COSA Principals Conference
October 22,2012
Nanci Schneider, Senior Advisor
Education Northwest


To provide an introduction to the
Rapid Inquiry Change Cycle
To briefly explain the four parts of the
RICC
Research-based, action-oriented
school improvement process
 Process that provides quick wins
 Collaborative model with principal and
leadership team
 10-12 week cycle
 Schoolwide model

Improvements that are:
• Made collectively
• High priority/high impact
• Manageable
• Tightly focused on a solution
• Often built on what teachers are already
doing
• Part of a cycle that gets repeated
Stage 1: Set the Focus
Set common
vision
Agree to researchbased instructional
solution
Examine data to
determine priority
Determine root
causes
Stage
2: Plan for Change
Identify system
conditions to
address
Plan to implement
solution
Set goals
Plan to monitor
and adjust
Stage 3: Undertake Change
Implement, monitor, and adjust
instructional solution
Implement, monitor, and adjust
system supports
Stage 4: Recharge & Sustain
Reflect and plan forward
Celebrate success
Communicate results
p.
 What
barriers have kept
previous efforts from
succeeding?
Sociocultural
Structural & Procedural
Family/Community
Expanded definition of
family engagement and
community collaboration
Attention to shared
purpose and focus for the
whole school
Communication and widespread
participation
Team structures
Clarity of roles and responsibilities
Contractual flexibility
Feedback, recognition, and
celebration
Schedule and use of
time
Mutually supportive and trusting
relationships
Resource allocation
Representative
participation
Collaborative learning and inquiry
Policies
Culturally responsive
environment
Collective mindsets conducive to
school change
Classroom resources
Attention to shared purpose and
focus for the whole school
Systematic and
systemic processes
RICC focuses squarely on
improving teaching and
learning conditions; the
remaining conditions
either support or hinder
those efforts.
p. 2.4
Classroom
teacher
Principal
Professional
learning team
Classroom
teacher
Classroom
teacher
Leadership
team
Classroom
teacher
Professional
learning team
Classroom
teacher
Classroom
teacher
Group
Week
Purpose
Leadership
team (LT)
1
Learn process; examine data; establish goals and root
causes, and provide solution options for staff review
(stages 1 & 2)
All staff
2
Agree to goals, root causes, instructional solution,
and pre/post assessments; administer preassessments this week
LT
3
Plan to lead implementation and monitoring (stage 2)
PLTs
3
Analyze assessments; begin implementation (stage 3)
PLTs
4-10
LT
7
Review data; reflect on and refine implementation
Check-in conference call with RICC coach
PLTs
10
Plan to administer post-assessment this week
PLTs
11
Analyze data; reflect on results and overall
implementation
LT
12
Reflect, celebrate, and plan forward (stage 4)
All staff
12
Reflect, celebrate, and plan forward
•
•
•
•
Set common vision
Examine data to determine priority
Determine root causes
Set goals
•
•
•
•
Set common vision – Identify a focus
of inquiry (i.e., a broad student
learning problem based on
assessment results)
Examine data to determine priority
Determine root causes
Set goals




