Transcript 1. What matters most in terms of student achievement?

DLT/BLT
Teacher Connection
SPDG
March 11, 2009
The real work
• The district work has been
challenging, but…
• The real challenging work is
going to be getting followthrough in the buildings
What are we communicating to the
buildings and BLTs?
• We are exploring whether we can
learn together
As a whole building, and
As a whole district
The DLT tried to:
• Chose what we think are powerful
strategies.
• We can spend our time disagreeing which
strategy we chose, but
• The purpose is to develop our capacity “to
learn together” as a school, and as a
district, resulting in the use of shared
powerful teaching strategies
1. What Matters Most in Terms
of Student Achievement?
The variations
in student learning
are directly correlated with
the quality of the teacher.
McKinsey & Company, 2007
The difference in performance
between students who are
assigned three effective teachers
in a row
versus
those assigned three
ineffective teachers in a row is
49 percentile points
The single most important
influence on student learning is
the quality of teaching.
But despite this recognition,
most school districts have not
defined what they mean by good
teaching.
Danielson, 2006
2. What Matters Most in Terms
of Teacher Effectiveness?
Teachers have the
tendency to gravitate
towards approaches that
are congruent with their
prior practices.
Stein and Coburn, 2008
Effective Teachers
It appears that the most important
difference between the most and
least effective classrooms is the
teacher, but the most important
variable appears to be what they do
rather than what they know.
Wiliam, 2007
If the research on professional
development over the last twenty
years has shown us anything,
it is that we can change teacher
thinking without changing teacher
practice.
The only thing that impacts student
achievement is teacher practice.
Wiliam, 2007
So if we are serious about
raising student achievement,
we must focus on helping
teachers change what they do
in classrooms.
Wiliam, 2007
What Does Powerful
Teaching Look Like?
3. What Does Powerful
Teaching Look Like?
Take five minutes and
identify at your table.
Authentic Pedagogy
An analysis of NELS data
found that students in
restructured schools where
authentic instruction was
widespread experienced
greater achievement gains.
Lee et al., 2006
Authentic Pedagogy
Average students in schools with
high levels of authentic
instructions would learn about 78
percent more in mathematics
between eighth and tenth grades.
Lee et al., 2006
Authentic Pedagogy
• Instruction focused on―
• Active learning in real-world
contexts
• Higher-level thinking skills
• Extended writing and
demonstration
Newman et al., 2006
What Affects Teaching/Instruction?
• Having shared norms about teaching and
assessment are particularly important.
• Consensus on what high-quality
instruction looks like
• Only when there is agreement on effective
pedagogy, is it possible to raise questions
about how to eliminate ineffective or
extraneous activities.
Wahlstrom & Louis, 2008
Three Things About Instruction
We Know from the Research
That Matter
1. Powerful teaching
2. Focused instruction
3. Flexible grouping practices
Wahlstrom & Louis, 2008
Powerful Teaching
1. Provides attention toward specific
learning goals, plenty of choices, and
interesting things to think about
2. Presents materials in small steps
linked with guided practice
3. Presents information in multiple
different ways
Wahlstrom & Louis, 2008
Powerful Teaching
4. Involves student problem solving
through the active exploration of
new ideas, inventing, and trying out
their own approaches to real-life
problems
5. Uses questions to determine
students’ understanding at many
levels, including application outside
of the classroom
Wahlstrom & Louis, 2008
Powerful Teaching
6. Assists learners in
developing cognitive
strategies that enable them
to perform higher-level
operations independently.
Wahlstrom & Louis, 2008
Another Similar View
Highly Effective Teachers Support
Meaningful Learning by:
1. Creating ambitious and
meaningful tasks that reflect how
knowledge is used in the field
2. Engaging students in active
learning, so that they apply and
test what they know
Darling-Hammond, 2008
Highly Effective Teachers Support
Meaningful Learning by:
3. Drawing connections to students’
prior knowledge and experiences
4. Diagnosing students’
understanding in order to scaffold
the learning process step by step
Darling-Hammond, 2008
Highly Effective Teachers Support
Meaningful Learning by:
5. Assessing student learning
continuously and adapting
teaching to student needs
6. Providing clear standards,
constant feedback, and
opportunities for work
Darling-Hammond, 2008
Highly Effective Teachers Support
Meaningful Learning by:
7. Encouraging strategic and
meta-cognitive thinking so
students can learn to evaluate
and guide their own learning
Darling-Hammond, 2008
Compare these findings to your
own list that you created
• Similarities?
• Differences?
Students Know
More Ways to Learn,
Than We Know How to Teach
Hord & Sommers, 2008
4. What Matters Most in Terms
of Teacher Learning and
Changing their Practice?
Take five minutes and
identify at your table.
What Affects Teaching Practices?
• The development of teacher
professional community that includes
• Reflective dialogue
• Deprivatized practices
• Shared norms
• All have a robust effect on teacher
practices.
Wahlstrom & Louis, 2008
What Affects Teaching Practices?
Reflective dialogue
(opportunities to discuss
practices with other teachers)
is particularly important in
changing teaching practices.
Wahlstrom & Louis, 2008
This Is Why the Concept of
Learning Communities or
Data Teams Is So
Important.
In schools where teachers
examined the evidence of the
impact of teaching
effectiveness on student
achievement and regarded
their professional practices as
the primary cause of student
achievement,…
…the gains in student
achievement were three times
higher than in schools where
the faculty and leaders
attributed the causes to factors
beyond their control.
Reeves, 2007
So What Does This Mean for the
Work of―
• The DLT?
• The BLT?
• Grade level, department, and
vertical teams?
• Individual teachers?
Work of the BLT
Refined
Practices/
Lesson/Unit
Plans
PLC/Data
Teams
Implementing
Shared
Practices
Implementing
Shared
Assessments
DLT/BLT Work
Feedback,
PD,
Learning
Monitoring of
PLC/Data
Teams
Monitoring of
Shared
Practices
Monitoring of
Shared
Assessments
What Are Data Teams?
• Small grade-level or department
teams that examine individual
student work generated from
common formative assessments
• Collaborative, structured,
scheduled meetings that focus
on the effectiveness of teaching
and learning
The Data Team Process
• Step 1
• Step 2
• Step 3
• Step 4
• Step 5
Collect and chart data
Analyze strengths and
obstacles
Establish goals: Set,
review, revise
Select instructional
strategies
Determine results
indicators
Common Assessments
• Provide a degree of consistency
• Represent common, agreed-upon
expectations
• Align with Power Standards
• Help identify effective practices for
replication
• Make data collection possible!
BLT Data Team Work
• Meet at least monthly to discuss
• Achievement gaps
• Successes and challenges
• Progress monitoring
• Assessment schedules
• Intervention needs
• Resources
DLT/ BLT Work
1. Support the understanding for the need
for consistent use of the strategies.
•
•
•
Intervention strategies
Team development and learning strategies
Pragmatics―Scheduling, roles, outcomes
2. Support the consistent use of the
strategies.
•
PD, coaching, mentoring, observations
DLT/ BLT Work
3. Develop and implement
monitoring and feedback tools
and strategies.
• Tools, schedules,
methodologies
4. Develop and refine team and
systems learning.
Questions and Discussion
Please complete your evaluation.
Thanks!
Brian McNulty
The Leadership and Learning Center
866.399.6019
[email protected]
LeadandLearn.com