Transcript The Role of Educational Leaders in Closing the Achievement Gap

Closing the Achievement Gap:
What it Takes to Leave No Child Behind
Pedro A. Noguera, Ph.D.
Graduate School of Education
New York University
Technical vs. Adaptive work
 Technical work - A focus on managing the operations
of the system, insuring that procedures are working
and that employees are in compliance with policy.
 Adaptive work - A focus on the dynamic and complex
nature of the work, its substance, meaning and
purpose. Work guided by a long term vision, with
medium and short term goals. An awareness that we
are trying to achieve our goals in a constantly
changing environment
 Ron Hiefitz - Leadership on the Line
I. What we know about the
achievement gap
 It mirrors other disparities (health,
income,employment)
 Tends to follow consistent patterns with respect to the
race and class of students
 External conditions affect academic performance (e.g.
health, housing stability, poverty)
 Poor students generally attend inferior schools or to
be assigned to less qualified teachers
 Academic patterns have often been in place for a long
time and tend to be accepted as normal
Achievement Gap
 Manifest on most indicators of achievement
(grades, test scores, graduation rates,
discipline patterns), key areas:
 Discipline
 Special education
 English as a second language
Dimensions of the Gap
Preparation Gap
Opportunity Gap
Relationship Gap
Parent-School Gap
Performance Gap
What we know about student
achievement
 All students learn but not at the same pace
 Students who are behind must work harder, longer and under
better conditions
 re-think Title I remediation programs
 Students who are behind must be taught by competent teachers
who care about them
 Schools must adopt coherent and deliberate educational plans to
meet student learning needs
 Cultural Competence - Staff must understand how to work with
students and parents from cultures different than their own
 Closing the achievement gap requires increased access to
rigorous courses and increased academic support for students
who are behind
What we know about effective
schools
 They have a coherent strategy for delivering high quality
instruction
 Teachers adhere to a common set of strategies
 In some cases, teachers follow a common curriculum
 They have systems to monitor academic performance
 They use data to make decisions about school improvement
 They engage in constant assessment
 Diagnostic assessment
 They have shared and distributed leadership
 They create school cultures that affirm the importance of
education and place student needs at the center of practice
 They engage parents as partners in systems of mutual
accountability for teachers, students and parents
Analyzing your school
Which of the characteristics of an
effective school is your school missing?
What do you need to do to acquire these
characteristics at your school?
 What are the most significant obstacles?
What we know about students
 Many are bored and alienated in school
 Much of what children know and how children learn is never
recognized in school
 Performance gap Achievement may not reflect ability
 The desire to learn must be cultivated
 Less motivated students need support, encouragement and
regular feedback
 High achievers must be pushed to think critically and
creatively
 Cultural relevance - Students must see how what they learn
can help them to improve their lives
 Many schools are characterized by an anti-intellectual student
culture
Key Questions about students
 Is it “cool” to be smart at your school? Are motivated students
and high achievers role models for others?
 How do students learn the “codes of power”?
 Verbal and written communication in standard English
 Appropriate dress and attire
 What avenues have you created to engage students:
 In leadership?
 Activities that interest them?
 With opportunities for input about your school?
II. What is the role of educational leaders in
school improvement efforts?
 Provide the vision: keep the big picture clear:
 Why are we doing this?
 What will we achieve?
 Make it possible for staff to have time to meet and
plan - develop “buy-in”
 Keep things moving, but try not to impose decisions
upon people
 Work with staff and parents to develop a clear
mission and clear priorities
 Provide support in areas where help is needed
Role of leaders continued
 Help staff to understand Board and State policy
 Make the best of directives even if you disagree
with them
 Create conditions that enable others to be successful
 Stay focused on morale and maintenance of high
standards
 Keep systems working - maintenance, operations,
etc.
Characteristics of Effective
Educational Leaders
 Function more like coaches than generals
 Lead by example
 Share leadership, do not make themselves
indispensable - Your work is secondary to the
most important activity in the school: teaching
 Know their students and staff well
 Know parents and the community well
 Find balance between flexibility and
decisiveness: willingness to collaborate and
willingness to make tough decisions
Skills Needed by Principals
 Instructional leadership
 Knowledge of finance and budget
management
 Public relations
 Human Resources
 Strategic Planning
 Data management/analysis
 Knowledge of social welfare service delivery
Three Adaptive challenges:
 How are you responding to the needs of students who have
traditionally under-achieved?
 What are you doing to insure quality in your use of Title I
finds and remediation services?
 What are you doing to engage their parents?
 What is the district doing to address the needs of immigrant
students? How effective are these strategies?
 What are you doing to work within the constraints created by
NCLB to insure accountability without denying enhanced learning
opportunities for students or limiting the ability of schools to meet
the needs of the “whole child”?
Strategies for Raising Student Achievement:
 Systems to facilitate school
effectiveness
Diagnostic assessment to gauge
learning needs of students
Targeted remediation
Targeted academic support
Early intervention procedures
Evaluation to insure quality control
On-site, ongoing professional
development
Strategic partnerships with
community
 Normative adaptations:
Reciprocity - Supportive
relationships between teachers
and students
Collaboration - Willingness
among teachers to share ideas,
curricula, materials
Deliberations - Opportunity for
staff to meet and to discuss
goals and work
Student engagementstrategies for addressing peer
culture
Social Closure - Partnership
between school and parents
III. Instructional Leadership: What We
Know About Good Teaching
 It’s not learned in school, it develops over time
through experience
 Experienced veterans can burn out and
become less effective
 It’s a combination of skill and art - it’s
idiosyncratic
 Evidence of good teaching must be based
upon evidence of learning
Group Discussion:
 What are you doing to improve the quality of
teaching in your school?
 Do you know who your effective teachers are?
How are you utilizing them to help others?
 What are you doing to engage teachers in
your school improvement efforts?
Improving Teaching and Learning
 Good teaching matters - low achievers tend to be
assigned to less effective teachers
 Many teachers expect students to adjust to the way
they teach, rather than adjusting their teaching to the
way students learn
 Teaching and learning tends to be seen as two
disconnected activities
 Teachers must take responsibility for student
learning and achievement
 Most of what teachers learn is learned on the job, not
in graduate school
 Find ways to reduce teacher isolation
Improving Instruction: Building strong links
between teaching and learning
 Reflective teaching
 On-site and continuous professional development
 Make use of skilled teachers
 Use staff meetings to discuss teaching and
student needs
 Aligning instruction to standards and
assessments
 Effective use of homework
Professional Development Activity:
Learning from student work
 Start with the standards: What should our
students know and be able to do?
 Examine the assessments together
 Examine student work together: What patterns
do you observe?
 Discuss strategies for improving quality of
student work: What are the implications for
teaching? How will we get our students to
meet the standards?
Ongoing Professional
Development Needed in:
Content Knowledge - Teaching is
intellectual work
Pedagogical skill - We must teach the
way students learn rather than expecting
them to learn the way we teach
Relationship Building - students learn
through relationships
Helping students to succeed:
Demystify school success
 Teach study skills
 Show students what excellent work looks like
and how to produce it
 Provide intensive counseling for students and
parents
 Discuss future plans early and expose
students to options
Assignment for Next Meeting:
 Come with a detailed description of the
greatest adaptive challenge at your school
 Identify and collect the data you need to
measure and monitor this challenge (e.g test
scores, grades, etc.)
 History - What has been done to address this
problem in the past? Why does the problem
persists?