Rapid Inquiry-Driven Change Cycle (RICC) aka “Quick Wins”

1. Rapid Inquiry-Driven Change Cycle (RICC)aka “Quick Wins” COSA Principals Conference October 22,2012 Nanci Schneider, Senior Advisor Education Northwest

2. Purpose of this session: • To provide an introduction to the Rapid Inquiry Change Cycle • To briefly explain the four parts of the RICC

3. School Improvement—Old Way

4. School Improvement—New Way

5. What is a RICC?(Rapid Inquiry Change Cycle) • Research-based, action-oriented school improvement process • Process that provides quick wins • Collaborative model with principal and leadership team • 10-12 week cycle • Schoolwide model

6. Characteristics of a RICC Improvements that are: • Made collectively • High priority/high impact • Manageable • Tightly focused on a solution • Often built on what teachers are already doing • Part of a cycle that gets repeated

7. Key Actions to SPUR Change p. 1

8. What barriers have kept previous efforts from succeeding?

9. System Conditions Sociocultural Structural & Procedural Family/Community RICC focuses squarely on improving teaching and learning conditions; the remaining conditions either support or hinder those efforts. p. 2.4

11. Sample RICC Cycle

12. Stage One: Set the Focus

13. Key Activities: Stage One • Set common vision • Examine data to determine priority • Determine root causes • Set goals

14. Key Actions: Stage One • Set common vision – Identify a focus of inquiry (i.e., a broad student learning problem based on assessment results) • Examine data to determine priority • Determine root causes • Set goals

15. Is your specific learning challenge right for a RICC? • Essential • Pervasive • High impact • If addressed, likely to lead to exciting success

16. Example 1 The percentage of students schoolwide who can cite specific textual evidence to support their conclusions about the meaning of a complex informational text (desired learning) will increase by 50 percent (how many) as measured by indicators from the Oregon Reading Scoring Guide applied to classroom work samples (performance/evidence). Additionally, the percentage of students who score at 1 or 2 (performance/evidence) in this skill (desired learning) will decrease from 20 percent to no more than 5 percent (how many).

17. Pre and Post Assessments • Provide fine-grained information on the student learning challenge (i.e., will allow you to accurately determine whether students increase learning in the targeted area) • Are available to use with minimum effort (e.g., common classroom tasks/assessments already in use) • Are available within the time frame of the RICC • Are able to be scored within reason and results can be aggregated schoolwide with relative ease (e.g., use of a common scoring guide)

18. Stage 2: Plan for Change

19. Plan for Change: Key Actions • Agree to research-based instructional solution • Identify system conditions to address • Plan to implement solution • Plan to monitor and adjust RICC

20. Research Strategies Consider … • Instructional practices that the staff is already working on through professional development or that are part of a broader approach you are already implementing in your school • Strategies you have observed exemplary teachers using • Suggestions from staff on the strategies they have seen work • Existing strategies that if expanded in consistency or frequency might have an impact on the challenge • Reliable resources providing guidance on general research-based strategies

21. Narrow your strategy to present to the PLTs • PLTs choose strategy

22. Back to Pre and Post Assessments • Finalize selection of pre- and post-assessments aligned to schoolwide goal and instructional solution • Administer pre-assessment • Adjust RICC goal based on pre-assessment data, if needed

23. Research Best Practice for Implementation • Be clear about what is known in the research/ literature about how to use this strategy • Consider district/state guidance (e.g., principles in the Oregon K-12 Literacy Framework) • Create a summary/short reading for staff that helps teachers understand how to implement: • What does this strategy look like when it is correctly implemented? • What does it look like when it is only partially implemented?

24. Define implementation expectations • If the strategy is … • Fairly simple, list what teachers and students should be doing during the RICC • Complex or poorly understood, develop a basic rubric that defines features of full, partial, and minimal implementation • Identify critical implementation factors such as grouping, frequency, or use of specific materials

25. Plan to Monitor and Adjust • Outcomes (student achievement) • Implementation • Classroom use of instructional strategy • Intervention • System conditions

26. Stage Three: Undertake the Change

27. Undertake Change: Key Actions • Implement, monitor, and adjust instructional solution • Implement, monitor, and adjust system supports

28. Implement What? Implementation agreements for: • Schoolwide instructional strategy (core instruction) • Interventions for struggling students • System supports to ensure success of all strategies/interventions

29. Monitor What? Use monitoring plan: • Implementation of instructional strategy, interventions for struggling students, system supports • Implementation agreements • Student achievement/outcomes • Progress toward schoolwide achievement goal using common classroom assessment data throughout RICC • Progress toward intervention goal using diagnostic/progress monitoring assessments

30. Implement, Monitor, Adjust—Who? Leadership team (LT) and PLTs and Classroom Teachers

31. Implement, Monitor and Adjust—Classroom Teachers • Implement strategy using agreements • Collect assessment data • Adjust instruction based on assessment results and PLT discussions

32. Implement, Monitor and Adjust--PLTs Collaborative Meeting Objectives: • Check adherence to implementation agreements • Use student aggregated data and work samples to problem solve and adjust instruction • Communicate progress and the support needed to be successful to the LT

33. Implement, Monitor and Adjust—Leadership Team How can the LT get a big picture of schoolwide progress, while PLTs look at progress for their students? Core instruction and intervention strategies • Collect evidence of implementation that is routine, not heroic System conditions • Monitor actions in implementation plan for system conditions • Review and attend to support needs that emerge from PLTs and classroom teachers during implementation Impact on achievement • Create common data templates to make aggregating easy • Schedule time to review as LT and with whole staff

34. Stage 4: Recharge and Sustain

35. Stage 4: Key Actions • Reflect and plan forward • Celebrate success • Communicate results

36. Reflection: • Outcomes in relation to longer term goals • Overall implementation • System capacity and sustainability

37. Reflect on Outcomes Analyze data from pre- and post-assessments. • Were you successful in meeting your student achievement goal? Why or why not? • What is the evidence in your post-assessment for learning? What gaps remain? • What does that evidence suggest about the success of your instructional strategy? • How far does the outcome of this RICC get us to meeting our yearlong goal?

38. Reflect on Implementatio n • Did we choose an appropriate strategy to address our specific learning challenge? • What did we observe/learn about implementing the strategy consistently and in a widespread manner? • What was the impact of working on the same student learning challenge schoolwide? • How did teacher practice shift? • In what ways can we refine the work in the future?

39. Reflect on System Capacity and Sustainability Reflect on overall organizational capacity • Specific successes that go beyond this RICC • Lessons of lasting importance that we learned • Sustainability agreements for this RICC • Specific recommendations and agreements for the next RICC Remember to return to the LT assessment of system conditions (Stage 2)

40. SPUR • Set the focus • Plan for Change • Undertake the Chage • Reflect, Recharge and Sustain