Implementing DistrictWide Reforms Reading First

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Implementing District-Wide ReformsReading First

• Ronni Ephraim
• Chief Instructional Officer
• Los Angeles Unified School District
• 2005

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LAUSD has plenty of reasons to celebrate!

• One standards-based, elementary, language arts
  program adopted district-wide 450 Elementary
  Schools
• Increasing student achievement every year for the
  past 5 years
• Reduction in the number of students that need our
  6th grade intervention program and ESL courses in
  middle school
• We are staying the course!

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Data in 5 Years 450 Elementary Schools194
Reading First Schools

• Elementary API Average 520 to 701
• Closing the gap on the average State API - 630
  to 739
• First and Second graders scoring over the
  50thile on the CAT6
• 440 schools / 450 met STATE goals
• Only 18 / 450 elementary schools in Program
  Improvement 3-4

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Elements of a Coherent System of Continuous
Instructional Improvement Reading First Model

• Coherent academic curricular focus on specific
  content, materials and instructional system that
  is well supported with high quality materials and
  training.
• Active use of a frequent assessment system
  directly connected to the content of the academic
  program and designed to be used to improve
  instruction.

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Key Elements (Continued)

• Collegial and collaborative work by grade-alike
  and subject-alike teams with a focus on improving
  achievement in a specific academic area(s) for
  all students.
• Site/practice-based professional development with
  coaching and technical support developed in
  response to frequent assessment data focused to
  build a standard of practice

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Key Elements (Continued)

• Active and knowledgeable leadership focused on
  developing and strengthening the academic
  performance of all students in the agreed
  academic area.
• Coherent and coordinated support and leadership
  from the district level that technically assists
  the school to focus work and maintain
  improvements over time.

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• Lessons
• Learned
• 1999-2005

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This work takes relentless dedication and time

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We do not all have the same strength, knowledge
and skill!
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Fail to plan.Plan to fail!
We need to be strong forces in ensuring that the
work we do results in coherence.
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When you hear wrong infobe prepared and
willing to take it on!
These programs dont work for English
learners. The program has no writing
component.. The decodable readers are so
boring There is no core literature

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Preparing for the Challenges

• The Disbelievers
• The Questioners
• The Successes
• The Parents
• The Competing Departments
• The Publishers
• The State
• The Feds

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The Disbelievers

• Disbelievers think things like
• There is no program that meets the needs of all
  students. This program is too narrow. It
  stresses the basics too much.
• We must be prepared to say
• Tell me more. How are you finding it too narrow?
• Our decision to adopt this program was based on
  how completely it meets the reading-language arts
  standards.
• The curriculum commission found our program fully
  addresses reading and language arts.
• There are systems to teach reading, writing,
  listening, and speaking and a full component of
  theme-based literature beginning in kindergarten.
• Let me show you what I mean.

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The Questioners

• Questioners ask things like
• Why are we making our English learners blend all
  of these words when they dont know what they
  mean?
• Why are we asking our English learners to learn
  from this set of books? Isnt it expecting them
  to understand much more than they are ready for?
• We must be prepared to respond
• I have looked closely at the structure and
  materials in our program. As I observe classes
  where it is working with diverse students, I see
  the teacher spending time building background
  knowledge and helping student understand
  important words and ideas. I observe the teacher
  using the suggested strategies in the program
  material to address differences in language and
  culture.
• We are counting on teachers to use the materials
  as they are intended and I am dedicated to
  providing you with training for this purpose.

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The Successes

• The Successes are teachers who say things like
• I have been teaching for 20 years and my students
  are doing fine with the materials that I was
  using before this adoption.
• I dont have time for any creative teaching
  anymore.
• Ive seen new initiatives come and go. This too
  will pass!
• We must be prepared to respond
• I hope you are aware of the set of assurances
  that were agreed upon by your school. These
  assurances included the complete implementation
  of our Districts adopted program.
• So many times WE HAVE abandoned the ship before
  we really know if a program works and before we
  have really assisted teachers to make it work
  better for every student. That is the commitment
  of Reading First.
• We were being successful with some students and
  you may have been successful with most of your
  students but our data bears proof to the fact
  that many of our students were not learning how
  to read and write. You are a teacher leader. I
  need your help to bring about this systemic
  reform. I promise to ensure that you have the
  support you need to fully understand our program.
  Your creativity and teaching knowledge is
  critical to the success of this initiative.

