CASE STUDY
SCENARIO
Key Players:
-
Roger Bolton:
Inés Romero:
Wayne Hoy:
Founding principal of an AF Ocean Hill MS
Experienced dean who came with Roger from AF Crown Heights MS where he was a PIR
Newly promoted dean with 4 years of teaching experience from AF Endeavor MS
Currently: Week 4
It’s nearing the end of Week 4, and Roger is frustrated heading into his weekly school leader culture meeting. As the school leader,
Roger knows he is responsible for helping his LT to come up with a plan for driving on task student behavior. But he hasn’t led this
type of work before, and he’s wondering how he can channel his team’s energy into diagnosing the right root causes and identifying
the right action steps.
Coming out of the Week 2 meeting, he’d known many of his teachers were struggling, but he’d felt confident that the plan his team
had come up with would get them back on track. And yet, here it is, almost the end of Week 4, and 7 of his 15 teachers still aren’t
hitting the Week 4 benchmark (proficient in strong voice, precise direction, positive narration). More than that – they haven’t hit the
% of scholars on task goal of 90% that they’d set as the big goal they had to win on.
He knew building these foundational culture skills would be hard with so many relatively inexperienced teachers, but as a founding
MS principal he only has one grade level to work with and figured that would give him some sort of advantage – he can’t imagine
what this will feel like as a fully grown school. As Roger reviews the Week 4 data, he acknowledges they made some progress, but he
knows it wasn’t enough, and now he’s wondering if the strategy they’d adopted was the right one.
Previously: Week 2
Coming out of the Week 2 Culture Analysis and Action Planning Meeting, Roger’s LT had observed and committed to the following:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
During Roger’s weekly walkthroughs he noted too many kids were off task in too many classrooms. Time on task was their most
important goal for the first 8 weeks, and Roger had gone into the year fired up about ensuring kids were on task at all times
during lessons.
When the team looked at the Week 2 data, they’d debated the root cause, but ultimately agreed the issue was likely related to
a lack of strong behavioral narration. Roger had gone into the meeting with a few theories on what could be causing kids to be
off-task, but Inés had convinced him that the issue with the behavioral narration was that teachers were waiting too long to
begin narrating.
Since Inés had more experience with all of this, Roger quickly agreed with her, and they spent the rest of the action planning
meeting discussing the details of a school-wide PD session they wanted to conduct the following week to address the narration
issue. The session Inés ended up leading was strong and targeted towards ensuring every teacher was narrating within two
seconds of giving a direction.
The team had also focused on targeting interventions to the 7 teachers who were really struggling – the team decided to divide
and conquer on culture club and intensive RTC for the group.
a. Inés worked with Kathryn, Elizabeth, Richard, and Frank
b. Wayne worked with Jason, Cristina, and Michelle
Both Inés and Wayne did very intensive RTC with each teacher and held small group culture clubs.
DATA-TO-DATE
Avg. % Scholars On-Task
Network Goal
95
77
75
72
66
50
W1
W2
W3
W4
School-Wide Weeks 3-4 Culture Mastery Tool Scores
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
% Prof+
Average
87%
3.1
67%
2.8
73%
2.8
67%
2.9
53%
2.6
27%
2.1
100%
St Vo
Pre Dir
Beh Nar
100%
Pos Fr
Corr
1: Not Approaching
2: Approaching
3: Proficient
4: Exemplar
Individual Data for Teachers Who Are Not Hitting the Week 4 Benchmark (prof at str. voice, pre. dir., and beh. nar.)
