THE OPPORTUNITY:
From “Brutal Facts” to the Best
Schools We’ve Ever Had
Dr. Mike Schmoker
schmoker@futureone.com
928/522-0006
Calhoun ISD
Marshall, Michigan
March 5, 2008
INTRODUCTION: DO WE TRULY
WANT BETTER SCHOOLS?
Because organizations only improve…
“where the truth is told and
the brutal facts confronted”
Jim Collins
BRUTAL FACTS:
Only 7% of low-income
students will ever earn a
college degree
BRUTAL FACTS:
Only 32% of our collegebound students are
adequately prepared for
college
“Understanding University Success”
Center for Educational Policy Research
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
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
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
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
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
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
EFFECTIVE LESSON: WHAT & HOW


Clarity @ 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 & attentiveness—students
monitored/called on randomly
Students write own intro. paragraph…
only when most/all students are ready
WHY IS MOST TEACHING
MEDIOCRE?

“The administrative superstructure of schools
…exists to ‘buffer’ teaching from
OUTSIDE
INSPECTION”
Richard Elmore
YOU CAN’T EXPECT WHAT YOU DON’T
INSPECT
Peter Senge
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
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
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)
I. LEARNING COMMUNITIES: AN
ASTONISHING CONCURRENCE
“Professionals do not work alone; they
work in teams… to accomplish the
goal—to heal the patient, win the
lawsuit, plan the building.”
Arthur Wise: Teaching Teams: a 21st – Century
Paradigm For Organizing America’s Schools
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
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:
to:

62% (2007)
66% (2008)
Peter Senge: “More than
none at all.”
?
goals is the same as
DATA DRIVEN PRIORITIES
2. IDENTIFY lowest - scoring standards—from
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
AUTHENTIC TEAM-BASED PLC’s:
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
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 PLC’s are
EXCEEDINGLY RARE.
II. “GUARANTEED & VIABLE
CURRICULUM”
How important is this?
The NUMBER ONE
FACTOR
for increasing levels of learning
Marzano; Porter; Lezotte
II. GUARANTEED…?

Do America’s schools now ensure that
a “guaranteed & viable curriculum”
actually gets taught?
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
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 assessment…with ample
“higher-order” component (analysis, evaluation etc.)
III. LEADERSHIP in the
Professional 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
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.
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)
MONITORING 1. INSTRUCTION and
2. GUARANTEED & VIABLE CURRICULUM
“If you can not
measure it, you
cannot improve it.”
British scientist Lord Kelvin
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?
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 classrooms—essential standard being taught
APRIL: 13 of 15 classrooms—essential standard being taught

NO SMALL WINS = NO PROGRESS
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, highleverage way to improve performance,
morale, and the climate for change is to
dramatically increase the levels of meaningful
recognition for educators
Robert Evans
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*
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
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
The CRAYOLA CURRICULUM
“I can only summarize the findings by saying
that we’ve been stunned…
kids are given more coloring
assignments than mathematics
and writing assignments…
I want to repeat that, because I’m not joking,
nor am I exaggerating.”
Katie Haycock
HIGH SCHOOL English

9th grade: To Kill A Mockingbird (100
points total)


Draw “head or full body shot” of any
character—use “crayons, colored
pencils” (20 points)
Create a model of Maycomb (wood,
plastic or styrefoam) (20 points)
HIGH SCHOOL English
“Honors” Sophomore English:

Two schools—collage 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
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)
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
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
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
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
Bloom’s taxonomy could not be reached
without the use of some form of writing .
Kurt and Farris 1990
BRUTAL FACTS

Writing is rarely assigned, even more rarely
taught.
William Zinsser; National
Commission on Writing

Even U.S. student’s “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
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
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.
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
THE OPPORTUNITY
 “We
don’t 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
FOR SWIFT, DRAMATIC
IMPROVEMENT, FOCUS ON:

TEAM-BASED PLC’s (“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)




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

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
text…etc.
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
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
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

BASIC ELEMENTS of PLC’s





Common curriculum standards taught in roughly
common sequence* (standards/consensus maps)
Common assessments (starting with quarterly)
Course-alike TEAMS use data—routinely--to
improve standards-based lessons & units to reach…
S.M.A.R.T. Goals (BIO: 76% in ’07--> 80% in ’08)
Continuous Recognition and Celebration of
“SMALL WINS” toward achieving SMART Goals
IMPORTANT?




