Encourage Excellence

1. Encourage Excellence Central School District 51 March 10, 2009

2. We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses. - Abraham Lincoln

3. Rose Bushes with Thorns NCLB ESEA ARRAAYP RTTGSA IGAP ISBEISAT STS

4. Rose Bushes with Thorns • Reauthorization of NCLB (ESEA) • Focus on charter schools • Increased accountability • Clear and accurate performance measures • Common Standards

5. Reauthorization of NCLB (ESEA) • Focus on Charter Schools • Higher standards than traditional public schools • Embedding charter schools in public school districts

6. Reauthorization of NCLB (ESEA) • Increased Accountability • Funds based on competition and performance • Student achievement tied to teacher and principal evaluations (AFT on-board with this) • Performance-based pay • Less job security for tenured teachers

7. Reauthorization of NCLB (ESEA) • Clear and Accurate Performance Measures • Out with AYP • In with Growth Model

8. Reauthorization of NCLB (ESEA) • Common Standards • 48 states have signed on to establish common standards in Reading and Math (Alaska & Texas) • National curriculum???

9. Winning Teams • Leadership • Talent • High Expectations • Shared vision/goals • Work Ethic • Accountability • Commitment to Continuous Improvement

10. Continuous Improvement • Random Acts of Improvement Vs. • Aligned Acts of Improvement

11. Random Acts of Improvement • Leadership lacks focus • Talent lacks direction • Expectations are not known • No shared vision/goals • Work ethic = individual focus • No accountability • No commitment to continuous improvement

12. Aligned Acts of Improvement • Leadership is focused • Talent is shooting at the same target • High expectations for success • Evidence of shared vision/goals • Work ethic = team focus • High level of accountability • Commitment to continuous improvement

13. Thorn Bushes with Roses • Professional Learning Communities • A system for aligned acts of improvement • Provides direction amidst all the confusion • We were ready for RTI • We new how to respond to RTT

14. The Stockdale Paradox • "This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.” – James Stockdale (CMH)

15. Our Reality • Moving target of expectations • New mandates • Economic/Financial crisis • Technological revolution

16. Our Response…through a systemic approach… • Leadership is focused • Talent is shooting at the same target • High expectations for success • Evidence of shared vision/goals • Work ethic = team focus • High level of accountability • Commitment to continuous improvement

17. Encourage Excellence What questions do you have?

18. Professional Assumptions • All of us want to do our best and help students learn • If you do not want every student to learn, please raise your hand • If you strive to come to work every day and do a mediocre job, please raise your hand • EVERYONE wants to succeed

19. Professional Assumptions • Research and data should guide our decisions • This assumption sometimes scares people because it sounds like we must wait for research to dictate all of our actions • Research should guide our decisions but not dictate our decisions

20. Professional Assumptions • Reading is the foundation of success in school • Above all other subjects, reading is fundamental to school success • Reading is much more than sounding out words (phonics), it requires comprehension • Students will not succeed in math, history, chemistry, or any other subject unless they can read the text before them • It is everyone’s job to teach reading!

21. Professional Assumptions • Early intervention is better than remediation • Nothing is more demeaning than failing in school • We must coach the student to success • Success breeds success! • The feeling of failure is inherent when practicing remediation • Remediation is better than nothing!

22. Professional Assumptions • There is nothing wrong with having to reteach a lesson • Our teaching does not hit the target every time • We have failed when we keep going and ignore the fact that our teaching did not hit the mark • Reteaching does not mean doing the same thing again • If a child does not learn the way we teach, we must teach the way the child learns!

