Students Can

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Students Cant WaitSchools Must Turn Knowledge
into Action to Raise Achievement and Graduation
Rates
Leading Change
Gene Bottoms gene.bottoms_at_sreb.org
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Why the concern?

• Too many unprepared students to
• Succeed in high school and postsecondary studies
• Compete for a good job
• Declining graduation rates
• Rising workplace requirements

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Eighth-Grade Students Algebra I Ready
Leading Change
Source NCES NAEP 2005
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Preparing all groups of students for challenging
high school work requires teaching all students
the same curriculum taught to the best students
and to the same high standards. It requires the
courage to lead to turn knowledge into action and
teach everyone an accelerated curriculum.
Leading Change
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On Freshmen Requiring Remedial Courses 2000
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Public two-year institutions 42
Public four-year institutions 20
All institutions (public/private) 28

Source NCES Source NCES
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Getting Serious About High School Graduation
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Income Differences between High School Graduate
and a Dropout 260,000 Lifetime
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• For 2004 dropouts, this converts to a national
  lost lifetime earnings of 325 billion
• For Georgia 14 billion
• For Texas 32 billion

Source Route 2005
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The barriers to turning knowledge into changed
school practices are not outside the school. They
are inside it. We are too wedded to old
practices and beliefs suited for another time.
Today, they are like a millstone around our neck
holding students back. How long will poor and
minority students have to wait, before we lead to
shed our old beliefs and practices?
Leading Change
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Leading Change

• Name one characteristic of high schools and
  middle grades schools that are both raising
  achievement and completion rates.

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Improving Achievement and Completion Rates
Leading Change

• 1. Rigorous Curriculum with a Focus
• College-preparatory core for all
• Academic or career focus beyond the core
• Focus is on mastery of subject matter not state
  test
• Use common end-of-grading period exams in grades
  9 and 10

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Percentage of Students Completing Two Parts of
Academic Core Curriculum
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Source 2006 HSTW Assessment
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To turn knowledge into practice, the message is
clear. If school leaders and teachers do not lead
to develop a plan for enrolling more students in
challenging academic courses in high school and
in middle grades, it will not happen.
Leading Change
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Leading Change

• What can your school do to have more students
  complete HSTW/MMGW recommended academic core?

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Leading Change
Improving Achievement and Completion Rates

• 2. High Classroom Expectations Rigorous
• Teachers define A and B work
• Students redo work until it meets standards
• Teacher assignments, students work and classroom
  assessment aligned to standards
• Frequent assessment and feedback

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Students behavior and attitude toward school
changes when school leaders agree to do whatever
it takes to get students to grade-level
standards, prepared for challenging high school
studies and for postsecondary studies and
careers. Achievement goes up, graduation rates
increase and students become more engaged when
leaders lead to set higher expectations and
support students to meet them.
Leading Change
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Leading Change

• What action can your school take to have common,
  high expectations in all classrooms?

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Improving Achievement and Completion Rates
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• Relevant and Meaningful Learning Experiences for
  Students
• Access to high-quality career/technical studies
• Use academic skills to complete real tasks
• Theme-based and career-focused small learning
  communities
• Postsecondary-like in quality
• Early access for at-risk students

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School and teacher leaders who lead to act on
research evidence that many students learn best
through challenging, real-world assignments
create career/technical courses that become
places where students use academic skills to
address adult-like problems, projects and tasks.
Leading Change
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Improving Achievement and Completion Rates
Leading Change

• 4. Relevant Teachers use engaging instructional
  strategies
• Reading and writing for learning in all classes
• Use real-world problems and materials
• Cooperative learning
• Stress study skills and other habits
• Integrate technology into instruction
• Research-based independent study

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School and teacher leaders who turn knowledge
into action confront rather than ignore negative
data. For example, they act when 50 percent of
students say they are enrolled in classrooms
where they seldom have to read or write for
learning. They lead to engage the faculty in
developing a school-wide literacy plan and they
support teachers in learning classroom strategies
to engage students in reading and writing
activities that enhance achievement in all
classes.
Leading Change
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Students interest and achievement in mathematics
and science increases when they work in teams to
solve real problems and are held accountable to
assist each other to demonstrate content mastery.
Effective schools lead to act on this knowledge
and support their teachers with training and time
to plan standards-based instructional units
together using research-based strategies with
study and literacy skills integrated into class
assignments.
Leading Change
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Leading Change

• What can your school do to integrate academic and
  career/technical studies?

