THE OPPORTUNITY: From

1
THE OPPORTUNITY From Brutal Facts to the Best
Schools Weve Ever Had Dr. Mike
Schmokerschmoker_at_futureone.com928/522-0006Calh
oun ISD Marshall, Michigan March
5, 2008
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INTRODUCTION DO WE TRULY WANT BETTER SCHOOLS?

• Because organizations only improve
• where the truth is told and the brutal facts
  confronted
• Jim Collins

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BRUTAL FACTS

• Only 7 of low-income students will ever earn a
  college degree

4
BRUTAL FACTS

• Only 32 of our college-bound students are
  adequately prepared for college
• Understanding University Success
• Center for Educational Policy Research

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COLLEGE SUCCESS ANALYTICAL READING
DISCUSSION PERSUASIVE WRITING

• Drawing inferences/conclusions from texts
• Analyzing conflicting source documents
• Supporting arguments with evidence
• Solving complex problems with no obvious answer
• David Conley
• College Knowledge

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BRUTAL FACTS

• The TEACHER EFFECT makes all other differences
  pale in comparison
• William Sanders
• Five years of effective teaching can completely
  close the gap between low-income students and
  others.
• Marzano Kain Hanushek

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IMPACT of TEACHING

• Pittsburgh Schools 69 range of difference
• Mortimore Sammons teaching has 6 to 10 times
  as much impact as other factors
• Dylan Wiliam 400 speed of learning
  differences

8
REALITY CHECK

• Effective practices never take root in more than
  a small proportion of classrooms and schools
• Tyack and Cuban
• Effective teaching is quite different from the
  teaching that is typically found in most
  classrooms
• Odden and Kelley

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THE REAL OPPORTUNITY

• Most of us in education are mediocre at what we
  do
• Tony Wagner
• Harvard Graduate School of Education
• EVERY STUDY of classroom practice reveals that
  most teaching is mediocre--or worse
• Goodlad Sizer Resnick Powell, Farrar
  Cohen Learning 24/7 Classroom Study

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BRUTAL FACTS

• After decades of initiatives, programs plans,
  we still DO NOT INSPECT instruction, i.e.
• 1. WHAT we teach (essential standards)
• or
• 2. HOW WELL we teach
• (effective lessons/units)
• Gordon Elmore Marzano Tyack Cuban
  Hess Berliner
• The case of SEAN CONNORS

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EFFECTIVE LESSON WHAT HOW

• Clarity _at_ essential standard being learned that
  day (introductory paragraphs)
• Scaffolded (step-by-step) instruction
• Check for understanding/formative assessment
  during the lesson
• Models/exemplars students studied these in pairs
  
• Engagement attentivenessstudents
  monitored/called on randomly
• Students write own intro. paragraph
• only when most/all students are ready

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WHY IS MOST TEACHING MEDIOCRE?

• The administrative superstructure of schools
  exists to buffer teaching from
• OUTSIDE INSPECTION
• Richard Elmore
• YOU CANT EXPECT WHAT YOU DONT
• INSPECT
• Peter Senge

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PRIMARY TASK Improve WHAT and HOW we teach

• I. REPLACE IMPROVEMENT PLANNING WITH
  TEAM-BASED EFFORTS TO IMPROVE
• WHAT IS TAUGHT and HOW WELL
• II. GUARANTEED VIABLE CURRICULUM (WHAT)
• III. SIMPLIFY LEADERSHIP
• IV. RADICALLY REDEFINE
• LITERACY INSTRUCTION

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I. FIRST TYPICAL STRATEGIC or IMPROVEMENT
PLANNING MODELS

• SUCK
• organizations into
• superficial time-consuming
• counterproductive, distracting
• actions that PREVENT
• rapid, team-based cycles of instruction?
  assessment ? improvement of instruction

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I. LEARNING COMMUNITIES AN ASTONISHING
CONCURRENCE

• The most promising strategy for sustained,
  substantive school improvement is building the
  capacity of school personnel to function as a
  professional learning community.
• Milbrey McLaughlin (cited in Professional
  Learning Communities at Work by Dufour and
  Eaker)

