Transcript Innovation: Secondary Strand

Innovation: Secondary Strand
Rebecca Sarlo, Ph.D.
Hollie Pettersson, Ph.D.
The Why: High Expectations for All Students
“All students need to develop the knowledge and
skills that will give them real options after high
school. No student’s choices should be limited by a
system that can sometimes appear to have different
goals for different groups. Educating some students
to a lesser standard than others narrows their
options to jobs that, in today’s economy, no longer
pay well enough to support a family of four.”
ACT, Ready for College and Ready for Work:
Same or Different?(2006)
The Why: High Expectations for All Students
“All students,
ready for college and career,
by the end of high school. Period.”
• Students must possess higher level skills than
ever before to be competitive in our global
economy
- “On the Road to Implementation.” Achieve, August 2010
High Expected Outcomes for All Students
“The highest level of mathematics reached in high school
continues to be a key marker in precollegiate momentum,
with the tipping point of momentum toward a bachelor’s
degree now firmly above Algebra 2. . . . The world has
gone quantitative: business, geography, criminal justice,
history, allied health fields—a full range of disciplines and
job tasks tells students why math requirements are not
just some abstract school exercise.”
Clifford Adelman, The Toolbox Revisited, March Feb. 2006
High Expected Outcomes for All Students
“The levels of readiness that high school graduates
need to be prepared for college and for workforce
training programs are comparable.”
ACT, Ready for College and Ready for Work: Same or Different? (2006)
“An estimated 85% of current jobs and almost 90% of
the fastest growing and best paying jobs now require
postsecondary education.”
Alliance for Excellent Education, (September 2007)
“An estimated 40% of all students who enter college
must take remedial courses.”
Gates Foundation, Toward a More Comprehensive Conception of College Readiness.
US Global Competiveness
Our relative performance is weak and declines dramatically the
longer our students are in school
Our high school graduation rate
lags nearly all other OECD countries.
College Completion Rate
Of 36 OECD countries, the U.S. is one of only three
countries to show no gain in the past 30 years,
dropping from 3rd in the world to 12th.
Wage Trends for Men by Education Level
A high school diploma used to be sufficient to have a fair shot at
the American dream, but no longer. A college degree is required.
Source: Inherited Opportunity for Higher Education, Association for Institutional Research, 5/16/06.
-9-
NAEP DATA 2009
8th Grade Reading Performance:
•
•
•
•
2% Advanced
28% Proficient
43% Basic
26% Below Basic
69% scored Below Proficient
NAEP DATA 2009
8th Grade Math Performance:
•
•
•
•
7% Advanced
25% Proficient
39% Basic
29% BELOW Basic
68% scored Below Proficient
The Why- Dropouts are Costly
• High school dropouts and ill prepared
graduates are incredibly costly to our society
and to their students as individuals
• Cost to our nation is more than $325 billion in
lost wages, taxes, and productivity
“In a global economy where the most
valuable skill you can sell is knowledge, a
good education is no longer just a pathway
to opportunity -- it is a prerequisite. The
countries that out-teach us today will outcompete us tomorrow.”
President Barack Obama (2/24/09)
Education is also highly correlated with
employment and workforce participation.
A lack of education is literally deadly.
Academic Achievement?
• More than one in five young people who
graduate from high school do not meet the
minimum academic standard required to
enlist in the U.S. Army.
• Employers estimate that 45 percent of recent
graduates who have entered the workforce
lack the academic preparation they need to
advance beyond entry-level jobs.
The Why- What educators do matters
• The quality of instruction students receive in
their classrooms is the most important
variable in student achievement
• Same studies also noted the wide disparity in
quality of that instruction within the same
school
Hattie, 2009; Marzano, 2003
Variables Contributing to Student Learning
Student
50%
Teacher
30%
Peer Effects
5-10%
Homes
5-10%
Schools
5-10%
John Hattie, Visible Learning “Meta-Meta-Analysis”
(800 Meta-Analyses)
Effective Teacher vs. Ineffective Teacher
• On average, the least effective teachers (Q1) produce gains of about 14 percentile
points during the school year. By contrast, the most effective teachers (Q5)
posted gains among low-achieving students that averaged 53 percentile points
Vol. 3, Issue 2 A
Publication of
The Education
Trust Summer
1998
Effective Teacher vs. Ineffective Teacher
Effective Teacher vs. Ineffective Teacher
Long range effects
Instructional Quality
“The major message is simple—what teachers
do matters… the greatest source of variance in
our system relates to teachers…”
Hattie, Visible Learning (2009)
Variability by Educational System
Educators Impact Student Engagement
• National Research Council publication,
“Engaging schools: Fostering high school
students’ motivation to learn”
– I can, I want to, I belong
– Competence, Autonomy, Belonging
• The other “ABCs”
• URL:
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10421.html
Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Connell & Wellborn,
1990; NRC, 2004; Ryan & Deci, 2000
Educators Impact Student Engagement
Status Variables,
28%
Alterable
Variables, 72%
Educators Impact Dropout Rates
• 47% said a major reason for dropping out was
that classes were not interesting
• 69% said they were not inspired to work hard
• 35% said that “failing in school” was a major
factor for dropping out
• 45% said they started high school poorly
prepared by their earlier schooling.
The Silent Epidemic, 2006
Educators Impact Dropout Rates
• 29% expressed significant doubts that they
could have met their high school’s
requirements for graduation even if they had
put in the necessary effort.
• 50%-65% missed class often the year before
dropping out.
• 38% believed they had “too much freedom”
and not enough rules
The Silent Epidemic, 2006
Effective Dropout Prevention Services
Effective Schools and Teachers Promote:
• Students’ understanding of what it takes to learn
• Confidence in their capacity to succeed in school
• A sense of belonging by personalizing instruction, showing an interest
in students’ lives, and creating a supportive, caring social context.
• High expectations for all students
And, Provide:
•
•
•
•
Challenging instruction
Support for meeting high standards
Opportunities for choice and control
Curriculum and instruction that is relevant to adolescents’
experiences, cultures, and long-term goals
National Research Council, 2004
What Schools Do Matters!
• Freshman with weak academics entering high
school who reported having a positive 9th grade
year were almost twice as likely to graduate from
high school than students who entered with
strong academics but reported a negative 9th
grade academic experience
• Dropout prevention strategies which focus on
improving school climate, academic rigor, and
student support and monitoring have been found
to reduce dropout rates by as much as 50%
The Why: We Have the Power
We can meet the needs of all students
through targeted strategic planning,
multi-tiered service delivery, progress
monitoring, and early identification
90-90-90 Schools
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•
•
•
•
Same union contracts
Same teacher and administrator time
Same budget
Same facilitators
Same teacher and administrator assignment
polices
• Same attention from district office
• Same materials and standards
• Same social and home challenges
Doug Reeves, 2004
90-90-90 Schools
Despite these common challenges…
• 90% or more of students met grade level
expectations
• Significant gains made over 2 years and
sustained over more than 10 years
• Gains maintained even with staff and
leadership turnover
Doug Reeves, 2004
Quick Write
• Jot down your WHY for systematic renewal in
your school/system to increase college and
career readiness for students.
• Your WHY sums up your reasons for your
commitment to school improvement and
effective instruction for ALL students.
The How: Focus on What Matters
“Let’s focus on behaviors, not just test scores. In
other words, measure what the grownups do.
We need to set as many standards for the adults
… as we do for kids.”
Douglas B. Reeves, in Harvard Education Letter,
March/April 2002
Unproductive Question
What about the student is causing the
performance discrepancy?
Productive Question
What part of the interaction of the
curriculum, instruction, learner, and
learning environment should be altered
so that the student will learn?
Quick Write
• What are the key features of high quality
instruction?
• What curricular variables are most critical to
achieving high student achievement?
