Safety Net at the Lobby Level: Strengthening Instructional Frameworks and Curricular Units

1. These materials were produced with Title I, Part A funds and are in the public domain.

2. The MI Excel Statewide Field Teamat Calhoun Intermediate School District proudly recognizes our partners in this work: Eastern UP Intermediate School District Gogebic Ontonagon Intermediate School District Muskegon Area Intermediate School District We are grateful for their willingness to share their expertise with us and the entire state. Thank you!

3. Safety Net at the Lobby Level Jamie Strauss, MI Excel Statewide Field Team

4. Dramatic Improvement in Student, Teacher, and Leader Performance in a short amount of Time. The Blueprint: Systemic Reconfiguration

5. Session Description In this session, participants will expand upon their work in the Safety Net from the Mechanical Level. This session will focus on Floor 2 of the Instructional Infrastructure where the visions are brought to life in the classroom through instructional frameworks and curricular units, which strengthen the Safety Net and provide the basis for Tier 1 instruction. Performance Management and Communication Driver System connections will also be discussed.

6. Session Outcomes Participants will: • Define what happens with Safety Net installation at the Lobby Level; • Explore how your district's adoption of curriculum continues to build the Safety Net; • Identify how your district driver systems support the work of installing the Safety Net at scale.

7. What is the Safety Net? The Safety Net combines the Instructional Infrastructure with the Intense Student Support Network in a manner that includes the following: • The district provides an effective system to identify and deliver academic support on a continuum of intensity that is matched to individual student need. • The district provides an effective system to identify and deliver social, emotional, health, and nutritional support on a continuum of intensity that is matched to individual student need. These district systems, when woven together, create the necessary network of support so that districts can create schools where there is a ferocious unwillingness to allow a child to flounder or to fail (Murphy, 2014).

9. Rationale “We establish that there is an essential school improvement algorithm, one that is both simple and elegant: School Improvement = Academic Press + Supportive Community • These are the two critical components of school improvement • They are most powerful in tandem • They work best when they wrap around each other like strands in a rope Leading School Improvement, Murphy, 2015

10. Rationale “The greater the risk factors in a student’s life, the more high expectations matter to the student’s life chances.” Disrupting Poverty, Budge and Parrett (2018)

11. Safety Net at the Lobby Level Outcome 1: Define what happens with Safety Net installation at the Lobby Level. Outcome 2: Explore how your district's adoption of curriculum continues to build the Safety Net.

12. In the Lobby Level: • Floor 2 of the Instructional Infrastructure--Curriculum and Assessment--is installed • The Visions, which were adopted in the Mechanical Level, are brought to life in the classroom through instructional frameworks and curricular units • The District adopts/creates assessments aligned to instructional targets • The Instructional Infrastructure is linked to the district’s Performance Management Driver System

13. Safety Net Framework

14. Instructional Infrastructure: Floor 2 – Curriculum & Assessment

15. How might a district approach defining curriculum development? Options: • Complete a curriculum audit • Utilize the Understanding by Design (UbD) process for creating curricular units • Adopt existing units of study

16. How might curriculum development look different in a Blueprint district? In installing districts, the curriculum development process seeks to connect the Instructional Infrastructure and the Intense Student Support System (the Safety Net) by ensuring that the curriculum addresses the human needs of children, as well as their academic needs. Curriculum writers are unified by and measuring everything against the Visions of High-Quality Instruction and Intense Student Support.

17. District Provides Curricular Framework Purpose: • Provide clarity and specificity about what to teach at a particular grade level • Provide a common language and set of expectations about the connections amongst content and teacher and student actions

18. Sample Curricular Framework

19. Curriculum Connects to Social Emotional Learning • Some districts have embedded social emotional learning themes into their ELA curriculum. • The Mezzanine Level SN learning addresses this in more detail.