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I. LEARNING COMMUNITIES AN ASTONISHING
CONCURRENCE

• Professionals do not work alone they work in
  teams to accomplish the goalto heal the
  patient, win the lawsuit, plan the building.
• Arthur Wise Teaching Teams a 21st Century
  Paradigm For Organizing Americas Schools

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I. FIRST ADOPT SIMPLE PLANS to create
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES

• 1. DATA - driven (academic!) priorities
• 2. GOALS that are measurable/tied to an
  assessment
• 3. TEAMWORK that produces short-term assessment
  results
• Anchored by a
• GUARANTEED VIABLE CURRICULUM

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DATA S.M.A.R.T. GOALS

• 1. SET measurable, annual goals for
• Math Art Writing P.E.tied to an
  ASSESSMENT
• GOAL Our team will improve in
• (Physics Math Writing French )
• from 62 (2007)
• to 66 (2008)
• Peter Senge More than ? goals is the
  same as none at all.

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DATA DRIVEN PRIORITIES

• 2. IDENTIFY lowest - scoring standardsfrom
  ASSESSMENTS
• MATH measurement operations with negative and
  positive integers
• WRITING voice word choice
• P.E. volleyball unit personal health plan
• maim your opponent in dodge ball
• 3. USE formative assessment data
• (results from lessons, units, etc)
• Stiggins Wiliam Black

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AUTHENTIC TEAM-BASED PLCs plan lesson/unit?
teach it? assess its impact?adjust instruction

• Amphi High Thesis statement/introduction
• Adlai Stevenson Physics how a rainbow works
• Lake Havasu High School Operations with negative
  positive integers

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PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES FACTS

• The PLC concept (by whatever name) is
  indisputably the
• STATE OF THE ART for improving instruction but
  alas
• authentic, team-based PLCs are EXCEEDINGLY
  RARE.

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II. GUARANTEED VIABLE CURRICULUM

• How important is this?
• The NUMBER ONE FACTOR
• for increasing levels of learning
• Marzano Porter Lezotte

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II. GUARANTEED?

• Do Americas schools now ensure that a
  guaranteed viable curriculum actually gets
  taught?

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II. GUARANTEED VIABLE CURRICULUM?
BRUTAL FACTS

• ROSENHOLTZ teachers provide a
• self-selected jumble of standards
• BERLINER/WALBERG wild variation from teacher to
  teacher no alignment with agreed-upon, viable
  curriculum standards
• LITTLE SIZER ALLINGTON CALKINS
• curricular chaos" in English language arts

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II. GUARANTEED CURRICULUM
MAP the STANDARDS

• 1st quarter NUMBER SENSE
• DATA ANALYSIS PROBABILITY
• 2ND quarter PATTERNS, ALGEBRA FUNCTIONS
• GEOMETRY
• 3rd quarter MEASUREMENT DISCRETE MATH
• MATHEMATICAL STRUCTURE/LOGIC
• 4th quarter REVIEW for YEAR END ASSESSMENT
• END OF EACH QUARTER common assessmentwith
  ample higher-order component (analysis,
  evaluation etc.)

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III. LEADERSHIP in theProfessional Learning
Community

• No institution can survive if it needs geniuses
  or supermen to manage it. It must be organized
  to get along under a leadership of average human
  beings.
• Peter Drucker

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THE LEADERSHIP ILLUSION

• The actions of administrators, including all
  forms of improvement planning staff
  development, have virtually no impact on the
  quality of teaching in the school.
• Richard Elmore 2000
• This is not a matter of work ethic
• it is a matter of misplaced priorities.