Week 2 Culture Mastery Tool Scores
Taxonomy Skill
Cristina
Elizabeth
Frank
Jason
Kathryn
Michelle
Richard
Strong Voice
Precise Direction
2
1
2
2
2
1
2
1
2
2
1
2
2
2
Behavioral Narration
Total
2
1.7
2
2.0
1
1.3
1
1.3
1
1.7
1
1.3
2
2.0
Week 4 Culture Mastery Tool Scores
Taxonomy Skill
Cristina
Elizabeth
Frank
Jason
Kathryn
Michelle
Richard
Strong Voice
Precise Direction
Behavioral Narration
Total
3
2
2
2.3
3
3
2
2.7
3
3
2
2.7
2
2
1
1.7
3
2
3
2.7
1
1
1
1.0
3
2
3
2.7
NOTES FROM WEEK 4 SLT BRAINSTORM
Recognizing his mistake from the Week 2 meeting, Roger decided to start the Week 4 meeting with a root cause brainstorm. Below
are some of the hypotheses his team came up with:
Priority Question/Focus
Refined Question/Focus
Why are so many
students off-task
during class?
Why are so many
students off-task
during independent
work time?
Students don’t respond
when teachers try to
redirect behavior
Teachers are letting
too many scholars
get off-task before
adding in narration
Students don’t know
what to do during
these independent
work times
Why?
Students don’t actually
believe teaches mean
what they say
Teachers feel that
because it’s week 4,
they should be
reducing the amount of
narration
Teachers aren’t giving
frequent and precise
directions consistently
enough
Teachers have observed
the exemplar teachers
tapering off their
narration over the past 2
weeks
Teachers feel
pressured to maintain
timing / pacing of their
instructional lessons
Why?
Teachers are telling
students exactly what
to do, but they don’t
appear urgent in their
delivery
Why?
Teachers don’t know
how to convey that
confidence and
authority with urgency.
Teachers are emulating
exemplar teachers and
don’t realize that scholar
habits need more work
Teachers don’t know how
to teach content while
holding students
accountable to strong
behavior
WHOLE SCHOOL CULTURE DATA REVIEW & ACTION PLANNING
PROGRESS VS. GOALS
Last time, we committed to
winning on these goals by the
time we reconvened. How
did we do?
GOAL FROM LAST
MEETING
% Scholars ON
TASK
% Teachers
Proficient+ with
TOP 6 Taxonomy
FOLLOW-UP
Last time, we committed to
the following action items.
Did we complete them, why
or why not?
ACTION PLANNING
WEEK 8
GOAL
WEEK 4
GOAL
ACTUAL
95
90
77
100 80
63
THE MOST IMPORTANT REASONS WE HIT / MISSED THE GOAL
THAT ARE WITHIN OUR CONTROL
ACTION STEP FROM LAST MEETING & ACTION STEP
OWNER
COMPLETE?
ANY LESSONS LEARNED OR REASONS WE
WEREN’T SUCCESSFUL?
Inés to lead Friday PD on Positive Narration in 2
seconds
Complete
Roger, Inés, and Wayne all noted over the
past two weeks that positive narration was
starting nearly immediately after directions
Inés to meet with the Grade Level team to
debrief the SLT analysis and action planning
meeting
Roger’s assistant, Arielle, to video lessons from
3 exemplar teachers for a session on Do It Again
that he is planning
Inés to do intensive RTC and practice groups
with Kathryn, Elizabeth, Richard, and Frank
Complete
Wayne to do intensive RTC and practice groups
with Jason, Cristina, and Michelle
Complete
OWNER
Complete
Complete
ACTION STEP (SPECIFY TIMING / FREQ)
Inés noted that Richard and Frank both
missed 2 practice groups over the two
weeks.
MIDPOINT GOAL (1 WEEK)
What are we going to do
over the next two weeks to
build on our bright spots and
address our areas of
concern?
Recommended
Interventions:
- Intensive RTC
- 1:1 Culture Club (planning
activity, video viewing
/reflection, targeted
practice)
- Exemplar Teacher Supports
- Small Group Culture Club
- Grade Level PD
- School Wide PD
- Observation of Exemplars
NEW GOALS
What are we going to win on
in the next two weeks?
GOAL FROM LAST
MEETING
% Scholars ON
TASK
% Teachers
Proficient+ with
TOP 6 Taxonomy
WEEK 8
GOAL
WEEK 4
ACTUAL
95
77
100 63
WEEK 6
GOAL
WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO THAT WE BELIVE WILL MOVE
THIS NUMBER?