Transcript Slide 1

A Systematic Approach for School
Wide Sustained Growth
Mark Cerutti – Director of Secondary Education –
Elk Grove Unified School District
What are you doing right now
and how did you decide to do it?
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How do you determine –
– What to do?
– Who should do it?
– When should it be done?
– What are the risks of doing it?
– What are the risks of not doing it?
No Options and Necessities
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Wasting time, material or human
resources is not an option
Employing inefficient action is not an
option
Measuring efficiency and accuracy of
actions is a necessity
Characteristics of a proven model
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All decisions emanate from the school’s
Mission and Core Values
Four integrated key elements of
leadership focus
A balance of process/system with people
power in the school
The flexibility of the model is key
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Fitting a school’s unique environmental
and organizational characteristics into
the model
Not losing sight of the four key elements
Evaluating the school’s present
condition and the level of leadership
required for each key element
Key Elements of Leadership for
Sustained Growth
Targeted
Annual Focus
Teaching &
Learning
Essential
Questions
Mission
and
Core Values
Effective
Monitoring
And
Project
Management
Effective
Team/PLC
Traits
An example of the Sustained
Growth Model in action
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Florin High School
– As each slide is reviewed, keep your
school in mind and begin to apply
the information to your specific
situation
Florin High School
Mission and Core Values
Essential Teaching and Learning Questions
Professional Learning Communities
2009-2010 School Wide Focus
“Effectively support the ongoing development of our collective teaching &
learning practices, resulting in every student meaningfully connected to
school and experiencing academic success”
Use of Effective Monitoring and Project Management Strategies
Steering Committee
School Climate
Technology
Professional Learning
Parent/Community
Action team
Action Team
Action team
Action Team
Our Mission :
“Inspiring and Educating
Our Diverse Community to
Achieve Excellence”
FHS Core Values
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PROFESSIONALISM
– Florin High School Staff Values:
 Professional behaviors and qualities we instill in our students.
 Autonomy and innovation while encouraging and supporting
collaboration.
STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
– Florin High School Staff Values:
 High expectations for academic achievement and personal growth.
 Meeting individual student needs and offering varied paths for
student success.
FLORIN HIGH COMMUNITY
– Florin High School Staff Values:
 Parents, community members and local businesses as partners in
the education of their children.
 A safe and inviting campus.
INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICE
– Florin High School Staff Values:
 Critical thinking and problem solving as the focus of instruction.
 The use of engaging instructional practices.
School Wide Focus
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Describe what you are doing for
students
Be succinct
Make it understandable to all
Highlight key words/phrases
Reference it often
2009-2010
Florin High School Focus
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“Effectively support the ongoing
development of our collective
teaching and learning practices,
resulting in every student
meaningfully connected to school
and experiencing academic
success.”
Effective Teams
Professional Learning Communities
– A focus on student learning
– A collaborative culture
– Collective inquiry into research-based best
practice
– Action orientation – professional learning by
doing
– All members mutually accountable for
targeted results
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Dufour – Professional Learning Communities at Work
Effective Project Management
Ensuring talk is moved to measured and evaluated
action
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Date Source – Knowing what to look for
Data Analysis Results – Converting data to
meaningful information
Design, Development and Implementation –
Knowing what to do and why you’re doing it
Program/Initiative Evaluation – Knowing how
you’re doing (Logic Model of Program Evaluation)
Professional Learning Needs – Making sure we
have what it takes to get the job done
– Human Performance Technology – International Society
for Performance Improvement
A Focus on Essential Teaching
and Learning Questions
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What are we supposed to teach?
– Standards- based content
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How do we prioritize, sequence and
deliver our instruction?
– Curriculum mapping and instructional design
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How do we know they’re learning?
– Formative and summative assessment/progress
monitoring
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What do we do when they’re not
learning?
– Academic intervention and support
Florin High School – Integration
of the Sustained Growth Model
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Steering Committee
Action Teams
Departments, Specialized Academic
Programs (CA Partnership
Academies, NJROTC, AVID)
Grade Level/Course Specific Teams
– All are assessed in terms of the five
characteristics of a PLC
Steering Committee
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School-Wide Governance
Collaborative Leadership
Essential Communication Link
Open Membership
Action Teams
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Technology, School Climate,
Professional Learning,
Parent/Community Partnership
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Teacher led; Administratively supported
Data based
Gap/cause identified
Progress monitored
Results communicated
Technology Action Team
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Purpose Statement: To effectively manage the
procurement and utilization of technologies and
to support all stakeholders to ensure an
efficient flow of accurate communication.
