Becoming a
Great School6 Strategies and 1 attitude
Jennifer Payne CSCOPE
Consultant
jpayne@esc14.net
From Tim Westerberg
book
• 26 year high school principal frames the
following…
• From somewhere to great
• The attitude…”It may not be our fault, but it is
our problem.”
• Substantiate research-based strategies to move
from struggling, average or good to great.
• Quality of instruction is cornerstone of
significant school improvement
Michael Fullian (2008)
states
…two greatest failures of leaders are
“indecisiveness in times of urgent need for
action and dead certainty that they are
right in times of complexity.”
uncommon
results from
common
student
populations
have several
things in
common…
Effort based culture
Engage all students
college/career prep curricula
Support needed for students
to succeed
Clear goals
Common instructional
model
Track students progress
Intervention for students is
planned
Robert J. Marzano Foreword
6 strategies and
1 attitude
• Attitude:
We expect success!
• Strategies:
• Develop Clear Instructional Goals
• Develop Common Vision of Effective
Instruction
• Use Frequent Formative Assessment
• Track Student Progress
• Provide Timely Intervention for Struggling
Students
• Celebrate Student Success
Response to
intervention
• Do we believe…ALL KIDS CAN LEARN?
• If we believe all kids can learn, exactly what is it
that we will expect them to learn?
• If we believe all kids can learn, how do we
respond with they do not learn?
Professional Learning Community
Rick DuFour
In times of drastic change, it
is the learners who inherit
the future. The learned
usually find themselves
beautifully equipped to live
in a world that no longer
exists.—
Eric Hoffer 1972
• 1. Shared mission, vision and
values
• 2. Collective inquiry
• Engine of improvement, growth
and renewal.
• Curiosity and openness to new
possibilities.
• Search for answers is more
important than having an answer.
• 3. Collaborative teams (common
purpose)
• 4. Action orientation and
experimentation
• 5. Continuous improvement
• What is our fundamental purpose?
• What do we hope to achieve?
• What are our strategies for
becoming better?
• What criteria will we use to assess
our improvement efforts?
Rate your staff
After running
some tests…
What is your diagnosis? What do
you prescribe?
What can you
anticipate?
Building Blocks
Mission/Purpose
• Why do we exist?
Vision
• What do we hope to become?
• Telling—make no assumptions
• The most important question • Selling—attempt to persuade
in any organization has to be
“What is the business of our • Testing—seeks reactions to help refine
and redesign the vision before
business?” Answering this
proceeding.
question is the first step in
setting priorities—
• Consulting—committee of members
Judith Bardwick (1996)
• Co-creating—collaborative process,
build a shared vision.
Building Blocks
Values
Values are the link between
emotion and behavior, the
connection between what we
feel and what we do….With
everything changing around us
we need something
unchanging…to hang on
to….Values are our moral
navigational devices.—James
Champy (1995)
Goals
• Which steps will we take first, and
when?
• Effective Goals:
•
•
•
•
•
Exact
Specific steps
Responsible for individual/group
Timeline for each phase
Criteria to evaluate progress
• Create some clear, discernible victories.
• Visible
• Unambiguous
• Clearly related to the change effort
Effective
Unit Plans
Where would
you find
answers to
these
questions?
• What do I want the
students to be able to do
as a result of this unit?
• How will I determine if
students are ready for this
unit?
• What methods and
materials will I use to
teach the lesson?
• How will I know whether
the student have achieved
the intended outcomes of
this unit?
Instructional
Coaching
The Big Four
Behavior
• Ratio of Interactions—
Praise and Criticism of
students (3:1 positive to
negative)
• Disruptions (flow of
instruction over ten minutes)
• Rules
• Violation of rules
• Time on Task—90% of time
• Opportunities to Respond-students
Content
• Develop Essential Questions
• Key questions by unit (the
essence)
• Mapping Content
• Unit organizer for course,
unit or lesson
• Identifying and teaching
content relationship structures
• Identifying, defining, and
teaching concepts
• Same understanding of
concept
Direct Instruction
• Advanced and Post Organizers
• Modeling
• High Level Questions
• Quality Assignments
•
•
•
•
•
Interesting, engaging, and meaningful.
P—Plan the assignment
L—Link the assignment to student need
• Accommodations
• Modifications
• Differentiation
• High Achieving
• Average achieving
• Low achieving
• Other: English Language Learners, physical disabilities
A—Arrange clear directions
N—Note when they will evaluate the effectiveness to improve assignment
Assessments
• Quality Assignments
• Diagnostic
• Precede instruction,
checking prior
knowledge
• Formative--Quality
• Concurrent with
instruction
• Summative
• Summarize what
students have learned at
the conclusion of an
instructional segment
CSCOPe Connections
of Big Four
• Content
• Develop Essential
Questions
• Key questions by unit
(the essence)
• Mapping Content
• Unit organizer for
course, unit or lesson
• Identifying and teaching
content relationship
structures
• Identifying, defining, and
teaching concepts
• Has Rigor and Relevance built in
vertically.
• Unit pulled into concepts and key
understandings .
• Examine the Instructional Focus
Document.
CSCOPe Connections
of Big Four
• Assessment
• Formative--Quality
• Concurrent with
instruction
• Summative
• Summarize what
students have learned at
the conclusion of an
instructional segment
• Behavior
• Time on Task—90% of time
• Opportunities to Respond—
students
• Questions, tasks throughout
instruction.
• Performance Indicators to
determine if skills are at
commended level.
• Pacing is accelerated and there
are no opportunities for down
time.
CSCOPe Connections
of Big Four
• Modeling
• High Level Questions
• Quality Assignments
•
•
•
•
•
Interesting, engaging, and meaningful.
P—Plan the assignment
L—Link the assignment to student need
• Accommodations
• Modifications
• Differentiation
• High Achieving
• Average achieving
• Low achieving
• Other: English Language Learners,
physical disabilities
A—Arrange clear directions
N—Note when they will evaluate the
effectiveness to improve assignment
• 5E Instructional Model
• Engage
• Explore
• Explain
• Elaborate
• Evaluate
• Questions scaffold instruction
from lower Blooms to
Evaluative/Synthesis level.
• Performance Indicator
• TASK
• Tools perspective
• Ease to Modify
• Differentiation the goal
Referenced books
• Six Pillars of Dynamic Schools by Steven W. Edwards
• Professional Learning Communities at Work by Rick
DuFour
• Becoming a Great High School by Tim Westerberg
• Instructional Coaching by Jim Knight