Rebuilding for Learning

2. Rebuilding for Learning Enhancing School Improvement: Addressing Barriers to Learning And Re-engaging Students

3. The Imperative for a Comprehensive System of Learning Supports

6. Trend in NAEP reading average scores for 9-year-old students Trend in NAEP reading average scores for 13-year-old students Trend in NAEP reading average scores for 17-year-old students

7. Three Lenses for Seeing What’s Missing in School Improvement Planning

12. Caution: Don’t misinterpret the term• Barriers to LearningIt encompasses much more than a deficit model of students.And, it is part of a holistic approach that emphasizes the importance of• Protective Buffers (e.g., strengths, assets, resiliency, accommodations)and • Promoting Full Development

13. ABOUT SCHOOL ENGAGEMENT AND RE-ENGAGEMENT A growing research literature is addressing these matters. For example, see: “School Engagement: Potential of the Concept, State of the Evidence” (2004) by J. Fredricks, P. Blumenfeld, & A. Paris. Review of Educational Research, 74, 59-109. These researchers conclude: Engagement is associated with positive academic outcomes, including achievement and persistence in school; and it is higher in classrooms with supportive teachers and peers, challenging and authentic tasks, opportunities for choice, and sufficient structure.

14. Engagement is defined in three ways in the research literature: • Behavioral engagement draws on the idea of participation; it includes involvement in academic and social or extracurricular activities and is considered crucial for achieving positive academic outcomes and preventing dropping out. • Emotional engagementencompasses positive and negative reactions to teachers, classmates, academics, and school and is presumed to create ties to an institution and influence willingness to do the work. • Cognitive engagement draws on the idea of investment; it incorporates thoughtfulness and willingness to exert the effort necessary to comprehend complex ideas and master difficult skills. A Key Outcome of Engagement is Higher Achievement.The evidence from a variety of studies is summarized to show that engagement positively influences achievement A Key Outcome of Disengagement is Dropping Out. The evidence shows behavioral disengagement is a precursor of dropping out.

15. Developing a System to Address Barriers to Learning and Teaching and Re-engage Students in Classroom Instruction Four Fundamental and Interrelated Concerns Policy Revision Framing Interventions to Address Barriers to Learning and Teaching into a Comprehensive System of Interventions Rethinking Organizational and Operational Infrastructure Developing Systemic Change Mechanisms for Effective Implementation, Sustainability, and Replication to Scale Additionally, because of the overemphasis on using extrinsic reinforcers in all aspects of efforts to improve schools, we find it essential to re-introduce a focus on intrinsic motivation.

16. The real difficulty in changing the course of any enterprise lies not in developing new ideas but in escaping old ones. John Maynard Keynes

17. Moving Forward: Enhancing Policy for School Improvement

20. ###################################### In 2002, the Council of Chief State School Officers has adopted the following as the organization’s new mission statement: CCSSO, through leadership, advocacy, and service, assists chief state school officers and their organizations in achieving the vision of an American education system thatenables all children to succeed in school, work, and life. ######################################

21. Defining a System of Learning Support for Policy Purposes* Learning supports are the resources, strategies, and practices that provide physical, social, emotional, and intellectual supports intended to enable all pupils to have an equal opportunity for success at school. To accomplish this, a comprehensive, multifaceted, and cohesive learning support system should be integrated with instructional efforts and interventions provided in classrooms and schoolwide to address barriers to learning and teaching. *From: Proposed legislation in California to establish a Comprehensive Pupil Learning Support System

23. Moving Forward: Framing Interventions to Address Barriers to Learning and Teaching into a Comprehensive System of Learning Supports

24. School systems are not responsible for meeting every need of their students. But . . . when the need directly affects learning, the school must meet the challenge. Carnegie Task Force on Education

25. Policy Umbrella for School Improvement Planning Related to Addressing Barriers to Learning Direct Facilitation of Learning (Instructional Component) Addressing Barriers to Learning/Teaching (Enabling or Learning Supports Component – an umbrella for ending marginalization by unifying the many fragmented efforts and evolving a comprehensive approach) Governance and Resource Management (Management Component) Examples of Initiatives, programs and services >positive behavioral supports >programs for safe and drug free schools >full service community schools & Family Resource Centers >Safe Schools/Healthy Students >School Based Health Center movement >Coordinated School Health Program >bi-lingual, cultural, and other diversity Programs >re-engaging disengaged students >compensatory education programs >special education programs >mandates stemming from the No Child Left Behind Act >And many more activities by student support staff

26. Toward a Unifying Intervention Framework for a Comprehensive System of Learning Supports (1) An essential continuum of interventions conceived as three levels of interconnected systems: • systems for promoting healthy development and preventing problems • systems for responding to problems as soon after onset as is feasible • systems for providing intensive care (2) Basic arenas for school intervention are categorized into major clusters based on content focus. For a learning supports component, the arenas are conceived as enabling a school to: >enhance classroom-based efforts to enable learning >provide support for transitions >provide prescribed student and family assistance >increase home involvement in schooling >respond to and prevent crises >outreach to increase community involvement & support (3) The combined continuum and the content areas provide the framework for a comprehensive, multifaceted, and cohesive system of learning supports

27. To ensure all students have an equal opportunity to succeed at school, a system of learning supports (an enabling component) must: (1) address interfering factors (2) re-engage students who have become disengaged from classroom instruction.

31. An Enabling or Learning Support Component Defining Major Arenas that every school needs to operationalize in order to address barriers to learning EVERY DAY

38. Day care Center Police Faith-based Institutions Banks Higher Education Institutions Senior Citizens Local Residents School Library Businesses Artist & Cultural Institutions Restaurants Media Health & Social Services Agencies Community Based Orgs.; Civic Assn. Community Involvement & Engagement Excerpted from: J. Kretzmann & J. McKnight (1993). Building Communities from the Inside out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community’s Assets. Chicago: ACTA Publications.

43. We just missed the school bus. \ Don’t worry. I heard the \ principal say no child \ will be left behind. /

44. Moving Forward: Rethinking Organizational and Operational Infrastructure

45. ################################# Developing a Comprehensive System of Learning Supports (an Enabling Component) involves reworking the organizational and operational infrastructure for > schools > feeder patterns > districts (and departments of education) > school-community collaboratives In reworking infrastructure, it is essential to remember Structure Follows Function! ##################################

47. Key Mechanisms • Administrative Leader (e.g., 50% FTE devoted to component) • Staff Lead for Component • Staff Workgroups