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Improving Achievement and Completion Rates
Leading Change

• 5. Relationship/Support Extra Help
• Every student counts
• Full-court press to get students to meet
  standards
• Required extra time support
• Extra help that motivates students
• A system for grade and credit recovery

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Teachers who invest in extra help believe their
students are worth the effort. Having a teacher
as a mentor and coach increases a students
desire to work hard, perform at a higher level
and understand the value of a middle grades and
high school education.
Leading Change
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Improving Achievement and Completion Rates
Leading Change

• 6. Relationship Guidance and Advisement
• Every student connected to an adult
• Intrusive advisement and support
• Engage parents in planning students program of
  study
• Every student has a goal and a plan
• Frequent contact between student and advisor

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We know that students who are not connected to an
adult, who do not have a goal beyond high school
and who are not in some extra curricular activity
are less likely to finish high school. We know
that school becomes meaningful for students when
they set a goal and follow a plan to achieve
their goal. Leaders lead in taking action to link
every student to an adult, to help every student
form goals with parent involvement and connect
students to some activity and group beyond the
classroom.
Leading Change
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Leading Change

• What actions can your school take to help every
  student have an adult mentor?

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Improving Achievement and Completion Rates
Leading Change

• 7. Relationship/Support Middle Grades/High
  School Transition
• Align middle grades curriculum to high school
  readiness standards
• Intensive summer experiences for unprepared
  students
• Double-dose/mastery strategy in grade nine

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Improving Achievement and Completion Rates
Leading Change

• 7. Relationship/Support Middle Grades/High
  School Transition
• Lower student/teacher ratio in grade nine with
  best teachers as leaders
• Reduce failure rates in grade nine
• Career and education exploratory opportunities

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Middle grades and high school leaders do not
ignore the negative numbers showing many students
leaving the middle grades unprepared for high
school. They do not participate in the blame
game. They lead by looking for ways to benchmark
the middle grades curriculum to high school
readiness standards, to ramp up the ninth grade
and to build a supportive relationship with
students to help them meet rising high school
expectations.
Leading Change
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Improving Achievement and Completion Rates
Leading Change

• 8. Transition Senior to Postsecondary and Career
• Make full use of the senior year
• Graduate students who make it to the senior year
• Jump start for college for those meeting
  college-readiness standards
• Ready start for unprepared students planning to
  attend college
• Job start for those not planning to attend

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Leading Change

• All groups of students improve when given similar
  experiences. If leaders lead to implement all
  parts of the HSTW/MMGW design and enroll more
  students in high-level mathematics and science
  courses, students can succeed in those courses
  and all groups of students will experience
  similar growth in achievement.

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Leading Change

• What actions can your school take to improve
  transition middle grades to high school high
  school to postsecondary and career?

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Improving Achievement and Completion Rates
Leading Change

• 9. School Leadership Focus on Continuous
  Improvement
• Shared leadership
• Goals and priorities are clear
• Maintain a demanding but supportive environment
• Constantly searching for new ideas
• Use data to guide changes in practices
• Leadership involved in looking at student work

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Courage is needed by school and teacher leaders
to lead to turn knowledge into action and to lead
to implement well what we know works. Effective
leaders know how to water the flowers and not the
rocks in their garden.
Leading Change
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Improving Achievement and Completion Rates
Leading Change

• 10. District Leadership Supportive of Schools
  Efforts
• Resources aligned to an improvement agenda
• Builds capacity of leadership teams
• Provides continuity of focus and support
• Support school to take the right action
• Goals and accountability focused on both
  achievement and completion

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More students accept greater responsibility for
their own learning when teachers and school
leaders lead to take responsibility to place
emphasis on rigor, relevance, relationships and
continuous reflection to create schools where
more students understand the importance of what
they are learning and its value as a bridge to
the future.
Leading Change
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Rigorous Curriculum Plus Relevance, Support and
Reflective Leaders
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Met Reading Goal
Met Science Goal
Met Math Goal
87
86
83
75
64
60
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Closing the Knowing Doing Gap is about
Leading Change

• Changing students behavior by changing adult
  behavior
• Having a core group of school and teacher leaders
  act in unison
• Helping students and parents set goals
• Creating a continuous improvement climate
• Raising expectations for all groups of students
  and
• Adults convincing all groups of students that
  they are worthy.