Transcript Visible Learning: a synthesis of over 800 meta

Northwest Regional ESD
Accountability:
The Superintendent’s Role
Raymond Smith, Ph.D.
October 28, 2010
Opening Activator—
Individual Reflection
Identify the data you monitor to
ensure that each school regularly
examines the extent to which it is
meeting achievement targets.
Data, Superintendent’s Monitor
$2,000,000.00
The ultimate question for any educational
initiative is, “Does it work?” That is, what
is the relationship between the initiative
and student achievement results?
The Relationship Between…
Cause
See handouts pp 2-7
Effect
“Only by evaluating both
causes and effects. . . can
leaders, teachers, and
policymakers understand the
complexities of student
achievement and the efficacy
of teaching and leadership
practices.”
Reeves, D. B. (2006). The learning leader.
Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Shoulder Partner Reflection
Based on your review of the
Measurable Strategies, what are
some of the things you are noticing
about these statements?
Objectives
• Amplify superintendent’s role in district
accountability processes
• Summarize research findings on
leadership practices relevant to
accountability
• Understand what “cause data” might look
like and how to collect it at the district level
• Apply findings of research to district
(superintendent) accountability practices
What specific
district leadership
responsibilities are
related to student
academic
achievement?
District-level Leadership
Responsibilities
 The goal-setting process
 Non-negotiable goals for
achievement and instruction
 Board alignment with and support
of district goals
 Monitoring the goals for
achievement and instruction
 Use of resources to support the
goals for achievement and instruction
Effective Superintendents
 Continually monitor district progress
toward achievement and instructional
goals to ensure that these goals
remain the driving force behind a
district’s actions
 Ensure that each school regularly
examines the extent to which it is
meeting achievement targets
See handouts pp 8-13
Quarterly Learning
Walks
Shoulder Partner Reflection
How do you or how might you use this
strategy to monitor district progress
toward achievement and instructional
goals to ensure that these goals remain
the driving force behind your district’s
actions?
Nearly 60% of a school's impact on student
achievement is attributable to principal and
teacher effectiveness with principals
accounting for 25% and teachers 33% of a
school’s total impact on achievement.
Augustine, Gonzalaz, Ikemoto, Russell, Zellman, Constant, Armstrong, &
Dembosky (2010)
Monitoring
implementation…
See Handouts pp 14 & 15
Increase in the percent of
Hispanic students in grades 3-8
who score at the proficient or
higher level on a monthly writing
prompt as well as on the spring
2011 ISTEP+ assessment.
Increase the percent of building
principals monthly who monitor,
measure, and chart Hispanic
student writing data against
specific strategies-of-action and
use the results to apply specific
writing interventions to these
students.
THEN
IF
Sample “IF/THEN” Statement
Comparing Adult to Student
Achievement
Across the Room
Reflection
In what ways might you adapt this
leadership strategy to your school
district in order to monitor district
progress toward achievement and
instructional goals?
Learning from Leadership
Louis, K. S., Kenneth Leithwood, K.,
Wahlstrom, K.L., & Anderson, S.E.,
(2010). Learning from Leadership:
Investigating the Links to Improved
Student Learning.
Center for Applied Research and Educational
Improvement/University of Minnesota and Ontario Institute
for Studies in Education/University of Toronto
Large Scale, Six-Year
Leadership Study
The investigation is the
largest of its kind to date
Nine states, 43 school
districts, and 180 elementary,
middle, and secondary
schools.
Large Scale, Six-Year
Leadership Study
Survey Data from 8,391 teachers
and 471 school administrators;
interview data from 581 teachers
and administrators, 304 district
level informants, and 124 state
personnel and observational data
from 312 classrooms.
Statements and Findings
Leadership is second only to
classroom instruction as an
influence on student learning.
“To date we have not found a
single case of a school improving
its student achievement record in
the absence of talented
leadership” (p.9).
Statements and Findings
 Leadership can be described
by reference to two core
functions. One function is
providing direction; the other
is exercising influence
Statements of Findings
Leadership practices targeted
directly at improving instruction
have significant effects on
teachers‘ working relationships
and, indirectly, on student
achievement.
Monitoring Data Team Minutes
See Handouts pg 19
Shoulder Partner Reflection
How might you use this particular
leadership strategy within your
school district?
