Transcript Slide 1

Tennessee Successful Schools
• A Project of the State Improvement Grant
•
•
•
•
•
Susan M. Benner, Ed. D.
Sherry Mee Bell, Ph. D.
Anne McGill-Franzen, Ph. D.
Kandy Smith, Doctoral Candidate
University of Tennessee
Tennessee Successful Schools Project
• Context of State Improvement Grant and
Higher Education Task Force
• High Need Elementary Schools
• Literacy Focus
State Improvement Grant
Serving identified schools preschool through high
school, SIG helps sustain important services to
schools, administrators, teachers, and students
and their families so that children and youth will
achieve strong literacy and pre-literacy skills
• Literacy and SPED
• State Improvement Grant
• Faculty Involvement in SIG
Selection of Schools
Child Performance
Teacher
Performance
TCAP scores
Value Added
performance data
SPED referrals in 3rd- Teacher turn-over
5th grades
rates
Community Context
Community
Involvement
Community
satisfaction with the
school
Closing the Gap
Teacher development Partnership with
and autonomy
IHEs in teacher
training
Reading First schools
Parent satisfaction
with solid gains
and participation
Title 1 Schools with
documented success
Enjoyment of reading
Characteristics Participating Schools
21 identified
•
•
•
•
12 schools in towns
2 schools in cities
Enrollment of schools between
300 and 750
Grades Served
– 5 K-4 schools
– 3 K-5 schools
– 3 K-6 schools
– 3 K-8 schools
14 participated
•
Economically Disadvantaged
(State Average: 54.7)
– Below the state average: 3
schools
– Above the state average: 11
schools
– Lowest percentage in these
schools: 42%
– Highest percentage in these
schools: 94%
School Characteristics
• Percent Minority
State Average: 32% minority
– Below the state average: 12
schools
– At or above the state average:
2 schools
– Lowest percentage in these
schools: 1%
– Highest percentage in these
schools: 35%
• Percent Special Education
State Average: 15.4%
– These schools: (for 2007 only)
– Below the state average: 9
schools
– At or above the state average:
4 schools
– Lowest percentage in these
schools: 1%
– Highest percentage in these
schools: 25%
Perspectives from the Field
Focus Groups
•
•
•
•
Administrators
Classroom Teachers
Special Education Teachers
Parents
General Question
• “To what do you attribute your school’s
success” in literacy ?
Probes
• How does your school overcome the
challenges presented by the at-risk
student population?
• Reflect on the use of student assessment
data in the school’s instructional planning?
• How do teachers collaborate in supporting
students with special needs or struggling
readers in your school?
Probes Cont’d
• How does the leadership in your school
support its success?
• Reflect on parent involvement in your
school.
• Reflect on the importance of professional
development in your school’s success.
• What instructional practices in your school
do you think contribute to your success?
Elvis Presley Elementary School
• K-5 and K-4
• Demographics
– Enrollment averaged 727 2003-2007
– Rural
– 55% Economically Disadvantaged
– Racial Composition
• 70% White
• 21% African American
• 8% Hispanic
• Less than 2% Asian
AYP Data: % Below Proficient
03
04
05
06
07
All students
22
11
13
14
White
18
7
9
12
Hispanic
33
40
27
African American
29
24
19
14
Economically
Disadvantaged
Students with
Disabilities
LEP
28
15
19
18
73
36
36
40
60
46
Elvis Presley Elementary
Prevailing Themes: Theme 1
• Protecting Instructional Time
“…we look at our minutes of instruction and see
how few we really have when you break it down,
and we just can’t waste it, so we start looking at
what we can eliminate and then we take it
back…”
Prevailing Themes: Theme 2
• Collaborating on Lesson Plans on grade level
and across grade levels
“…pulled together as a school, collaborated,
approached the problem as a school problem,
lots of crossover meetings to get communication
flowing, a lot of hard work, a lot of meetings after
school, a lot of dedication on the part of teachers
to understand and accept we were going to have
to work early and stay late to accomplish our
goals…”
Prevailing Themes: Theme 3
• Monitoring student achievement closely in
disaggregated data sets with fluid small groups
receiving intervention as needed
“making sure every child has a significant
relationship in the building”
– Setting academic goals with students and
communicating them to parents
– Sharing responsibility for student achievement
throughout the building
Henry Foote Elementary
• Grades K-8
• Demographics
– Approximately 500 Students
– Rural
– % Economically Disadvantaged
• Fluctuated 72.4% to 86.2% 2003-2007
– Racial Composition
• 99% White
Henry Foote AYP
• 2003
– D in Academic Achievement; C in ValueAdded
• 2004
– C in Academic Achievement, C in ValueAdded
• 2005, 2006, 2007
– C in Academic Achievement, A in ValueAdded
Percent of Students Proficient or
Advanced in Reading
Henry Foote
• All Students
2003: 61%
2007: 83%
• Students with
Disabilities
2003:
2007: 54%
State
• All Students
2003: 80%
2007: 90%
• Students with
Disabilities
2003:
2007: 70%
Henry Foote Elementary
Prevailing Themes
•
•
•
•
Increased emphasis on literacy
Adoption of the Reading First model
Literacy Coach
90 minutes of literacy instruction in grades K-4
“Where are we going to get 30 extra minutes a
day?”
