Breaking Ranks II : Strategies for Leading High School Reform

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Breaking Ranks II Strategies for Leading High
School Reform
TM
Welcome toBreaking Ranks IIBeginning the
Conversation
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• The greatest danger for most of us is not that
  our aim is too high and we miss it, but that
  it is too low and we reach it.
• Michelangelo

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The secret of managing a team is to keep the
four guys who hate you away from the five who are
still undecided. Casey
Stengel
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Goal

• To help ensure your success as you work to
  improve student performance through the
  recommendations in Breaking Ranks II.

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Breaking Ranks ???
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Breaking Ranks II
2004
1996
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Climate for Change

This is the current program.

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This is what were going to do instead.
The new thing
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Climate for Change

This is the current program.

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The new thing
And this is what were going to do instead.
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Climate for Change

This is the current program.

The new thing
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And this is what were going to do instead.
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Why Break Ranks?
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Rate of Change

• To achieve 25 penetration rate in U.S. homes

• Telephone 35 years
• Television 26 years
• Personal Computer 16 years
• Internet 7 years
• Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) 3 years

Willard Daggett International Center for
Leadership in Education, 2006
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Ten Trends

• For the first time in history, the old will
  out-number the young.
• The U.S. will become a nation of minorities by
  mid-century
• Social and intellectual capitol will become the
  primary economic value (Information age)
• Education is shifting from averages to
  individuals (Standardization vs. Personalization)
• The Millennial generation will insist on
  solutions to accumulated problems
• Continuous improvement and collaboration will
  replace quick fixes and defense of the status quo
• Knowledge creation and breakthrough thinking will
  stir a new era of enlightenment
• Scientific discoveries and societal realities
  will force difficult ethical choices
• Competition will increase as industries and
  professions intensify their efforts to attract
  and keep talented people
• Technology will increase the speed of
  communication and the pace of advancement or
  decline

Gary Marx. Ten Trends Educating Children for
Tomorrows World. 2003
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Emerging Careers

• Artificial Intelligence Technician
• Automobile Fuel Cell Battery Technician
• Cyrbarian
• Image Consultant
• Information Broker
• Medical Diagnostic Imaging Technician
• Neuromarketing

Gary Marx. Ten Trends Educating Children for
Tomorrows World. 2003
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Why Break Ranks?

• The Job Market 50 Years Ago
• 20 Professional
• 20 Skilled Labor
• 60 Unskilled Labor

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Why Break Ranks?

• Todays Job Market
• 20 Professional
• 65 Skilled
• 15 Unskilled

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Why Break Ranks?
College Graduates by Age 26
Source Tom Mortenson, Research Seminar on Public
Policy Analysis of Opportunity for Post
Secondary, 1997.
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The World is Flat
Thomas L. Friedman
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NCLB

• New era of accountability
• Schools held to new standards
• Required to reach all students

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What Happens to Entering 9th Graders Four Years
Later
37 Graduate from high school NOT
college-ready
29 Drop out of high school
34 Graduate from high school college-ready
Greene Winters 2005
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The Moral Imperative

• Well compare our performance to any of the
  surrounding high schools.
• That could never happen at our school.
• We have some of the best test scores around.
• Our school is above average in every
  standardized measure.
• Our drop out rate is acceptable.

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Breaking Ranks II Organization

• 7 Cornerstone Strategies help schools strategize
  about entry points for implementing
  recommendations.
• 31 Recommendations indicate specific goals for
  improving student outcomes.
• ? 3 Core Areas Themes that cluster
  recommendations keep the big picture in focus.

pp. 6-15
pp. 17 - 18
p. 16
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Collaborative LeadershipCore Area 1

• ? Involve others in the change process through
  collaboration, review of data, and professional
  development.

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Collaborative Leadership Core Area 1

• Chapter 2 p. 19
• ? Recommendations 1 9 p. 61

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Personalization Core Area 2

• ? Provide opportunities for students to build
  relationships with adults and peers, and between
  themselves and what they learn.

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Personalization Core Area 2

• ? Chapter 3 p. 67
• ? Recommendations 10-18 p. 83

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Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment Core Area 3

• ?Build relationships between students and ideas
• ? Rigorous Essential Learnings
• ? Student-centered
• ? Applied to real world
• ? Engaging

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Curriculum, Instruction Assessment Core Area 3

• ? Chapter 4 p. 89
• ? Recommendations 19-31 p.123

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Seven Cornerstone Strategies

• Establish the essential learnings a student is
  required to master in order to graduate, and
  adjust the curriculum and teaching strategies to
  realize that goal.
• Increase the quantity and improve the quality of
  interactions between students, teachers, and
  other school personnel by reducing the number of
  students for which any adult or group of adults
  is responsible.
• Implement a comprehensive advisory program that
  ensures that each student has frequent and
  meaningful opportunities to plan and assess his
  or her academic and social progress with a
  faculty member.
• Ensure that teachers use a variety of
  instructional strategies and assessments to
  accommodate individual learning styles.