• What environmental conditions most critical
to achieving high student achievement?
Table Talk
• Get in groups of 3 to 4
– 1-4, 5-8
• Discuss your quick write ideas
• Poster your group agreement of TOP 5
features of effective/high quality instruction
and critical curricular variables and
environmental conditions
• Each BLT will have at least two groups
Focus on What Matters
• Capacity for Continuous Improvement
• Standards Based Instruction
• Student Engagement
• Differentiation and Intervention
Focus on What Matters
Capacity for Continuous Improvement
– Established Mission and Vision: A laser-like focus
on student achievement continuous improvement
– Effective School-Based Leadership Team
• Distributed leadership
• Sets clear expectations for professional practice and
provides high quality feedback
• Allocates sufficient resources for school improvement
efforts (time, instructional and assessment resources,
feedback)
Focus on What Matters
Capacity for Continuous Improvement
– Teaming Structure and Effectiveness
• All teams essential and aligned with school
improvement goals
• Established norms, communication plans
• Effective use of data-based problem solving process
The How- How do we do it?
Establish a laser like focus on the end in mind
FULL OPTION GRADUATION FOR ALL STUDENTS
Align all resources toward accomplishing this goal
including the use of:
– Time
– Personnel
– Space
– Materials
Targeting the End in Mind
Effective District Leadership…
• Establish and communicate a K-12 vision
– Sunshine State School District creates a sound educational
environment that provides all students the academic and
social emotional competencies and skills necessary to become
full option graduates
• And, support all schools in redefining their own mission
statements to align with the K-12 vision
– Redefining Elementary , Middle and High School’s mission to
include preparing students to successfully transition to the
next school level will help to strengthen vertical articulation
and the effectiveness of feeder patterns
Establishing a Clear Vision
Ridgewood High School creates a
sound educational environment that
provides all students the opportunity
to develop their individual talents, to
meet and exceed graduation
requirements, and to become
productive citizens in an increasingly
complex and global society
Establishing a Clear Vision
Ridgewood High School creates a
sound educational environment that
provides all students the opportunity
to develop their individual talents, to
meet and exceed graduation
requirements, and to become
productive citizens in an increasingly
complex and global society
Establishing a Clear Vision
Ridgewood High School creates a sound
educational environment that provides all
students the skills and habits of mind to meet
and exceed graduation requirements and to
become full option graduates
A Call to Action
8%
4%
All RHS
On Track
At Risk
Off Track
15%
High Risk
Extremely off Track
14%
59%
District First Steps…
Schools will be empowered to prevent engagement/skill
gaps and readily respond to them when they occur
when the District establishes…
• A K-12 vision and aligns the curriculum and instructional goals
of each school level with the vision
• Communication plans, protocols and practices for vertical and
horizontal articulation of student needs, gaps, and strengths
• A data system which allows for the integration and fluid
analysis of engagement and academic data AND the vertical
articulation of both engagement and academic data between
grade/school levels
Table Talk
• Does your system/district/school mission statement
accurately communicate the purpose of your organization?
• Does your system/district/school vision statement
communicate the student results your team is striving to
achieve?
– Can progress toward the vision be measured through the analysis
of student outcome data?
• Is the mission and vision of your system/district/school
understood and owned by all stakeholders?
• Does your mission and vision drive instructional and
intervention planning and evaluation?
Focus on What Matters
Leadership and effective teaming structures are
critical for PS/RtI implementation and all school
improvement efforts
• System Leadership- using fair and transparent
accountability systems to develop effective learning
systems
• Administrative Leadership- creating and sustaining
conditions for success
• Teacher Leadership- providing direct modeling of
effective practice
Doug Reeves, 2010
Effective Teaming Structures
• BLT provides priorities for action
• Work Groups provide monthly
data and action reports to BLT.
District
Office;
External
Coach
Lit. wk.
Group
Math wk.
Group
Building Leadership
Team
Beh. wk.
Group
•BLT provide
info, training,
and reminds
staff of
Priorities
(WHYS)
•Staff informs
BLT of needs
All Staff
•BLT identifies and passes along
level issues to appropriate
teams.
•Levels reports back on action
taken, results, & needs.
GRADE/DEPT.
LEVELS
District & Building Leadership Teams
• Goal of the district leadership team is to
standardize expectations and structures
• Goal of the building leadership team is to
customize the implementation
Ecology of Change
 Urgency for improvement around real data
 A shared vision of good teaching
 Meeting content and processes focused on good instruction
 A shared vision of results
 Effective supervision
 Professional development
 Diagnostic data with accountable collaboration
Function of District Leadership Team
District Leadership Teams:
• Set clear expectations for student outcomes
• Establish PS/RtI as a way of work and provide
ongoing guidance and support for schools
• Allocate sufficient resources to support full
implementation at all schools
• Utilize school outcome and implementation
data to provide tiered implementation support
Building Leadership Teams
Building Leadership Teams (BLTs):
• Provide strong organizational process for school
renewal and improvement
• Orchestrate the work of school professionals,
administrators, families and students through the
school improvement process
• Determine effectiveness of current practices
• Plan for progress, achievement and risk
• Manage implementation teams
The Building Leadership Team – National Institute for Urban School Improvement (2005)
Building Leadership Team
• Purpose: Establish and monitor the school-wide learning and
development goals, the instructional/intervention plans (tier 1 and 2)
developed to achieve goals, and allocate the resources needed to
fully implement instructional/intervention plans with fidelity.
• Activities:
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Determine school-wide learning and development areas in need of improvement
Identify barriers which have or could prohibit school from meeting improvement goals
Develop action plans to meet school improvement goals (e.g., SIP)
Distribute and assign resources to implement plans
Monitor fidelity and effectiveness of core and tier 2 instruction
Manage and coordinate efforts between all school teams
Support the problem solving efforts of other school teams
• Avoid:
–
–
–
–
Individual student progress monitoring
Meeting without a clear agenda or goals
Making decisions without input from key stakeholder groups
Developing action plans without communicating the purpose, goals, and responsibilities
to other stakeholders
– Delegating school-wide action planning responsibilities to teams with less decision
making power or control over resource allocation
Building Leadership Team Key Questions
What are the
predictable
needs/failures?
What can we
do to address
needs and
prevent
failures?
How will we
maintain
consistency?
How will we
know if it is
working?
Recommended SBLT Meeting Schedule
• Meet Weekly
• 60 to 90 minute meeting times
• Utilize a revolving schedule to make sure that
major goal areas are addressed at least once per
month
• Example
– Week 1: Reading and Writing
– Week 2: Mathematics
– Week 3: Attendance and Behavior
– Week 4: 9th Grade Cohort or 12th Grade Cohort
Team Membership
• Selection of team members should aim at creating a
well-rounded team with specific skill sets represented
• Critical skills needed for effective team functioning
include:
–
–
–
–
–
Instructional leadership
Data management and analysis
Content specialization (minimally Reading, Math, Behavior)
Student advisement, mentoring, and guidance
Knowledge of evidence-based instruction/intervention
• Exceptional Student Education specialist
• English Language Leaning specialist (if warranted by
population)
– Parent/Community involvement strategies
Team Talk: Article Jigsaw
• Use your teamwork skills to ensure that each member of
the team reads at least one section of the article:
–
–
–
–
–
Sharing Leadership
Building the Team
Making Meetings Productive
Decision-Making Processes
Working Important Topics
• Read the article
• Come together to discuss
• Complete WHY – HOW- WHAT for your audience describing
the rationale for BLTs (step one of action plan)
Content/Engagement Area Teams
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•
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Grade Level Teams
Department Level Teams
Content Area Teams
Course Alike Teams
Positive Behavior Support Team
Attendance Team
Literacy Leadership Team
Administrative Team
Coaching Team
Etc., Etc., Etc.
