Carlas McCauley Educational Program Specialist U.S. Department of Education Office of Elementary and Secondary

Education

www.betterhighschools.org 1

Of the 45 states with schools in restructuring in SY 2006-07, 29 selected “other” as their restructuring strategy

Support teams were the most common mechanism for delivering support to schools identified for improvement in 2006–07

2

Although more than half of the schools in their 2nd year of restructuring reported that they had planned for restructuring, very few schools reported any of the named NCLB interventions, including:

Replacing all or most of the school staff (17%) State takeover of the school (3%) Reopening the school as a public charter school (1%) or Contracting with a private entity to manage the school (1%)

These results are consistent with a Government Accountability

Office report that found that about 40% of schools in restructuring had not taken any of the five restructuring options under NCLB (GAO, 2007)

3

Includes:

Commitment to turnaround over five years 5,000 lowest-achieving schools over

Identifying and serving the persistently lowest-achieving Title I schools in each State

Supporting the most rigorous interventions

Providing Sufficient Resources

Measuring Progress

4

Balfanz & Legters

There are between 900 and 1,000 high schools in which graduation is at best a 50/50 proposition.

If the standard used to classify a school as having weak promoting power is relaxed to include high schools with 60% or fewer seniors than freshmen, the number of chronically low-performing schools doubles to 2000.(Balfanz & Legters, John Hopkins University, September 2004)

5

ResourcesSustaining EffortsCapacity

National High School Centerat the American Institutes for

Research

www.betterhighschools.org 7

ARRA funds provide unprecedented opportunities for HS improvement, including

◦ turnaround of lowest performing high schools (SIG)

◦ increasing instructors who teach hard-to-staff subjects in high-needs schools (TIF)

◦ alternative routes to certification (RTT)

◦ scaling-up promising practices (i3)

ARRA emphasizes large-scale high school improvements not incremental changes

8www.betterhighschools.org

Personalization and student engagement

◦ Small schools and smaller learning communities

◦ Advisories and mentoring

◦ Freshman and career-focused academies

◦ Transitions into high school / 9th grade

Rigorous content mastery / high expectations

◦ Content and credit recovery

◦ Tiered interventions

◦ Early college/dual enrollment and AP/IB courses

9www.betterhighschools.org

Increased time

◦ Student learning / time on task

◦ Teacher professional development and collaboration

Increased use of data

◦ Instructional planning and decision making

◦ Early Warning Systems for students at-risk

◦ Ongoing student progress monitoring

◦ Monitoring teacher and principal effectiveness

10www.betterhighschools.org

Focus on maximizing attainment for ALL high school students not just structural changes

Seek and use evidence-based strategies

Implement comprehensive, systemic approaches and avoid “silver bullets”

Promote coherence and alignment

Support capacity building at all levels

Plan for sustainability from day one

11www.betterhighschools.org

 Elaine Romero

2009 Classroom Teaching Ambassador FellowOffice of Innovation and Improvement

US Department of Education

www.betterhighschools.org

In K-12 our focus is on improving what matters most: improving teaching and learning in the classroom.

◦ Foundations are set in the primary grades

◦ "Children who fall behind in first grade have a one in eight chance of ever catching up to grade level without extraordinary efforts.“ - C. Juel, Learning to Read and Write in One Elementary School (New York: Springer-Verlag, 1994).437-447

Romero – Teaching Ambassador Fellow 13

There are many Extraordinary Efforts in our schools today

◦ Providing Tiered instruction to students

◦ Reading and math interventionists

◦ Research-based curricula

◦ These take resources so please keep the foundational years in the front of your planning.

Romero – Teaching Ambassador Fellow 14

In K-12 our focus is on improving what matters most: improving teaching and learning in the classroom.◦ Whether a teacher comes from one of nations top

teacher preparation programs or more commonly one that has not prepared us for the 21st challenges of educating all children – teachers need TIME.

◦ Time to utilize data, time to be reflective, and time to collaborate with colleagues.

◦ Implementation of Instructional Coaches in every school in one urban district is forward thinking and addressing the need to improve teaching.

Romero – Teaching Ambassador Fellow 15

How will you give teachers TIME?◦ Consider how your professional development is

utilized.

◦ The National Staff Development Council (NSDC) definition of professional development is “comprehensive, sustained, and intensive approach to improving teachers’ and principals’ effectiveness in raising student achievement”.

◦ JOB-EMBEDDED, ONGOING, COLLABORATIVE, AT THE SCHOOL.

◦ TIME will allow us to improve teaching

Romero – Teaching Ambassador Fellow 16

In K-12 our focus is on improving what matters most: improving teaching and learning in the classroom.

◦ There is no magic bullet – this will take collaboration, reflection, continuous daily checking of what students know (cautiously referred to as “formative assessment”). This is work that needs to be done BY teachers. How will you provide the TIME necessary for your teachers?

◦ Robert Marzano recently visited Albuquerque for a PLC (Professional Learning Community) summit he said, “If we utilize what we know and put it into practice, we will revolutionize education. This is school reform.”

Romero – Teaching Ambassador Fellow 17

Include teachers in these critical planning conversations you are having to prepare for ARRA

Teaching Ambassador Fellowship is the Department of Education setting an example.

Mission: Improve education for students by involving teachers in national education policy.◦ Create a community of teachers who share expertise and

collaborate with policymakers and leaders in federal government and national education issues.

◦ Involve teachers in developing policies that affect the classroom.

◦ Expand teacher leadership at the national, state, and local levels.

Romero – Teaching Ambassador Fellow 18

How will you expand teacher leadership?

Will you include teachers in conversations now or will it be another “silo” top-down mandate that reaches our classrooms?

In every plan you make as a state or district leader ask, “will this improve teaching? Will this improve learning?”

Romero – Teaching Ambassador Fellow 19