What Difference Can Great Leadership make?

1. What Difference Can Great Leadership make? Creating conditions that promote academic achievement Pedro A. Noguera, Ph.D. Steinhardt School of Education New York University

2. I. The challenge: • Achieving Excellence and Equity • Closing the achievement gap • Addressing the needs of poor and disadvantaged children • Addressing persistent failure in low performing schools • Public frustration is growing

3. Equity and Excellence:Competing or Compatible Goals? • Equity - Equality of opportunity with attention to equality in results • Focusing on “all” children need not come at expense of excellence • Schools tend to gauge their success on the performance of their best students • Triage approach to teaching • Political pressure influences priorities and allocation of resources • Perception of zero-sum scenario makes it difficult to serve all students • High achieving students are typically assigned to the best teachers, weaker students tend to be assigned to weaker teachers • Schools must devise strategies that make it possible for all children to achieve their potential

4. II. Existing Knowledge: What we know about the achievement gap • It mirrors other disparities (health, income,employment) • Tends to follow consistent patterns with respect to the race and class of students • Preparation gap - Amount of support provided at home matters: literacy development • Opportunity gap - Schools often exacerbate pre-existing inequality • Poor students are more likely to be assigned to less qualified teachers , less effective schools • Tracked into less challenging courses • Patterns that have been in place for a long time are often accepted as normal - the normalization of failure is the central obstacle to increasing student achievement

5. What we know about low performing schools • Tend to serve the poorest children and neighborhoods • Tend to have high turnover among staff, low morale and fewer qualified teachers • Tend to have fewer resources and poorer facilities • Tend to exhibit a dysfunctional culture - punitive culture toward children, lack of cooperation among adults • Tend to have low or no accountability to the families they serve

6. What We Know About School Change • Occurs through incremental stages • 1st order: Order, safety, staff morale • 2nd order: Focus on student and staff needs • 3rd order: Development of systems and school culture • Different leadership strategies are required at each stage • From scripted curriculum to increased teacher effectiveness • Data based decision making: using assessment to guide instruction and school reform • Requires vision, buy-in from staff, families, students

7. II. What we know about effective schools • They have a coherent strategy for delivering high quality instruction • Teachers adhere to a common set of strategies • Teachers follow a common curriculum • They use data to make decisions about school improvement • They engage in constant assessment • Diagnostic assessment • They develop school capacity around a clear understanding of student needs - prof dev, services, etc.

8. Effective Schools • They engage parents as partners • They develop student leadership, responsibility and agency • They enlist community agencies/CBOs as partners • They have shared and distributed leadership • They have a culture of high expectations for all • Internal accountability

9. III. Implementing a Change Plan: Do More of What Works, Less of What Doesn’t • Assign students who are behind academically to effective teachers • Provide access to rigorous courses and increase academic supportAVID, MESA, double period classes, reduced emphasis on homework • Develop early intervention systems to identify struggling students • Provide extended learning time - after school (but not more of the same) and summer school

10. More of What Works • Use extra curricular activities to build relationships and engage students in school • Create advisories for all students • Implement a discipline plan that promotes character, moral development and clear educational goals • Develop a school year plan for parental involvement • Provide staff with training on how to work effectively with parents

11. Indirect Interventions:Building School Capacity • Professional development for teachers in: • Content - subject matter coaches • Pedagogy- curriculum alignment, various instructional strategies • Create time for teachers to analyze student work • Developing rapport and relationships with students • School-Community Partnerships • Health and social services • Immigrant services - language and culture • Mentoring, recreation and youth services

12. Group Discussion: • How would you characterize where you school is in the change process? • What obstacles have you encountered in the change process? How are you dealing with these obstacles? • What is your vision for the school? How will you go about getting buy-in around the vision among staff, parents and students?

13. Tendencies educational leaders must watch out for: • Excessive emphasis on control • need to focus on influence due to decentralized nature of schools • Need to delegate and share leadership • Over emphasis on operational stability • Over emphasis on politics • Not enough emphasis on public/community relations • Too much focus on urgent matters while insufficient attention on important matters • Must have a pro-active strategy to address instruction

14. Get on the Balcony: Develop systems to monitor the performance of students • Analyze various kinds of data to get an accurate picture of what is going on • Teacher assignment by student achievement • Grades, test scores and achievement patterns • Evaluation data from title I programs • Item analysis of state assessments • Attendance and attrition • Discipline patterns

15. Making use of the data • Arrange for public discussions of the data • Use meetings to generate “buy-in” for reform plans • Solicit ideas for other research strategies • Involve parents and students - systems of mutual accountability • Be aware of tendency to confirm suspicions and reinforce complacency - there is no magic in the data • Avoid blame - how will you talk about racial and socio-economic disparities constructively? • Keep focused on the goal - come with a plan or ideas increasing achievement before the meeting

16. Using the data • Use data to set benchmarks, monitor and evaluate reforms • Devise and implement early intervention systems • Evaluate existing intervention and remediation programs • Designate team to monitor patterns

17. Group Discussion:(site leaders) • Examine the data from your site: • What does the data suggest needs to be done? • What patterns can you identify? • Where and how should you intervene? • What systems does your school need to put in place? • Who monitors data at your school? • How is data presented to staff/community?