23. Professional Assumptions • We must develop, communicate, and be passionate about a shared vision • It is impossible for us to be successful if we do not understand where we are going • “A person who aims at nothing is sure to hit it.” (unknown)

24. Historical Perspective(Purpose of Public Schools) • Historical School Development • Select and Sort • Thomas Jefferson • Horace Mann • Factory model • Fredrick Taylor

25. Education Reform(Need for Reform) • National Education Reports/Initiatives • Recent Reports/Initiatives • Aspen Report…beyond NCLB • America’s Perfect Storm…Three forces changing our nation’s future • Tough Choices or Tough Times • American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA)

26. Going Deeper • Consensus is a basic ingredient of success • Consensus means that all people have been heard • Consensus has been reached when the will of the group is evident to everyone • Especially those who oppose the solution or idea the most

27. Education Reform(Need for Reform) • National Education Reports/Initiatives • Historical Reports / Legislation • Coleman Report…background > school • Nation at Risk…national security risk • NCLB…ALL students will learn

28. Aspen ReportBeyond NCLB • If all students are to be prepared for success in the global economy, it is time for federal law to reflect more widely the reform agenda already under way in the nation’s best schools and in leading districts and states. (p. 6) -Alliance for Excellent Education (February, 2010). Don’t leave accountability behind: A call for ESEA reauthorization. Retrieved March 8, 2010 from http://www.aspeninstitute.org/policy-work/no-child-left-behind

29. America’s Perfect Storm: Three forces changing our nation’s future • The Divergent Skill Distributions • The Economy • The Demographic Trends - Alliance for Excellent Education (February, 2010). America’s perfect storm: Three forces changing our nation’s future. Retrieved March 8, 2010 from http://www.ets.org/portal/site/ets/menuitem.1488512ecfd5b8849a77b13bc3921509/?vgnextoid=e9f3d944c8b70110VgnVCM10000022f95190RCRD&vgnextchannel=f993d944c8b70110VgnVCM10000022f95190RCRD

30. America’s Perfect Storm: Three forces changing our nation’s future • Professional and management/support jobs up for grabs in the global marketplace • Increased competition for low-wage jobs from growing immigrant population

31. America’s Perfect Storm: Three forces changing our nation’s future 2. The Economy Manufacturing’s share of total U.S. Economy 1950 = 33.1% 1989 = 18.2% 2003 = 10.7% - Alliance for Excellent Education (February, 2010). America’s perfect storm: Three forces changing our nation’s future. Retrieved March 8, 2010 from http://www.ets.org/portal/site/ets/menuitem.1488512ecfd5b8849a77b13bc3921509/?vgnextoid=e9f3d944c8b70110VgnVCM10000022f95190RCRD&vgnextchannel=f993d944c8b70110VgnVCM10000022f95190RCRD

32. America’s Perfect Storm: Three forces changing our nation’s future

33. Education Reform(Early Reform Models) • Restructuring of Schools • Accountability for Outcomes • Top-down mandates • Excellence Movement • Improved Professional Practice • Total Quality Management • Site-based Management

34. Continuous Improvement (Successful Reform Models) • 90/90/90 Schools • Beat the Odds Schools • Baldrige Quality Initiative • Professional Learning Communities

35. Evolution of Professional Learning Communities • Learning Organizations • Building Capacity • Senge (1990), The Fifth Discipline • Learning Communities • Shared Mission, Vision, Values, and Leadership • Hord, McLaughlin, Sergiovanni • Professional Communities • Staff Collaboration • DuFour, Eaker, Many

36. Evolution of Professional Learning Communities Professional Learning Communities (PLC) “collaborative teams whose members work interdependently to achieve common goals linked to the purpose of learning for all” (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Many. 2006. p. 3)

37. Evolution of Professional Learning Communities Three Corollary Questions • What do we want students to learn? • How will we know when they learn? • How will we respond when they don’t learn? (DuFour and Eaker, 1998)

38. Leadership “Without a competent caring individual in the principal’s position, the task of school reform is very difficult. Reform can be initiated from outside the school or stimulated from within. But in the end, it is the principal who implements and sustains the changes through the inevitable roller coaster of euphoria and setbacks.”(Gerstner, Semerad, Doyle, & Johnston, 1994, p. 133)

