The Standards-Based Change Process: Where We’ve Come From, What We’ve Learned, and Prospects for the Future

1
The Standards-Based Change Process Where Weve
Come From, What Weve Learned, and Prospects for
the Future

• Kathy Au
• SNOH Meeting
• August 15, 2006

2
Overview

• Where weve come from
• Roots in KEEP
• What weve learned
• From Hawaii to Chicago
• SBC Process Developmental Model of School Change
• Prospects for the future
• Sustaining progress at Level 7

3
Where Weve Come From Lessons from KEEP
4
Chronology

• Kamehameha Elementary Education Program (KEEP)
• 1971-1989
• Culturally responsive instruction
• Comprehension discussions
• 1989-1995
• Standards
• Student ownership of literacy
• Readers workshop, writers workshop
• Portfolio assessment

5
What Worked

• Emphasis on higher level thinking
• Reading comprehension
• Writing process
• Clear targets for student learning
• Grade level benchmarks
• Formative assessment leading to evidence-based
  teaching
• Student ownership

6
What Didnt Work

• K-3 intervention with volunteer teachers
• Need for schoolwide approach
• Curriculum, assessment, and instruction developed
  by outsiders
• Need for development by insiders
• Over-reliance on external partner
• Need for gradual release of responsibility
• Control by outsiders
• Control/ownership by insiders

7
Conceptual Framework

• Social constructivism as applied to school change
  and teachers professional development
• Community of practice, discourse community
• Classroom as a community of learners -gt
• School as a professional learning community
• Change in the culture of the school
• Understanding as constructed, not transmitted
  higher level thinking
• Students able to self-assess -gtTeachers as
  reflective practitioners
• Teacher-developed curriculum and assessment
• Ownership

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Spread of the SBC Process

• 1997 Kipapa Elementary School
• To 6 schools then the whole district of 42
  schools
• 1999 Holomua Elementary School
• To 10 schools then a neighboring complex of 6
  schools
• 2002 Island of Hawaii
• 40 schools
• 2002 Partnership READ, Chicago

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Contrasting Approaches to School Change
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Approach to ChangeThe Standards-Based Change
Process

• Provides steps a school can follow to implement a
  system for improving student achievement through
  standards
• Focus on higher level thinking
• Establishes an ongoing conversation about what
  everyone is doing to improve student achievement
• Professional learning community
• Develops a staircase curriculum
• Curriculum coherence

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Staircase Curriculum vs.Fragmented Curriculum
Desired Outcome
Desired Outcome
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Hawaii Schools Progressed Through Four Levels in
the SBC Process.

• Initial implementation of the To Do List
• Three times per year reporting of results
• Curriculum guides
• Student portfolios

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To Do List

• Evidence
• Procedures for collecting evidence
• Rubrics
• Bar graphs
• Instructional improvements

• Philosophy
• Vision statement
• Grade level benchmarks
• I Can statements

14
Three Times a Year Reporting of Results
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Teacher-Developed Curriculum Guides
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Student Portfolios with Self-Assessment,
Three-Way Conferences
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SBC Process Results

• Results of HLM analysis for Cohort I
• Students who had state reading test results for
  grade 3 (2002) and grade 5 (2004)
• Significant finding for grade 5 reading test
  results in high-poverty schools
• Mean score 2.7 points higher
• Results occur when schools
• Reach 3 x per year reporting of results
• Have moved forward through the process for
  several years

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Kipapas State Assessment Results, Students
Meeting/Exceeding Proficiency
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What Weve Learned From Hawaii to Chicago
20
Sharing Curriculum Guides through a
Videoconference
21
Taffy Raphael with Holomua Staff
22
Chicago Colleagues
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Partnership READ Staff in Hawaii
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Contrasts Between Sites
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The Difference of OpinionBetween Kathy and Taffy

• Kathy
• The SBC Process is not for every school.
• Taffy
• It is for every school. Some just arent ready
  for it yet.
• It turns out that Taffy is right.