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MONITORING 1. INSTRUCTION and 2. GUARANTEED
VIABLE CURRICULUM

• LEADERS (administrators, dept. heads) must
• 1. Conduct at least one unannounced classroom
  walk-through each month, looking for schoolwide
  patterns of strength/weakness with regard to
• Clear focus on essential standards
• College prep critical reasoning/higher-order
  reading, writing, thinking
• Essential elements of an effective lesson
• September 4 of 15 classes teaching essential
  standards
• October __ of 15 classes (SMART goal)

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MONITORING 1. INSTRUCTION and 2. GUARANTEED
VIABLE CURRICULUM

• If you can not measure it, you cannot improve
  it.
• British scientist Lord Kelvin

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LEADERSHIP Team Management for GUARANTEED
VIABLE CURRICULUM (D. Reeves R. Marzano R.
DuFour)

• QUARTERLY CURRICULUM REVIEW Leaders Teams
  discuss
• quarterly assessments (success rate areas of
  strength/weakness)
• grade books (lowest-scoring assessments)
• scored work samples (weak/strong areas)
• IS THIS A FAIR, REASONABLE REQUIREMENT?

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MEETINGS STRATEGIZE TO ACHIEVE to
RECOGNIZE/CELEBRATE every SMALL WIN

• ____ of 6 elementary teams developed team
  meeting protocols
• ____ of 28 middle school teams completed
  standards map(s)
• ____ of our 25 course-alike teams have created a
  SUCCESSFUL LESSON (e.g. 87 mastery/proficiency)
  
• MARCH 6 of 15 classroomsessential standard
  being taught
• APRIL 13 of 15 classroomsessential standard
  being taught
• NO SMALL WINS NO PROGRESS

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RECOGNIZE CELEBRATE measurable SMALL WINS to
overcome resistance promote MOMENTUM

• The 1 LEVER FOR IMPROVING MORALE AND EFFECTIVE
  PRACTICE
• Nelson Blasé and Kirby
• The single best, low cost, high- leverage way to
  improve performance, morale, and the climate for
  change is to dramatically increase the levels of
  meaningful recognition for educators
• Robert Evans

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RESULTS of Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum
Effective Teamwork Frequent Recognition
Celebration

• ADLAI STEVENSON HIGH SCHOOL
• 10 years of record-breaking gains on every
  national, state end-of-course assessment
• 800 increase in AP success
• Average ACT score 21 to 25

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IV. UNPARALELLED OPPORTUNITY LITERACY
INSTRUCTION

• Under-developed literacy skills are the number
  one reason why students are retained, assigned to
  special education, given long-term remedial
  services and why they fail to graduate from high
  school.
• Ferrandino and Tirozzi presidents of NAESP
  and NASSP

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BRUTAL FACTS GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY

• Reading and Writing vs. stuff ratio
• Lucy Calkins 1/15 reading to stuff ratio
• Literature based Arts and Crafts
• dioramas game boards worksheets posters
  presentations coats-of-arms mobiles movies
  cutting, pasting designing book jackets skits
  collages

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The CRAYOLA CURRICULUM

• I can only summarize the findings by saying
  that weve been stunned
• kids are given more coloring assignments than
  mathematics and writing assignments
• I want to repeat that, because Im not joking,
  nor am I exaggerating.
• Katie Haycock

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HIGH SCHOOL English

• 9th grade To Kill A Mockingbird (100 points
  total)
• Draw head or full body shot of any
  characteruse crayons, colored pencils (20
  points)
• Create a model of Maycomb (wood, plastic or
  styrefoam) (20 points)

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HIGH SCHOOL English

• Honors Sophomore English
• Two schoolscollage as 6-week assessment of
  literary unit
• Frankenstein assessment make a mobile or
  collage
• Siddhartha Assessment
• 8-pages of worksheets (96 questions)
• ¾ of an inch of space to answer each question
• NO DISCUSSION OR WRITING

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HIGH SCHOOL English

• AP Literature Memories Scrapbook (200 points)
• Second-semester project
• For each page of text no criteria for quality of
  written work draw illustration (using various
  media)

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LITERARY TERMS essential?
indirect characterization direct characterization static character internal conflict external conflict rising action omniscient point of view third-person limited point of view complication foreshadowing suspense resolution climax plot anadiplosis chiasmus synecdoche
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A BETTER WAY READ, WRITE and TALK

