Building a Districtwide Small Schools Movement

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Building a Districtwide Small Schools
Movement
Oakland Community Organizations
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The organizing cycle
Source Oakland Community Organizations
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48 New Small Schools in Oakland 2000 - 2007
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What the Research Says Strategic Measurement
and Evaluation

• New small schools
• higher percentage of Latino, ELL, and FLP
  students than district higher percentage of
  low-performing students
• accelerated achievement on CST ELA and math tests
  at higher rate than comparison schools
• higher rates of students meeting proficiency,
  compared to traditional large schools from which
  they emerged
• higher graduation rates, relative to comparison
  schools, district, county state
• higher student, parent, and teacher satisfaction
  ratings than comparison schools

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What the Research SaysStanford University Study

• New schools are better able to accelerate
  achievement as they mature
• Design features of small schools increase school
  success
• District-level supports for small schools are
  effective (e.g. incubator)
• Need to focus on supports to improve teacher
  retention
• Need to pursue school closures re-organization
  thoughtfully, with attention to
  return-on-investment, school culture, design, etc.

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Annenberg Study Core Questions

• To what degree has OCOs organizing influenced
• 1) district policy
• 2) school capacity
• 3) student outcomes

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Study overview

• Six year study of 8 experienced organizing groups
  
• Multi-case study design using qualitative and
  quantitative research methods
• Data analyzed for Oakland
• 40 interviews (district officials, principals,
  teachers, organizers, parents teachers)
• 130 teacher surveys - large schools and new small
  schools
• Use Your Voice parent and teacher surveys
• Publicly available data (API scores, dropout
  rates, etc.)

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• In what ways has OCOs organizing influenced
  school district policy?

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(No Transcript)
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Influencing school district policy

• Within a tumultuous district context, OCOs
• organizing generated
• political will at the grassroots level to support
  and sustain the reform
• strategic partnerships with BayCES OUSD to
  ensure the necessary supports for new small
  schools
• deeper and more effective district parent
  community engagement practices
• parents and community leadership across the
  district to take key roles within the new small
  schools

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Influencing district policy

• They understand how to stay in a relationship,
  and keep
• it constructive so that you can live to fight
  another
• battle. They dont break it down in the process
  of the
• tension youre always kind of pulled right to
  the edge,
• but it doesnt actually snap. So we feel like we
  have a
• conflict thats irreconcilable but then we come
  together
• again as allies when the next threat shows up.
  And so
• they keep coming back and we keep coming back
• District administrator
• Theyre kind of in it for the long haul, so you
  never
• feel like theyre just going to come in at the
  initial
• stage when youre designing schools and then
• youre on your own when you open the school.
• District administrator

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To what degree has OCOs organizing influenced
the capacity of schools to educate students
successfully?
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Building Blocks of School Capacity

• Schools strong in these supports were ten times
  more likely than schools weak in these supports
  to show extensive gains in both reading and math
  (Sebring et al.,2006).
• These supports are more likely to develop in
  communities with strong social capital.
  Community organizing is one way to build such
  social capital.

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School Capacity in New Small Schools

• Sense of school community safety
• Parent influence in school-decision making
• Teacher outreach to parents
• Achievement-oriented culture
• Knowledge of student culture
• Student influence in school decision-making
• Parental involvement in student learning

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School Capacity in New Small Schools

• Teacher influence in school decision-making
• Collective responsibility
• Peer collaboration
• Joint problem-solving
• Teacher-principal trust
• Teacher-teacher trust
• School commitment
• Principal instructional leadership
• Quality professional development

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School Capacity in New Small Schools

• Teacher influence in classroom decision-making
• Educational practices and beliefs
• Instructional focus
• Educational goals (high school)
• (Coherent curriculum instruction)

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Has OCOs organizing to create and support the
small schools policy produced measurable gains in
student outcomes?
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Produced measurable gains in student outcomes
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Summary

• In Oakland, and nationally, our study found
  consistent evidence of a positive relationship
  between organizing and improved school capacity
  and student outcomes
• Findings from Oakland suggest that organizing
  helped to build and sustain reform, amid a
  tumultuous district context
• Across the three studies, evidence for improved
  student outcomes
• Small schools in Oakland rate highly on school
  climate professional culture, compared to
  traditional large schools
• Opportunity to make strides in instructional core

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Whats next?

• Engaging new district leadership in continuing
  the small schools reform
• Keeping parent and community voices front
  center grassroots ownership of the reform is
  critical
• Deepening the reform with an intensive focus on
  instructional rigor necessary to continue
  closing the achievement gap
• Seizing opportunities in new national environment
  to sustain deepen reform

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www.annenberginstitute.org For additional
information, contact s_shah_at_brown.edu kavitha_med
iratta_at_brown.edu