2009-2010 Areas of Focus:
– School Loop management and evaluation
– Web Site Management and updating
– Education Technology Professional Learning
– Panther Access Card Support
Professional Learning
Action Team
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Purpose Statement: Support PLC development in
their work to ensure every student is meaningfully
connected to school and experiences academic
success.
2009-2010 Areas of Focus:
– Support and monitor the development and implementation
of SMART goals for all PLCs.
– Provide needed time and structure for sharing results and
/or recommendations of our PLC work
– Support PLC leaders in facilitating these teams by
providing:
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data support
leadership support
goal-writing
School Climate
Action Team
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Purpose Statement: Support and lead efforts to
ensure students, parents, staff and all stakeholders
are positively connected to Florin High School
which is:
– Safe, Respectful and Clean
– Academically Rigorous
– Culturally Diverse
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2009-2010 Areas of Focus:
– Researching master schedule options with a focus on
small learning communities
– Pilot Targeted Student Project
– Saturday School Program Improvement
– Minute bell case study project
– School events and activities promoting cultural awareness
Parent/Community Partnership
Action Team
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Purpose Statement: Collaborating with
our essential partners/stakeholders to
ensure the optimal learning experience
of all students.
2009-2010 Areas of Focus:
– Implementation of DeVry and Siemens
Partnerships
– Expansion of CPAs
– ASSETS
– Continued expansion of partnerships
Why consider this model?
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The principles of the Sustained
Growth Model originated in the
biological sciences and have been
used by successful businesses for
over 30 years
It’s a proven model for
sustained growth 
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Peace Corps
Nature Conservancy
AmeriCorp
Intel
Cisco
The Sustained growth model
enables you to:
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Accurately predict points of delayed
growth
Quickly and accurately identify barriers
to continued growth
Replicate or originate to overcome
barriers
Minimize the duration of the plateau
Maximize the duration of the gain
Understanding Sustained Growth
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It is not perfectly linear in nature
It is series of steps of varying width
and height
Understanding Sustained Growth
Maximize
Duration of the
Gain
Minimize duration
of plateau by
eliminating barriers
to growth
Point of Delayed
Growth
Point of Best
Practice
Replication or
Innovation
Effective Leadership Must:
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Have an explicit “making a difference”
sense of purpose
Use strategies that mobilize many people to
tackle touch problems
Be held accountable by measured
indicators of success, and
Be ultimately assessed by the extent to
which it awakens people’s intrinsic
commitment, their sense of moral purpose.
- Adapted from Leading in a Culture of Change,
Michael Fullan, 2001
“Whatever
one’s style, every leader, to be
effective, must have and work on his or her
moral purpose.
Moral
purpose cannot just be stated; it
must be accompanied by strategies for
realizing it. Those strategies are the
leadership action that energize people to
pursue a desired goal.
- Adapted from Leading in a Culture of Change,
Michael Fullan, 2001
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Distributed Leadership, in which
formal leaders widely distribute
leadership responsibilities among
various groups in the organization,
plays a crucial role in generating
school reform and instructional
improvement.
Richard Elmore
Building a New Structure for School Leadership
Improve your ability to accurately
predict success and growth
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Determine correlations among actions
and results
Reduce reactivity
Increased target, pro-activity
Eliminate random acts of improvement
Increase targeted, measured
interventions
100
Ready for
Resistance
Ready for
Frustration
50
Ready for
Change
0
Personal Change Capacity
Ready for
Learning
0
50
100
Organization Change Capacity
- Douglas B. Reeves, 2009
Move to the upper right
quadrant!
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Doug Reeves –
– Organizational Change Capacity
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Ready for Change
– Learning Leadership
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Leading – High results and High
Understanding
Learning Leadership - Only by evaluating both cause and
effect can educators understand the complexities of student
achievement and the efficacy of teaching and learning practices.
(Adapted from the work of Doug Reeves)
High Scores
Lucky
High Results
Low Understanding
Leading
High Results
High Understanding
Student
Achievement
Losing
Low Results
Low Understanding
Learning
Low Results
High Understanding
Low Scores
Understanding what improved student performance
Low Level
High Level
Are you ready to accept the
challenge of sustained
growth?
Thank You 
If you are interested in further
information – please contact me:
– [email protected]