Content/Engagement Area Teams
 Purpose: Implement instructional/intervention plans with fidelity to
achieve established content/engagement area goals utilizing the allocated
resources while monitoring student response to instruction/intervention
 Activities:
 Review and analyze student data to build consensus around the content/engagement area goals
 Discuss identified barriers and provide feedback to leadership team
 Review action plans and provide feedback to leadership team
 Implement action plans with fidelity
 Collect and analyze student data to determine student response to intervention
 Recommend programming changes to leadership team as necessary
 Engage in professional development which allows for continuous improvement
 Avoid:
 Implementing action plans without understanding their purpose, goals and assigned responsibilities
 Individual student intervention planning
 Meeting without a clear agenda or goals
 Making changes to instructional/intervention plans without communicating with the leadership team
 Implementing action plans without monitoring the impact on student learning and development
Implementation Teams
Percent of
Implementation
Time
Implementation
Team
No
Implementation
Team
80%
14%
3 Years
17 years
Balas & Boren, 2000; Fixsen, Blase, Timbers, & Wolf, 2001
Specialist Teams
 Purpose: Identify barriers to academic/developmental progress for
individual students, implement individualized intervention plans with
fidelity to achieve established goals while monitoring each student’s
response to intervention
 Activities:
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Meet with specialists, teachers, and parent to identify barriers to individual student progress
Develop individualized action plans to address identified barriers to meeting core goals.
Implement intervention plans with fidelity
Collect and analyze student data to determine the student’s response to intervention
Make adjustments to intervention plans as indicated by the student data
 Avoid:
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Developing action plans without clear purpose, goals and assigned responsibilities
Developing action plans without the direct involvement of the parent and student
Developing action plans which are not aligned with core expectations and goals
Implementing action plans without monitoring the impact on student learning and development
Team Roles and Responsibilities
All school teams are problem solving teams and will
benefit from members with the following
skills/roles:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Coordinator
Meeting Facilitator
Content Specialists
Behavior Specialist
Resource Specialists
Data Analyst
Time Keeper
Recorder
Consultant
Process: Developing a Way of Work
To work within a PS/RtI Framework ALL teams need:
• Ready access to student academic and behavior data
• To be skilled in managing student data (e.g., data
collection, data entry, graphing of group and/or individual
student data)
• To be skilled in the problem solving process
• Knowledge of research-based instructional/intervention
strategies
Find and Make Time to Collaborate
Reduce the aggregate time spent in meetings by identifying
and collapsing teams which have the same purpose
Protect Scheduled Time:
• Begin and end on time
• Set and stick to agendas
• Complete all preparation activities prior to coming
together
• Make sure all the right people are at the table
• Focus only on the “essential few” goals
Team/Meeting Mapping Activity
and Table Talk
Complete the Meeting Map and discuss the following:
1. In an average month, how many minutes are spent in meetings?
2. Were there any teams/committees with overlapping purpose?
Circle or highlight them.
3. Across identified teams with overlapping purpose, how many
members do they have in common?
4. Given the overlap, what actions can be taken to align/merge
teams?
5. What infrastructure can be built for communication between
remaining teams?
The How- Early Warning Systems
 Develop and Utilize an Early Warning System (EWS) to identify
students as early as possible
 Identify ineffective courses and educational pipelines
 Utilize EWS data to guide vertical articulation and programming

Developing a District-Wide
TheEarly
best predictor
of future
failure is current failure and disengagement
Warning
System
 Assessing risk across multiple variables allows teams to provide early
intervention and prevent disengagement from school and course failures
 At-risk and off-track students are identified through analyzing a
combination of engagement and academic data.
 Many students experience course failures as a result of disengagement
(e.g., excessive absenteeism, lack of productivity, inattention)
 Systematically assessing student engagement allows schools to identify
students in need of support before they have failed courses or acquired
skill deficits related to missed instruction
Middle School Risk Indicators
Academic and Engagement Indicators
 Attend school less than 80% of the time
 Due to absenteeism or discipline issues
 Excused or unexcused absences
 Receive a low final grade for behavior
 Fail either math or English/Reading
Retention
 64% of students repeating a grade in elementary school
eventually drop out
 63% of students held back in middle school eventually drop
out
Mobility
 Multiple schools during educational career
Kennelly & Monrad, 2007
High School Risk Indicators
Academic indicators
 GPA less than 2.0
 Course Failures
 Behind in Credits
Behavioral/Engagement indicators
 Attend school less than 80% of the time
 Consistently miss instruction due to behavioral issues
 Psychological or Social disengagement
 Lack of peer group
 Lack of involvement in school extracurricular activities
 Low educational expectations
 Lack of personal relationship with adults at school
Retention
 Retained 1 or more years
Mobility
 Multiple schools during educational career
Example: Credits Earned
1st Semester
09-10 < 3 Credits
08-09 < 9 Credits
07-08 <15 Credits
06-07 < 21 Credits
Extreme Off Track
2-3 Years Behind
No chance for graduation in a
traditional school setting
Disengagement
High Off Track
Lacking 2 or more graduation requirements
Behind 4 or more Credits
Currently failing 3 or more classes
Excessive Referrals and/or Absences
Off Track
Lacking 2 graduation requirements
Behind 1-3 Credits
10% Absences
3 or less Level 2 referrals or 2 Level 3 Referrals
9th graders indentified “at high risk” (3 F’s in 8th grade)
At Risk for Off Track
Lacking 1 of 3 Graduation requirements
< 5%Absences
3 or less Level 1 or 2 referrals
On Track
Exceeding or Meeting all graduation requirements (Credits, FCAT Score, GPA)
6 or less Absences
No referrals
Pasco County Schools
70.00%
60.00%
50.00%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
Grad Plan 07-08
0.00%
Grad Plan 08-09
On Track
At Risk
Grad Plan 09-10
Off Track
High Risk
Extremely off
Track
Early Warning Systems Data
 52.8% (210) of last year's 9th graders are off-track for graduation
 19% (75) are off-track due to failed FCAT, Credits and GPA
 13% (52) of exiting 9th graders failed 3 or more courses
 Almost all of these students are part of the lowest 25%
 Many of these students will count in the total graduation and at-risk graduation
rates
 These students have less than a 15% chance of graduating without significant
intervention
 Course Failures
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Algebra 1 - 43.5%
Spanish 1 - 45%
World History- 29%
English 1 - 28%
Hope (Health and PE) - 58 students- 17%
Early Warning Systems and
Vertical Articulation and
Programming
 While in Middle School, entering 9th graders…
 Demonstrated disengagement through absenteeism (32%)
 Demonstrated disengagement through excessive behavioral
referrals/suspensions (22%)
 Had a history of course failures in English/Reading (29%)
 48% scored non-proficient on the Reading FCAT
 Had a history of course failures in math (37%)
 41% scored non-proficient on Math FCAT
 Had a history of retention (24%)
The
bottom
line…
 Disengaged students are likely to be disengaged at the next
grade/school level in the absence of prevention and intervention
support
 Students with a history of academic underachievement or failure
are likely to continue to fail without prevention and intervention
support
 Addressing academic and engagement issues earlier rather than
later is more successful and more cost effective
 Preventing disengagement and/or academic failure is more
effective than reacting to them once they occur
Table Talk
•How could the implementation of an early
warning system improve your school’s ability
to provide timely intervention services to students?
•How could your school utilize early warning system
data to promote and guide vertical articulation?
Focus on What Works Best
“We can, whenever we choose, successfully teach ALL
children whose schooling is of interest to us. We
already know more than we need to know to do that.
Whether or not we do it must finally depend on how
we feel about the fact that we haven’t so far.”
