Supporting Schools Facing Challenging Circumstances. Policy, Research, Practice

1. National Research University Higher School of Economics Graduate School of Education Supporting Schools Facing Challenging Circumstances. Policy, Research, Practice Marina Pinskaya Sergey Kosaretsky Isak Frumin Irina Grunicheva

2. Historical context SOVIET UNION POST-SOVIET ERA Society Growing social and territorial inequality Schools Variable level of material resources, the quality of staffandeducational services School’s free choice Students with low socio-economic status are concentrated in a particular group of schools Significant variation in the quality of education across schools Inequality in educational opportunity Society • Low level of social-economic differentiation Schools • Most schools are the same: • material resources • teachers’ professional skills • educational services Territorial attachment of the school • Homogeneous student population • High level of equity and equality of educational outcomes

3. High differentiation of schools: low social inclusion

4. Disadvahteged schools have limited resourcesPISA 2011 фото фото No significant correlation Disadvantaged schools are more likely to have better resources Disadvantaged schools are more likely to have poorer resources фото Высшая школа экономики, Москва, 2013

5. Methodology Methods Statistical analysis: data (60 variables ): • Finance • Equipment • Staff • Performance data • Socio-economic background • Contingent Field research • School leadership • Instruction practice • School culture (interaction with parents, cooperation, expectations) During the  field research the following methods were used: • the semi-structured interviews (students, teachers, administration, parents, potential social partners ). Theoretical framework • The model of school effectiveness (R.Marzano, P.Мortimor), • the model of Professional Learning Communities (M.Fullan), • theory of social Capital  (Coleman, J.), • the model of school Improvement   (D.Hargreaves). Objectives • to identify schools with low academic results that need support • to identify external and internal causes of consistent underperformance of the school Data base • 1000 schools in 2 regions of RF

6. ResearchModel of analysis

7. Average USE score in math in schools and share of students with two parents who have university-level education Average UES score in Russian in schools and share of highly qualified teachers Challenging conditions: problematic contingent and limited resources

8. Share of families in which the parents have university-level education and size of settlement Share of highly qualified teachers and size of settlement Challenging conditions: territorialdifferentiation Average percentage of of families in which the parents have university-level education Average percentage of top-rank teachers among schools in municipal district Log population of municipal district Log population of municipal district

9. Schools in challenging conditions have consistently low learning outcomesUSE results in dynamics Socially disadvantaged Socially neutral Socially safe Average for 3 years USE 2009USE 2010 USE 2011

10. Yaroslavl Region (Volga Area) Moscow Region (Central Russia) Republic of Karelia (North-West of Russia) 2010 - 2013 JOINT PILOT PROJECT “PROGRAMS OF SUPPORTING LOW-PERFORMING SCHOOLS WORKING IN ECONOMICALLY AND SOCIALLY DEPRIVED CONTEXTS”

11. PROJECT ACTIVITIES Design of School Improvement Programs Professional Collaboration between Schools Coaching and Consulting of School Teams

12. Outcomes • two schools avoid closure • stopping “the leak” of high-performing students to other schools and students number growth • provision of additional support and resources from local educational authorities • growing number of school partners • readiness and strong commitment of school teams to share their experience with other schools facing challenging circumstances

13. Transmission from Non-effective to Effective Teaching Practices

14. Changes (quotations from the interviews with school principles and vice -principles) Starting Situation (2009) Actual situation (2013) “Now we have almost 500 students. Pupils do not change schools and we save our contingent”. “thanks to the activity of our Principal a variety of resources which helped us to improve significantly our material and technical facilities” “parents attitude to school has changed. On the one hand has happened as their response to new educational environments which we have created within the last years” • «We had less than 300 students in school which was initially built for more than 1000 students” • “school material and technical facilities were not sufficient for organizing educational process on the needed level – shabby school furniture, gloomy painted walls… the new principal when she came to this school for the first time 4 years ago had an impression as if she plunged in time of 30 years ago»

15. Changes (quotations from the interviews with school principles and vice -principles) Starting Situation (2009) Actual situation (2013) “we’ve managed to change teachers’ mentality. And if several years ago our teachers were close, not confident and were shy to say somebody that they work in our school, but today they are proud of it. As most of them are participants and winners of professional contests of different levels. Joining this project has become a powerful impetus for new and new initiatives” «the majority of our teaching staff was of low professional competence, their professional self-evaluation was low, they were demoralized and had lost faith in themselves”

16. Research results influence Policy Vladimir Putin: “To ensure socially equal access to education isone of our most urgent national targets” “In some of our metropolitan areas we face the phenomenon of steady low-performingschools, where there are a lot of children with problems in studies and behavior, with having Russian as a non-native language. Thus school stops functioning as a social lift and starts to reproduce and reinforce social differentiation. Children should not be held hostageto the social or cultural status of their families. If schools are working in deprived socialconditions then they must receive as much of support as lyceums and gymnasiums workingwith affluent children receive. And this support must be methodical , personnel and financial” (2012)

17. Research results influence Policy Presidential Edict (2011): On the basis of existing best practices to form mechanisms, including organizational, management and financial ones, which will ensure high quality of educational programs of general education, regardless of the type of educational institutions Presidential Decree (2012): Up to the end of 2013 to ensure the implementation of measures to support teachers working with children from socially disadvantaged families The State Program of the Russian Federation “Development of Education”: Low-performing schools in disadvantages context should get grants on the implementation of special programs aimed at improving educational outcomes of their students and transformation of these schools into effective schools.

18. Instruments to support policy • Community Social Advantage Indexof schools (summarizes information about the socio-economic status and education of parents and used to compare academic results of schools with similar characteristicsand mark schools that need support) • Road Maps model for regions to support schools in challenging conditions • Guidance for schools on improvement programs • Training programs for school administrators and school counselors.

19. Research results influence Policy: next steps • Measures to support schools working in difficult conditions included: • - The road map for the development of education in 2012-2018 in Russia; • - Education Development Strategy and Development Program (Moscow, Moscow region, Tula Region) • Low-performance schools received grants forimprovementprograms (Moscowregion, Yaroslavl region, Belgorod region).

20. E-mail: Marina Pinskaya m-pinskaya@yandex.ru Sergey Kosaretskiy skosaretski@hse.ru National Research University Higher School of Economics http://www.hse.ru