A college-prep small public elementary school in Oakland

1. A college-prep small public elementary school in Oakland Our vision at Think College Now is that all students will have the tools to choose their life’s path and desired occupation with an equitable opportunity to attend college and pursue their dreams. Making a difference… Together, Anything is Possible David Silver, Principal and Founder Think College Now Elementary Oakland Unified School District www.thinkcollegenow.org

3. Who Attends Our School? • Grades: K-5 • Student Population: 280 • Free/Reduced Lunch: 95% • Special Education: 10% • English Language Learners: 65%

4. Why Think College Now? Less than 1 of 20 students of Oakland public school students are eligible for the University of California. Most of the Oakland public school students come from low-income families and are often students of color. This is not equity for Oakland students. We must close the achievement gap.

5. TCN Theory of Action Our equity focused vision is attained through college opportunity for all students. Strong student achievement leads to college readiness for our students. Our students will achieve academically and have access to college using the following elements: 1) Entire community united in our early College-Focused mission 2) High Expectations for all students, staff, parents – No excuses 3) Standards-based, data-driven instruction and assessment 4) Strong Family Involvement and Community Partnerships 5) Outstanding Staff with a sense of urgency to reach our goals

6. TCN – Our Story • Our parents and staff came together to found TCN 7 years ago with high hopes. • Our vision was clear – to close the achievement gap by getting our kids (90% title I) college ready • But we did not close the achievement gap our first few years – our results were low and flat • Year 3 and beyond things changed… dramatic growth, achievement gaps narrowed, and our students began to move into proficiency in math and ELA regardless in all sub-groups

7. The First 2 Years: Top 3 Mistakes • Focused on the wrong things • Details and process instead of People and outcomes • Curriculum-based assessments instead of standards-based CST aligned ones • Lack of Alignment with standards & CST • Did not set up students for success on the CST • Taught in a language different than they were held accountable for • Failed to observe high-achieving models • Did not see models of success closing the achievement gap

8. The Early Years 3 Seeds for Success • Built a strong culture focused on a big goal • Parents, teachers, students and community helped to start the school. • All constituents were united in our vision of closing the achievement gap through college access. • Developed relationships with the district, networks, and partner organizations • Oakland Small Schools Foundation (fundraising, capacity-building strategy) • Strategic Schooling (Sharing best practices schools used to increase CST outcomes) • Oakland District (Facilities provisions, curriculum/assessment flexibility and staffing support) • Teach for America, New Leaders for New Schools, and RISE (Recruitment network) • Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools, Oakland Community Organizations (Equity and vision work) • Even Start, UC Berkeley, Centro Legal (Parent education, college focus, community resources) • Created Systems for collaboration • Stipends for extra time (retreats, extra professional development, time with students) • Parent, teacher and student expectations for workshops, conferences, academic and culture events

9. Percent of TCN students who score Proficient and Advanced on the California State Test (CST) over time • Every year, more TCN students score proficient and advanced in math and ELA. • Last year students scored the highest ever, with 66% proficient in ELA and 81% proficient in math! For the first time, every grade level scored 80% or higher in math! • Our goal is that 90% of TCN students will be performing at grade level by 2011.

10. TCN Subgroup Performance in English Language Arts Over Time

11. TCN Subgroup Performance in Math Over Time

12. “I could not have it any other way. The TCN community is an awesome place to learn, collaborate, and use your voice.” • Jean Higgins, Parent and Family Resource Center Liaison

13. Parents’ Thoughts (From OUSD Use Your Voice Survey, Spring, 2009) • Of the 157 parents who returned their surveys • 99% said, “Teachers at this school set high academic standards for student work.” • 98% believe that TCN does “A good job of teaching skills and knowledge my child needs for college.” • 97% said, “At school, my child gets to learn about different cultures.” • 96% said, “I collaborated with my child’s teacher this year to set and review his/her learning goals this year.” • 99% said, “Overall, I am satisfied with my child’s school.”