~Ron Edmonds, 1982
Focus on What Works Best
The University of Auckland 9 January 2009. A study by
Professor John Hattie into what actually works in schools
to improve learning has been lauded as education's "Holy
Grail" by the UK media. Titled Visible Learning, it is
believed to be the largest evidence-based study in the
world into what works for students. It found that
improving student-teacher interaction is the key to
schooling success. The study ranked the power of teacher
feedback and interaction far above influences like the
school a student attends, reducing class sizes, frequent
testing or a pupil's gender.
It’s all about the CORE!
 Effective interventions must be built on a solid foundation of
effective core instruction
 We CANNOT intervene our way out of a core instructional
problem
 This approach leads only to overtaxed intervention providers and
diluted, ineffective intervention systems
 Practices over programs
82
“Educators who rely on interventions
alone to meet the needs of students who
score below proficiency will never solve
the basic problem these children face.”
Buffum, Mattos, & Weber,
Pyramid Response to
Intervention, 2009
The 11th Commandment
Thou shall not address
inadequate Tier I (Core)
through Tier II
and Tier III supports alone.
Focus on What Matters
90-90-90 Schools
 Practices, not programs
 Change practices without changing budgets
 Collaboration is the way of work
 Collective responsibility for all students
 Relentless pursuit of success
 Appropriate-proactive consequences for failure
Doug Reeves, Accountability in Action (2004)
Intensifying Core Instruction
 Increase time and response opportunities.
 Improve core program efficacy.
 Improve core program implementation.
 Decrease group size.
 Increase coordination of programming and instruction.
Simmons, 2003
Focus on What Matters
Standards-Based Instruction
 Unpack, prioritize, and vertically align standards
 Set and communicate learning objectives and goals
 Plan and deliver engaging lessons aligned with standards
Focus
on
What
Matters
Standards-Based Instruction
 Plan and implement lessons utilizing a gradual release of
responsibility model
 Ensure appropriate rigor of instruction, questioning, tasks and
assessments
 Emphasize non-fiction writing across all subject areas (non-fiction
writing in all courses for all students at-least once per month)
Measure what Matters
Standards-Based Instruction Observation Tool Example
Rigorous Instruction Observation Tool Example
Gradual Release of Responsibility and Student Engagement
Observation Tool Example
Setting and Communicating Instructional Purpose
Component
Lesson begins with a discussion of desired outcomes and learning goals
Learning goal (essential questions) is written in student friendly language and posted
so that all students can see it.
Lesson goal (essential questions) are directly related to what students need to know,
understand, and be able to do to master the benchmark.
The lesson goal/essential question is a clear statement of knowledge or information
as opposed to an activity or assignment.
The lesson goal/essential question requires higher order thinking, problem solving
or decision-making
The teacher explains how the class activities relate to the learning goal and to
answering the essential question.
Teacher has a scale or rubric that relates to the learning goal posted so that all
students can see it.
Teacher makes reference to the scale or rubric throughout the lesson.
Evident
Not
Evident
Webb’s Depth of Knowledge
Webb’s DOK Level 1
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Emphasis is on facts and simple skills
or abilities to recall or locate facts
verbatim from the text. (e.g., What is
the capitol of Florida?)
Reproduction of previously taught
information such as a fact, definition,
term or a simple procedure.
Simple steps, recipes, or directions.
Requires reasoning which is often to
carry out some procedure that can be
performed mechanically.
The focus is on basic initial
comprehension, not on analysis or
interpretation.
Items require only a shallow/literal
understanding of text presented.
Students find “the right answer,” and
there is no debating the “correctness,”
it is either right or wrong.
It is not left to the student to come up
with a low complexity original
method or solution.
Webb’s DOK Level 2
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Requires both initial comprehension and
subsequent processing of text or portions of
text.
Important concepts are covered, but not in a
complex way and involve more flexible
thinking and choice among alternatives than
low complexity items.
Items at this level may include words such as
paraphrase, summarize, interpret, infer,
classify, organize, collect, display, compare,
and determine whether fact or opinion. (e.g.,
What is the difference between a tornado and
a hurricane?)
Requires a response that goes beyond the
habitual, is not specified, and ordinarily has
more than a single step.
The student is expected to decide what to
do—using informal methods of reasoning and
problem-solving strategies—and to bring
together skill and knowledge from various
domains.
Students must explain “how” or “why” and
often estimate or interpret to respond.
One right answer.
Webb’s DOK Level 3
•
•
•
•
•
•
Strategic reasoning and thinking where
students must reason or plan to find an
acceptable solution to a problem.
Requires deep knowledge, complex or
abstract thinking, and application of
knowledge or skill in a new and unique
situation (e.g., Review hurricane occurrences
over the past five years in Florida. Analyze
the effects of the hurricanes. Hypothesize the
impact on the environment.)
Students need to provide support for
thinking, reasoning or conclusions and are
encouraged to go beyond the text to explain,
generalize or connect ideas by citing
references from the text or other sources.
Items involve abstract theme identification
and inferences between or across passages,
Students’ application of prior knowledge, or
text support for an analytical judgment made
about a text.
More than one correct response or approach
is possible.
Webb’s DOK Level 4
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Requires extended complex/abstract
reasoning, planning, developing, analysis,
judgment and creative thinking (generally
over extended periods of time) where
students typically identify a problem, plan a
course of action, enact that plan, and make
decisions based on collected data.
Students often connect multiple content areas
to come up with unique and creative
solutions (e.g., Conduct a project that
requires specifying a problem, designing and
conducting an experiment, analyzing its data,
and reporting results/solutions.)
Students may be asked to relate concepts
within the content area and around other
content areas.
Students make real-world applications in new
situations.
Assessment activities have multiple steps with
extended time provided.
Multiple solutions are possible.
Requires an investigation; time to think and
process multiple conditions of the problem or
task.
Instructional Rigor
Classroom 1
Describe and Rate Tasks (T) , Assignments
(A), and Assessments (T)
Classroom 2
Rate complexity of Examples (E),Models (M),
and Questions (Q), and Responses (R)
Classroom 1
Tasks and Assignments
Classroom 2
Instruction and Questioning
Instructional Rigor
Percentage Observed
Level 4
Level 3
Level 2
Level 1
Percentage Observed
Gradual Release and Student Engagement
Focus on What Matters
Student Engagement
 Active monitoring of and focus on maximizing student engagement
in learning at school
 Positive behavior support program
 Teacher student relationships
 Peer support for learning
 Student perceptions of competence and control
 Student future aspirations and goals
 Family support for learning
What is Engagement?
 Engagement in schoolwork involves both behaviors (e.g., persistence,
effort, attention) and emotions (e.g., enthusiasm, interest, pride in
success)
 Both academic and social aspects of school life are integral for student success;
engagement at school and with learning are essential intervention
considerations.
 Engagement is the primary theoretical model for understanding dropout and is,
quite frankly, the bottom line in interventions to promote school completion.
 Student engagement has emerged as the cornerstone of high school reform
initiatives.
Engaging Schools, 2006
Academic Engagement
The amount of time spent
engaged in academic work
“I can”
Social Engagement
Behavioral Engagement
Identification and affiliation
with school, sense of
belonging, perceived
social support
“I belong”
School attendance and
participation in school
“I will”
Psychological Engagement
Feelings of competence and control
investment in learning, self regulation,
goal setting and progress monitoring
“I want to”
Indicators
Academic Engagement
 Course Failures
 Particularly Math and English in Middle School
 Credits earned
 GPA
 Homework completion
 Time on task
Academic engagement variables have a moderate to large effect on
achievement
Most visible form of engagement and the most often tracked by school
personnel
Indicators
Behavioral Engagement
 Attendance
 Suspensions
 Participation in classroom activities
Among the most common concerns expressed by educators and
parents
Significantly related to academic achievement and school dropout
Indicators
Social Engagement
 Perception of support
 Affiliation with school
 Sense of belonging
 Perception of the value of school and school related activities
Early intervention in this area is associated with reduced grade
retention, misbehavior, violence, sexual activity, and teen
pregnancy.