• 2 reading classes per day in grades 5-8
• Collaboration –grade level, across grade level
and general/special education
• “No longer they’re your kids”
Henry Foote Elementary
Prevailing Themes
• Professional development
– 5 areas of reading
– Differentiated instruction
– “learning how to present old things in a new
way is a shot in the arm”
• Materials and programs
– Core program and accompanying intervention
used in tiered instruction
– When a student doesn’t perform well, new
materials and programs are used
Henry Foote Elementary
Prevailing Themes
• Use of assessment data to plan instruction
– DIBELS
– Think Link
• Parental involvement
– Literacy nights and open library
– Teachers call parents with good news
Perry Wallace Elementary
• K-6
• Demographics
– 233
– Rural
– Economically Disadvantaged: As high as
97.2%, as low as 73.9%
– 35% African American, 65% Caucasian
– .4% Hispanic
Perry Wallace AYP Data
• 2003
– F in Academic Achievement; F in Value-Added
• 2004
– F in Academic Achievement; B in Value-Added
• 2005
– F in Academic Achievement; B in Value-Added
• 2006
– D in Academic Achievement; B in Value-Added
• 2007
– C in Academic Achievement; A in Value-Added
Perry Wallace Elementary
• In 2003, did not meet Federal Benchmark
(X)
– With the only two subgroups in which there
were more than 45 students:
• All students
• Economically disadvantaged
– In two main categories:
• Reading, Language Arts, Writing
• Math
Perry Wallace Elementary
• 1 of 74 Reading First schools in
Tennessee
• Became a Reading First school in spring
of 2004
Initial Response
• Principal:
– “shared vision”
• Gen Ed Teacher:
– “It starts at the top – good leadership”
• Special Ed Teacher:
– “Leadership, hard-working staff”
Special Education Teacher
“Our staff is hard working, and they work
together and anything that we go to, they
try the new approaches, they don’t just go
and then not try to do what they went…
they attended. The attitude is positive.
They expect the best from the students.
They show respect to all. The teachers
keep students focused and engaged.”
Final Response
• Principal:
– “agreement of what’s going on” (confirmation
from other TN successful schools)
• Gen Ed Teacher:
– “having a good leader”
• Special Ed Teacher:
– “collaboration”
Prevailing Theme: Rigor/Fidelity
“What gets checked on gets done.”
• Required Reading First Fidelity Checks
– Administrator, Literacy Leader, Cadre Trainer
– Tiers 1, 2, (Voyager) and 3
• Rigor logs
– MORT: Missed Opportunities for Rigorous
Teaching
• Student data/assessments for
interventions
Prevailing Theme: Collaboration
• Leadership Team Collaboration
– Principal, Literacy Leaders, Interventionists
• Grade Level and Cross-Grade Level
Collaboration
• Professional Development
• Shared Vision
• Full inclusion school
• School-wide behavior management (COMP)
Seven Common Traits Observed in
Successful Schools
• Strong Leadership
• Positive Belief and Teacher Dedication
• Data Utilization and Analysis
• Effective Scheduling
• Professional Development
• Scientifically Based Intervention Programs
• Parent Involvement
(Crawford & Torgesen, 2007)
…Flourishing literacy gains in
impoverished elementary school
• Detailed case studies of four exceptional
schools
• Themes common to all four school:
– Administration and teacher knowledge and
training
– Strong internal and external community
– Commanding leadership and thorough proper
monitoring
• “What gets checked on gets done”
(Booker, Invernizzi, & McCormick, 2007)
Dolly Parton Elementary
• Grades PreK-6
• Demographics (2007)
– 480 Students
– Rural
– 78 % Economically Disadvantaged
– 95% White; 3.8% African-American; 1%
Hispanic
Dolly Parton Reading Grades
• 2003, 2004
– B in Academic Achievement; F in ValueAdded
• 2005
– B in Academic Achievement, A in ValueAdded
• 2006, 2007
– A in Academic Achievement, A in ValueAdded
Percent of Students Proficient
or Advanced in Reading
Dolly Parton
• All Students
2003: %
2007: 95%
• Students with Disabilities
2003:
2007: 86%
State
• All Students
2003: 80%
2007: 90%
• Students with Disabilities
2003:
2007: 70%
Dolly Parton: Theme 1
• Access to grade level curriculum with
support enabled lowest achieving students
to improve
The school moved to total inclusion for grades 3-6
The school became school-wide Title 1 thereby
gaining two teachers, assistants, and instructional
coach
Title 1 teachers, assistants, and special education
teachers push into classroom to support instruction
