations and explaining what they have learned

BUT ALAS….

HILLOCKS: time spent actually teaching instructing per assignment:

3 minutes (mostly “directions” vs. “scaffolded” lesson with “checks for understanding” using rubric/critieria & models to teach word choice; voice; how to build a clear, effective paragraph using support from one or more texts etc.)

NESS: 40 hours of classroom observations:

3% of time devoted to “teaching explaining, modelling” reading strategies

mostly “asking literal questions.” Is this something new?

FORD & OPITZ: 2/3 of classtime

BASIC ELEMENTS of PLC’s

Common curriculum standards taught in roughly common sequence* (standards/consensus maps)

Common assessments (starting with quarterly)

Course-alike TEAMS use data—routinely--to improve standards-based lessons & units to reach…

S.M.A.R.T. Goals (BIO: 76% in ’07--> 80% in ’08)

Continuous Recognition and Celebration of “SMALL WINS” toward achieving SMART Goals

IMPORTANT?

Protocols: # of teams/schools now who have developed/are

using them

Standards maps # of courses for which they have been developed

If we don’t know how many/which ones, we can’t improve or increase

II. GUARANTEED & VIABLE CURRICULUM?

In pairs: Come up with some simple ideas for ensuring a (more) guaranteed and viable curriculum. Points for:

Simple Time-efficient

You have 1 minute…


Only 31% of college graduates can read a complex book and extrapolate from it

National Center for Education Statistics

Only 24% write at the “proficient” level; 4% were rated “high”

NAEP study

High leverage silver bullets

Planning backward—from stds based assessment [ask Tim Kanold @ assessment swaps]

Walkthroughs and reports/expectation Quarterly assessments/to ensure g and v and

continuous improvement:


Fully 2/3 of students at a prestigious university couldn’t detect the most flagrant contradictions in a text that was purposely laced with them (Graff).

K-12 does very little to enhance students critical reading capacities(Graf, p. 68).

BUT WHAT ABOUT WRITING?

WHY WAIT? These facts DEMAND ACTION “We should not have to wait another

generation before we get things right”

Reverend Michael Pfleger, youth pastor in inner-city Chicago

“We Learn Best by Doing”DuFour, DuFour, Eaker and Many

II. “GUARANTEED & VIABLE CURRICULUM”

The key factor is that teachers know what needs to be taught at each grade level – that there is a coherent curriculum.

Study of 15 very high-achieving—but disadvantaged--schools

Karin Chenoweth; Harvard Education Letter: May/June 2007


Drawing inferences and conclusions Interpreting results Analyzing conflicting source documents Supporting their arguments with evidence Solving complex problems that have no obvious answer Drawing conclusions Offering explanations Conducting research Writing multiple 3-5-page papers that are well reasoned Thinking deeply about what they are being taught Reading 8-9 books in the same amount of time they read one in

high school

WE ARE WHAT WE DO: what we CONSISTENTLY, FREQUENTLY, REPEATEDLY…

Tolerate--or ignore Talk about Ask for or REQUIRE Formally Evaluate Insist on Reward, praise and reinforce

WEEK IN, WEEK OUT


READING: Only 31% of college graduates can read a complex book and extrapolate from it

National Center for Education Statistics

WRITING: Only 24% write at the “proficient” level; 4% were rated “high”

NAEP study

THE PRICE OF BETTER SCHOOLS

“Perhaps there are schools that have made the transition to a professional learning community without conflict or anxiety, but I am unaware of any…the question schools must face is ‘how will we react when we are immersed in the conflict that accompanies significant change?’”

Rick DuFour

K-12/COLLEGE/CAREER SUCCESS: ANALYTICAL READING & PERSUASIVE WRITING

“The information age places higher-order literacy demands on all of us ...these demands include synthesizing and evaluating information from multiple sources.”

Richard Allington

THE IMPACT OF EFFECTIVE TEACHING ON ACHIEVEMENT

SHORT-TERM Success on same assessment: 72% vs. 27% 3 years of good teaching = 35-50% Impact on achievement: 6-10 times as much as all

other factors combined

LONG-TERM: (IN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS?) Graduation rate: from 68% to 80%? Average college graduation rate: 50% to 80%? LOW -SES college grad rate: from 7% to 30%?


2/3 of students at a prestigious university couldn’t detect flagrant contradictions in a text that was purposely laced with them (Graff).

"K-12 does very little to enhance students critical reading capacities”

(Graff, p. 68).

BUT WHAT ABOUT WRITING?

REALLY? Already know?

TRANSPARENCY/CLASSROOM ACCESS Reasonably well-constructed lessons, units —aligned with

assessments Professional Learning Communities—focused on ever-improving

assessment results Measurable goals Monitoring: of what is taught/how well/1/4ly curriculum reviews Overhaul of literacy education (English…& Beyond)

NEW Team management for “small wins” Recognition & celebration

“PRESSURE AND SUPPORT”

“Sure, but there isn’t a word here about the incentives and punishments needed to make teachers and schools want to have results!”

