Northcote High School A Case Study Good to Great… or Great to Excellent (Hopkins)

1. Northcote High SchoolA Case StudyGood to Great… or Great to Excellent (Hopkins) The Cultural Effects of Architectural and Social Change Improvement is a developmental process not an event… Richard Elmore

2. N.H.S. Temperature Check • A ‘good’ neighborhood school – 1,500 students • Community Support - enrolment demand • Gentrification - Rapid demographic change • SFO decreasing ~ 0.38 • VCE results ‘good’ but static (2006 stellar year…) • NAPLAN – cohort matched – tracking north • Est. 1926 History - Golden Years… • Traditional; Faculty focused; Industrially sensitive, • Teachers – ‘Experts’BUT changing profile Committed, Loyal, ‘Institutionalised’ - ‘We ‘just’want to teach…’ • Continuous Improvement focus

3. N.H.S. Temperature Check • Leadership Momentum - Past and Present – TEAM NHS • Ambitious change agenda • Compelling story – Why we must do ‘things’ differently • Our ‘GARAGE’ challenge Cadillac VW • Evidence / research • Aligning opportunities – DEECD + NMR • Community = Teachers, Students and Families • Personal and Collective Responsibility: • Achievement (High expectations) • Relationships Community • Supporting Teachers • Systems and processes

4. Six Secrets of Change Fullan 2008 • Secret One: Love your Employees • Secret Two: Connect Peers with Purpose • Secret Three: Capacity Building Prevails • Secret Four: Learning Is the Work • Secret Five: Transparency Rules • Secret Six: Systems Learn Fullan, 2008a

5. NHS Improvement Case Study

6. Our Challenge Constructing a New Learning and Teaching Culture orEvolving a Learning & Teaching Culture How?Consistent messages: “Unique Year Level Experiences”, “Good to Great”, “Task Predicts Performance”, “Time on Task”, “Learning is not voluntary”, “What goes home in the schoolbag is our best publicity”, “We want to guarantee the learning experience…”‘No – we are not taking the personality out of the practice…*!@!’ NHS mantras …. • Explicit objectives each year - reflection • Refined annually - expectations are raised and/accountability increases • “Turning the Screw….” on change - no surprises • Clear and transparent messages about and around the change agenda • Built around a shared understanding and language • Clearly articulated What’s negotiable and What’s not negotiable…

7. IMPROVEMENT FOCUS @ NHS

8. Social “Engineering”Architecture of Change Social Network Theory The informal conversations and interconnections between people are as important as the formal and structural • Structures (architecture) initially determine the social and cultural environment EXPERIENCE & INTERACTION BELIEFS & BEHAVIOR

9. NHS “Suite” of Initiatives

10. Micro-Change Example:Literacy Across the Curriculum: NHS Academic Vocabulary • The Evidence The same student placing at the 50th percentile in reading comprehension, with no direct vocabulary instruction, placed at the 83rd percentile when provided specific instruction in academic vocabulary (Marzano and Pickering, 2005). • NHS Facts • Student Outcomes - VCE results – Exams • ‘Value add’ - NAPLAN / VCE • Critiquing established practice: Sustained Silent Reading Program • Our Problem – ALL Teachers

11. Our Challenge Constructing a new Learning and Teaching Culture or Evolving our Learning and Teaching Culture • A Systematic Instructional Approach • Clear expectations of what should be happening in every classroom – together • A mechanism for improving literacy - when perceived limited literacy issues at NHS • What’s Not-negotiable and Negotiable…

12. Literacy Across the Curriculum: Academic Vocabulary • Cultural Fit: For NHS teachers to buy into a vision and action it must be related to what teachers value, their content, the ‘art’ of teaching… Hence, ‘Academic Vocabulary’rather than ‘Literacy’. • Operationally supported and owned: • Leadership Team Workshop and Agreement • Whole School Presentation Leaders and Teachers • Feedback / Reflection / Refinement / Action Plan • Toolbox - whole school - PL sessions • Faculty Teams have responsibility and time (34 hrs 2010) • Support - Instructional Coaching

13. Academic Vocabulary • The Intended Curriculum • The key vocabulary (200 words) that will improve performance (Marzano) • The Implemented Curriculum • Common approaches to vocabulary learning specialised to the Faculty • The Attained Curriculum • Knowledge and understandings actually learned by the students

14. What Next?Systematic Continuous Improvement The Collective Actions of ALL Generate Momentum Our Actions as Professionals and as a School: • Evidence based and proactive – implementing an agenda • Collaborative Community - Working, Growing and Learning together • Intentional and Explicit - Goals and Focus Teaching Practice • Moving Beyond ‘Solo Practitioners’ • Finding new ways to Share our ‘Best’ Practice • Developing compelling reasons and great structures easy - making people accountable & responsible... • Clouds on the horizon – it’s complex work Continuing to feel the Fly Wheel of progress...

