Closing the Achievement Gap NO EXCUSES

1
Closing the Achievement GapNO EXCUSES

• Patricia W. Davenport

2
The Challenge For Education

• All school districts face similar challenges
• Low student achievement results
• Pressures for increased accountability
• Customers dissatisfied with outcomes
• Increasing student enrollment
• Rising costs

3
The Challenge For Education

• The search continues
• State-takeover of schools
• Private takeover of schools
• For-profit schools
• Vouchers
• Charter schools
• Longer school days and school years
• 36 different education reform programs

4
Beliefs

• Children of all races and income levels can
  succeed
• Testing is Diagnostic, not discriminatory
• Tests determine whether each and every child is
  learning

5
Two Reasons

• Moral

• Legal

6
Legal Reason

• 50 of 50 states require students to take state
  assessments.

7
Moral Reason

• If students are not literate, that is, they can
  not read, write, and do basic arithmetic
• 3 out of 4 will go on welfare.
• 68 will commit a criminal offense.

Source National Adult Literacy Survey - 1993
8
Building Blocks

• The PDCA Instructional Process is grounded in
  three sets of ideas
• Effective Schools
• Total Quality Management
• Malcolm Baldrige Criteria For Performance
  Excellence

9
TQM

• Defined as an operational theory of management
  and set of process tools for implementation.
• Do it right the first time!
• Continuous Improvement
• Cycles - PDCA
• Dont fix blame, fix the system!

10
Whos To Blame?

• The college professor said
• Such rawness in a student is a shame, lack of
  preparation in high school is to blame.

11
Whos To Blame?

• Said the high school teacher
• Good heavens! That boys a fool. The fault of
  course is with the middle school.

12
Whos To Blame?

• The middle school teacher said
• From stupidity may I be spared. They sent him
  in so unprepared.

13
Whos To Blame?

• The primary teacher huffed
• Kindergarten blockheads all. They call that
  preparation why, its worse than none at all.

14
Whos To Blame?

• The kindergarten teacher said
• Such lack of training never did I see. What
  kind of woman must that mother be.

15
Whos To Blame?

• The mother said
• Poor helpless child. Hes not to blame. His
  fathers people were all the same.

16
Whos To Blame?

• Said the father at the end of the line
• I doubt the rascals even mine.
• Anonymous

17
Effective Schools Philosophy

• Characteristics Of Effective Schools
• Strong instructional leadership
• High expectations of student achievement for ALL
  students
• Pervasive and broadly understood instructional
  focus
• Safe and orderly school climate conducive to
  teaching and learning
• Measures of pupil achievement as a basis of
  program evaluation

18
Brazosport ISD
Economically Disadvantaged - 38.6
District Enrollment - 13,500
19
TAAS Velasco Elementary
DEMOGRAPHICS Economically Disadvantaged 80.4
African American 19.6 LEP 36.5 Hispanic 59.
8 Mobility 25.6 White 20.1
20
TAAS Freeport Intermediate
DEMOGRAPHICS Economically Disadvantaged 62.9
African American 10.4 LEP
4.2 Hispanic 51.3 Mobility 20.2
White 37.8
21
TAAS Brazosport High School
DEMOGRAPHICS Economically Disadvantaged 54.1
African American 12.1 LEP
6.6 Hispanic 50.2 Mobility 25.8 White 35.7
22
PDCA INSTRUCTIONAL MODEL
23
Plan/Do/Check/Act Cycle
24
From Theory To Practice

• What the PDCA Cycle offers
• A proven track record for success
• A step-by-step methodology for improving schools
• A process built on the foundation of Effective
  School Characteristics
• An alignment of planning, instruction, and
  assessment
• An emphasis on the core curricula of reading,
  writing, and mathematics

25
PLAN
Disaggregate Data

• Arrange test scores to identify instructional
  groups.
• Define weak and strong objectives.

26
TEST TALK
27
PLAN
Timeline Development

• Develop a campus calendar for all objective areas
  and time allocations based on the needs of the
  student groups and the weight of the objective.
• The timeline is subject to change due to mastery
  of target areas.

28
DO
Instructional Focus

• Using the timeline, create a schedule of focused
  instructions to be followed by teachers.

29
CHECK
Assessment

• After the instructional focus has been taught,
  administer an assessment to identify
  mastery/non-mastery students.

30
ACT

• Tutorial time should be devoted to the reteaching
  of non-mastered target areas.

31
ACT

• Target related enrichment is provided for mastery
  students.

32
CHECK
Maintenance

• Provide materials for ongoing maintenance and
  reteaching.

33
CHECK
Monitoring
The principal assumes the role of instructional
leader and is continuously involved in the
teaching and learning process.
34
Benefits

• Gives teachers flexibility in how to teach by
  focusing on what to teach.
• Emphasizes key skills for every student.
• Allows students to retain skills in order to
  build higher skills.

35
Benefits CONTINUED

• Aligns planning, instruction, assessment, and
  support toward student performance.
• Removes subjectivity and replaces it with a focus
  on results.
• Test scores validate standards instruction.
• It is a proven approach that achieves results.

36
Random Acts Of Improvement
Programs
37
Aligned Acts Of Improvement
In an aligned system...
improvement efforts are integrated and
results-oriented
38
ACTION PLAN

• PDCA Process Implementation

Short Long Term Actions

Done
Who When
Solution
39
It is perfectly all right to teach students
curricula over which they will not be tested, but
in this day of accountability for results, its
fool-hardy to test students on curricula they
have not been taught and taught to mastery...
40
Teaching one thing and testing another tends to
discriminate against the socioeconomically poor
and disadvantaged students, since they are the
most dependent on the school as the source for
their academic learnings. Dr. Larry Lezotte