Eye on Leadership
Closing the Achievement Gap - Implementing by Doing
(Second article of series)

by Edna Varner Cornerstone Leadership

 

Schools in the United States have a long history of adopting innovations one after another as they are introduced. Very few schools take the time to use data to understand the needs of the children being served. Few take the time to understand the impact current processes have on these children. Few take the time to determine the root causes of recurring problems, or to measure and analyze the impact of implementing new approaches. Fewer still use sound information to build and stick with a solid long-term plan that will improve learning for all students. Across our country, we have found that schools spend an average of about two years engaged in their school improvement efforts. The sad fact is that most schools really only implement their plans for the first six to twelve months after the plan is completed. Is it any wonder that nothing seems to generate results for these schools?  -- Victoria Bernhardt, Data Analysis for Continuous School Improvement

Bernhardt’s observations on implementing school improvement plans are not very optimistic.  According to research on school reform, the news is even less hopeful in its appraisal of track records for implementing school change, a contributing factor to the widening achievement gap between underperforming poor and minority students and their classmates.  Our more affluent students are underperforming as well when compared to student achievement internationally.  School leaders tell us they have too many initiatives.  Teachers say they are overwhelmed.  In the meantime, children continue to fail, forcing schools and whole districts into corrective action.   What is it about fully implementing that is so difficult? 

In their popular book, Learning by Doing, a text currently guiding the work in Stamford, CT and other districts across the Cornerstone network,  DuFour, et al.  say the problem lies in the reluctance of leaders and their school teams to become immersed in the work of implementing change by actually “doing” school change rather than merely talking about and planning for it.

Our profession attests to the importance and power of learning by doing when it comes to educating students.  We want students to be actively engaged in hands-on authentic exercises that promote experiential learning.  How odd then that a profession that pays such homage to the importance of learning by doing is so reluctant to apply that principle when it comes to developing the collective capacity to meet the needs of students.  Why do institutions created for and devoted to learning not call upon the professionals within them to become more proficient in improving the effectiveness of schools by actually doing the work of school improvement? --from Learning by Doing

Revisiting Elements of Cornerstone’s School Change Model

Focusing:   Learning the Disciplines of School Change
Focus helps a school concentrate on its core business—student achievement.  Schools that constantly complain about too many initiatives are often trying to focus on the initiatives rather than how they can draw on initiatives to serve their goals.

In “Three School Improvement Mistakes (and how to avoid them),” authors Goodwin and Dean say, “One way for schools to focus their efforts is with a “less-is more” approach, engaging in a small-scale, short-term change effort that follows a systematic process.  This process includes defining the problem and finding the right solution, implementing and monitoring the effectiveness of the solution, and reflecting on the process to identify those actions and structures that contributed to the success of the effort.  This helps schools focus on a small change while they are learning how to be disciplined about the process of change.”  By learning the disciplines of school change, they build capacity for the more complex change required to confront more challenging issues current and future.

Establishing:  Becoming Your School Vision
To become what your school vision describes, the school must “establish” whatever does not currently exist.  The first step is to establish an instructional leadership team to do this strategically.

The school leadership team builds knowledge, enables and supports change, monitors progress, and holds the team and others accountable for results.  The principal ensures that leadership is shared so that expertise school wide is tapped to establish other elements of the school’s vision.  We cited some critical components in last month’s article:

• Time, including time for training, for planning, for reflection, for key people to exchange information in a timely fashion.
• Instructional supervision of teachers; accountability for instructional programs; purposeful, targeted staff development; classroom application, resources.
• Trust among parents, teachers, administrators; high mutual expectations; excellent communication; positive attitudes, even when the faculty shares different opinions.
• Follow-through, accountability, consistent district support for school change.

Developing:  Ensuring Excellent Teaching in Every Classroom, Every Day
Fully implementing requires developing the expertise of teachers in every classroom, every day.   Part of that development occurs in study groups, in leadership team meetings, in colleagues’ classrooms, during parent conferences, with a whole class, and with small groups of students.   