Protocols:
# of teams/schools now who have developed/are
using them
Standards maps
# of courses for which they have been developed
If we don’t know how many/which ones, we can’t
improve or increase
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…
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
High leverage silver bullets



Planning backward—from stds based
assessment [ask Tim Kanold @ assessment
swaps]
Walkthroughs and reports/expectation
Quarterly assessments/to ensure g and v and
continuous improvement:
K-12/COLLEGE SUCCESS:
ANALYTICAL READING
PERSUASIVE WRITING

Fully 2/3 of students at a prestigious university
couldn’t 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?
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
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-achieving—but
disadvantaged--schools
Karin Chenoweth; Harvard
Education Letter: May/June 2007
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
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
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
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 any…the question schools
must face is ‘how will we react when
we are immersed in the conflict
that accompanies significant
change?’”
Rick DuFour
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
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%?
K-12/COLLEGE SUCCESS:
ANALYTICAL READING
PERSUASIVE WRITING


2/3 of students at a prestigious university couldn’t
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?
REALLY? Already know?








TRANSPARENCY/CLASSROOM ACCESS
Reasonably well-constructed lessons, units —aligned with
assessments
Professional Learning Communities—focused 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
“PRESSURE AND SUPPORT”

“Sure, but there isn’t 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
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
YOU CAN’T IMPROVE WHAT
YOU CAN’T SEE

The reason schools aren’t 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
“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
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
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
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?
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/don’t optimally benefit from college
studies or
don’t qualify for/succeed in grad school
Graf; Conley; Housman; Barzun

Meier

You can observe a lot just by watching." Yogi
Berra

Tear down this wall

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/theories…How, concretely, realistically?

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 it—a bit—to foucs sufficiently
on instr levers? I will try veryy hard ot be
realisitic, not pie in the sky
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







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
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 importance—in every discipline--is
greatly underestimated
COLLEGE READINESS:
ANALYTICAL READING &
ARGUMENTATIVE WRITING

NON FICTION: “How has geography
influenced Japan’s 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
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
THE “KNOWING-DOING GAP”
It’s not that we don’t know what to
do…
It’s that we DON’T DO what we
ALREADY KNOW
Pfeffer & Sutton
THE “KNOWING-DOING GAP”
It’s not that we don’t know what to
do…
It’s that we DON’T DO what we
ALREADY KNOW
Pfeffer & Sutton
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
RESULTS: PLC’s/ Guaranteed
& Viable Curriculum

LEVEY MIDDLE SCHOOL: average 24-point
gains at every grade level—in 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
“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
COLLEGE READINESS:
ANALYTICAL READING &
PERSUASIVE WRITING

NAEP: “So few examples of
persuasive writing were submitted
that they couldn’t even analyze the
samples usefully”
Lynn Olson

Doug Reeves: 90% of writing assignments in
K-12: N_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ mode
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
don’t consult these guides
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
COLLEGE/CAREER READINESS:
ANALYTICAL READING &
PERSUASIVE WRITING
AIMS/SAT/AP/COLLEGE/CAREER SUCCESS


Close, analytical reading: to evaluate logic;
cause & effect; compare & contrast; accuracy; author’s
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?
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
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
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
TEAMWORK: BRUTAL FACTS
 Real
teamwork—the heart of
PLC’s--is the unquestioned state
of the art for improving levels of
learning, but..
 It
is exceedingly rare in
schools; unsupervised
isolation is the norm
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…
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…

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