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Levels in the SBC Process Developmental Model of
School Change

• Recognizing a need
• Organizing for change
• Working on the building blocks
• Moving as a whole school
• Establishing the system
• Implementing the staircase curriculum
• Fully engaging students and families
• Citation Raphael, T., Goldman, S., Au, K.,
  Hirata, S. (2006, April). A developmental model
  of the Standards-Based Change Process A case
  study of school literacy reform. Paper presented
  at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational
  Research Association, San Francisco CA.

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Clusters in the Developmental Model of School
Change
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Application of the Model

• Helps to explain why three-quarters of Hawaii
  schools introduced to the SBC Process did not
  succeed
• The original approach worked for schools at
  Levels 3 and above.
• It could not help schools with infrastructure
  needs.

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Infrastructure Issues

• Adequate time for teachers to work together
• The equivalent of 8 full days
• Vertical (cross-grade) as well as horizontal
  (grade level) meetings
• Focused professional development
• Mapping out work with the SBC Process through
  yearlong and multi-year plans
• A strong and knowledgeable curriculum leader
• Who is your Kitty Aihara?

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Classroom Practice Issues

• Staircase curriculum
• Developed by the teachers
• Evidence-based teaching
• Assessment leads to targeted, differentiated
  instruction
• Focus on higher level thinking
• Reading comprehension, mathematical thinking,
  scientific reasoning

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Student Outcome Issues

• Student ownership
• Commitment to their own learning
• Cognitive engagement (Taylor et al.)
• Higher level thinking
• Generalization
• Far (as opposed to near) transfer
• Metacognition
• Self-assessment and goal setting

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Constructivism in Action

• Teachers must construct their own curriculum,
  assessment, and instruction.
• When the curriculum becomes transparent to
  teachers
• Teachers can make the curriculum transparent to
  students (and parents).

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SBC Process Used Across Reading Programs

• Schools at Level 6 (implementing the staircase
  curriculum teacher-developed curriculum guides)
• Home-grown literature 2
• Basal reading 8
• Direct Instruction 1
• Success for All 1
• Latest school - Helemano
• Culture of the school

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Balanced Literacy Instruction

• It doesnt matter what reading program or
  philosophy a school starts with.
• What makes a difference is that the school ends
  up with balanced instruction, including
• Students ownership of literacy
• Higher level thinking with text

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Prospects for the Future

• Helping more schools to succeed

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Benefits of the Developmental Model

• Description
• Identifies the schools level on each of the 9
  dimensions
• Needs assessment
• Overall level
• Areas of relative weakness
• Areas of relative strength
• Long-term planning

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We know now that we need to slow the process down
and start with a needs assessment.

• Take care of infrastructure issues, if any,
  before moving on.

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Kapolei Elementary SchoolSBC Process Long-Range
Plan
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Recommendations

• Gain a historical perspective.
• Trace your schools progress beginning with the
  first year.
• Start doing a needs assessment, based on the
  Developmental Model, at the beginning of every
  school year.
• Create or adjust your schools multi-year plan.
  

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Customized Services

• Services tailored to the goals, strengths, and
  needs of each individual school
• A trainer-of-trainers model doesnt work!
• We need to work with you at your school.

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Leadership On the Ground

• Fullans view of change in schools
• Technically simple
• Socially complex
• Value of a combined perspective
• Outsider
• Insider

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A Better Understanding of Staying the Course Over
the Long Term

• Level 7 schools are those that are able to
  sustain the SBC Process in the face of
  significant changes.
• New principal
• New curriculum coordinator
• Teacher turnover
• All of the above!

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Keeping the Culture Alive

• What sustains innovation is not the school but
  the professional learning community.
• Why key individuals are so important in
  sustaining the SBC Process
• Renewing and rebuilding the professional learning
  community
• Successful schools have a deep bench.

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Conclusions

• School improvement as the process of building a
  professional learning community
• The increasingly challenging work at each level
  in the Developmental Model serves to increase the
  knowledge and strength of the PLC.
• Improving student learning depends on sustaining
  innovation over the years.
• Rebuilding the professional learning community