Identifying Socially Disengaged Students
 List all students names at grade levels and have adults in school
initial next to students with whom they have a personal
relationship.
 Students with no initials by their names may be socially disengaged
 Utilize a survey to identify students who are bullied, alienated by
peers, or who simply perceive that they have difficulty connecting
with peers
 Determine which students are not actively engaged in
extracurricular activities through the review of club and sport
rosters and attendance logs
Indicators
Psychological Engagement
 Sense of confidence and control
 Use of learning and problem solving strategies
 Investment in learning
 Perceived relevance of school for future outcomes
Significantly related to academic achievement, school attendance,
and high school graduation
Identifying Psychologically Disengaged Students
 Utilize a survey to assess students’ sense of control, relevance of
schoolwork, and future aspirations and goals
 Employ a systematic student-nomination process within which
school personnel indicate the students whom they are concerned
regarding their interest in learning or lack post-secondary goals
Identifying Specific Engagement Issues
 Survey students regarding barriers to their attendance,
engagement, work completion, etc.




All Students or a Subset of students (e.g., at-risk)
Survey Monkey
Open ended
Multiple Choice
 Hold focus groups with at-risk and high performing students to
identify barriers and potential strategies for addressing the
barriers.
“The Rich Get Richer”
Time Spent
Academically
Engaged
Successful
Performance
Feelings of
Connection and
Identification w/
School
Participation in
School Activities
Perceive more
teacher and
peer support
Feelings of
competence
and control
Contextual Variable related to
Student Engagement and Academic Outcomes
 Family
 Academic and motivational support for learning
 Goals and expectations of successful school performance
 Monitoring/supervision
 Learning resources in the home
 Peers
 Educational expectations
 Shared common school value
 High attendance rates
 Academic beliefs and efforts
 Peers’ aspiration for learning
 School
 School climate
 Instructional programming and learning activities
 Mental health support
 Clear and appropriate teacher expectations
 Goal structure (task vs. ability)
 Teacher-student relationships
Don’t Assume--Go to the Source!
 School assumed that source of dropout/underachievement problems were a
lack of family support and a lack of future aspirations and goals
Students showed strong agreement with all of the following items
1. My family/guardian(s) are there for me when I need them.
29. My family/guardian(s) want me to keep trying when things are tough at school.
11. Going to school after high school is important.
30. I am hopeful about my future.
17. I plan to continue my education following high school.
19. School is important for achieving my future goals.
8. My education will create many future opportunities for me.
Don’t Assume--Go to the Source!
 School principal also spoke regularly of his commitment to developing a
family/community climate at his school and in fact felt strongly that the
goal had already been accomplished
Students showed strong disagreement with all of the following items
10. The school rules are fair.
28. I feel like I have a say about what happens to me at school.
2. After finishing my schoolwork I check it over to see if it’s correct.
27. I feel safe at school.
5. Adults at my school listen to the students.
13. Most teachers at my school are interested in me as a person, not just as a student.
21. Overall adults at my school treat students fairly.
3. My teachers are there for me when I need them.
14. Students here respect what I have to say.
6. Other students here care about me.
7. Students at my school are there for me when I need them.
Focusandon
What
Differentiation
Intervention
Matters
 Frequent formative assessment of student progress and multiple
opportunities for improvement
 Interventions are aligned and integration with core instruction
 Interventions address both academic and engagement needs of
students
 Intervention programs are evaluated by examining both skill
acquisition and the impact of supports on student success within
core content areas
Spend Resources on What Matters
Most
“Professional development, when embedded within a systemschange perspective that is focused on the issues of adoption
and implementation, will help to create an environment that
can sustain evidence-based practices… training practitioners
in the use of evidence-based practices without systemschange is not enough. The ability to implement practices
with fidelity and sustainability is limited without adequate
system supports”
OSEP, December 2007
Spend Resources on What Matters Most
 Ensure that teacher leaders have the skills and efficacy to effect
change
 Provide high quality professional development with follow-up
coaching, opportunities for deliberate practice, and high quality
formative feedback
Spend
Resources
on What
Most
 Focus
on increasing
teacher efficacy
levelsMatters
in relation to
best practices
 #1 antidote to stress, frustration, and burnout
 Embrace deep implementation
 7:1 Rule- for every 1 day of sit and get professional development,
provide 7 days of on-site job-embedded implementation support
 Plan for deliberate practice- 24-40 hours to learn and apply new
professional practices with fidelity
Doug Reeves, 2004
The How- Integrated Multi-Tiered Supports
Develop and implement integrated multi-tiered
intervention which address both student
engagement needs and academic skill
gaps/deficits
113
A Shift in Thinking
From:
Targeted Instruction
+
Constant
Time
=
Constant
Learning
Variable
To:
Targeted Instruction
Variable
+
Time
Variable
=
Learning
Constant
Fullen, 2009
Instructional/Intervention Design
 Teams need to be knowledgeable of research-based
instructional/intervention strategies and programs when
developing the school’s intervention programming.
 Teams should implement scientifically validated
instruction/interventions in order to ensure that students
have access to instruction that has been proven to be
effective with other (preferably similar) students.
 Intervention plans must be multi-tiered to meet the needs
of all students
Instructional/Intervention
Design
The most effective intervention plans are
derived from a comprehensive understanding of
the underlying barriers which prevent success
“Both pupil and teacher must know where the learner is now, how
that compares to ultimate learning success, and how to close the
gap between the two”
Stiggins, 2007, p.15
Involving
Students
is
VITAL!
 Secondary students must be involved in the identification of
barriers and as much as possible in the selection of strategies to
address barriers
 Effort spent personalizing instruction/intervention is typically well
spent
 At the very least, secondary students must understand the
“compelling why” of programming changes
Facilitating Problem Analysis
 Survey students regarding barriers to their attendance,
engagement, work completion, etc.




All Students or a Subset of students (e.g., at-risk)
Survey Monkey
Open ended
Multiple Choice
 Hold focus groups with at-risk and high performing students to
identify barriers and potential strategies for addressing the
barriers.
Understanding Skill Barriers
 Administer diagnostic assessments to all students who are below grade-level in
reading, writing, or mathematics
 Reading diagnostic assessments should assess student’s ability to decode words,
read text fluently as well as provide measures of the student’s vocabulary
development and reasoning skills.
 Writing diagnostic assessments should assess student’s writing organization,
writing fluency, mechanics, and spelling abilities
 Mathematics diagnostic assessments may measure numeration, rational
numbers, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, measurement, time
and money, estimation, interpreting data, problem solving, statistics, algebra,
and geometry
 Aligned with the pre-requisite skills students will need to be successful in their current
math course
Assessment
Plans
Assessment
for all students
must:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
First and foremost be designed to answer specific
questions
Focus on essential, important skills
Be instructionally relevant
Be efficient to administer
Be sensitive to change in skill performance
Measure fluency of performance
1.
Be easy to use and understand
Facilitating Problem Analysis
 Secondary school staff typically require significant support for
problem analysis in order to move past student motivation and
parent involvement barriers
 Without this shift in thinking, school staff often feel helpless in
improving student outcomes
 Consensus wanes
 Fidelity suffers
 Data collection and analysis become less frequent and less valid
 Developing effective intervention plans is dependent upon a
team’s ability to take a transparent look at the instructional,
curricular, and environmental barriers to student engagement
and achievement
Team
Talkhypotheses regarding why students are not
What
are your team’s
meeting expected levels in reading?
Hypothesis: 52% of students are proficient in reading while the
expectation is 80% because _________________….
