Leadership that Promotes a Common Vision:

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Leadership that Promotes a Common Vision
Extraordinary Achievement for ALL Students, While
Simultaneously Closing Achievement Gaps
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Team Members

• John E. Deasy, Ph.D., Superintendent of Schools
• Peggy Harris, Director of Student and Family
  Support Services
• Jerry Harris, Principal, Roosevelt Elementary
  School
• Donna E. Muncey, Ph.D., Chief Academic Officer
• Maria Rodriguez, Community Liaison, John Adams
  Middle School
• Leslie Wells, Advisor, Santa Monica High School

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Overview of Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School
District

• Located in California, 8 miles north of LAX Los
  Angeles
• 2 Cities of 100,000
• School District of 12,500 students 1250 staff
• 19 campus schools

• Home of RAND, Rent Control, and the Entertainment
  Industry
• Recognized as one of CAs highest performing
  districts
• The Tale of Two Cities
• Significant Achievement Gaps

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Student Demographics

• 8 African American
• 6 Asian and Pacific Islander
• 27 Latino
• 57 White
• Other 2

• 25 Free and Reduced Meal
• 14 Special Education
• 8 English Language Learners
• 22 Permits
• Very Low Mobility

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Mission

• Extraordinary achievement for ALL students while
  simultaneously closing achievement gaps.

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Beliefs and Bold Goals

• Vision Statement
• 14 Belief Statements that summarize district
  agreed upon beliefs, such as
• We believe that high standards and expectations
  for all our students promote rigorous learning
  environments.
• We believe intelligence is learned and effort
  creates ability.
• Bold Goals for Achievement and Access to Quality
  Education, including
• core academic subjects, preK through 12th grade
  and
• college readiness.

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Reform Journey

• 1990s Annenberg Reform Site Inquiry was a tool
  for school change, partnership with UCLA, strong
  emphasis on parent and community engagement, and
  organization of district into pathways of schools
• 2000s Engagement with the Institute for
  Learning Focus on high quality and rigorous
  standards for all, culturally responsive
  instruction, and the redesign of large secondary
  schools into smaller units intended to engage
  students and provide a personalized environment
  for their learning

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Investment

• Professional Development
• Administrators
• Institute for Learning -- Principles of Learning
  and Learning Walks
• Academic Conferences
• Teachers
• Standards-Based Instruction
• Central Office Staff
• Working Collaboratively to Shared Ends

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Investment

• Academic Support, Intervention and Remediation
• English Language Learners access to core
  curriculum
• Strengthening supports for struggling learners
• CAHSEE intervention
• Summer School
• After School

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Investment

• High School Redesign at Santa Monica High School
• Team Structure with Collaborative Planning Time
  at John Adams Middle School, our most impacted
  middle school
• Class Size Reductions in Upper Elementary at Will
  Rogers, our most impacted Title I School
• Highly Qualified Teachers

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Teacher Quality, 2004-2005
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Investment

• Equality, Access and Equity
• Access Policy Initiatives
• A.P.
• Honors
• 4 Year college/university application
• Equity Policy
• Equality Policy Initiatives
• Joint Use Agreement with the City of Santa
  Monica, Malibu

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Partnerships

• Engaging Community
• Engaging Parents

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Engaging Underrepresented Parents

• A tool in closing the achievement gap and another
  area of investment in our collective work

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As a parent I feel that I must remain involve in
my childrens education. I want to model for
them that if you want something to change you
must be part of the group looking for
solutions. Rita Reyes, John Adams parent 7th and
8th grader
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• The school has been my source for assistance
  with my granddaughter. I have been able to get
  her the mental health help she needed and
  accommodation in school so she could be
  successful.
• Lazara Arpiza, 84 year-old and guardian of a 3rd
  and 8th grader
• It was very difficult to help my child with
  homework because I dont speak English and I only
  went to elementary school in my country bout I go
  to the meetings at school and they show me how I
  can still support my child with his school work.
• Susana Perez, mother of an 8th grader

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Community Liaisons

• Work based on PTA National Standards for Parent
  Involvement.
• Outreach engage underrepresented parents.
• Develop parent leadership.
• Provide cultural and linguistic support and
  interpretation between school and home.
• Support student achievement.

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One sites community liaisons work at John Adams
Middle School

• Project LEAD
• Santa Monica College Tutorial Program
• Student Groups
• Individual Student Cases

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The Community Advocating for Schools

• Partners in the Work

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Community for Excellence in Public Schools

• Community-based action committee
• Formed to lobby city and state for district
  funding and legislative needs.
• Secured on-going city funding.
• Endorsed pro-education candidates in local
  elections.
• Instrumental in passage of local measures for
  schools.

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PTA Council

• Designed and brokered with state PTA the Caravan
  for Kids campaign that
• Mobilized parents and students across the state
  to caravan to Sacramento
• Staged media events in 14 target areas across the
  state in major cities
• Converged in Sacramento to demand adequate
  funding for schools.