• After close reading of innumerable books and
  articles, students
• wrote and talked,
• wrote and talked
• their way toward understanding.
• Mike Rose Lives on the Boundary

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K-12/COLLEGE SUCCESS ANALYTICAL READING
DISCUSSION PERSUASIVE WRITING

• Draw inferences and conclusions
• Analyze conflicting source documents
• Solve complex problems with no obvious answer
• (Prepare students to) Write multiple 3-5-page
  papers supporting arguments with evidence
• Read far more books, articles essays than they
  now read in high school in class!
• College Knowledge by David Conley

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WRITING IMPORTANT?

• Writing is the litmus paper of thought the very
  CENTER OF SCHOOLING
• Ted Sizer
• Writing aids in cognitive development to such an
  extent that the upper reaches of Blooms taxonomy
  could not be reached without the use of some form
  of writing .
• Kurt and Farris 1990

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BRUTAL FACTS

• Writing is rarely assigned, even more rarely
  taught.
• William Zinsser National Commission on
  Writing
• Even U.S. students best writing is mediocre.
• NAEP report on best US high school writing
• Students with 3.8 GPAs, in highly selective
  colleges, write poorly.
• NAEP writing Study

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BRUTAL FACTS

• If we could institute only one change to make
  students more college ready, it should be to
  increase the amount and quality of writing
  students are expected to produce.
• David Conley
• author of College Knowledge

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K-12/COLLEGE SUCCESS ANALYTICAL READING
PERSUASIVE WRITING

• SIMPLE STEPS? MAJOR REVOLUTION
• Who would make a better friend
• Spider or Turtle?
• Old Dan or Little Anne which admire most?
• What do you think are the most important lessons
  of WWI?
• Evaluate for most/least effective, significant
  interesting--presidents explorers scientists
  etc.

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SIMPLE STEPS ? MAJOR REVOLUTION EACH QUARTER

• DEVELOP ARGUMENTS/PROPOSALS
• SCIENCE
• PRO/CON Drill in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
  
• Environmental sustainability
• HISTORY/SOCIAL STUDIES
• Illegal Immigration Middle East issue(s)
• Evaluation of two presidents
• Case for liberal/conservative policy/politics

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THE OPPORTUNITY

• We dont know the half of what these kids can
  do Ted Sizer
• We now have 100/100/100 schools every kid poor
  and minority, and every one of them meeting
  standards including 100 of special education
  kids (the typical average is about 15) Doug
  Reeves/e-mail

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FOR SWIFT, DRAMATIC IMPROVEMENT, FOCUS ON

• TEAM-BASED PLCs (WHAT HOW)
• GUARANTEED VIABLE Curriculum
• RADICAL changes to literacy instruction
• CELEBRATE every SMALL WIN in these areas at
  EVERY faculty admin. meeting
• WHY? 35-50 percentile gain in
• THREE YEARS (Marzano Sanders Bracey)

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• Instruction is the pivotal factor, but it is not
  nearly what it should be
• It is not adequately supervised
• Training has limited impact on instruction
• Underachievement, droputs etc are largely the
  result of the fact that poor and mediocre
  teaching are manifestly, almost universally
  tolerated

52

• TEAMS OF TEACHERS Solution build, share
  questions and detailed, scaffolded lessons,
  i.e. read to answer an interesting question,
  underline, annotate or take notes share with
  partner while teacher walks around write own
  conclusions with support/quotations from
  textetc.

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THE OPPORTUNITY

• The question is not,
• Is it possible to educate all children well?
  But rather
• Do we want to do it badly enough?
• Deborah Meier

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K-12/COLLEGE SUCCESS ANALYTICAL READING
PERSUASIVE WRITING

• Drawing inferences Interpreting results
  Analyzing conflicting source documents
  Supporting their arguments with evidence
• Solving complex problems that have no obvious
  answer
• Drawing conclusions Offering explanations
  Conducting research Writing multiple 3-5-page
  papers that are well reasoned, well organized,
  and provide evidence from credible sources
  Thinking deeply about what they are being taught
• Reading 8-9 books in the same amount of time they
  read one in high school Working with other
  students on complex problems and projects Making
  presentations and explaining what they have
  learned

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BUT ALAS.

