Abbott Secondary Education Initiative

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Abbott Secondary Education Initiative
Introduce myself and ASEI. Where it came
from? What it says? What some of the implications
are for school and district leaders? test
SK
Education Law Center Information/Discussion
Session December 13, 2005
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Abbott Secondary Initiative

• Grew out of Abbott X decision, June 03
• Court-ordered review of reform plans for
  Middle/High Schools
• ELC/NJ DOE formed workgroup to develop
  recommendations
• Abbott Secondary Education Initiative is result

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Secondary issues

• Graduation rates
• Achievement gaps
• College preparation readiness
• Previous implementation efforts

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Graduation rates

• NJ has the highest HS graduation rate in the
  nation
• NJ has one of the highest graduation rates for
  students of color
• But this success is not evenly distributed across
  NJ communities
• Source Center for Education Policy, Harvard
  Civil Rights Project

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Abbott Graduation rates

• Abbott graduation rates are about 50. Over 90
  elsewhere in NJ.
• 40-50 of Abbott grads now use SRA.
• In 2002, 9500 students graduated by SRA.
• NJ to phase out SRA over 4-6 yrs.

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Graduation rates

• Urgency of issue for districts, state,
  communities, economy, NCLB, etc.
• Graduation rates vs. test scores as focus of
  school improvement
• Raises broader issues
• Requires more fundamental changes

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Achievement gaps

• About 70 of Abbott students pass HSPA in LA,
  45 in Math
• NJ averages are about 90 LA, 80 Math
• 38 of whites over 25 have college degree. 21
  Blacks, 16 Hispanics.
• 20 gap between college graduation rates of
  Black/Hispanic students and whites/Asians.
• Source ELC Indicators Reports, NJ Commission on
  Higher Education

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Recent secondary reform efforts in NJ

• Standards and tests
• WSR developers
• Increased rigor (eg. American diploma project)
• Abbott Secondary Education Initiative

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National Context
Before getting into specifics of ASEI, wanted to
mentioned the national context which also played
a significant role in shaping workgroups
discussions and continues to do so as
implementation phase begins.

• Increasing national focus on HS reform
• Professional and Policy reports (Breaking Ranks
  II, Gov. HS Summit, Gates Foundation others)
• NCLB mandates and sanctions
• Opportunity and challenge for NJ

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National Consensus on HS reform
The growing consensus on best practices in
secondary reform really has two basic sides.
Higher academic expectations and demands and a
set of reforms to bridge the gap between these
expectations and the level of preparation of
students entering high school. Lots of
complicated issues, but acknowledgement of these
two related areas is the basis some common ground
between those promoting higher standards and more
rigorous tests, and those who see personalization
and small as shorthands for the supports needed
to bridge gap between where students were and
where they were expected to go.

• Increased academic rigor
• Higher standards, harder, high-stakes tests
• College level work for all students
• Smaller, personalized school environments
• More professional collaboration (eg. teams,
  planning time, prof. dev.)
• Choice, curriculum themes, and inclusion

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National Overview

• Approx. 17,300 high schools in the US.
• 70 of HS students attend schools with over 1,000
  students. Nearly 50 percent attend schools with
  over 1,500 students.
• In a typical high-poverty, urban US school, about
  half of incoming ninth-graders read at a sixth-
  or seventh-grade level.
• Source Alliance for Excellent Education

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National context

• Hispanic and Black students are more likely than
  white students to attend
• large schools
• schools with higher student-teacher ratios
• Schools w/high concentrations of poverty
• Source Pew Hispanic Center Report

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Claims for Small Schools
Growing research base of support for small school
success. Like money, small size is being
established as a necessary, if insufficient,
element of secondary reform.

• Students in smaller schools
• post higher test scores
• pass more courses and accumulate credits
• graduate and go on to higher levels of education
  
• Small schools help close achievement gaps between
  students in different socioeconomic and ethnic
  groups.
• Source Alliance for Excellent Education

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Claims for Small Schools

• Students in smaller schools have better
  attendance and lower dropout rates
• In NYC, dropout rates for schools under 600
  students are half those for schools over 2,000
• In Chicago, small schools have dropout rates
  one-third lower than big schools.
• Smaller schools have lower rates of violence and
  vandalism more positive school climate.
• Source Alliance for Excellent Education

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Reasons for small school success

• More personalized, supportive environment for
  students
• More collaborative, team-based environment for
  staff
• More school-based control over major decisions
  about resources, staffing, and use of time

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Concerns about small schools

• Selectivity of student population
• Need to include more students staff
• Facilities and resource issues
• Ability to sustain sports programs,
  extra-curricular activities, diversity of course
  choices, etc.

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Abbott Secondary Education Initiative
District review of all courses with teacher
participation by 2008 to define content and level
of courses that carry graduation credit.

