Foundations for Success

1. Foundations for Success Initial Findings and New Directions Jason Snipes Director of Research Council of the Great City Schools Defining the Achievement Gap Challenge: Rights, Opportunities and Responsibilities The Achievement Gap Initiative at Harvard University July 19, 2006

2. Purpose of the Study • Focus on Large Urban School Districts • Extended Previous Research by CGCS to Understand Student Achievement Patterns in Large Urban School Districts • This Study • Examined What More Effective/Rapidly Improving Districts Are Doing to Raise Student Achievement • Attempted to Develop Hypotheses Regarding Promising Practices for Future Research and Technical Assistance to Districts

3. Nature of the Educational Challenges • Political Conflict and Lack of Focus on Achievement • Unsatisfactory Academic Achievement and Low Expectations • Lack of Instructional Coherence • Multiplicity of Teaching Initiatives and Curricula • Lack of Alignment With Standards • High Student Mobility • Inexperienced Teaching Staff • Low Expectations and Lack of a Demanding Curriculum • Unsatisfactory Business Operations

4. Educational Improvement Strategies • Culture of Accountability and Administrative Infrastructure to Support It • Focus on Low Performing Schools • Move Towards Instructional Coherence • Data Driven Instruction and Decision-Making • Initial Focus on Elementary Schools • Increased Focus on Efficiency of “Business Operations”

5. Instructional Coherence • Unified Curriculum Aligned With Standards Drives Instruction • Effective Support of Curriculum and Instruction using Focused Professional Development • Training in use of curriculum • Pacing guides and lesson plans • Coaching and monitoring curriculum implementation • Use of Regular Assessment Data to Guide and Refine Instruction • Focus on Thorough Implementation of Reform at the Classroom Level: Reform Press

6. Data-Driven Instruction and Decision-Making • Disaggregated Data by School, Race, Socio-economic status, Etc. • Trained Administrators and Teachers in Use and Interpretation of Data to Understand and Refine Instruction • Improved Infrastructure for Collecting and Delivering Data • Provided Data to Teachers and Principals in Timely Manner and “Digestible” Format, With Goal of Using Data to Guide Instruction

7. Strategic Support Teams“Cities Building Cities” • Instructional Coherence—Unified Curriculum • Lack of alignment with state standards • Disjointed curriculum • Underdeveloped staff at the district-level • Data-Driven Instruction • Inappropriate, misaligned, or no interim assessments • Lack of teacher training on use of data • Lack of program evaluation • Secondary School Reform • Structural reforms if any, not addressing instruction • Insufficient attention to middle school

8. Priorities for Systemic Reform and Research • Focus on Instruction and Instructional Coherence • Focused Curricula Aligned with Standards • PD Aligned with Curricula • Use of Data to Refine Instruction • Measuring impacts and understanding cumulative effects • Who Teaches vs. How Teachers Are Supported • Defining and measuring teacher quality • Recruiting, deploying, and retaining high quality teachers • Understanding payoff to recruitment versus training strategies • Secondary School Reform • Moving beyond structural reforms to address instruction • Addressing basic literacy and math skills • Addressing needs of “on track” students