Prediction: If we ________________...then reading outcomes
will improve
Team Talk
Let’s say you also have data that indicates…
 Instruction:
 The majority of instruction is explicit followed by independent
practice
 Questioning, tasks and assessments are primarily basic level (i.e.,
fact finding)
 Students are often unaware of the purpose for instruction
Team
Talk
Let’s
say you also
have data that indicates…
 Curriculum:
 Content area texts are well above most struggling students’ reading
level
 Reading intervention classes utilize only instructional level (not
grade level) materials and texts.
 Students have very little choice when it comes to choosing books
for recreational reading or assignment completion
Team Talk
Let’s say you also have data that indicates…
 Environment:
 Teacher-student relationships are strained (e.g. students do not feel
their teachers are interested in them as individuals, only as students)
 Peer relationships negatively impact students’ willingness to ask
questions or seek help during or outside of class
 Students report that their basic needs are not always met (i.e.,
bathrooms are unclean, rooms are too cold, lunches run out after
2nd lunch)
Team
Talk
Let’s say you also have data that indicates…
 Learner:
 45% of students have missed more than 10% of school
 Skipping is the top referral reason with 24% of students receiving
referrals for skipping
 While 95% of students report that receiving an education is
important for their life goals and plan to continue after high school,
only 62% report feeling hopeful about their futures, and only 58%
believe that what they are learning in school relates to their future
goals
Where
to
Begin???
 Identify barriers which are foundational in nature
 Identify barriers which are cross content
 Identify barriers which are immediately actionable
 The school has the expertise and resources to address the barrier right
now
 Identify barriers which if addressed could possibly also lessen the
impact of other barriers
Team Talk
 Given the barriers that your team identified and the guiding
principles for prioritizing barriers…
 Which barriers would you address first?
 Why?
Integrated Intervention
Disengaged
learners
Failed Leaners
Programs
 Mentoring programs
 Targeted, differentiated instruction
 Goal Setting & career planning
 Additional instructional time
 Frequent progress reports
 Targeted rewards
 Mandatory study hall
 Mandatory homework help
 Study skills classes
CAUTION: By the secondary level,
failed Learners have become
disengaged learners and require both
categories of intervention support
 Pre-teach essential skills, content, and
vocabulary
 Review/Reteach prerequisite skills to
address the learning gap
 Prevention (requires vertical
articulation with middle/elementary
school and early identification of at-risk
students)
Designing a Comprehensive System to Address
Student Engagement
 Because student engagement is multi-modal so must be our
intervention plans to address student engagement issues
 Plan should be multi-tiered in order to prevent disengagement
and address disengaged students’ needs
 Positive behavior support programs should address all
engagement areas and focus on teaching, modeling, and
reinforcing pertinent skills.
Addressing Academic
Disengagement
Universal
 Use mastery learning principles to guide instructional planning and
delivery
 Incorporate service learning and community projects into core
instruction
 Allow students to have choices within course selection and
assignments
Supplemental and Targeted
 Provide leveled text books in content classes
 Check-In Check-Out focused on academic preparedness and effort
 Seek out college outreach programs and tutors for students
Academic Engagement Example
Strategic Literacy Project
Addresses:
 Reading across subject areas
 The social and personal dimensions of reading
 Reading strategy instruction
 Expanding repertoires in knowledge of topics including knowledge of
topics, vocabulary, genres, and text structure
 All 6th or 9th grade students receive a course in academic literacy in
order to prepare them for the demands of reading across the
content areas
Academic Engagement Example
Results:
 Produced greater than one year’s growth at the 9th grade level.
 Student reported more than doubling the number of books that they
had read in the last year
 Students could describe an array of reading strategies available to
them to understand what they read
 These rates did not vary as a function of teacher, or student
ethnicity or language background
Academic Engagement Example
Zeros Are not Permitted (ZAP) Program
 Main Objectives:
 Improved academic performance by students
 Increased sense of responsibility for academic success
 Development of better study habits and higher quality work
 Increased communication between school and home
 Increases academic outcomes by increasing the amount of time
that students are engaged in academic work by not allowing
students to escape the work
ZAP Process
 ZAP will meet five days per week during the students lunch hour.
 Students will be assigned by their classroom teacher for not completing work by the
required due date.
 The teacher assigning the ZAP will meet briefly with student when assigning the ZAP to
provide the student with necessary information to complete his/her missing assignment.
 The student will then be directed to the designated staff-supervised room to complete the
homework.
 Completed assignments will be collected and placed in the teachers’ mailbox for their
review the next day.
 Completed assignments will max out an 80% of original assignment.
ZAP Considerations
 The ZAP program is not a form of punishment rather a program
to send the message that failure is not acceptable.
 For this program to be effective, all staff must adopt the
following policy: assignments must be completed in a timely
manner.
 Failure to do so will result in the student being assigned a during
lunch or after school homework session because Zeros Aren’t
Permitted (ZAP).
ZAP on Steroids
 Augment school’s master schedule to incorporate an intervention/enrichment
period around the lunch periods
 Results in 45-60 minute lunch periods
 Plan enrichment and extension activities, clubs, and service learning
opportunities for all students who are on-track for graduation and are caught
up/passing their current courses
 Plan mandatory, facilitated study halls, tutoring, and social-emotional skill
support for students who are off-track for graduation or behind/failing one or
more courses
 Ensure that on-track criteria is transparent and understood by students, teachers,
and parents
Team Sharing
 What other strategies/programs could be employed to increase
the amount of time students spend engaged in academic work?
 Do the strategies require a change to your master schedule or
could they be integrated into your existing
instruction/intervention programming?
Addressing Behavioral
Disengagement
Universal
 Implement a school-wide positive behavior support program
 Offer developmentally appropriate social skills instruction as part of the
curriculum
 Create an orderly routine environment which promotes consistency
 Gather student input on school rules and climate and evaluation of
coursework/assignments
Supplemental and Targeted
 Check and Connect program
 Implement student advisory program
 Implement school-to-work programs that foster success in school and
relevant educational opportunities
Positive Behavior Supports
 Expectations for behavior must be defined and taught to students
explicitly
 Students should be reinforced for appropriate student behavior and
school attendance
 Group contingencies and competitions are powerful at the
secondary level because they encourage social engagement
 Secondary students are typically more interested in earning
privileges and autonomy than in earning tangibles
 Positive reinforcement should be awarded to students for the
amount of time and effort students spend academically engaged
Team Sharing
 What other strategies/programs could be employed to encourage
and support consistent attendance and compliance with school
rules and expectations?
 Do the strategies require a change to your master schedule or
could they be integrated into your existing
instruction/intervention programming?
Addressing Psychological Disengagement
Universal
 Provide students with choices when completing assignments
 Focus on necessary steps to reach/pursue personal goals and career exploration- align
data chats to this purpose
 Provide students with challenging and motivating assignments that relate to their lives
outside of school
 Begin lessons by activating background knowledge and relating to student’s personal
goals.
Supplemental and Targeted
 Check and Connect focused on goal setting and progress monitoring
 Self-monitoring interventions
 Metacognitive strategies, effective note-taking, and study skills
 Design assignments to ensure behavioral momentum
Example
Teacher/Advisor-Student Data Chats
 Be driven by students’ long term and short term goals
 Help students to see the relationship between their academic
progress and attainment of their goals
 Empower students to develop action plans related to maintaining
or improving their progress
 Be supportive and promote teacher-student relationships
Video Example
Team Sharing
 What other strategies/programs could be employed to increase
students’ perception of instructional relevance and goal setting
and progress monitoring skills?
 Do the strategies require a change to your master schedule or
could they be integrated into your existing
instruction/intervention programming?