Statements of Findings:
District Support
One of the most powerful
sources of districts‘ influence
on schools and students is
through the development of
school leaders‘ collective
sense of efficacy about their
job.
Louis, K. S., Kenneth Leithwood, K., Wahlstrom, K.L., & Anderson, S.E.,
(2010). Learning from Leadership: Investigating the Links to Improved
Student Learning.
Districts Contribute Most To
Leaders’ Sense Of Efficacy By:
1. Making significant investments
in the development of
instructional leadership
2. Assigning priority,
unambiguously, to the
improvement of student
achievement and instruction
Louis, K. S., Kenneth Leithwood, K., Wahlstrom, K.L., & Anderson, S.E.,
(2010). Learning from Leadership: Investigating the Links to Improved
Student Learning.
Instructional Leadership
Dimensions
Promoting & participating in teacher
learning and development
d=0.91
Planning, coordinating, and evaluating
teaching and the curriculum
d=0.74
Strategic resourcing
Establishing goals and expectations
Ensuring an orderly supportive
environment
d=0.60
d=0.54
d=0.49
Districts Contribute Most To
Leaders’ Sense Of Efficacy By:
3. Ensuring teachers and
administrators have access to
worthwhile programs of
professional development,
aimed at strengthening their
capacities to achieve shared
purposes
4. Emphasizing teamwork and
professional community
Louis, K. S., Kenneth Leithwood, K., Wahlstrom, K.L., & Anderson, S.E., (2010).
Learning from Leadership: Investigating the Links to Improved Student Learning.
Effective Teamwork
“…it is relatively easy for superintendents
and building principals to set up teams, it is
the creating, keeping the team together, and
sustaining an environment of teamwork that
is vastly more important and enormously
more difficult” to accomplish.
Raymond Smith, (2010)
Ohio Leadership Advisory Council Learning Modules
http://www.ohioleadership.org/pd/user_mod.php
“Principals cannot lead
collaborative learning if
they have not experienced
it” (p. 174).
City, E. A., Elmore, R. F., Fiarman, S. E., & Teitel L. (2009). Instructional rounds in
educational leadership: A network approach to improving teaching and
learning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.
Self-Assessing Norms
Norm
Delayed Response
Rephrasing
Exploring
Examining Ideas
Consciousness
Assuming Positive
Intentions
Supporting/Questioning
Thinking
Continuous Learning
Assessment Literacy
Connections to Students
See Handouts pp 20-23
Exemplary
Proficient
Partially
Proficient
Progressing
Not
Meeting
Across the Room
Reflection
What are some things you are
taking away leading collaborative
learning that will influence your
practice in the future?
“Leaders and teachers give intellectual
assent to the research, and then
return to schools and classrooms
and…nothing happens.”
Reeves, 2006, p. 90
?
Do
Know
The Crisis of Leadership Today
Five Things You Can Do To
Improve Accountability
1. A few times a year, take a team of
principals on a “Learning Walk” of
randomly selected schools and
classrooms
2. Develop and use implementation maps
(rubrics) to guide and support
development of Data Teams (other
initiatives), and assess both staff and
student outcomes as the staff moves
from novice to expert
See Handouts pp 26 & 27
Five Things You Can Do To
Improve Accountability
3. Create, provide just-in-time professional
development in, monitor, measure
central office meeting protocols and
norms, and use the results to improve
practice
4. Meet with principals quarterly to look at
the evidence that teams are crafting and
improving lessons and units together;
adjusting their instruction on the basis of
formative assessment results
Five Things You Can Do To
Improve Accountability
5. Teach your building leaders to
coordinate the development of
common formative assessments, to
conduct quarterly curriculum and
assessment reviews, to conduct brief
classroom tours, and to effectively and
tactfully share instructional trends and
patterns with their faculties
See Handouts pp 24 & 25
Shoulder Partner Reflection
Which of these five accountability
strategies most aligns with your
current thinking? Given your
learning, what might be next steps
for you?
“Districts have the power and specific
responsibility to support effective
educational leadership. The issue
facing them is how to use their
positions of authority to develop and
support practices that improve
student learning.”
Wahlstrom, Louis, Leithwood & Anderson, 2010
Thank You for Participating In
Today’s Conference!
Raymond L. Smith, Ph.D.
[email protected]
LeadandLearn.com