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The Parents

• Parents say things like
• My child used to go to a Reading Recovery
  teacher. Why cant she have that service
  anymore?
• I am worried that my child is not making progress
  anymore. There are not spelling lists.
• The teacher says this program may not be the
  right one for my child but she is forced to use
  it.
• We must let the parent know
• We are now using a very sound program in language
  arts to ensure that your child meets the
  standards. Instead of a referral model our
  approach is proactive. Our goal is to ensure
  that every child receives systematic and explicit
  instruction in their classroom.
• The program we have selected is very complete and
  offers the teacher many ways to meet the diverse
  needs of the students in the classroom.
• We have hired coaches to provide on-going
  professional development to our teachers so that
  they can better learn and understand the program.
  I encourage you to speak to your principal.

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Competing Departments

• Competing Departments say
• We have no time to do anything but Open
  Court/Houghton Mifflin.
• Our initiatives just dont matter anymore.
• We must be prepared to respond
• All initiatives are connected to this one.
• The schools involved in Reading First have
  clearly committed to making this initiative their
  focus. Tell me how I can help your unit become
  more knowledgeable about our adopted program and
  how we can work together to ensure that the work
  at the school site is coherent.

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The Publishers

• The Publishers say
• Do I have an answer for you!
• We know your program is very strong but not all
  students are going to be successful. Our program
  is designed for those students who are not
  successful in
• Our program supports
• We need to be prepared to ask
• How can our teachers learn additional programs
  and still work to get better at teaching the one
  we have adopted? How much time is there for PD?
• We must be prepared to say
• NO! Our goal is coherence.
• We are working with our teachers to better
  understand our core program. We cannot afford
  competing agendas at this time in our
  implementation.

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The State and the Feds

• The State and Federal governments say
• Failing schools need IIUSP, CSRD, and other
  interventions.
• We must be prepared to respond
• When schools choose their intervention partners
  they must be approved by the District because we
  know that some of these programs take a
  completely different approach to reading
  instruction from our core adoption. We must be
  sure that intervention programs do not replace
  core instruction.
• All partners must be screened for their knowledge
  of and support of the Districts adopted core
  language arts program. We expect that our
  District partners will be faithfully supportive
  of our District plan.

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What Happens WhenI Dont Know the Answer?

• Very important that the leadership is studying
  too
• Sometimes delaying is appropriate
• Your question deserves a more detailed response
  than I can give youre here. Before the end of
  this meeting I need your phone number so I can
  get back to you.
• Call your mentors Dont be afraid
• YOU CAN CALL ME 213-241-5257

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You cant evaluate what you dont know!
Administrators must know what good teaching looks
like and expect it for every child!
This means that every member of the team needs to
know the elements of the initiative well!
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• Demonstrate to your teachers your expertise with
  the research and with the program
• Every administrator must be able to recognize if
  the teacher is teaching!
• No district has ever truly changed teaching in a
  systemic way!

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Why weigh the hog if youre not going to feed it?

• Assessing is important. How you use the data is
  more important!
• Data analysis by each teacher (classroom)
• Data analysis by grade level teams
• Data analysis by coach and expert
• Data analysis by school
• Data analysis by central office
• Data analysis by local district directors and
  superintendent
• Data analysis by General Superintendent

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Must Learn to Read the Dataand Respond
Appropriately

• Testing FluencyTeaching Fluency are not the same
  thing
• Helping teachers understand getting to the rigor
• Align the actions to what the data tells you the
  need is

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• Be active and public in the use of data to focus
  on areas for improvement
• Do the numbers Talk the numbers!
• FEW Intervention and support
• SOME Grade level PD
• ALL Site-based PD

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• Identify key indicators in the data that need to
  be continually monitored
• Ensure that the number of low performing students
  stay small and gains are big
• Know key indicators by grade level

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• Organize around support for students who are
  basic, below basic, and far below basic
• Work with teachers to develop a coherent program
  of support and intervention
• Put a face on the data!

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• Set goals every 6-8 weeks
• Achievement does NOT come to your students. YOU
  produce achieving students
• Show the teachers the data
• They must set goalsHow many? Who? How soon?
• Teaching matters!

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The road to improved student achievement is
through adult learning
An on-going investment in professional
development for teachers, site-based
administrators, central office administrators,
and coaches is crucial to the success of the
initiative and key to improving student
achievement.

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• The most successful schools are those that have a
  principal that is a
• LEARNING LEADER!

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Classroom/School VisitsA MUST!

