Promoting High Achievement for All Groups of Students

1. Promoting High Achievement for All Groups of Students Joseph F. Johnson, Jr., Ph.D. Michigan ASCD Conference April 26, 2005

2. Profound achievement gaps plague our nation; however, we have many proofs that these gaps do not need to exist. So, why do achievement gaps persist?

3. Four Reasons • We don’t think it is worthwhile. • We don’t think it is possible. • We don’t know how to go about making it happen. • We don’t think we are capable of succeeding.

4. Using standards to drive changes in instruction ultimately comes down to finding ways to affect people’s beliefs about what is possible, what is worthwhile, and what they have capacity to do. Richard Elmore, 1994

5. Leaders Help People Perceive That The Change Is Worth Their Effort • Do educators in your school/district believe it is worth their effort to try to provide instruction in a manner that leads all groups of students to achieve academic proficiency? • Do they think the pursuit of AYP is a political, bureaucratic game, played at the expense of educators and students? • Do teachers believe the goal is really about serving students well? Do parents believe the goal is really about serving their children well?

6. Leaders Help People Perceive That The Change Is Worth Their Effort • Keep people focused on the real goal: improving the education of children. • Promote goals that will make an obvious and powerful difference. Emphasize the influence on students’ lives. • Create an oasis of enthusiasm and hope.

7. Leaders Help People Perceive That The Change Is Possible • Do educators in your school/district believe it is possible to provide instruction in a manner that leads all groups of students to achieve academic proficiency? • Do parents believe that their children can be expected to achieve academic proficiency? • Do teachers/parents know of schools that serve similar students, with similar challenges, and have excellent academic results? • Do they know of places within their school that have achieved atypical, unexpectedly strong results?

8. Ohio’s 102 Schools of Promise • Meet adequate yearly progress • +75% proficient in reading or math (85% for 10th gr.) • +75% of each racial/ethnic group proficient in reading or math (85% for 10th gr.) • +75% of economically disadvantaged students proficient in reading or math (85% for 10th gr.) • +40% of students meet low-income criteria • Criteria apply to all student groups w/ 5 or more test takers

9. Leaders Help People Perceive That The Change Is Possible • Give people many opportunities to see and discuss many examples of success. • Use state databases to identify schools that serve similar groups of students with better results. • If possible, arrange opportunities for site visits. • Conduct phone interviews. • Read case studies.

10. Leaders Help People Perceive That The Change Is Possible • Use your own data to debunk myths about what is possible and impossible. • Use school data to challenge common perceptions about groups of students with lower achievement levels. • Use school data to highlight growth, especially for those groups of students with greatest needs. • Create a culture of success by celebrating accomplishment wherever it can be found.

11. Get a new plan Get a new textbook Get more test prep Get new students Get more aides Get a new staff development program Get a new schedule Get a new computer system Get a new principal Get a new reading program Get new teachers Get new parents Get a new test Get a new curriculum Many Strategies for Pursuing AYP

12. Nothing Changes Unless Classroom Instruction Changes.

13. So, the fundamental role of educational leaders (regardless of position) is to influence constructive change in classroom instruction.

14. Leaders Help People Know How to Change Instruction • Do educators in your school/district know how to provide great instruction to all of the groups of students they serve? • Do they know specifically what their students must learn by year end in order to demonstrate proficiency? • Do they know how to deliver the required content in ways that capitalize on the learning strengths, interests, and backgrounds of the students they serve?

15. Leaders Help People Know How to Change Instruction • Do they know how to teach the required content, in the time allotted, to the level of skill required? • Do they know how to teach such that their students will behave enough to learn? • Do they have a way of monitoring the progress of individual students and groups of students throughout the year? • Do they know ways to adjust instruction as appropriate? • Do they know how to engage the support of the parents of their students?

16. Leaders Help People Know How to Change Instruction • Carefully identify instructional needs, using multiple sources of data. Then, respond in intensive and systematic ways. • Don’t try to do everything at once! • Engage everyone as part of the solution.

17. Leaders Help People Feel That They Can Win! • Do educators in your school/district believe they have the capacity to provide instruction in a manner that leads all groups of students to achieve academic proficiency? • Do they feel it’s safe to try new approaches and risk failure? • Do they feel they have plentiful in-classroom support or do they feel like they’re on their own, sink or swim, do or die? • Do parents feel like they have something meaningful to contribute to the education of their child?

18. Leaders Help People Feel That They Can Win! • Help educators feel safe to try new approaches, learn, make mistakes, and grow. • Help educators perceive that they have plentiful on-the-job support. • Help educators know that you feel accountable for providing high quality support. • Provide educators regular opportunities to support their colleagues in pursuing desired changes. • Help parents feel like they have excellent support as they try to help their children succeed.

19. For the Children’s Sake, Pursue Excellence for All Groups of Students Lead the people with whom you work such that they will: • Know that the hard work of changing instruction is worth their effort • Know that excellent teaching and learning is possible for them and all the groups of students they serve • Know how to pursue improvement in instruction • Know they can win!