Addressing Social Disengagement
Universal
Implement adult and student advisory/mentoring programs
Develop intermural sports teams
Expand available extracurricular activities, survey students to assess interest
Enact zero tolerance for bullying and student alienation
Implement a small learning community structure
Implement summer community building activities, particularly for transitioning students
which promote social connections and affiliation with the school
 Implement 6th and 9th grade academies






Supplemental and Targeted
 Maximize at-risk students exposure to and interaction with on-track students
 Provide service learning opportunities at the school site which involve high status jobs
 Facilitate involvement in extracurricular activities by providing adult and peer support
and encouragement
Team Sharing
 What other strategies/programs could be employed to increase
students’ perception of peer and adult support, affiliation with
school and sense of belonging?
 Do the strategies require a change to your master schedule or
could they be integrated into your existing
instruction/intervention programming?
The Good News…
 Most of these interventions can be integrated into a school’s
existing master schedules.
 Additional time is typically only required during transition years
 6th grade and 9th grade “transition” classes are a perfect place to
directly address engagement and get students off to a great start
District First Steps…
 Communicate the need and expectation of instructional/intervention
plans to address student engagement barriers while simultaneously
addressing student skill deficits and learning needs
 Provide professional development and coaching for SBLT to ensure
their understanding of the relationship between instruction,
curriculum, and environmental variables and student engagement and
achievement
 Provide professional development and coaching for instructional
personnel to support their ability to improve student engagement and
academic outcomes through the manipulation of instructional,
curricular, and environmental variables
Scheduling of Multi-Tiered Supports
Districts should support school’s efforts to…
 Maximize academic engaged time in critical areas
 Develop master schedules that reflect the needs of students
 Maximize use of all staff
 Ensure time allocated for Tiers 1, 2 and 3
 Provide meeting time for tier integration work
 Be flexible enough to provide timely intervention and re-integration
Scheduling of Multi-Tiered Supports
District’s should support school’s efforts to…
 Direct a significant amount of resources to critical transition years (6th and
9th) to prevent academic and behavioral problems
 Provide opportunities for mentoring, advisement, and academic support
within the master schedule for all students
 Include classes which provide instruction in organization, study skills, note-
taking, problem solving, and communication in the school’s master schedule
 Intensify instruction by providing additional time and personnel or smaller
class sizes for classes which typically result in high rates of courses failures
The How- Integrate Technology
 Technology integration to:
 teach 21st century skills,
 engage students in the learning process, and
 accommodate for significant skill gaps/deficits and allow students
true access to content area curriculum
System
Engage in vertical articulation and programming k-12 driven by a
common vision and supported by predictive, vertically aligned
common assessments
“One Unified
System”begins with kindergarten
 Successful
high school completion
 Each grade/school level inherits an aggregate of student
gaps, weaknesses, and strengths produced in the previous
grade/school level
 Most successful “intervention” is to ensure that students
enter each grade/school level with as much strength as
possible
 With both the academic and social-emotional skills needed to be
successful
“One Unified System”
 Vertical Programming—articulation K-12- is the most effective
way of ensuring that students graduate from the system as fulloption graduates
 An agreed upon “method” of vertical communication of student
data/needs—that leads to vertical programming– is critical
 All grades/school levels need to know student needs prior to
their entry—preferably months ahead of time
 The best “screening” tool is the compilation of student historical data
 This becomes more evident as students move beyond elementary school
PRIORITIES
 Elementary prepares students for success in middle school
 Middle school prepares students for success in high school
 High school prepares students for success in college and
careers
Every System Is Perfectly Aligned to the
Results That It Gets
--George Batsche-ism
What Does this Data Seem to Tell Us?
Percent of Proficient Readers
“Low” Performing School
100%
90%
Without significant organizational
changes, the school should
expect approx. 68% of its
students to need support in
Reading.
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
1
2
3
Year
4
“High” Performing School
5
Percent of Proficient Readers
100%
90%
Without significant organizational
changes, the school should
expect approx. 28% of its
students to need support in
Reading
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
1
2
3
Year
4
5
What Does this Data Seem to Tell Us?
Percent of Students with Excessive
Absenteeism
“Low” Performing School
Without significant organizational
changes, the school should
expect approx. 40% of its
students to demonstrate
disengagement by missing school
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
1
2
3
4
5
Percent of Students with Excessive
Absenteeism
“High” Performing School
Without significant organizational
changes, the school should
expect approx. 21% of its
students to demonstrate
disengagement by missing school
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
1
2
3
4
5
Maximizing Student Outcomes
 To improve student outcomes and allow for full-option
graduation, districts must build systems which allow schools to
more effectively…
 Prevent disengagement and academic skill gaps from occurring in
the first place
 Respond more readily to student engagement and academic deficits
when they do occur
Full Option Graduation Begins Before High School
The Forgotten Middle
“Making sure that all eighth-grade
students have attained the
knowledge and skills that put them
on target to becoming ready for
college and career is the single
most important step that can be
taken to improve their college and
career readiness.”
The Forgotten Middle: Ensuring that All Students are on Target for College
and Career Readiness before High School (ACT, 2008)
Remember this Scenario???
 52.8% (210) of last year's 9th graders are off-track for graduation
 19% (75) are off-track due to failed FCAT, Credits and GPA
 13% (52) of exiting 9th graders failed 3 or more courses
 Almost all of these students are part of the lowest 25%
 Many of these students will count in the total graduation and at-risk graduation rates
 These students have less than a 15% chance of graduating without significant intervention
 Course Failures
 Algebra 1 - 43.5%
 Spanish 1 - 45%
 World History- 29%
 English 1 - 28%
 Hope (Health and PE) - 58 students- 17%
Early Warning Systems and
Vertical Articulation and
Programming
 While in Middle School, entering 9th graders…
 Demonstrated disengagement through absenteeism (32%)
 Demonstrated disengagement through excessive behavioral
referrals/suspensions (22%)
 Had a history of course failures in English/Reading (29%)
 48% scored non-proficient on the Reading FCAT
 Had a history of course failures in math (37%)
 41% scored non-proficient on Math FCAT
 Had a history of retention (24%)
The bottom line…
 Disengaged students are likely to be disengaged at the next grade/school
level in the absence of prevention and intervention support
 Students with a history of academic underachievement or failure are likely to
continue to fail without prevention and intervention support
 Addressing academic and engagement issues earlier rather than later is more
successful and more cost effective
 Preventing disengagement and/or academic failure is more effective than
reacting to them once they occur
Designing Multi-Tiered Supports
Multi-tiered supports should focus on:
 Pre-teaching skills critical to successful transition to the next
grade/school level
 Horizontal alignment of instruction and curriculum for teaching
grade-level standards and behavioral expectations
 Teaching missing skills or providing necessary supports (e.g.,
mentoring, advisement) for student who arrive with or acquire
skill/engagement deficits
Example Vertical Articulation Protocol
Overview of Benchmark
MA.3.A.1.1
Model multiplication and division including problems presented in context…
Required Prior Knowledge as Grade-Band Content as
Identified in Prior Year(s)
identified in current grade
Standards
level standards
Expected Student Knowledge
as Identified by Standards for
next grade levels
District First Steps…
 Designing multi-tiered supports which prevent and respond effectively to
academic/engagement deficits will be greatly facilitated if the District…
 Sets clear expectation for vertical articulation between grade/school levels
 Establishes protocols, procedures, and processes for articulation
 Allocates resources necessary to support articulation between grades/school
levels




Data systems that allow for sharing of data both vertically and horizontally
Time for collaboration between grade/school levels
Trained facilitators/coaches
Support for unpacking of standards
The How- Program Evaluation
Evaluating the impact of instructional/intervention programming
on student outcomes will
 allow teams to identify ineffective instruction and intervention,
 make timely instructional changes, and
 identify students who require more intensive intervention
support.
Without Assessment
 Districts and schools lack of
direction to know what needs to be
improved, who needs intervention,
and whether or not interventions
have been effective.