• HILLOCKS time spent actually teaching
  instructing per assignment
• 3 minutes (mostly directions vs. scaffolded
  lesson with checks for understanding using
  rubric/critieria models to teach word choice
  voice how to build a clear, effective paragraph
  using support from one or more texts etc.)
• NESS 40 hours of classroom observations
• 3 of time devoted to teaching explaining,
  modelling reading strategies
• mostly asking literal questions. Is this
  something new?
• FORD OPITZ 2/3 of classtime

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BASIC ELEMENTS of PLCs

• Common curriculum standards taught in roughly
  common sequence (standards/consensus maps)
• Common assessments (starting with quarterly)
• Course-alike TEAMS use dataroutinely--to improve
  standards-based lessons units to reach
• S.M.A.R.T. Goals (BIO 76 in 07--gt 80 in 08)
• Continuous Recognition and Celebration of SMALL
  WINS toward achieving SMART Goals

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IMPORTANT?

• Protocols
• of teams/schools now who have developed/are
  using them
• Standards maps
• of courses for which they have been developed
• If we dont know how many/which ones, we cant
  improve or increase

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II. GUARANTEED VIABLE CURRICULUM?

• In pairs Come up with some simple ideas for
  ensuring a (more) guaranteed and viable
  curriculum. Points for
• Simple
• Time-efficient
• You have 1 minute

59
K-12/COLLEGE SUCCESS ANALYTICAL READING
PERSUASIVE WRITING

• Only 31 of college graduates can read a complex
  book and extrapolate from it
• National Center for Education Statistics
• Only 24 write at the proficient level 4 were
  rated high
• NAEP study

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High leverage silver bullets

• Planning backwardfrom stds based assessment ask
  Tim Kanold _at_ assessment swaps
• Walkthroughs and reports/expectation
• Quarterly assessments/to ensure g and v and
  continuous improvement

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K-12/COLLEGE SUCCESS ANALYTICAL READING
PERSUASIVE WRITING

• Fully 2/3 of students at a prestigious university
  couldnt detect the most flagrant contradictions
  in a text that was purposely laced with them
  (Graff).
• K-12 does very little to enhance students
  critical reading capacities
• (Graf, p. 68).
• BUT WHAT ABOUT WRITING?

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WHY WAIT? These facts DEMAND ACTION

• We should not have to wait another generation
  before we get things right
• Reverend Michael Pfleger, youth pastor in
  inner-city Chicago
• We Learn Best by Doing
• DuFour, DuFour, Eaker and Many

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II. GUARANTEED VIABLE CURRICULUM

• The key factor is that teachers know what needs
  to be taught at each grade level that there is
  a coherent curriculum.
• Study of 15 very high-achievingbut
  disadvantaged--schools
• Karin Chenoweth Harvard Education Letter
  May/June 2007

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K-12/COLLEGE SUCCESS ANALYTICAL READING
PERSUASIVE WRITING

• Drawing inferences and conclusions
• Interpreting results
• Analyzing conflicting source documents
• Supporting their arguments with evidence
• Solving complex problems that have no obvious
  answer
• Drawing conclusions
• Offering explanations
• Conducting research
• Writing multiple 3-5-page papers that are well
  reasoned
• Thinking deeply about what they are being taught
• Reading 8-9 books in the same amount of time they
  read one in high school

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WE ARE WHAT WE DO what we CONSISTENTLY,
FREQUENTLY, REPEATEDLY

• Tolerate--or ignore
• Talk about
• Ask for or REQUIRE
• Formally Evaluate
• Insist on
• Reward, praise and reinforce
• WEEK IN, WEEK OUT