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Access to the Core Curriculum for All Students

• Support for English Language Learners

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A Focused Approach to Frontloading English
Language Instruction

• A process to provide English Learners with
• Access to the English Language Arts core
  curriculum, and
• English Language Development.

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Frontloading Focuses On

• Functions - Cognitive tasks the student is to do.
• Forms - The grammatical features, word usage, and
  vocabulary needed for the cognitive task.
  (function)
• Fluency - Accurate ease of comprehension.
• Keyed to students proficiency levels.

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Ensuring Implementation by Building Capacity

• Multiyear implementation plan
• ELD coaches support implementation at sites
• District level coach support of ELD Coaches
• Developed Teachers Implementation Guide
• Trained site administrators
• Developed observation tool for administrators
• State certified Frontloading trainers on staff

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Leadership that Leads to Excellence

• One Schools Journey Towards Extraordinary
  Achievement for All

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Leadership at Roosevelt focuses on

• Setting Direction
• that is clear, understood, and shared
• Developing People
• Providing staff with intellectual stimulation,
  individualized support, and appropriate modeling
• Redesigning the organization
• Strengthening the school culture
• Modifying Structures
• Building Collaborative process

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Our Leadership Work Develops

• Faculty-wide commitment to improved achievement
• High levels of collaboration
• Highly operationalized expectations
• Strong instructionally oriented leadership
• Culturally responsive practices
• School-based, practice oriented professional

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Classroom Focus

• Looping
• Departmentalization in upper grades
• Differentiation of Instruction
• Banked Time
• Mentors/Coaches
• Classroom Visitations-Learning Walks

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Writers Workshop
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• Santa Monica High School
• Redefining Leadership Roles to Promote
  Personalization, Increased Student Engagement and
  More Robust Academic Persistence

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About SAMOHI

• 33 Acre campus
• 3400 Students
• 55 non-white
• 109 different primary languages spoken
• 40 students of poverty

• 150 Faculty
• 75 Staff
• 8 Administrators
• Internationally recognized music and athletic
  programs

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Intersection of Poverty and Privilege

• Long and revered history
• Two schools phenomenon

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Counselor to Advisor

• We went from 7 Counselors in 2000 to 12 Advisors
  in 2002.
• Case loads dropped from 450 to around 300.
• Advisors are more available during hours that
  students are available

• Rather than specialize in a year or divide by the
  alphabet, advisors continue with their students
  over the four years they are in the House.
• Each Advisor works with 9/11 grades or 10/12
  grades

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House Structure
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Reinventing Ed Services

• Four key changes in the past five years, even as
  the department has lost about 1/3 of its staff as
  part of budget cuts intended to mitigate the
  impact of state funding crisis on schools sites.

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Reinventing Ed Services

• 1. Development of a comprehensive formative
  assessment system.
• 2. All curriculum, instruction, and assessment
  work is clearly linked to state standards and
  every professional development opportunity
  reinforces the centrality of state standards.

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Examples of Aligning Practice

• Elementary Standards-Based Report Card
• Blue Ribbon Mathematics Committee and continued
  analysis of pathways to success in Algebra at 8th
  grade
• Mapping of mathematics and science curriculum
  grades K-5
• Redesign of Freshman Seminar at Santa Monica High
  School

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Reinventing Ed Services

• 3. A key focus of professional development is the
  use of data to inform instructional and school
  improvement planning.
• Academic conferences
• Training to use data from formative assessments
  for instructional planning
• Training to use data bases and filters to
  identify patterns in student performance

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Reinventing Ed Services

• 4. The department is engaged in ongoing,
  comprehensive evaluations of intervention,
  support, and remediation programming and uses the
  results to drive planning. Some examples of this
  include
• Intensive Intervention Summer School
• Community Liaisons
• School-Based Mental Health Initiatives
• READ 180

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Results

• We are proud of the progress we are making in our
  efforts to create a system where all students
  succeed at high levels.
• Our data show that in some places we are making
  progress in closing achievement gaps, while in
  others improvements in student performance are
  occurring for all groups, reducing the
  gap-closing impact.
• We use many measures beyond standardized test
  scores to measure student growth and learning.

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Results

• California has established measures for school
  and district improvement (Academic Performance
  Index) and for student achievement (California
  Standards Tests for grades 2-11 and the
  California High School Exit Exam that, beginning
  with this years graduating class, all students
  must pass in order to graduate).

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District Academic Performance Index (API)
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Socio-Economically Disadvantaged Student API
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Growth Over Time 2002 Base to 2004 Base
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Growth Over Time 2002 Base to 2005 Growth
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Results

• We also use Advanced Placement performance, of
  students meeting or exceeding the A-G
  requirements for college entrance, and the
  College Opportunity Ratio as external measures of
  student achievement.
• Finally, the we continue to develop a district
  wide, K-12 formative assessment system and to use
  careful analysis of student work to inform
  instructional and professional development
  decision-making.