Establishing a Systemic Continuous Improvement Strategic Plan Session A Pages 6-9 Facilitator: Dr. Steve Broome

1. HSTW Establishing a Systemic Continuous Improvement Strategic Plan Session APages 6-9Facilitator: Dr. Steve Broome

2. Objectives for theBreakout Session • Become aware of and understand goals and key practices • Determine the status of school and classroom practices • Prioritize actions for closing the knowing and doing gap • Establish a team structure for planning and implementing school improvement actions SDW

3. Teams Work Best SDW

4. How Many Do You Remember? • Take one minute to work independently to list all the items on the preceding slide • *Hint: There were 25. SDW

5. Teams Work Better • Now work together in table teams to see if your table can come up with all 25. SDW

6. Teams Work Best SDW

7. HSTW Why Have Leadership Teams? • Distributed leadership • Community of learners is promoted • Continuous improvement culture is built • Teachers spend more time talking about the work of teachers • Leadership teams sustain efforts when a leader leaves-continuity • Communication improves • Teams come up with better ideas • Ownership of the school goals and action plans • Work and responsibility are shared SDW

8. Involve the FacultyEstablish Teams for Continuous Planning and Implementation Five Focus Teams (Included in overall school improvement team): • Curriculum leadership team • Professional development leadership team • Guidance and public information leadership team • Transitions leadership team • Data leadership team See Site Development Guide #2 SDW

9. Focus Teams: Develop Implementation Steps for Actions • Assign a major action from the school improvement plan to one or more of the focus teams • Have teams develop an implementation plan for the action, present it to the school improvement team and eventually to the entire faculty • Ask teams to develop process benchmarks and monitor plan for implementation • Measure performance SDW

10. Continuous Improvement: Specific ActionsPlanner pages 8 and 9 Describe how you will organize an overall school improvement team and five focus teams • How will you select a team leader? • How will you select team members and what content areas will be represented on each team? • How will you establish expectations for each team? Which teams will analyze gaps in: • Achievement to standards • Enrollment in advanced academics • Classroom expectations • Readiness for grade 9 • Postsecondary study/career SDW

11. Why is Change Hard?Actions for Closing the Knowing and Doing Gap • Why – Before – How • Knowing comes from doing • Actions count more than plans • There is no doing without mistakes • Measure what matters-implementation • What leaders do matters SDW

12. School ImprovementProcess Goals • Ensure that all students complete a rigorous academic core and concentration in either academic or CT studies (career pathways) • Align academic and CT courses to college and career readiness standards • Strengthen existing CT programs by blending technical and academic content • Strengthen the transition from middle grades to high school and from high school to postsecondary education and the workforce SDW

13. School ImprovementProcess Goals • Increase the use of research-based strategies that engage students in relevant and challenging assignments • Establish a guidance and advisement program that makes teachers and parents partners in creating student success plans and developing a program of study for achieving these goals • Raise expectations and provide a system of extra help that focuses on student achievement • Strengthen teacher leadership to promote a climate of continuous improvement and to drive teaching of all students to high standards SDW

14. HSTW Enhanced HSTWGoals • Increase to 85 percent the percentages of high school students who meet the HSTW reading, mathematics and science performance goals • Increase the percentages of all high school students who perform at the proficient or advanced level to at least 50 percent in reading, mathematics and science as measured by the HSTW assessment • Increase to 85 percent the number of high school graduates who complete college preparatory courses in mathematics, science, English/language arts and social studies and a concentration. SDW

15. HSTW Enhanced HSTW Goals Continued • Improve students’ transition from middle grades to high school. • Increase to 90 percent the number of high school students who enter grade nine and complete high school four years later. • Have all students leave high school with postsecondary credit or having met standards for postsecondary studies to avoid remedial courses. SDW

16. Enhanced HSTW Goals Continued… • Advance state and local policies and leadership initiatives that sustain a continuous school improvement effort. SDW

17. HSTW Conditions • A clear, functional mission statement • Strong leadership • Plan for continuous improvement • Qualified teachers • Commitment to goals • Flexible scheduling • Support for professional development SDW

18. Mission Statements: • HSTW: Students entering grade nine will graduate prepared for further study without the need for remedial courses and/or will pass an employer-certification exam • MMGW: Prepare all students for rigorous college-preparatory courses in high school SDW

19. Key Practice:Continuous ImprovementUse student achievement and program evaluation data to continuously improve school culture, organization, management, curriculum and instruction to advance student learning SDW

20. Why Is Using Data for Continuous Improvement Important? • Know where you are…where you need to be • Inspire change • Measure progress • Link achievement with changes in classroom practices • Celebrate accomplishments SDW

21. Setting a Clear Mission and Vision for Success Source: 2006 HSTW Assessment Report for All HSTW Sites SDW

22. Foundation for Continuous Improvement • Establish a consensus about the need to change (assess) • Set interim targets to close the gap between current and desired practices (plan) • Engage and support faculty to reach the targets (do) • Assess progress in terms of targeted goals (evaluate) • Celebrate successes frequently • Repeat the cycle SDW

23. State assessments Teacher assessments Course failure (ninth-grade) ACT/SAT results Attendance rates Graduation rates Certification exam results Post-secondary readiness Assessing readiness practice How Are Performance and Practices Measured? SDW

24. How are Performance and Practices Measured? • Instructional review • Staff experience chart • Remedial studies reports • Follow-up studies • Drop-out exit reports • Master schedule • Focus group interviews • Graduate feedback • Assessing practice SDW

25. School Leaders Need to: • Use formative assessments and benchmarks to assess student learning • Monitor instructional practice for the use of research-based strategies • Conduct surveys of students, teachers, and parents and analyze responses to determine the impact of school structure and practices SDW

26. Comparison of Changes between 2002 and 2004 in the Percentage of Students Experiencing Nine School and Classroom Practices Source: 2002 and 2004 HSTW Assessments SDW

27. Effort & Achievement Rubrics: Source: Marzano, Pickering, Pollock, “Classroom Instruction that Works,” Page 52. SDW

28. Focus on What You Can Change: Review pages 2-5 Ideal Implementation • Structure: Rigor of what is taught and what is expected. • Quality Instruction: How are students taught? • Supportfor Students: How is staff related to students? • Supportfor Teachers: How do teachers learn and related to each other? • Leadership: How are we involved in using data for Continuous Improvement? SDW

29. Resources and Learning Opportunities • SREB materials/newsletters • Send teams to national staff development workshops • Teams share and implement ideas • Visit outstanding HSTW/MMGW sites • Create study teams around selected materials • Seek input on implementation plan • Technical Assistance Visits SDW

30. Structures that PromoteSuccess for More Students • Literacy and numeracy across the curriculum • Transition from middle grades to high school • Technology access and support • Access to C/T education • Structured academic and career guidance • Transition from high school to postsecondary studies and careers SDW

31. Leading Change Students’ behavior and attitude toward school changes when school leaders agree to do whatever it takes to get students to grade-level standards, prepared for challenging high school studies and for postsecondary studies and careers. Achievement goes up, graduation rates increase and students become more engaged when leaders lead to set higher expectations and support students to meet them. SDW

32. Leading Change Closing the Knowing – Doing Gap is about • Changing students’ behavior by changing adult behavior; • Having a core group of school and teacher leaders act in unison; • Helping students and parents set goals; • Creating a continuous improvement climate; • Raising expectations for all groups of students; and • Adults convincing all groups of students that they are worthy. SDW

33. All schools want to improve but few want to change. The fact remains that to improve one MUST continually change. SDW