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K-12/COLLEGE SUCCESS ANALYTICAL READING
PERSUASIVE WRITING

• READING Only 31 of college graduates can read a
  complex book and extrapolate from it
• National Center for Education Statistics
• WRITING Only 24 write at the proficient
  level 4 were rated high
• NAEP study

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THE PRICE OF BETTER SCHOOLS

• Perhaps there are schools that have made the
  transition to a professional learning community
  without conflict or anxiety, but I am unaware of
  anythe question schools must face is how will
  we react when we are immersed in the conflict
  that accompanies significant change?
• Rick DuFour

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K-12/COLLEGE/CAREER SUCCESS ANALYTICAL READING
PERSUASIVE WRITING

• The information age places higher-order literacy
  demands on all of us ...these demands include
  synthesizing and evaluating information from
  multiple sources.
• Richard Allington

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THE IMPACT OF EFFECTIVE TEACHING ON ACHIEVEMENT

• SHORT-TERM
• Success on same assessment 72 vs. 27
• 3 years of good teaching 35-50
• Impact on achievement 6-10 times as much as all
  other factors combined
• LONG-TERM (IN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS?)
• Graduation rate from 68 to 80?
• Average college graduation rate 50 to 80?
• LOW -SES college grad rate from 7 to 30?

70
K-12/COLLEGE SUCCESS ANALYTICAL READING
PERSUASIVE WRITING

• 2/3 of students at a prestigious university
  couldnt detect flagrant contradictions in a text
  that was purposely laced with them (Graff).
• "K-12 does very little to enhance students
  critical reading capacities
• (Graff, p. 68).
• BUT WHAT ABOUT WRITING?

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REALLY? Already know?

• TRANSPARENCY/CLASSROOM ACCESS
• Reasonably well-constructed lessons, units
  aligned with assessments
• Professional Learning Communitiesfocused on
  ever-improving assessment results
• Measurable goals
• Monitoring of what is taught/how well/1/4ly
  curriculum reviews
• Overhaul of literacy education (English Beyond)
• NEW
• Team management for small wins
• Recognition celebration

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PRESSURE AND SUPPORT

• Sure, but there isnt a word here about the
  incentives and punishments needed to make
  teachers and schools want to have results!
• Peter Drucker, in a note to me
• During the transition, people may be sad,
  angry, depressed, irrational, frightened or
  confused. We must, without judgment, provide
  processes for them to express feelings
  Robert Garmstron

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OPPORTUNITIES

• Standard not clear/not on board
• Too many goals (not tied to an assessment of
  mastery)
• Almost no check for understanding/scaffoldoing
• Minimal (purposeful) reading and writing (using a
  rubric)
• Abundance of low-quality, misaligned worksheets
• Hands raised
• Activity/worksheet driven curriculum vs.
  stds./assemt-driven

74
YOU CANT IMPROVE WHAT YOU CANT SEE

• The reason schools arent vastly better, for
  smart or poor or advantaged or disadvantaged
  students is because
• The administrative superstructure of schools
  exists to buffer teaching from outside
  inspection, interference or disruption.
• Richard Elmore

75
Team Lesson/Unit Logs

• SPECIFIC STANDARD (e.g. descriptive settings)
• SHORT-TERM ASSESSMENT (what must students
  know/do?) e.g. write a quality descriptive
  paragraph
• LESSON/UNIT/DETAILED STRATEGY (not a list or
  grab- bag of strategies)
• SHORT-TERM ASSESSMENT RESULT
• (e.g. 74 demonstrated proficiency/progress)
• ADJUSTMENTS BASED ON SHORT-TERM RESULTS

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ASSESSMENT the coherence maker (Michael
Fullan)

• TEAMS must work to ensure that assessments are
• ALIGNED to state/district assessments
• FREQUENT
• FORMATIVE -- used to inform improvement of
  subsequent lessons
• CLEAR CRITERIA is given in advance
• INTELLECTUALLY-ENGAGING

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TEACHER EVALUATION IS NOT MONITORING
INSTRUCTION

• No pressure no support for
• quality of instruction or assessment
• guaranteed and viable curriculum
• Teacher evaluation generally
• reinforces poor/mediocre practice
• Kim Marshall

78
THE GREATEST OPPORTUNITY OF ALL LITERACY
INSTRUCTION

• What minimum percentage of classtime in English
  or Language Arts should be devoted to actual
  reading and writing?

