Principals as Literacy Leaders Module 4 Professor Neil Dempster Griffith University

1. Principals as Literacy Leaders Module 4 Professor Neil Dempster Griffith University

2. Session 1. Opening Discussion of ‘Homework’ Discussion Questions: • What did you do after Module 3? • What did you find?

3. Session 2a: Features of successful Interventions Research Findings

4. Pathways to Prevention Strategies for disadvantaged communities: (1) build support structures outwards from a nucleus of child-focused programmes ( 2) offer individualised programmes (3) underpin programs with family support Homel et al (2006) Pathways to Prevention

5. Pathways to Prevention Successful Interventions: • actively work to overcome barriers to participation • provide opportunities for immediate and positive changes in the lives of participants • work to support families’ capacities to ensure that school and family are mutually supportive of children’s development Freiberg et al (2005)

6. Schools in Challenging Circumstances Schools that generate sustained improvement act strategically, first self-reviewing and reflecting, gathering and using appropriate evidence, and then acting collaboratively to build capacity for further improvement. But above all, schools in challenging circumstances focus their collective work on interventions in learning MacBeath et al(2007)

7. The Power of Networks in Disadvantaged Communities No one site within a school community holds all the solutions, but rather networks maximise collective expertise, experience and resources to take action on children’s known problems. Johnson and Jervis-Tracey(2010)

8. The Principal’s Role in High Poverty Schools with High Literacy Achievement Jay (2011) General findings on contributing processes: collaboration, reflective practice, a system of progress monitoring that improves students’ meta-cognition, a resident literacy expert, a positive climate of trust and respect, and distributed leadership. Findings on the principal’s role: concrete elements emerged – having overarching school-wide literacy goals, holding high expectations for all students, establishment of a tiered system of literacy, creation of a schedule that ensured tiered instruction and collaboration, and releasing ineffective teachers.

9. Leading Schools of Excellence and Equity: Documenting Effective Strategies in Closing Achievement GapsBROWN, BENKOVITZ, MUTTILLO and URBAN (2011) Findings:Three differences between the SG (small gap) schools and LG (large gap) schools were found: • encouraging academic achievement; • offering instructional feedback ; and • expecting excellence.

10. Leadership Practices in Effective Schools in Disadvantaged Areas of CanadaBouchamma (2012) Findings:leadership practices in effective schools can be grouped together around five dimensions: • establishing goals and expectations; • strategic resourcing; • curriculum planning, coordination, and evaluation; • promoting and participating in teacher supervision and development; • ensuring order and support.

11. Response to Intervention (RTI) Studies Response to intervention implementation: a successful principal’s approach Murakami-Ramalho (2012) Response to Intervention and the Changing Roles of Schoolwide Personnel Bean and Lillenstein (2012) Principal Leadership in Response to Intervention (RTI): A Mixed Methods Study Gile (2011)

12. Interventions with ‘at risk’ groups Leaders of Intervention: • establish and develop measurable goalsso that children’s progress can be seen • promote monitor and act upon pedagogical reform • redesign theinstitutional and organisational framework • develop the capacity of people and systems to gather and use evidence and take ownership of the reform. Bishop and O’Sullivan(2005) and Bishop, O’Sullivan and Berryman (2010)

13. PALL Pilot Project Research FindingsDempster, Konza, Robson, Gaffney, Lock and McKennariey (2012) • Reconnection with the school’s moral purpose to improve reading occurred through interventions • Principals realigned the use of school resources to support interventions (time, people, funds, materials) • Professional development with teachers was directed to support intervention strategies

14. PALL Pilot Research Findings (cont’d) • Resources for some were not able to stretch to reach children in greatest need • a quarter of the Principals reported continuing difficulty in connecting with parents and the wider community to support reading • Three-quarters were silent on this issue

15. Factors in Effective or Successful Interventions in ReadingPALL South Australia (Dempster, 2012) Cluster 1. Factors Critical for the Principal 1. The Principal drives intervention as instructional leader 2. There is whole school agreement and commitment to reading improvement 3. There is a system of intervention for children in need

16. Cluster 2. Factors Essential for TeachersPALL South Australia (2012) 4. Teachers know how to analyse and use data from diagnostic testing on reading 5. There is regular monitoring of teaching, learning and student progress by teachers and the leadership team 6. All classroom teachers see intervention in reading as their business 7. Students know their achievement levels and where to go next

17. Cluster 3. Factors Essential for the SchoolPALL South Australia (2012) 8. There is an established school reading assessment regime or data gathering calendar 9. There is knowledge of reading standards or benchmarks across the school  10. Organisational structures are in place for reading and there is access to necessary resources   11. There are supportive connections with families and community networks for reading 12. There is engagement by leaders with teachers and students and acknowledgement of their successes 

18. Stone – Theresa Van MaanenThe Josephine Ulrick Poetry Prize, 2007 You throw a stone and walk to it. You throw a stone and walk to it. You throw a stone and walk to it. Light dust on a path trodden hard dusts your shoes. You throw a stone and walk to it head bent. You reach down bending from the lowest point of your back.