Without examining rate of learning over
time in comparison to the rate required to
meet the learning goal in the available
time, teams sometimes celebrate
“insufficient” responses.
Learning Rate Over Time
Percentage of Students Scoring Proficient on State Reading Assessment
80%
70%
"Positive" Response
Goal Level
60%
50%
"Insufficient" Response
40%
"Poor" Response
30%
20%
10%
0%
Baseline
Midyear
End of Year
High Quality Feedback and
American students score highly in only one area relative to their
Evaluation?
international peers: self-confidence.
National Center for Educational Accountability
State:
State:
High Stakes
Assessment
Teacher:
Daily
Monitoring
OF
High Stakes
Assessment
OF/FOR
District:
Common
Benchmark
Assessments
FOR
School/Course:
Common Unit
Assessments
OF/FOR
Teacher:
Daily
Monitoring
Using Early Warning Data
to Monitor Progress
 The indicators in the Early Warning System can continue to be used
to monitor the progress of students participating in dropout
prevention interventions
 Interventions should be considered effective for students who move
back on-track for graduation
 Students who continue to be identified as off-track for graduation may
require more intense drop out prevention interventions.
 When evaluating results, be sure to check for delayed outcomes
associated with early interventions
Data Chats
 Data chats between administrators and teachers should occur at least
quarterly to:
 Set and monitor student outcome goals
 Problem Solve barriers to achievement such as skill deficits and behavior
or attendance problems
 Identify the professional development and resource needs of teachers
 Building consensus with secondary students is facilitated by frequent data
chats which focus on their progress:
 In specific courses,
 On state assessments, and
 Toward graduation
Relate data chats to the student’s personal goals
Data Chat Example
 Video Exemplar
 What is the driving force of this data chat?
 How does this example differ from “typical” data chats?
176
Engage in a Relentless Pursuit of
Success for Every Child
 If the data indicates that a strategy does not work for all
students, teams should…
 Ensure that the instructional/intervention programming was
implemented as planned (i.e., fidelity)
 Return to the problem solving process to address barriers to
implementation fidelity and/or to augment the
instruction/intervention plan
it?
 A better understanding of our students’ needs and the practices that
either get us or do not get us the results that we want
 More timely, systematic, and systemic response to students who
have not learned
 A need for less and less intervention services over time
 More effective transition from grade level to grade level and from
school level to school level
The What- What should we expect if we do it?
 More effective courses and academic pipelines
 Increased graduation rates
 Interventions which improve student success within core
instructional settings
 Improvements in the percent of college-ready students
 Increased graduation and full option graduation rates
Every System Is Perfectly Aligned
for the Results
That It Gets
Percentage of students passing all
classes in Quarter 3
2009-2010
11th - 69%
10th – 62%
9th – 54%
12th – 79%
11th – 76%
10th – 72%
9th – 68%
2010-2011
Percentage of Students Assigned ISS
30%
25%
20%
15%
2009-10 Semester 1
2010-11 Semester 1
10%
2009-10 Quarter 3
2010-11 Quarter 3
5%
0%
9th Students 10th Students 11th Students 12th Students Total Percent
2009-10 Semester 1
27%
24%
20%
13%
21%
2010-11 Semester 1
16%
8%
12%
5%
9%
2009-10 Quarter 3
21%
13%
7%
5%
13%
2010-11 Quarter 3
13%
10%
6%
4%
7%
Number of Students Assigned ISS by Grade (Not Cohort)
180
160
140
120
100
9th Students
80
10th Students
11th Students
60
12th Students
40
20
0
2009-10 Semester 1
2010-11 Semester 1
2009-10 Quarter 3
2010-11 Quarter 3
9th Students
155
38
120
32
10th Students
107
26
57
32
11th Students
88
33
31
16
12th Students
50
19
21
15
1530 Days of Lost Instructional Time
Number of ISS Days Assigned for Quarters 1-3 by Grade
Cohort)
Recouped with(Not
only
Tier 1 Supports
2500
2000
1500
2009-10 Quarters 1-3
2010-11 Quarters 1-3
1000
500
0
2009-10 Quarters 1-3
9th Grade
997
10th Grade
472
11th Grade
304
12th Grade
138
Total
1911
2010-11 Quarters 1-3
119
89
109
64
381
Percentage of Students Assigned OSS by Grade
12%
10%
8%
6%
2009-10 Sem 1
2010-11 Sem 1
2009-10 Quarter 3
4%
2010-11 Quarter 3
2%
0%
2009-10 Sem 1
9th Students
9%
10th Students
11%
11th Students
5%
12th Students
5%
Total
7%
2010-11 Sem 1
9%
6%
7%
2%
6%
2009-10 Quarter 3
7%
4%
3%
1%
4%
2010-11 Quarter 3
7%
2%
1%
2%
3%
of now
Students
Assigned
OSSintervention
by Grade
TheNumber
school is
designing
tiered
60
supports for
this group of students and reviewing their data to determine
missed early warning signs that would have allowed
the school to provide prevention services.
50
40
30
9th Students
10th Students
11th Students
20
12th Students
10
0
9th Students
2009-10 Semester 1
49
2010-11 Semester 1
21
2009-10 Quarter 3
40
2010-11 Quarter 3
17
10th Students
46
19
19
8
11th Students
21
21
10
4
12th Students
21
10
4
6
315
Days
ofDays
Lost
Instructional
Time
Number
of OSS
Assigned
- Quarters 1-3 By
Grade
Cohort)
Recouped as a(Not
Result
of Tier 1 Supports
450
400
350
300
250
2009-10 Quarters 1-3
200
2010-11 Quarters 1-3
150
100
50
0
2009-10 Quarters 1-3
9th Grade
383
10th Grade
256
11th Grade
137
12th Grade
80
2010-11 Quarters 1-3
175
133
147
86
Percentage of students with 5 or more
absences in any period during Quarter 3
2009-2010
11th% - 68%
10th – 75%
9th – 74%
12th – 65%
11th – 78%
10th – 41%
9th – 54%
2010-2011
Early Warning System Data
84%
90%
75%
80%
71%
72%
Percentage of Students
70%
60%
50%
Grad Plan 11
40%
Grad Plan 10
30%
11%
20%
Grad Plan 09
9%
5%
Grad Plan 08
10%
6%
1%
10%
4%
5%
10%
10%
Grad Plan 08
4%
9%
4%
7%
0%
On Track
2%
At Risk
Off Track
Highly Off
Track
Risk Category
1%
Grad Plan 09
Grad Plan 10
Grad Plan 11
Extremely Off
Track
E.W.S Over Time – Cohort 2007- 08: Seniors
84
90
80
60
70
60
51
50
Jan-10
40
Jul-10
23
30
27
Jan-11
9
5
20
9
1
1
6
10
8
Jan-11
11
2
0
Jul-10
On Track
3
At Risk for off track
Jan-10
Off Track
High Off Track
Extreme Off Track
E.W.S. Over Time - Cohort 2008-09: Juniors
75%
80%
70%
58%
60%
49%
50%
40%
35%
Jan-10
30%
21%
10%
20%
6%
Aug-11
10%
Jan-11
9%
10%
4%
5%
9%
2%
6%
0%
On Track
At Risk
1%
Off Track
Highly Off Track
Jan-11
Aug-11
Jan-10
Extremely Off
Track
E.W.S. Over Time - Cohort 2009-10
71%
80%
65%
70%
62%
60%
50%
40%
Jan-10
30%
Aug-11
11%
20%
14%
10%
15%
8%
10%
Jan-11
4%
14%
4%
6%
5%
Jan-11
7%
0%
On Track
3%
At Risk
Off Track
Highly Off Track
Aug-11
Jan-10
Extremely Off
Track