79
COLLEGE READINESS ANALYTICAL READING
ARGUMENTATIVE WRITING

• Only about one in five college students has
  adequately developed these capacities the rest
  either
• drop out of college
• have fewer academic and career options
• struggle in/dont optimally benefit from college
  studies or
• dont qualify for/succeed in grad school
• Graf Conley Housman Barzun

80

• Meier
• You can observe a lot just by watching." Yogi
  Berra
• Tear down this wall

81

• System what we do but, more important what we
  do as a result of what we reinforce, encourage,
  talk about a lot, insist on consistently demand,
  require celebrate, promote for praise plead,
  repeat get excited about punish .these are
  the things that will get priority
• END of sections? Cd we change? Forget
  principles/theoriesHow, concretely,
  realistically?

82

• What do if 35-50 pts on the line?
• System pretty good at responding to torrnet of
  stuff, at satisfying bureacruaccy---but cod we
  re-jiegger ita bitto foucs sufficiently on
  instr levers? I will try veryy hard ot be
  realisitic, not pie in the sky

83
Accountability

• Culture is a function of what a system
• Celebrates
• Gets angry at
• Reminds
• Excited about
• reinforces praises
• Punishes
• Insists on demands
• Ignores spends time on

84
BRUTAL FACTS

• At a time when Americans seek strength in
  their leaders, we should find the strength to
  speak hard truths about our schools.
• Robert Gordon, education adviser to John Kerry
• We must overcome the awful inertia of past
  decades Michael Fullan
• Improvement will require recognition of and
  moral outrage at ineffective practices.
• Roland Barth

85
IV. LITERACY BRUTAL FACTS

• Only 38 of students READ at the proficient
  level(i.e. can analyze interpret)
• Only 24 of students WRITE at the proficient
  level
• Their importancein every discipline--is greatly
  underestimated

86
COLLEGE READINESS ANALYTICAL READING
ARGUMENTATIVE WRITING

• NON FICTION How has geography influenced
  Japans history, culture and character?
• The CASE FOR/AGAINST
• ANWR drilling
• The South in the Civil War
• Wartime use of torture Andrew Sullivan vs.
  Charles Krauthammer
• WAL-MART George F. Will vs. Stacy Mitchell

87
I. LEARNING COMMUNITIES AN ASTONISHING
CONCURRENCE
Michael Fullan Linda Darling Hammond Milbrey
McLaughlin Rick Stiggins Tom Peters Peter
Senge Karen Eastwood Dennis Sparks Susan
Rosenholtz DuFour, DuFour Eaker Judith
Little W.Edwards Deming Richard Elmore
Doug Reeves Roland Barth Robert Redford

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THE KNOWING-DOING GAP

• Its not that we dont know what to do
• Its that we DONT DO what we
• ALREADY KNOW
• Pfeffer Sutton

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THE KNOWING-DOING GAP

• Its not that we dont know what to do
• Its that we DONT DO what we
• ALREADY KNOW
• Pfeffer Sutton

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THE OPPORTUNITY

• The question is not Is it possible to educate
  all children well? But rather
• DO WE WANT TO DO IT BADLY ENOUGH?
• Deborah Meier

91
RESULTS PLCs/ Guaranteed Viable Curriculum

• LEVEY MIDDLE SCHOOL average 24-point gains at
  every grade levelin 2 years
• BESSEMER ELEMENTARY 85 poor/minority
• Reading 2 to 48
• Writing 12 to 64
• BRAZOSPORT, TX from worst to best in state
• BYRON-BERGSON S.D. 57 to 81
• SELAH S.D. 27 point district-wide gains