• Major elements.
• Small, personalized learning environments for all
  students, 6-12
• Improved instruction for college/careers
• Family advocacy system

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ASEI requires SLCs

• SLCs for all Abbott HS/MS students by fall 2008
  (HS/300, MS/250)
• Teacher teams with 2-3 hours of common planning
  time per week. Stay with students over multiple
  years.
• Curriculum themes. Choice for staff/students.

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ASEI supports improved instruction

• Access to college prep for all
• Curriculum aligned with NJ standards
• Review of content in required courses
• Professional development to support curriculum
  innovation and improved classroom practice

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ASEI requires family advocacy
Major change in some places. In elementary
schools, everyone gets a reading group. In high
schools every gets an advisory group. But also
supports and time must be in place. In best
settings, this becomes a freshman transition
elective for 9th graders, a kind of combined
academic tutorial, supervised study, support
group and Homeroom. Many schools have in form,
without content.

• Each student/family will be matched with a
  professional staff member in groups of 15-20
  students/families per staff member
• Advocates meet with assigned students weekly
• Meet face-to-face with each family at least
  twice/yr.
• Advocates receive professional support for this
  role, including training in multicultural
  perspectives.
• Advocates assist in the preparation of an
  academic plan for each student

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ASEI requires

• Equitable distribution of student academic
  profiles and demographic characteristics across
  SLCs. (no tracking)
• Equitable distribution of staff experience and
  demographic characteristics across SLCs
• Facilities planning to support SLCs

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Secondary Regulations

• Small organizational structures may include
  small learning communities and/or small schools
  in free standing facilities or within larger
  facilities.
• Placement of teachers and students shall result
  in an equitable distribution of student academic
  achievement profiles, demographic characteristics
  and teacher experience, qualifications and
  racial/ethnic diversity

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ASEI challenge
Nothing about this is easy. But the reasons for
attempting it are inescapable. Too many kids are
not graduating. Too many others are graduating
without the skills they need to succeed. We are
losing too many of our kids to the streets, the
unemployment lines, and the prisons. These
problems wont go away with business as usual.
Abbott is the best schooling funding decision in
the country for poor urban schools and if we
dont do a better job of implementing it, we will
lose it. And if we lose it, it will be a disaster
for our kids, our public schools, our communities
and our state. But theres a best case too. And
thats that the failure of existing practices to
deliver the goods has to some exhausted the
traditional bureuacracy that runs the schools and
opened up space for change. And while some want
to fill that space with vouchers and
privatization, we also have a chance to fill it
with our own visions of excellence and equity in
public education. We can use Abbott to create the
kind of schools we want to work in and send our
own children to. Ultimately, if the secondary
initiative is going to succeed, thats what it
will need to be about.

• Implement secondary initiative or demonstrate
  that the goals are being achieved by alternative
  means.
• I don't think there is a comprehensive city high
  school that works right now in New Jersey."
• Gordon MacInnes, assist. com. of ed.

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ASEI Implementation Timeline
ASEI team. Sept. 30 rollout

• Spring, 2005 Phase I Districts selected
• Jersey City, Orange, Elizabeth, Bridgeton
• Fall. 2005 All districts form planning cmtes.
• 2005-2008 NJ DOE provides professional
  development to all districts. National
  consultants/ASEI team.
• Fall 2008, all Abbott High Schools/Middle Schools
  implement initiative

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Implementation efforts so far

• Technical assistance providers
• NJ ASEI team and training
• Advisory Board
• Status of phase one districts
• Academic rigor districts
• Network mtgs. for all Abbotts

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Supplemental efforts

• Community Foundation of NJ support for youth
  research/engagement projects
• Site visits to model schools
• ELC efforts
• Need for networking/ across districts and
  constituencies

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Current implementation issues

• Status of planning committees
• Support for budget facilities planning
• Need for rollout/constituency building
• Building technical assistance capacity
• Equity concerns
• Need for more coherence and higher profile around
  secondary reform statewide.

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Issues for discussion

• Questions and concerns?
• Who has a stake in seeing the reform succeed?
• How do we reach/mobilize those groups?
• Connections to make? Audiences to reach?
• How to raise the political profile?

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Resources

• Education Law Centerwww.edlawcenter.org973-624
  -1815skarp_at_edlawcenter.org

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Resources

• Abbott Secondary Education Initiativehttp//www.s
  tate.nj.us/njded/abbotts/sei/
• Dr. Penelope Lattimore, Chief of Staff Director
  of the Secondary Education Initiatives
• Phone [phone] Fax [phone]
• Dr. Sandra G. Strothers
• Assistant Director, Secondary Education
  Initiatives

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Resources

• Technical Assistance Providers
• First Things First/IRRE
• http//www.irre.org/ftf/
• High Schools That Work
• http//www.sreb.org/programs/hstw/hstwindex.asp

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Resources