19. You throw a stone and walk to it. You throw a stone and walk to it. Your shoes are black and in this heat your feet are sweating. You throw a stone and walk to it. One shoelace is less tight than it should be.

20. You throw a stone and walk to it. And as you bend, some of the thought is on the feeling of pulling the laces tighter before doing the bow. You throw a stone and walk to it. You imagine the feeling of perfect balance and the comfort of your inner sole after the bow is securely tied.

21. You throw a stone and walk to it. The lace drags and casts a trail in the light dust of the hard path like a snake’s writhe. But, You throw a stone. This is how we move forward. You throw a stone and walk to it

22. Intervention Touchstones* Successful interventions are based on: • Children’s real problems with clear evidence indicators • shared purpose about the problems • institution-wide commitment • connections into families and community networks • realistic strategies in planned stages • resource backing • ready monitoring • acknowledgement of success *Touchstones were stones, such as Jasper, originally used in testing to find alloys of gold.

23. It’s not about blaming the victim …the task to be accomplished is not to revise, and amend, and repair deficient children, but to alter and transform the atmosphere and operations of the schools to which we commit these children. Only by changing the nature of the educational experience can we change the product. To continue to define the difficulty as inherent in the raw material, the children, is plainly to blame the victim and to acquiesce in the continuation of educational inequality. Ryan (1976, pp. 61−62)

24. Session 2b: Intervention Wave Theory

25. WAVE 1. Deliberate action taken to ensure that all students have the chance to participate productively in the general classroom curriculum. This involves whole school planning directed at providing the best opportunities for overall literacy improvement.

26. WAVE 2. Wave 2 uses performance evidence to identify those students unable to achieve the goals of the general classroom curriculum, that is, students who need specialised literacy assistance in the form of added explicit teaching, scaffolded learning, special programs or differentiated support structures.

27. WAVE 3. Wave 3 action drills deeper into performance evidence to isolate students with specific needs who require highly focused individualised intervention. This will almost always be a small minority of students.

28. To Sum Up Intervention involves: • specific steps taken to allow access to a particularised (literacy) curriculum for students who are experiencing difficulties; • deliberate and direct actions taken by the teacher and support staff in the interests of nominated children; • adaptations and modifications to teaching strategies, resources and classroom learning environments to ensure that all students can participate in the regular classroom curriculum.

29. Finally, it’s a fact that: • general teaching routine does not enable ‘at risk’ students to catch up • in order to plan an intervention to meet a learner’s needs, individual assessment and data analysis are necessary • intervention is a pedagogical process, not a package of materials ‘off the shelf’ • extended support may be necessary for Wave 3 children • ‘one shot’ or short term interventions rarely work

30. SESSION 3: The Leadership for Learning Blue Print and how it relates to Interventions

33. Session 5: Preparing for Intervention back at school

34. Session 6: Homework Task: preparing a Reading Intervention Plan

35. Outstanding Leadership for Learning: • rests on an understanding that it is only through improved learning that student performance is enhanced over time. • requires leaders’ never-ending attention to each of the domains in the Leadership for Learning Framework

36. Stone – Theresa Van MaanenThe Josephine Ulrick Poetry Prize, 2007 You throw a stone and walk to it. You throw a stone and walk to it. You throw a stone and walk to it. Light dust on a path trodden hard dusts your shoes. You throw a stone and walk to it head bent. You reach down bending from the lowest point of your back. You throw a stone and walk to it. You throw a stone and walk to it. Your shoes are black and in this heat your feet are sweating. You throw a stone and walk to it. One shoelace is less tight than it should be. You throw a stone and walk to it. And as you bend, some of the thought is on the feeling of pulling the laces tighter before doing the bow. You throw a stone and walk to it. You imagine the feeling of perfect balance and the comfort of your inner sole after the bow is securely tied. You throw a stone and walk to it. The lace drags and casts a trail in the light dust of the hard path like a snake’s writhe. You throw a stone. This is how we move forward. You throw a stone and walk to it