14. Annual Parent Workshop “Help your child show the CST who is Boss!”

15. End-of-Year Open House

17. Students’ Thoughts(Student Satisfaction Survey Results)All of our results went up or stayed the same this year. We are especially proud that more students are reading at home.

18. Million Minute Reading Challenge Year 1-2: No challenge, poor reading results Year 3: Students exceeded their “one million minutes” of reading and forced Mr. Silver to go to the Roof (See ABC Video) Year 4: Students forced the principal, teachers, parents and students into the dunk tank booth Year 5: Students took over the school for a day Year 6: Students did not meet their goal Year 7: TBD – If the students read 100 million words, Mr. Silver grows out his hair, student council reps cut it off and shave in “TCN” in the back

19. Kids Rule the School Day – Million Minute Challenge

20. Breakthrough: Years 3 & 4Recruit, Retain, & Support the Right People • Recruit: Get the right people • Invest the time in staffing • Develop networks • Retain: Keep the right people • Explicitly ask what you can do to support and retain • We consistently retain 80-90% of our staff each year • Support: • Observe clear models of success in low-income areas • Create structures to support staff to reach outcomes

21. PD and Data: Year 3 & 4 • Began data cycles and a focus on Academic student outcomes/results • What:Item analysis on interim assessments & goals/data conferences every six weeks. • Why:By focusing more attention on this, it shows that this is what we value and encourages students to focus on improvement of this as well. • Data/Goals Conferences:Admin and teachers make a plan to improve standards mastery and for moving more students out of FBB/BB and into P/A • Item Analysis:Teachers use data to inform which standards will be focused on for re-teach and when for whom • We encourage teachers to ask for what they need to move student outcomes.“How will this help student achievement?”When these are aligned with how they will improve student achievement, we try to support it. (This keeps the focus on the results)

22. Instructional Focus and Alignment: Year 3 and 4 Created the TCN Best Practices: Outcomes-Based Research (Strategic Schooling) • Instructional • Environmental • Feedback forms outside of classrooms • Walk-through’s

23. Strategic Schooling Dennis Parker: www.strategicschooling.com Charlotte Knox: www.knoxeducation.com

24. Leadership Practices: Years 3 & 4 - Breakthrough Focus on data-based outcomes, allow multiple paths to get there • Empower teachers to reach outcomes, monitor progress, provide support and resources they need • Observe models of success to develop authentic, high expectations and shared best practices Put people in the right seats & pair grades effectively. • When there is a teacher that is not achieving results on CST, we try to pair with a strong one for support and accountability to show “it can be done with our kids” • When this does not work, we try to move them into a better position that fits their pedagogy and strengths

25. The Problem – Year 5: TCN’s Bump in the Road • We caught a Flat Tire • While our proficient/advanced numbers rose slightly: 58-63% in math, 49-54% in ELA… • Our API line not only flattened but actually went down by 8 points to 781 • Due to a slight students in FBB/BB and disparities between grade-level growth.

26. Academic Performance Index (API)

27. The Myth • Do not judge a book by its cover • Externally, Year 5 of TCN was great... • We won the CA distinguished school and the Title I Academic Achievement Award (one of about 50 schools in California). • Internally, Year 5 was one of the worst in our history… • For the first time our student achievement was flat, our school culture was poor, and many (including me!) considered quitting.

28. Staff Culture – Year 5 Factionalized Faculty with members with a lack of trust between some teaching staff and administration Seeds of Discontent: • Relationships not as strong • Principal handpicked the Leadership team • Too much focus on data and the CST?