39. Leadership • Role of the Principal • Facilitator / Leader / Partner • DuFour and Eaker (1998) stress the importance of the actions and beliefs of the principal to create success for a PLC: 1. Principals should lead though shared vision and values rather than rules and procedures. 2. Principals should enlist faculty members in the school’s decision-making processes and empower individuals to act. 3. Principals should provide the staffwith the information, training, and parameters tomake good decisions. 4. Principals should be results-oriented. 5. Principals should concentrate on posing the right questions rather than imposing solutions. (pp. 13-16)

40. Culture Seymour Sarason in The Culture of the School and the Problem of Change (1995) found that all public schools possess relatively similar organizational cultures which serve to protect school personnel from external change interventions.

41. Culture Teaching in Isolation “God didn't create self-contained classrooms, 50-minute periods, and subjects taught in isolation. We did - because we find working alone safer than and preferable to working together’’ (Ronald Barth, 1991, pp. 126-127).

42. Culture Teaching in Isolation “Teaching has been described as the second most private act in which adults engage. In fact, schools have been characterized by some critics of public education as little more than independent kingdoms (classrooms) ruled by autonomous feudal lords (teachers) who are united only by a common parking lot.” (DuFour and Eaker,1998, p. 115)

43. Culture Structural change that is not supported by cultural change will eventually be overwhelmed by the culture, for it is in the culture that any organization finds meaning and stability" (Schlecty, 1997, p. 136)

44. PLC Elements Mission, Vision, and Values Building Capacity Collaboration Continuous Improvement Framework Authors Senge Newmann & Wehlage Louis, Kruse, & Marks Hord Fullan DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Many PLC Framework

45. PLC Element 1 • Mission, Vision, and Values • Describe the Fundamental Purpose • “High levels of learning for all students” • Mission states the fundamental purpose • Vision paints a mental picture of the purpose • Values define the actions and beliefs of the purpose

46. PLC Element 2 • Building Capacity • Individual and Organizational • Reflective Awareness • Aptitude for Growth • Experimentation and Research

47. PLC Element 3 • Collaboration • Individual and Group Learning • Focused on the Fundamental Purpose • Time • Purpose for Collaboration

48. PLC Element 4 • Continuous Improvement • Focus on the Fundamental Purpose • Provide a systematic process for staff and students • Shared Personal Practice • Action Orientation

49. References • Barth, R. (1991). Restructuring schools: some questions for teachers and principals. Phi Delta Kappan, 73, 123-128. • DuFour, R., & Eaker, R. (1998). Professional learning communities at work: Best practices for enhancing student achievement. Bloomington, IN: National Educational Service. • DuFour, R., DuRFour, R. B., Eaker, R., & Many, T. (2006). Learning by doing: A handbook for professional learning communities at work. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree. • Fullan, M. (1993). Changing forces: Probing the depths of educational reform. Levittown, PA: The Falmer Press • Gerstner, L., Semerad, R., Doyle, D. P., & Johnston, W. (1994). Reinventing education: Entrepreneurship in America’s public schools. New York: Harper Collins. • Hord, S. M. (1996). School professional staff as learning community. Austin, TX: Southwest Educational Development Laboratory.

50. References • Kotter, J. (2005). Our iceberg is melting. Privately published by the author. • Louis, K. S., Kruse, S. D., & Marks, M. (1996). Teachers’ professional community in restructuring schools. American Educational Research Journal. 33(4), 757-798. • Newmann F. & Wehlage, G. (1995). Successful school restructuring: A report to the public and educators by the center for restructuring schools. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin. • Sarason, S. (1996). Revisiting the culture of the school and the problem of change. New York: Teachers College Press. • Schlechty, P. (1997). Inventing better schools: An action plan for education reform. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. • Senge, P. M. (1990). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization. New York: Doubleday/Currency.