18. Group Discussion:(off site leaders) • What systems are needed to enhance the effectiveness of your office? • Is there a shared vision guiding the work of your office with clear goals and objectives? • What could be done to enhance the effectiveness of your office and to insure that it is aligned with the district’s goals?

19. IV. Get on the Dance floor: Providing Instructional Leadership • Good teaching must be connected to evidence of learning • Teaching and learning tends to be seen as two disconnected activities • Teachers must take responsibility for student learning and achievement • Many teachers expect students to adjust to the way they teach, rather than adjusting their teaching to the way students learn • Most of what teachers learn is learned on the job, not in graduate school • Find ways to reduce teacher isolation

20. Impacting Instruction: Building strong links between teaching and learning • Diagnostic assessment - value added measures • Reflective teaching, analyzing student work • On-site and continuous professional development • Make use of skilled teachers • Use staff meetings to discuss teaching and student needs • Mentoring and observation time for new teachers • Subject matter coaches • Understand the needs of students and how they learn • Effective use of homework

21. Reflective Teaching • Teachers must constantly look for evidence that what they are doing is working • Increase time on task - move from teacher as lecturer to teacher as facilitator • Balance direct instruction with constructivist approaches • Solicit feedback from students and parents • Discuss teaching with colleagues

22. Professional Development Activity: Learning from student work • Start with the standards: What should our students know and be able to do? • Examine the assessments together • Examine student work together: What patterns do you observe? • Discuss strategies for improving quality of student work: What are the implications for teaching? How will we get our students to meet the standards?

23. Analyzing Student Work • What are the patterns? • How does the work measure up in relation to the relevant standards? • Given the quality of work that students are producing, what are the implications for teaching?

24. Focus on learning needs of students • Diagnostic assessment • What specific skills and knowledge need to be developed? • Devise personalized learning plan • Share plan with parents (possibly students) • Monitor plan and performance over time • Assessment of learning styles • How do students learn outside of school? • What do they care about, invest time in? • How do they use math and literacy outside of school?

25. Effective Teaching Strategies for Raising Achievement and Increasing Engagement • Active learning, interactive classroom, on-task learning • Moving away from the cemetery model • Teaching within the zone of proximal development • Constructivist, inquiry-based pedagogical strategies • Simulations • Socratic seminars • Project based learning • Experiential learning • Student leadership in the classroom • Public presentations of student work

26. Interventions that Can Change School Culture • AVID, MESA • Provides support to peer groups • Project SEED - early exposure to higher level math • Popular culture in the classroom - Algebra Project, Poetry slam • Accelerated summer school • Provides advanced preparation for students • After-school and community-based enrichment • Extra curricular activities - sports, music, clubs • Transition classes • Smaller classes for students who are behind

27. V. Increasing Student Engagement Why Do So Many Students Hate School?

28. What Students Tell us About School: • That it is boring and that too much of what they learn lacks relevance • That they are alienated and disconnected from adults • That there is too much emphasis on control which breeds resistance and resentment toward adults • School rules are often arbitrary and inconsistently enforced • Students are infantalized and rarely given responsibilities that match their maturity • That much of what they know is never recognized • That we expect students to adjust to how their teachers teach rather than adjusting teaching to how they learn

29. Schools Where Students Are Excited About Learning • Teacher characteristics • Organized with clear goals and expectations • Passionate and knowledgeable about subject matter • Patient, caring and invested in learning • Curriculum • Made relevant to students lives • Builds on existing knowledge • Offers opportunities to apply knowledge in “real world” • School Culture and Organization • Safe and orderly • Distinct culture and norms • Flexible but consistent rules • Offers students personal attention

30. Student Motivation • Relationships between teachers and students affect the desire to learn • The desire to learn must be cultivated • Less motivated students need support, encouragement and regular feedback • Motivation to learn is often related to “real world” concerns (e.g. jobs, family and community needs) • Must promote resilience by building on student strengths and interests • Intrinsically motivated students are more likely to become life long learners

31. De-mystify school success for students • Teach study skills • Teach code switching skills • Show students what excellent work looks like and how to produce it • Situate learning objectives within the appropriate cultural context • Discuss future plans early and expose students to options