Transcript Slide 1

Tennessee Successful Schools
A Project of the State Improvement Grant
Susan M. Benner, Ed. D.
Anne McGill-Franzen, Ph. D.
Kandy Smith, Doctoral Candidate
University of Tennessee
LEAD Conference
October 5, 2009
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
• Transition of SIG to system-level RtI consulting
and professional development
Selection of Successful 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
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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
Regional Focus Groups
•Administrators
•Classroom Teachers
•Special Education Teachers
•Parents
Anecdotal or real-life
experience of teachers is
always going to trump
research.
Nelson, Leffler,& Hensen (2009)
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?
What do these successful
schools look like?
• Unique paths to success—there is no
universal key to success
– Each school has its own DNA—Education
Trust, 2009
• Common patterns of effort that reflect the
research base focused on schools that
“beat the odds”
– Shared characteristics across schools
throughout this and other research
The Schools
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Elvis Presley
James K. Polk
Richard Boyd
James Napier
Cordell Hull
Dolly Parton
Wilma Rudolph
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Perry Wallace
Casey Jones
Nancy Ward
Alvin C. York
Pat Summit
Roy Acuff
Henry Foote
Elvis Presley Elementary School
2003 - 2007
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K-5 and K-4
Average enrollment 727
Rural
55% Economically
Disadvantaged
• Racial Composition
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70% White
21% African American
8% Hispanic
Less than 2% Asian
2003
Targeted assistance
(AA and ED performance)
2004 - 2005
School improvement
(AA and ED performance)
2006 - 2007
Good standing
James K. Polk
2003 - 2007
• PreK - 5
• Average enrollment 262
• Average 55%
economically
disadvantaged
• Predominately white
• Increase in Hispanic from
0 to 4.6%
• African American
approximately 4%
2003--20% Below Proficient
2004 --13% Below Proficient
2005--4% Below Proficient
2006--7% Below Proficient
2007--6% Below Proficient
Value-Added improved from
C in 2003 to A from 2005
to 2007
Cordell Hull
• K-8
• 328 average enrollment,
gradually declining
• 98% economically
disadvantaged
• High referral rates to DCS
• Children read better than
parents
• Over 91% white, declining
• increase in Hispanic
population from 3.3% to 10.5%
• African American relatively
steady with average of 10.7%
2003
Targeted Assistance
2004 - 2007
Good Standing
Below Proficient ratings did
not drop
Value-Added went from F
(2003) to A (2006-2007)
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
James Napier
• 2003: low achieving school, “targeted assistance”
• 2004-2007: “good standing”
• Percentage of students below proficient on TCAP
assessments in reading and language arts reduced
by around 50% in all subgroups,
• Largest gains achieved with special education
students
– 2003: 70% of the students with disabilities were
below proficient on the state assessment
– 2007, 25% below proficient
James Napier
• Academic achievement grades have risen
from C in 2003 to B in 2007.
• Value-added scores have risen from C in
2003 to A in 2007.
Richard Boyd
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%
Wilma Rudolph
Casey Jones
Overriding Forces
• External support and effective ongoing
professional development
• Administrative leadership and standards
• Collaboration between teachers
– Grade-to-grade, SPED-to-regular, cross-grade
• Dedicated time for engaged instruction
• Connections between assessment and
instruction, understanding use of data
External Support and Effective
Ongoing Professional
Development
• Perry Wallace
• Cordell Hull
• Overriding Forces
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)
Cordell Hull
• Resources and professional development
in literacy education provided through
Reading First
• Special and general education teachers
participate in the same professional
development
Learning to Change
“ And I, I think, just explicit and systematic instruction has
helped us so much…I’ve been there for 26 years, and I
really thought I was a pretty good teacher. …some of the
things, I mean not everything, but, I mean, some of the
things that I’ve learned, and I’m thinking, what was I
thinking?”
“The dinosaurs, honey, let me tell you …’ it was hard… you
know these new ones that came in they could do it snap,
snap, snap…It takes a long time to re-train yourself to do
this. But…I’ve embraced it and really… done well with it.
And we teach the five components of reading…”
Administrative Leadership and
Standards
• James K. Polk
• James Napier
• Overriding Forces
James K. Polk
• Strong principal focused on Student
Performance Indicators
• Requires weekly lesson plan reviews
• Connections back to district office with
assistance provided in data interpretation
James Napier: Administrative
Leadership and Standards
Special Education Teacher describes
principal as “very supportive in anything
you want to try”
Gen Ed Teacher: “very much focused on
SPIs…more focused on SPIs than on
basals”
Collaboration between
Teachers
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Dolly Parton
Elvis Presley
Perry Wallace
James Napier
• Overriding Forces
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
Elvis Presley Elementary
Collaborating on Lesson Plans on grade level and
across grade levels
Sharing responsibility for raising student
achievement
“…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…”
Perry Wallace: 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)
James Napier: Collaboration
Between Teachers
“One of the best things that’s happened in the
last couple of years just like some of you
have already said, we have grade-level time
now where we all have the same planning
time, and so we have the freedom to
collaborate and talk to each other and help
each other because we’ve found that that’s
probably the most successful thing that’s
happened in the last few years is getting to
talk to other people. And, you know, we
constantly have new teachers coming in, and
it really helps them out a lot, too.”
Dedicated Time for Instruction
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Elvis Presley
Cordell Hull
James K. Polk
Perry Wallace
• Overriding Forces
Elvis Presley
• 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…”
Cordell Hull
• Differentiating instruction
“…I have probably like 30 minutes of whole
group a day, and that’s it. Everything else
is small group, individual differentiated
instruction.”
James K. Polk
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Full day Kindergarten
Reading Coach
90-minute reading block
Small group instruction in classrooms
30-minute pull outs for Tier 2, with Title One
teacher, reading coach, or paraprofessional
• 60-minute pull outs for Tier 3
• Computer lab time with Successmaker in
reading
Perry Wallace: 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
Connections between
Assessment and Instruction
• Elvis Presley
• James K. Polk
• James Napier
• Overriding Forces
Elvis Presley
• 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
James K. Polk
“We use data in basically three different ways. One we
identify the students and the needs, where they need
their improvement and we zero in on that student at the
classroom level. We also use it with our teachers to
identify those students plus to also look at their teaching.
You can look at those test scores and say, “Okay, I did a
good job in this section. I need to work in this section”
and I always encouraged my teachers to share with each
other, …and then we also use it as a way to focus our
entire school on our weaknesses and our strengths so
that we could build from the data. You know the data
was our guiding force.”
James Napier: Collaboration
Between Teachers
“One of the best things that’s happened in the
last couple of years just like some of you
have already said, we have grade-level time
now where we all have the same planning
time, and so we have the freedom to
collaborate and talk to each other and help
each other because we’ve found that that’s
probably the most successful thing that’s
happened in the last few years is getting to
talk to other people. And, you know, we
constantly have new teachers coming in, and
it really helps them out a lot, too.”
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
• ….
• ….
Lingering Questions
• Whose thinking is privileged?
– How are planning and teaching responsibilities
distributed across classroom teachers, special
education and Title 1 teachers, instructional coaches,
and assistants?
– How is classroom instruction differentiated?
• How is complex “push-in” scheduling managed?
• Is there an “opportunity cost” with increased use
of technology software?
• How do we interpret TCAP reading scores when
reading portions of the test are read to many TN
students?
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.
• Nelson, S., Leffler, J., & Hensen, B. (2009). Toward a
research agenda for understanding and improving the
use of research evidence. Portland, OR: Northwest
Regional Education Laboratory.
• 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.
References
• 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.
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)