15. Keeping what’s most important most important… • Relationships • Student Learning and Teaching Excellence • Creating a Supportive Environment “Schools where all staff work collaboratively to build strong alignment between school-level planning and individual performance and development are better able to improve student learning outcomes.”Richard Elmore Creating and meeting our targets… Working to be more focused…

16. FLY WHEEL

17. Marzano's vision of vocabulary instruction recommends teaching subject-specific terms to enhance academic success. • He stresses that ‘subject-specific terms are the best target for direct vocabulary instruction’ and provides a list of 7,923 subject-specific terms in the appendix of his book. Marzano, R. 2004. Building Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development Northcote High School -AIP-2011

18. Secret Six: Systems Learn • Continuous learning depends on developing many leaders in the school in order to enhance continuity. It also depends on schools being confident in the face of complexity, and open to new ideas.

19. CHANGE INSIGHTS  The implementation dip is normal  Behaviors change before beliefs  The size and prettiness of the planning document is inversely related to the quantity of action and student learning (Reeves, 2002)  Shared vision or ownership is more of an outcome of a quality process than it is a precondition  Feelings are more influential than thoughts (Kotter, 2008)

20. CHANGE SAVVY leadership  Careful entry into the new setting  Listening to and learning from those who have been there longer  Engage in fact finding and joint problem solving  Carefully (rather than rashly) diagnosing the situation  Forthrightly addressing people’s concerns  Being enthusiastic, genuine and sincere about the change circumstances  Obtaining buy-in for what needs fixing  Developing a credible plan for making that fix — Herold & Fedor, 2008

21. What is Collaboration? • A systematic process in which we work together, interdependently, to analyze and impact professional practice in order to improve our individual and collective results. — Dufour, Dufour, & Eaker, 2002

22. School Capacity • The collective power of the full staff to improve student achievement. • School capacity includes and requires: • Every teachers knowledge, skills and dispositions 2. Professional community 3. Program coherence 4. Technical resources 5. Shared leadership — Newmann, King, & Youngs, 2000

23. Secret Two: Connect Peers with Purpose • Purposeful peer interaction within the school is crucial. Student learning and achievement increase substantially when teachers work in learning communities supported by school leaders who focus on improvement.

24. Secret Three: Capacity Building Prevails • The most effective strategies involve helping teachers and principals develop the instructional and management of change skills necessary for school improvement. The role of assessment for learning is essential in order to link data on learning to instructional practices that achieve student results.

25. Secret Four: Learning Is the Work • Professional development (PD) in workshops and courses is only an input to continuous learning and precision in teaching. Successful growth itself is accomplished when the culture of the school supports day-to-day learning of teachers engaged in improving what they do in the classroom and school.

26. Secret Five: Transparency Rules • Ongoing data and access to seeing effective practices is necessary for success. It takes up the dilemmas of ‘de-privatizing practice’ in which it becomes normal and desirable for teachers to observe and be observed in teaching facilitated by coaches and mentors.

27. Secret One: Love your Employees • Explore the importance of building the school by focusing on both the teachers and staff, and students and the community. The key is enabling staff to learn continuously. Evidence will be provided from successful business companies as well as from education.

28. Motivational Work •  Meaningful, accomplishable work •  Enabling development •  Sense of camaraderie •  Being well led

29. ARCHITECTURE OF CHANGE Key Focus: Enhancing the school experience for ALL students The ARCHITETURE of Change STRUCTURAL / OPERATIONAL – • Layered Foci and Purpose • Interconnected, Coherent, Purposeful, Explicit, Transparent • Less is more ‘Refined Teacher Focus = Maximising Time on Task Example Faculty Team work layered over Ultranet, school, faculty and personal tasks layered over Professional Learning Tool Box work layered over P&D process school faculty and personal goals….. story • Toolboxes: Regular in-house professional learning – a toolbox of knowledge, skills, understanding and dispositions all teachers need. • Staff opinion

30. ARCHITECTURE OF CHANGE SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE • Collaborative, collegial opportunities including ‘triads’ • Support from and for the system, working together and with other schools. • Listening – creating opportunities for collaboration, reflection and feedback but perhaps ‘over-controlling it’. • Transparency – nothing is a surprise… PREMISE: If we want to change teacher beliefs and behaviors we do this by changing the operational and social architecture

31. OPERATIONAL AND STRUCTURAL ARCHITECTURE: Simplified – Layered – Interconnected TOOLBOX - SUPPORT AND EXTEND CLASSES I TEACH TOOLBOX - CONNECT AND COMMUNICATE TOOLBOX - KNOWING OUR STUDENTS FACULTY OBJECTIVES AND P&D GOAL e5 CLASSROOM RESEARCH (PERSONAL PROFESSIONAL GOAL) FACULTY TEAM P&D TRIAD (DRAWN FROM FACULTY TEAM) P&D FACILITATOR SCHOOL GOAL CHECKLIST TOOLBOX - INSTRUCTION AND DELIVERY

32. What is Change?  New materials  New behaviors/practices  New beliefs/understanding • Learning to Lead Change The Pathways Problem • Change factors • Vs • Change Process

33. Secret One: Love your Employees

34. Social “Engineering” • Social network theory • In our context we seek to change the beliefs and expectations that are manifested in the daily interactions between teachers and students and between teachers and other teachers. • Why? • Because all the operational and structural changes have been resisted (generally passively) by engrained cultures. (Thinking curriculum, etc etc.)