Peter Drucker, in a note to me

During the transition, “people may be sad, angry, depressed, irrational, frightened or confused. We must, without judgment, provide processes for them to express feelings” Robert Garmstron

OPPORTUNITIES

Standard not clear/not on board Too many goals (=not tied to an assessment of

mastery) Almost no “check for understanding”/scaffoldoing Minimal (purposeful) reading and writing (using a

rubric) Abundance of low-quality, “misaligned” worksheets Hands raised Activity/worksheet driven curriculum vs.

stds./assemt-driven

YOU CAN’T IMPROVE WHAT YOU CAN’T SEE

The reason schools aren’t vastly better, for smart or poor or advantaged or disadvantaged students is because:

“The administrative superstructure of schools …exists to ‘buffer’ teaching from outside inspection, interference or disruption.”

Richard Elmore

“Team Lesson/Unit Logs” SPECIFIC STANDARD (e.g. “descriptive settings”):

SHORT-TERM ASSESSMENT (what must students know/do?): e.g. “write a quality descriptive paragraph”

LESSON/UNIT/DETAILED STRATEGY: (not a list or grab- bag of strategies)

SHORT-TERM ASSESSMENT RESULT: (e.g. “74% demonstrated proficiency/progress)

ADJUSTMENTS: BASED ON SHORT-TERM RESULTS

ASSESSMENT*: the “coherence maker” (Michael Fullan)

TEAMS must work to ensure that assessments are: “ALIGNED” to state/district assessments

FREQUENT

“FORMATIVE” -- used to inform improvement of subsequent lessons

CLEAR: CRITERIA is given in advance INTELLECTUALLY-ENGAGING

TEACHER EVALUATION IS NOT “MONITORING INSTRUCTION”

No “pressure”; no “support” for:

quality of instruction or assessment “guaranteed and viable” curriculum

Teacher evaluation generally reinforces poor/mediocre practice

Kim Marshall

THE GREATEST OPPORTUNITY OF ALL: LITERACY INSTRUCTION*What minimum percentage of classtime in English or Language Arts should be devoted to actual reading and writing?

COLLEGE READINESS: ANALYTICAL READING & ARGUMENTATIVE WRITING

Only about one in five college students has adequately developed these capacities; the rest either:

drop out of college have fewer academic and career options struggle in/don’t optimally benefit from college

studies or don’t qualify for/succeed in grad school

Graf; Conley; Housman; Barzun

Meier

You can observe a lot just by watching." Yogi Berra

Tear down this wall

System = what we do but, more important what we do as a result of what we reinforce, encourage, talk about a lot, insist on; consistently demand, require; celebrate, promote for praise; plead, repeat; get excited about; punish; ….these are the things that will get priority…

END of sections? Cd we change? Forget principles/theories…How, concretely, realistically?

What do if 35-50 % pts on the line?

System pretty good at responding to torrnet of stuff, at satisfying bureacruaccy---but cod we re-jiegger it—a bit—to foucs sufficiently on instr levers? I will try veryy hard ot be realisitic, not pie in the sky

Accountability

Culture is a function of what a system

Celebrates Gets angry at Reminds Excited about reinforces; praises Punishes Insists on; demands Ignores; spends time on

BRUTAL FACTS: “At a time when Americans seek strength in their

leaders, [we] should find the strength to speak hard truths about our schools.”

Robert Gordon, education adviser to John Kerry

“We must overcome the awful inertia of past decades” Michael Fullan

Improvement will require: “recognition of and moral outrage at ineffective practices.”

Roland Barth

IV. LITERACY: BRUTAL FACTS

Only 38% of students READ at the proficient level—(i.e. can analyze & interpret)

Only 24% of students WRITE at the proficient level

Their importance—in every discipline--is greatly underestimated

COLLEGE READINESS: ANALYTICAL READING & ARGUMENTATIVE WRITING

NON FICTION: “How has geography influenced Japan’s history, culture and character?”

The CASE FOR/AGAINST: ANWR drilling The South in the Civil War Wartime use of torture: Andrew Sullivan vs.

Charles Krauthammer WAL-MART: George F. Will vs. Stacy Mitchell


Michael Fullan Linda Darling Hammond Milbrey McLaughlin Rick StigginsTom Peters Peter SengeKaren Eastwood Dennis Sparks Susan Rosenholtz DuFour, DuFour & EakerJudith Little W.Edwards Deming Richard Elmore Doug ReevesRoland Barth Robert Redford

THE “KNOWING-DOING GAP”

It’s not that we don’t know what to do…

It’s that we DON’T DO what we

ALREADY KNOWPfeffer & Sutton

THE “KNOWING-DOING GAP”

It’s not that we don’t know what to do…

It’s that we DON’T DO what we

ALREADY KNOWPfeffer & Sutton

THE OPPORTUNITY

The question is not “Is it possible to educate all children well?” But rather

“DO WE WANT TO DO IT BADLY ENOUGH?”