during reading block
Dolly Parton: Theme 2
• Collaborative planning enabled
adjustments to curriculum
The school initiated daily common planning and
weekly grade level meetings
The instructional coach identified students for
intervention based on mastery of SPIs
The special education and Title 1 teachers and
assistants consulted classroom teachers’ posted
plans
The special education teacher and classroom
teachers monitored students’ progress on reading
curriculum assessments
Dolly Parton: Theme 3
• Technology programs increased the time
students spent reading
Two computer labs and classroom mini-labs with
Study Island and River Deep software supported
40 minutes extra reading daily
AR libraries are located in every classroom
Most Important Element of
School Success
“We’re looking all the way down and we are
beginning to see what we can do for all
levels of students. And I think that comes
through the collaboration that we now
have with our teachers….They want to do
the best job they can do and so they are
looking for that communication….I think
that’s what’s important.”
Inclusion Issues
• “I’m planning probably an hour and a half
or two hours a day after school and at
home just making sure I am prepared for
the next day…. And I am a veteran
teacher….I love my intervention teachers,
but I just don’t understand why they don’t
have their own curriculum and why once
kids are targeted they don’t pull them out
and do a program.” Regular Education
Teacher
Dolly Parton: Lingering
Questions
• How are planning and teaching responsibilities
distributed across classroom teachers, special
education and Title 1 teachers, instructional
coaches, and assistants?
• How is complex “push-in” scheduling managed?
• How is classroom instruction differentiated?
• Is there an “opportunity cost” with increased use
of technology software?
Themes Related to Research
• Students are spending more time engaged in
reading and related literacy experiences.
– Increased engagement time leads to higher student
achievement (Carroll, 1965; Fisher & Berliner, 1985).
• Collaboration (within and across grade levels;
between classroom teachers, specialists, and
special education teachers) has increased.
– Effective collaboration improves achievement
outcomes for at-risk students (Snow, Burns & Griffin,
1998).
Themes Related to Research
• There is an increased emphasis on using
assessment data to plan instruction.
– Effective instruction requires matching curriculum to
learner’s level of readiness (Vygotsky, 1978; Walpole
& McKenna, 2006).
• In some schools, inclusion of most special
education students is on the increase.
– Some studies indicate that inclusion results in higher
student achievement, more positive student outcomes
and higher teacher expectations (Idol, 2006; Ritter,
Michel & Irby, 1999)
Implications for Practice
• Inclusion Practices
• Coordination of curricular materials across
regular and special education
• Professionals share responsibility for
planning and instruction
• ….
• ….
References
• Booker, K. C., Invernizzi, M. A., & McCormick, M. (2007).
Kiss your brain: A closer look at flourishing literacy gains
in impoverished elementary school. Reading Research
and Instruction, 46(4), 315-339.
• Caroll, J. B. (1963). A model for school learning.
Teachers College Record, 64, 723-733.
• Crawford, E., & Torgesen, J. (2007, November).
Teaching all students to read: practices from schools
with strong reading intervention outcomes. Retrieved
February 15, 2009, from http://www.fcrr.org
• Fisher, C. W., & Berliner, D. C. (1985). Perspectives on
instructional time. New York: Longman.
References
• Idol, L. (2006). Toward inclusion of special education
students in general education: A program evaluation of
eight schools. Remedial and Special Education, 27, 7794.
• Ritter, C.L., Michel, C.S., & Irby, B. (1999).
Concerning inclusion: Perceptions of middle school
students, their parents, and teachers. Rural Special
Education Quarterly, 18(2), 10-16.
• Snow, C. E., Burns, M. S., & Griffin, P. (Eds.). (1998).
Preventing reading difficulties in young children.
Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
• .
• Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind and society:
The development of higher order mental
processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press.
• Walpole, S., & McKenna, M. C. (2006).
The role of informal reading inventories in
assessing word recognition. The Reading
Teacher, 592-594.