20. Curricular Framework Explore the adapted UbD framework... • Stage 1: Identify Desired Results • Stage 2: Determine Acceptable Evidence • Pay attention to the guiding questions

21. District Clarifies Essential Standards “However, we do want to emphasize the importance of this process with RTI, because outlining specific learning targets early on helps us to better respond later when students don’t learn, by addressing the causes of student struggles rather than the symptoms.” Buffum, Mattos, & Weber, 2012

22. Identifying Essential Standards: A Process Endurance - Will this standard provide students with knowledge and skills that are valuable beyond a single test date? Leverage - Will it provide knowledge and skills that are valuable in multiple disciplines? Readiness - Will it provide students with knowledge and skills essential for success in the next grade or level of instruction? Reeves, 2002

23. District Provides Instructional Frameworks Purpose: • Provide clarity and specificity about how to bring the Visions of HQI to life in the classroom in order to realize teacher and student actions • Provide a common language and set of expectations about teacher and student actions • Support teachers in structuring instructional time • Help to bridge the gap between our curricular framework and lesson plans

24. Sample Instructional Framework Retrieved from Houston County Board of Education: https://ohioleadership.org/up_doc/HO4_DeKalbFrameworkPacket.pdf

25. Sample Instructional Framework How should I allocate my time? Retrieved from Houston County Board of Education: https://ohioleadership.org/up_doc/HO4_DeKalbFrameworkPacket.pdf

26. Sample Instructional Framework Connection to UbD Curricular Framework Essential question too! Connection to UbD Curricular Framework Instructional Framework excerpt taken from Houston County Board of Education, retrieved fromhttps://ohioleadership.org/up_doc/HO4_DeKalbFrameworkPacket.pdf

27. Sample Instructional Framework Safety Net Connection to Curricular Framework... Instructional Framework excerpt taken from Houston County Board of Education, retrieved from https://ohioleadership.org/up_doc/HO4_DeKalbFrameworkPacket.pdf

28. Sample Instructional Framework Connection to Curricular Framework... Instructional Framework excerpt taken from Houston County Board of Education, retrieved from https://ohioleadership.org/up_doc/HO4_DeKalbFrameworkPacket.pdf

29. Retrieved from Houston County Board of Education: https://ohioleadership.org/up_doc/HO4_DeKalbFrameworkPacket.pdf

30. Instructional Framework and HQI Alignment Consider the Opening, Application/Work Session, or Closing/Summarizer of a math instructional framework... • Read the assigned portion of the instructional framework. • Chart the teacher and student actions you would expect to see in this portion. • Share whole group

31. Safety Net at the Lobby Level Outcome 3: Identify how your district driver systems support the work of installing the Safety Net at scale.

32. What Do You Think? Knowing what occurs in the Lobby Level to strengthen the Safety Net, what connections can you make to the Driver System? Problem Solving Communication Performance Management In the Lobby Level: • Floor 2 of the Instructional Infrastructure--Curriculum and Assessment--is installed • The Visions, which were adopted in the Mechanical Level, are brought to life in the classroom through instructional frameworks and curricular units • The District adopts/creates assessments aligned to instructional targets • The Instructional Infrastructure is linked to the district’s Performance Management Driver System

33. The Driver System Communication • Ensure shared understanding at scale of the district’s curricular documents, instructional frameworks, and assessments Problem-Solving • Common process for analyzing data, determining causation, and identifying actions Performance Management • Data collection utilizing the Building Performance Tool • Assessments from curricular documents

34. References Budge, K . and Parrett, W. Disrupting Poverty. ASCD, 2018. Buffum, A., Mattos, M. and Weber, C. Simplifying response to intervention: Four Essential Guiding Principles. Solution Tree, 2015. Instructional Framework excerpt taken from Houston County Board of Education, retrieved from https://ohioleadership.org/up_doc/HO4_DeKalbFrameworkPacket.pdf Murphy, J. Leading School Improvement. 2015 Murphy, Weil, Hallinger, and Mitman. “Academic Press: Translating High Expectations into School Policies and Classroom Practices.” 1982

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36. These materials were produced with Title I, Part A funds and are in the public domain.