According to  “Implementing a School Wide Literacy Framework:  Improving Achievement in an Urban Elementary School” by Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey, whole-school change is the real challenge.   “Innovations are everywhere, but few are implemented consistently across grades and teachers.  The risk in making this comment is that someone will attempt to legislate, mandate, or prescribe curriculum and instruction in an attempt to ensure that evidenced-based instructional practices reach every classroom.  But as Fullan, et al., noted in Breakthrough,  we do not need more prescriptive, scripted curriculum or instruction.  Instead we need precision in our teaching.  This precision comes when teachers have an extensive knowledge base and make expert decisions based on data about the instructional needs of their students.  The question is how to ensure this happens.”

Cornerstone literacy and leadership fellows make this happen by developing leadership and two coaches as model classroom teachers, facilitators, professional developers, and teacher leaders.  They work with the principal and coaches to quickly identify other strong teachers to share coaching responsibilities until faculty are teaching and learning from each other school wide.  Fellows gradually release responsibilities to coaches and classroom teachers during years one through four so that their primary role becomes sharing new content, helping coaches deepen the work school wide, and giving feedback about the extent to which best practice is becoming a part of the school culture.

Enhancing:  Looking for Evidence for Continuous Improvement
Schools that measure and analyze the impact of implementing new approaches know if what they are doing is working and, if not, why not. These schools also stick with their efforts to create change long after most schools have switched to new efforts. These schools get results (Benhardt).

The use of data can make an enormous difference in school reform efforts by helping schools see how to improve school processes and student learning. Data can help to—

• replace hunches and hypotheses with facts concerning what changes are needed,
• facilitate a clear understanding of the gaps between where the school is and where the school wants to be,
• identify the root causes of these gaps, so the school can solve the problem and not just treat the symptom,
• understand the impact of processes on the student population,
• assess needs to target services on important issues,
• provide information to eliminate ineffective practices,
• ensure the effective and efficient uses of dollars,
• show if school goals and objectives are being accomplished,
• ascertain if the school staffs are implementing their visions,
• promote understanding of the impact of efforts, processes, and progress,
• generate answers for the community related to, “What are we getting for our children by investing in the school’s methods, programs, and processes?”
• continuously improve all aspects of the learning organization,
• predict and prevent failures, and
• predict and ensure successes.

Fully implementing the Cornerstone initiative should be an essential for schools hoping to close the achievement gap.   Building professional knowledge and skills on site, through technology, and in collaboration with the Cornerstone network, developing the disciplines of change as a school moves through the literacy change cycle, sustaining a focus on student literacy outcomes and adult accountability--all prepare a leadership team for implementing any promising initiative.

In a research brief for The National Clearinghouse for Comprehensive School Reform, Terri Schwartzbeck put questions to the research network to get their findings on patterns and trends in implementation.  Implementation looks different everywhere, but certain trends and patterns emerge, especially when model developers provide guidance with implementation benchmarks to help schools assess where they should be at the end of year one, year two, and so on. Some aspects of schools are harder to change than others.  Some elements of a school change model are harder to put into practice than others. There are key similarities in how change progresses, and progress varies from school to school.  

That said, the one constant supported by all the research is this: Full implementation makes a significant difference--and a district, a school can only “fully” implement by doing.

Resources
Bernhardt,  Victoria, Data Analysis for Continuous School Improvement , Eye on Education, 2004.

Dufour,  Richard, Rebecca DuFour, Robert Eaker, Thomas Many, Learning by Doing, Solution Tree, 2006.

Fisher, Douglas and Nancy Frey, “Implementing a School wide Literacy Framework:  Improving Achievement in an Urban Elementary School,” The Reading Teacher, 2007, 61(1), pp. 32-43.

Goodwin, Bryan and Ceri Dean, “Three School Improvement Mistakes (and how to avoid them),” in Changing Schools, vol. 55, Spring 2007.

Schwartzbeck, Terri Duggan, “Patterns I Implementing Comprehensive School Reform:  What the Researchers Say,” The National Clearinghouse for Comprehensive School Reform, February,  2002.