29. Staff Culture: Rebirth - Year 6 Create Structures to facilitate clear communication that build trust • Create the Exit Outcomes Process • Constructive way to improve the school and realizing our vision. • Expand our vision to have a focus on CST/data AND other areas. • New Leadership Team structure • Members chosen by the teachers • Principal joined by Assistant Principal • Open to all 3.Creating a specific time to address issues for those who want to come • Be transparent when getting feedback how it will be or was used • Report out what you did to the feedback • Future: • Be explicit of what we do and not do • But do not open “a can of worms” & take focus away from instruction

30. Leadership (or Lack Thereof)Year 5: The Bump in the Road Perceive pain & do not rub salt in the wounds • Be explicit but not too explicit Clarifying our vision through “The Big Goals” document did not work to clarify our goals, but created division that took the focus away from instruction • Pick and Choose your battles Even if the idea is good “clarifying or public data”– sometimes the goal is achieved better through a different medium (example: individual goal conferences and not necessary creating documents or sharing in the whole group)

31. Leadership Year 6: Lessons Learned • Stick to your theory of action: maintain what is most important - academic outcomes - and strengthen systems to integrate it into your culture in a way that is sustainable • Figure on what your key levers are and do not compromise on them and be willing to compromise on other things (analyzing data is important, but bend on how or the frequency) • Balance Must-Haves and staff voice/investment (Push and Pull back) • Get clear about what you want, what people are asking for, and who should decide which issues

32. Leadership: Future • Do not take focus away from student learning • Conserve energy and emotional resources • Analyze what is requested, and by how many people, its importance • Taking the person with the highest results, best relationships, and strongest systems and moving him to an intervention and coach role (grades 3-5) to coach and support the other teachers and grades. • In tough budget times, get feedback from staff and maintain the most important engines to our train • Continue to focus a lot of energy on recruiting and selecting the right people (i.e., teachers) and bring them and pair them with strong teachers whenever possible.

33. Big Take-Away’s • Stick with the focus on student outcomes while being flexible in other areas • Be clear about your objective • Do not under-estimate staff culture • Set up structures for communications that can work when relationships falter • Keep getting strong teachers that are team players • Refine your best practices in a way that moves teachers towards, not away, from them

34. TCN Strategy to Increase Student Achievement • Recruit, Hire and retain the best teachers and staff • Focus on the state standards • Assess regularly and use data to focus and individualize instruction • Collaborate with staff and with • families to help our students learn • Live, breathe “college culture”

35. Climate and Culture at TCN Teachers, parents, students and staff work together to create a positive environment with high expectations for all students. Students showing our core values of respect, responsibility, reflection, reality and ganas will sometimes be recognized with panther paws. Students will be given a yellow card as a warning if they are not following our school rules.

36. Extra supports for students • We expanded counseling services so that more students got individual or group counseling • Reading Partners provided individual reading intervention to 36 struggling readers.

37. Theory of Action SummaryKey Success Factors • Get the right people with a belief they can and history of closing the achievement gap • Set clear, measurable “big goals” based on high expectations • Invest entire school community in the goals and be explicit of everyone’s role in achieving the goals • Support teachers, students & parents to reach the goals

38. Theory of Action SummaryOvercoming Challenges • Access additional resources and align all resources towards the goals • PD driven by data, collaboration & sharing best practices • Use standards-based CST aligned-data to monitor progress, inform instruction & focus interventions • Focus on outcomes, without being wedded to “one way” to get there

39. SUSTAINABILTY StrategyHow TCN will be built to last • Cultivate others now for future leadership • Establish future Fundraising base • Document operational systems • Develop district, community partnerships • Focus on a few high-leverage strategies • Empower staff with leadership roles • Support Students after they leave TCN

40. 2nd Annual Alumni Night

41. “I feel so proud to be part of this team. I would put our staff up against any in the state – if not the country.” - David Silver, Principal. If you are interested in joining our team, email David@thinkcollegenow.org For more information about Think College Now, go to www.thinkcollegenow.org

42. In Closing • At Think College Now we are a team – everyone in our community – parents, teachers, students, administration, custodians, support staff and community members – is responsible for ensuring that every TCN student gets the best education possible and is prepared to go to college! • Together, yes we can! Juntos, si se puede!

44. Questions? In pursuit of our vision that all students can go to college and pursue their dreams.