Deborah Meier

RESULTS: PLC’s/ Guaranteed & Viable Curriculum LEVEY MIDDLE SCHOOL: average 24-point

gains at every grade level—in 2 years

BESSEMER ELEMENTARY: 85% poor/minority Reading: 2% to 48% Writing: 12% to 64%

BRAZOSPORT, TX: from worst to best in state

BYRON-BERGSON S.D.: 57% to 81%

SELAH S.D.: 27 point district-wide gains

“Team Lesson/Unit Logs” SPECIFIC STANDARD (e.g. “descriptive settings”):

SHORT-TERM ASSESSMENT (what must students know/do?): e.g. “write a quality descriptive paragraph”

LESSON/UNIT/DETAILED STRATEGY: (not a list or grab- bag of strategies)

SHORT-TERM ASSESSMENT RESULT: (e.g. “74% demonstrated proficiency/progress)

ADJUSTMENTS: BASED ON SHORT-TERM RESULTS

COLLEGE READINESS: ANALYTICAL READING &

PERSUASIVE WRITING

NAEP: “So few examples of persuasive writing were submitted that they couldn’t even analyze the samples usefully”

Lynn Olson

Doug Reeves: 90% of writing assignments in K-12: N_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ mode

II. GUARANTEED CURRICULUM: GEOMETRY**: 2nd Quarter

Visualize & draw 2 & 3 dimensional geometric figures

Apply congruence, similarity, angle measure, parallelism & perpendicularity to real situations

Perform elementary transformations (tessellations, flips and slides)

Solve problems relating to size, shape, area & volume

**AIMS Assessment Guide; teachers admit that they don’t consult these guides

LEADERSHIP: We are what we talk about

DISTRICT 2, NEW YORK CITY:

Faculty and central office meetings “are about instruction and only about instruction”

from #16 to #2 in academic rank—

in only two years

COLLEGE/CAREER READINESS: ANALYTICAL READING &PERSUASIVE WRITING

AIMS/SAT/AP/COLLEGE/CAREER SUCCESS

Close, analytical reading: to evaluate logic; cause & effect; compare & contrast; accuracy; author’s intent/bias; fact or opinion etc.

PERSUASIVE, purposeful writing: analyses interpretations; grant/policy proposals; recommended actions

Are these critical reasoning capacities cultivated in the K-12 curriculum?

BRUTAL FACTS

“Effective teaching is quite different from the teaching that is typically found in most classrooms”

Odden & Kelley

Ineffective practices were almost as prevalent in affluent, high-scoring schools as in disadvantaged, low-scoring schools

Learning 24/7 Classroom Study; Elmore

I. FIRST: ABANDON CURRENT “STRATEGIC” or “IMPROVEMENT PLANNING” MODELS

BRUTAL FACT: “Strategic Planning” etc.—common, but ineffective

Dennis Sparks; Gary Hamel, Doug Reeves, Tom Peters; Bill Cook; Henry Mintzberg; Michael Fullan; Kouzes & Posner; Bruce Joyce; Pfeffer & Sutton; Penn & Teller

“Tipping Point”: Phi Delta Kappan; February 2004

EXAMPLE OF A TIMELINE FOR TEAM PRODUCTS By the end of the: 2nd week: Team Norms 4th week: Common SMART Goal 6th Week: Common Outcomes 8th Week: Common Assessments 10th Week: Analysis of Student Performance

on assessments

DuFour, DuFour and Eaker

TEAMWORK: BRUTAL FACTS

Real teamwork—the heart of PLC’s--is the unquestioned state of the art for improving levels of learning, but..

It is exceedingly rare in schools; unsupervised isolation is the norm

TEAMWORK: ESSENTIAL

A PLC is composed of collaborative teams whose members work interdependently to achieve common goals linked to the purpose of learning for all. The team is the engine that drives the PLC effort.

Learning by Doing p. 3

DuFour, DuFour, Eaker and Many

BUT ALAS…

TEAMWORK: ESSENTIAL

A PLC is composed of collaborative teams whose members work interdependently to achieve common goals linked to the purpose of learning for all. The team is the engine that drives the PLC effort.

Learning by Doing p. 3

DuFour, DuFour, Eaker and Many

BUT ALAS…

Huxley

Every man who knows how to red has it inhis power to maginify himself, to multiply the ways in which he exists, to make his life full, significant and interesting

24%...

Barzun

THE OPPORTUNITY: From “Brutal Facts” to the Best Schools We’ve Ever Had Dr. Mike Schmoker [email protected] 928/522-0006 Calhoun ISD Marshall, Michigan.

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