• Principals MUST visit classrooms every day they
  are on site
• Walk-Throughs
• Individual teacher coaching
• Evaluation
• Supervisors MUST schools regularly
• Walk-Throughs
• Individual administrator coaching
• Evaluation

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• Teachers need to know more than the WHAT and HOW
• of instruction. They must understand the WHY and
  WHO!

WHAT
WHAT
HOW
WHO
WHY
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Coaches must be held co-accountable for student
achievement and the improvement of
teaching. Coaches must know their content and
program

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Coaches Must Reflect On Their Own Coaching!

• Coach accountability
• No more drop in demos
• No more drop in observations
• Data driven focused decisions
• Choose grade level or specific teachers to work
  with in-depth over a period of time

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• Student achievement gains were higher at schools
  where we observed the greatest fidelity in
  teaching our adopted program as designed!

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• Schools that have a
• Culture of Collaboration
• are showing the strongest gains in student
  achievement!

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• Develop co-accountable leadership
• You can not do this alone but the teachers cannot
  do this without your leadership
• Schools with knowledgeable leaders and systems
  that nurture professional learning communities
  make the most progress

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• Everyone on the team must see evidence
• that the Superintendent
• is supporting
• the
• Reading First Initiative!

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• We must be willing to challenge
• our old
• habits and beliefs.

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Closing the Achievement Gap

• Cannot be seen as a separate initiativeThis is
  what our work is about!
• Cant shy away from the conversations!
• Some students need
• More time
• More attention to the most important
  standardsBIG IDEAS
• Most Expert Teaching

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Nested Learning Community

• Cant hold people accountable for that which we
  are not willing to teach
• Learning needs cannot be
• kept a secret
• As teachers get smarter so do
• directors, principals, central
• and local district staff need
• to get smarter

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Intervention

• Is intervention solely an employment agency or
  can we substantiate student achievement gains?
• Are we using data to group students?
• Are materials coherent and appropriate?
• Can we prevent intervention by using time wisely
  for prevention? Ask why is this happening?
• Do we have the best intervention models?

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Instructional Leadership The Teachers
Perspective

• Successful Schools
• The principal actively participates in grade
  level meetings
• The principal uses assessment results to evaluate
  teaching and learning
• The principal collaborates with teachers to plan,
  implement, and evaluate professional development

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Instructional Leadership The Teachers
Perspective

• Successful Schools
• The principal regularly visits classrooms
• The principal helps teachers make connections
  between the District instructional initiatives

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What Coaches, Teachers, and Administrators
Believe About Assessments

• Successful Schools
• Grade level meeting time is regularly devoted to
  reviewing assessment results
• Assessment results are used to develop an Plan
  for each student and teacher
• The grade level team uses assessment results to
  evaluate teaching and learning

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Kinds of Support Provided by the Coach

• Successful Schools
• Coach is actively involved in working
  collaboratively to identify and meet student and
  staff needs
• Coach is co-accountable for teaching and learning
• Coach models effective practices
• Coach provides seeks evidence and provides
  specific feedback and seeks evidence

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Grade Level Meetings

• Successful Schools
• Meetings have a clear focus with explicit agendas
  constructed prior to the meeting
• The coach and principal are regular active
  participants
• Psychomotor release time is used for regularly
  scheduled, weekly meetings

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Grade Level Meetings

• Successful Schools
• Student assessment results are public and are
  regularly used to identify professional
  development needs
• Meetings focus on program content, instructional
  strategies, and effective teaching practices

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• Be Vocal
• Cheer
• Moan
• Share your beliefs
• Refuse to give up
• Act indignant
• Act surprised

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There is so much more to do!

• Teacher turn-over
• Administrator changes
• Coaching turn-over
• Budget cuts
• Local District reorganization
• IIUSP, CSRD, and other partners
• Program Improvement Schools

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Try to balance home and work

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Marks Story
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From Michael Fullan - Leadership and
Sustainability

• The first thing that has to be done is to focus
  intensely on the basics to overcome the awful
  inertia of past decades. If you dont get the
  basics right, there is little foundation for
  doing all of the other things that matter.

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• Competence
• Builds
• Commitment

Betsy Eaves
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It Takes Patience and Discipline
It takes patience and discipline to develop and
empower people in fact, its like growing
bamboo. Once the seed is planted, the farmer
must water it daily for four years before the
tree breaks ground--then it grows 60 feet in 90
days! Executives who nurture people can get
similar results. How, you ask, can such rapid
growth be possible? It results from miles of
roots that develop in those first four years.
Preparing people to perform is the task of
leadership! (Pam
Robins, 2003)
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• Questions?