Scaling up the Standards Based Change Process

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Scaling up the Standards Based Change Process

• Taffy E. Raphael, University of Illinois at
  Chicago
• Kathryn H. Au, University of Hawaii
• Susan R. Goldman, University of Illinois at
  Chicago
• with
• Sharon Hirata, Standards Network of Hawaii
• Kathleen Mooney, Hongmei Dong, Cathleen M. Weber,
  Ji Yon Kim, Andrea Brown, Kristi Madda, Nance
  Wilson, and Sana Ansari,
• UIC Partnership READ

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Todays Presentation

• Context of school change approach
• Research and our site demographics
• Four factors that contribute to scaling up
• Progress to date in Hawaii and Chicago
• What weve learned across the two sites

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The Context

• Research Base
• Successful schools and school reform efforts
• Problematizing the question of scale and
  success

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Demographic Information

• Size and related administrative issues
• Hawaii 10th largest district in nation
  (state-wide district 184,546 total students)
• Chicago 3rd largest district in nation
  (city-wide district 434,419 K-8 students)
• Large private school presence
• Performance
• Concerns about s of low-performing schools in
  both districts
• Student Characteristics
• Linguistic diversity
• High poverty (Chicago 85 Hawaii, 41 poverty)
• Ethnic diversity
• Chicago 50 African American 37.2 Latino
• Hawaii 26 Native Hawaiian, 20 Filipino, 14
  Caucasian, 11 Japanese Americans

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What are we scaling up?

• Standards-Based Change Process, aka The To Do
  List
• Schools follow a nine-step process to put in
  place a system for improving student achievement
  through standards.
• The process leads to an ongoing, school-wide
  conversation about what everyone in the school is
  doing to improve student achievement.

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The To Do List

• Philosophy
• Vision statement
• Grade level benchmarks
• I Can statements

• Evidence
• Procedures for collecting evidence
• Rubrics
• Bar graphs
• Instructional improvements

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Key Factors for Scaling Up

• Emphasis on student outcomes
• Focus on development of a staircase curriculum
• Flexibility of the Standards Based Change Process
  (re ideology)
• Attention to sustainability (building capacity)

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Factor 1. Emphasis on Student Outcomes

• End-of-year targets (grade level benchmarks) are
  central.
• Know the targets before you can reach them
• Draft your benchmarks and identify assessments --
  for clarity and buy-in.
• Create/modify/adapt classroom-based measures so
  you teach what is needed to those who need it

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Factor 2.Creating a Coherent Curriculum

• Hawaii moves to complex with clusters of 6 - 10
  schools to develop a K-12 continuum of
  curriculum.
• SBC Process becomes good match to 80 schools.
• Chicago concern for coherence
• Move from district to state standards
• Visibility of problems of Christmas Tree
  Schools
• SBC Process emphasizes developing a staircase
  curriculum.

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Staircase Curriculum vs.Fragmented Curriculum
Desired Outcome
Desired Outcome
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Factor 3.Flexibility of the SBC Process

• Hawaii and Chicago
• Decisions at school level are supposed to be
  linked to state standards.
• Schools are using are using a broad range,
  including some programs that dont support state
  standards.
• SBC Process encourages schools to stay with their
  strengths, analyze and correct weaknesses.
• What steps on the To Do List do you already have
  in place? Which need revision? Which need to be
  developed?

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Factor 4.Attention to Sustainability

• Learning from the KEEP Experience
• Teachers, not the external partner, need to
  construct the curriculum.
• Change process must be rooted in the system
  itself.
• Curriculum leader, with detailed knowledge of the
  school, to direct the change process
• Schools must invest
• Chicago connection
• Revolving door of external partners and mandates
  so teachers must construct the curriculum
• Process must be owned by the schools (yes, we
  will be leaving) build capacity within the
  school

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A Look at the Sites

• Hawaii and Chicago

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Hawaii

• Introduction 100 Schools, 4 or more PD sessions
  for leadership teams
• Phase 1 Full Implementation of To Do List
• 25/50 schools
• Phase 2 3X a year reporting of student results
• 20/50 schools
• Phase 3 Curriculum Guides
• 4/50 schools
• Phase 4 Student Portfolios
• 1/50 schools (8th year)

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Chicago

• Introduction 10 schools, Yr 1 2 addition, Yr 3
• End of Year 2 Bright Spots
• Schools made progress in creating workable vision
  statements
• Schools made progress in creating an
  infrastructure to support their work
• School displays began to show greater coherence
• School displays began to illustrate teachers
  contributions as well as LLTs work
• Some schools began to extend from literacy to
  other school subjects
• Schools began to create useful assessment systems
  for key benchmarks related to the Chicago Reading
  Initiative

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School Progress Toward Becoming Demonstration
Sites Fall, Year 3

• Well on their way 5 schools
• 4 with full process and potential for being in
  Phase 2 at year end
• 1 with strong progress for a beginning school
• Reintroducing READ 2 schools
• Facing challenging barriers 2 schools
• Facing major barriers 2 schools
• Withdraw from project 1 school

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A Window into the Schools

• Working on the To Do List

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Phase 1. Evidence of Full Process
Hawaii
Chicago
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Phase 2 3 Times a Year Reporting
Chicago teachers Fall bar graph
Hawaii teacher presents mid-year results
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Phase 3 - Teacher-developed curriculum guides
Second-year teacher Hawaii
Veteran teacher, Hawaii
Chicago teacher getting started
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Phase 4 Teacher with student portfolio showing I
Cans, rubrics, self-assessment
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What Weve Learned Across the Two Sites

• A change process centered on teachers
  professional development, rather than programs,
  can be effective in schools with students of
  diverse backgrounds.
• Schools becoming communities of practice
• Teachers growth
• Students growth
• School leaders state that university (external)
  facilitators help to move the process along more
  quickly and smoothly.
• Change is likely to proceed more slowly in a
  large urban district.
• Due to the complexity of the system and its
  demands
• Not a problem with the teachers and students
• Schools need to stay the course for more than
  three years to achieve lasting change.

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Typical Teacher Comments

• It was interesting to see the consistency and
  trends throughout the grades/school with the I
  Cans.
• It was awesome how everyone is working together
• Many times I felt this was such a lot of work
  is it worth it? I see how great what were doing
  is going to be!
• It makes me excited about some of the assessment
  opportunities for my classroom.
• Great to see what is happening in the classrooms
  across the school.