92
Team Lesson/Unit Logs

• SPECIFIC STANDARD (e.g. descriptive settings)
• SHORT-TERM ASSESSMENT (what must students
  know/do?) e.g. write a quality descriptive
  paragraph
• LESSON/UNIT/DETAILED STRATEGY (not a list or
  grab- bag of strategies)
• SHORT-TERM ASSESSMENT RESULT
• (e.g. 74 demonstrated proficiency/progress)
• ADJUSTMENTS BASED ON SHORT-TERM RESULTS

93
COLLEGE READINESS ANALYTICAL READING
PERSUASIVE WRITING

• NAEP So few examples of persuasive writing were
  submitted that they couldnt even analyze the
  samples usefully
• Lynn Olson
• Doug Reeves 90 of writing assignments in K-12
  N_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ mode

94
II. GUARANTEED CURRICULUM GEOMETRY
2nd Quarter

• Visualize draw 2 3 dimensional geometric
  figures
• Apply congruence, similarity, angle measure,
  parallelism perpendicularity to real situations
• Perform elementary transformations
  (tessellations, flips and slides)
• Solve problems relating to size, shape, area
  volume
• AIMS Assessment Guide teachers admit that
  they dont consult these guides

95
LEADERSHIP We are what we talk about

• DISTRICT 2, NEW YORK CITY
• Faculty and central office meetings are about
  instruction and only about instruction
• from 16 to 2 in academic rank
• in only two years

96
COLLEGE/CAREER READINESS ANALYTICAL READING
PERSUASIVE WRITING

• AIMS/SAT/AP/COLLEGE/CAREER SUCCESS
• Close, analytical reading to evaluate logic
  cause effect compare contrast accuracy
  authors intent/bias fact or opinion etc.
• PERSUASIVE, purposeful writing analyses
  interpretations grant/policy proposals
  recommended actions
• Are these critical reasoning capacities
  cultivated in the K-12 curriculum?

97
BRUTAL FACTS

• Effective teaching is quite different from the
  teaching that is typically found in most
  classrooms
• Odden Kelley
• Ineffective practices were almost as prevalent in
  affluent, high-scoring schools as in
  disadvantaged, low-scoring schools
• Learning 24/7 Classroom Study Elmore

98
I. FIRST ABANDON CURRENT STRATEGIC or
IMPROVEMENT PLANNING MODELS

• BRUTAL FACT Strategic Planning etc.common,
  but ineffective
• Dennis Sparks Gary Hamel, Doug Reeves, Tom
  Peters Bill Cook Henry Mintzberg Michael
  Fullan Kouzes Posner Bruce Joyce Pfeffer
  Sutton Penn Teller
• Tipping Point Phi Delta Kappan February
  2004

99
EXAMPLE OF A TIMELINE FOR TEAM PRODUCTS

• By the end of the
• 2nd week Team Norms
• 4th week Common SMART Goal
• 6th Week Common Outcomes
• 8th Week Common Assessments
• 10th Week Analysis of Student Performance on
  assessments
• DuFour, DuFour and Eaker

100
TEAMWORK BRUTAL FACTS

• Real teamworkthe heart of PLCs--is the
  unquestioned state of the art for improving
  levels of learning, but..
• It is exceedingly rare in schools unsupervised
  isolation is the norm

101
TEAMWORK ESSENTIAL

• A PLC is composed of collaborative teams whose
  members work interdependently to achieve common
  goals linked to the purpose of learning for all.
  The team is the engine that drives the PLC
  effort.
• Learning by Doing p. 3
• DuFour, DuFour, Eaker and Many
• BUT ALAS

102
TEAMWORK ESSENTIAL

• A PLC is composed of collaborative teams whose
  members work interdependently to achieve common
  goals linked to the purpose of learning for all.
  The team is the engine that drives the PLC
  effort.
• Learning by Doing p. 3
• DuFour, DuFour, Eaker and Many
• BUT ALAS

103

• Huxley
• Every man who knows how to red has it inhis power
  to maginify himself, to multiply the ways in
  which he exists, to make his life full,
  significant and interesting
• 24...
• Barzun