Essential
Pervasive
High impact
If addressed, likely to lead to exciting
success
The percentage of students schoolwide who can
cite specific textual evidence to support their
conclusions about the meaning of a complex
informational text (desired learning) will increase by
50 percent (how many) as measured by indicators
from the Oregon Reading Scoring Guide applied to
classroom work samples (performance/evidence).
Additionally, the percentage of students who
score at 1 or 2 (performance/evidence) in this
skill (desired learning) will decrease from 20
percent to no more than 5 percent (how many).
 Provide
fine-grained information on the student
learning challenge (i.e., will allow you to
accurately determine whether students increase
learning in the targeted area)
 Are available to use with minimum effort (e.g.,
common classroom tasks/assessments already in
use)
 Are available within the time frame of the RICC
 Are able to be scored within reason and results
can be aggregated schoolwide with relative ease
(e.g., use of a common scoring guide)
•
•
•
•
Agree to research-based instructional
solution
Identify system conditions to address
Plan to implement solution
Plan to monitor and adjust RICC
Consider …
• Instructional practices that the staff is already working
on through professional development or that are part of
a broader approach you are already implementing in
your school
• Strategies you have observed exemplary teachers using
• Suggestions from staff on the strategies they have seen
work
• Existing strategies that if expanded in consistency or
frequency might have an impact on the challenge
• Reliable resources providing guidance on general
research-based strategies
•
•
Narrow your strategy to
present to the PLTs
PLTs choose strategy
•
•
•
Finalize selection of pre- and postassessments aligned to schoolwide goal
and instructional solution
Administer pre-assessment
Adjust RICC goal based on preassessment data, if needed
•
•
•
Be clear about what is known in the research/
literature about how to use this strategy
Consider district/state guidance (e.g.,
principles in the Oregon K-12 Literacy
Framework)
Create a summary/short reading for staff that
helps teachers understand how to implement:
◦ What does this strategy look like when it is correctly
implemented?
◦ What does it look like when it is only partially implemented?
•
If the strategy is …
◦ Fairly simple, list what teachers and students
should be doing during the RICC
◦ Complex or poorly understood, develop a basic
rubric that defines features of full, partial, and
minimal implementation
•
Identify critical implementation factors
such as grouping, frequency, or use of
specific materials
Outcomes (student achievement)
Implementation
1.
2.
◦
◦
◦
Classroom use of instructional strategy
Intervention
System conditions
•
•
Implement, monitor, and adjust
instructional solution
Implement, monitor, and adjust system
supports
Implementation agreements for:
• Schoolwide instructional strategy (core
instruction)
• Interventions for struggling students
• System supports to ensure success of all
strategies/interventions
Use monitoring plan:
1. Implementation of instructional strategy,
interventions for struggling students,
system supports
◦ Implementation agreements
2.
Student achievement/outcomes
◦ Progress toward schoolwide achievement goal using
common classroom assessment data throughout
RICC
◦ Progress toward intervention goal using
diagnostic/progress monitoring assessments
Leadership team (LT)
and
PLTs
and
Classroom Teachers
•
•
•
Implement strategy using agreements
Collect assessment data
Adjust instruction based on assessment
results and PLT discussions
Collaborative Meeting Objectives:
1. Check adherence to implementation
agreements
2. Use student aggregated data and work
samples to problem solve and adjust
instruction
3. Communicate progress and the support
needed to be successful to the LT
How can the LT get a big picture of schoolwide progress,
while PLTs look at progress for their students?
Core instruction and intervention strategies
• Collect evidence of implementation that is routine, not
heroic
System conditions
• Monitor actions in implementation plan for system
conditions
• Review and attend to support needs that emerge from
PLTs and classroom teachers during implementation
Impact on achievement
• Create common data templates to make aggregating easy
• Schedule time to review as LT and with whole staff
•
•
•
Reflect and plan forward
Celebrate success
Communicate results
1.
2.
3.
Outcomes in relation to longer term
goals
Overall implementation
System capacity and sustainability
Analyze data from pre- and postassessments.
• Were you successful in meeting your
student achievement goal? Why or why not?
• What is the evidence in your postassessment for learning? What gaps remain?
• What does that evidence suggest about the
success of your instructional strategy?
• How far does the outcome of this RICC get
us to meeting our yearlong goal?
•
•
•
•
•
Did we choose an appropriate strategy to
address our specific learning challenge?
What did we observe/learn about
implementing the strategy consistently and
in a widespread manner?
What was the impact of working on the
same student learning challenge
schoolwide?
How did teacher practice shift?
In what ways can we refine the work in the
future?
Reflect on overall organizational capacity
◦
◦
◦
◦
Specific successes that go beyond this RICC
Lessons of lasting importance that we learned
Sustainability agreements for this RICC
Specific recommendations and agreements for the
next RICC
Remember to return to the LT assessment
of system conditions (Stage 2)
•
Set the focus
•
Plan for Change
•
Undertake the Chage
•
Reflect, Recharge and Sustain