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Seven Cornerstone Strategies

1. Implement schedules flexible enough to
   accommodate teaching strategies consistent with
   the ways students learn most effectively and that
   allow for effective teacher teaming and lesson
   planning.
2. Institute structural leadership changes that
   allow for meaningful involvement in decision
   making by students, teachers, family members, and
   the community and that support effective
   communication with these groups.
3. Align the schoolwide comprehensive, ongoing
   professional development program and the
   individual Personal Learning Plans of staff
   members with the content knowledge and
   instructional strategies required to prepare
   students for graduation.

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Leadership

• A leader is someone you willingly choose to
  follow to a place you would not go by yourself.
• - Joel Barker

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Leadership

• Leadership focuses on the future, management
  focuses on the present.
• - Joel Barker

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Leadership and Management

• When Noah heard the weather forecast,
• he ordered the building of the ark.
• That was Leadership.
• Then he looked around and said,
• "Make sure the elephants don't see what the
  rabbits are up to."
• That was Management.

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Balanced Leadership Framework

• Effective Leadership means more than simply
  knowing what to do its knowing when, how and
  why to do it. Effective leaders know how to
  balance pushing for change while at the same
  time, protecting aspects of culture, values, and
  norms worth preserving...They know how to gauge
  the magnitude of change they are calling for and
  how to tailor their leadership strategies
  accordingly.
• - McREL Meta-Analysis on Leadership (2004)

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What Does it Take?
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How Principals See Themselves
Metropolitan Life Survey of the Teacher 2003
An Examination of School Leadership.
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360 Feedback Instrument
Support Staff
Prof Staff
Self
Supervisor
Admin Team
Community
Peers
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• The fact that the captain of the ship can
  clearly see the port is of no use if the crew
  continues to paddle in a different direction.
• 
  Author Unknown

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Leadership

• Leadership is a reciprocal relationship between
  those who choose to lead and those who decide to
  follow.
• - Kouzes Posner

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School Culture
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Systems
All organizations are perfectly designed to
produce the results they get. - Peter Senge, The
Fifth Discipline
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The only difference between a rut and a grave is
the depth of the hole. Roland Barth
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Managing Complex Change
Vision
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Managing Complex Change
CHANGE
Vision
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Managing Complex Change

Vision
Skills
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Managing Complex Change

Vision
Skills
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Managing Complex Change

Vision
Skills
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Managing Complex Change

Vision
Skills
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Managing Complex Change

Vision
Skills
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Managing Complex Change
CHANGE
Vision
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Change is good! You go first.
- Michael Fullen
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• You have to change enough quickly enough so that
  gravity can not drag you back.
• 
  Theodore Sizer

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Welcome Back

• Breaking Ranks II
• Beginning the Conversation

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Dialogue reveals assumptions for examination
and reevaluation. Dialogue remains open-ended.
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THIS IS IT, LUCY! WE MADE IT ALL THE WAY TO THE
END OF THE WORLD, WHICH VALIDATES MY HYPOTHESIS
WOO-HOO!
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UH WHAT HYPOTHESIS?
THAT THE EARTH IS FLAT!
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UM WHAT ABOUT ALL THE EVIDENCE THAT REFUTES YOUR
PRE-CONCEIVED CONCLUSION?
I JUST DISMISS IT AS RHETORIC BY EVIL DOERS WHO
WANT TO EMBOLDEN THE ENEMY
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BUT IF YOU JUST LOOK OVER THERE, YOU CAN SEE FOR
YOURSELF. THE EARTH ISNT FLAT. THIS ISNT THE
EDGE OF THE EARTH ITS JUST A GULLY
SO AS LONG AS I DONT LOOK, MY CONVICTIONS HOLD
TRUE
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Assessment Literacy

• The ability to gather dependable student data.
• Capacity to examine student data make sense of
  it.
• Ability to make changes in teaching in schools
  derived from those data.
• Commitment to communicate effectively engage in
  external assessment discussions.
• - Michael Fullan

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DATA

• Less than 20 of parents respond to communication
  from the school.

What conclusions might be drawn from this?
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DATA

• The membership of sports teams, leadership
  groups, honors classes and clubs draws from the
  same 45 of the student body.

What conclusions might be drawn from this?
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Important and Useful Data
A 1. Won 41 lost 39 2. Second place in the
Division 3. Record away from home was 18 wins and
22 losses (league avg. was 13-27) 4. Team beaten
in the second round of the playoffs
B 1. Team averaged 102 points per game 2. Team
gave up 99 points per game (league avg. 94) 3.
Team percentage shooting 48.2 (league avg.
46.1) 4. Team 3 point percentage shooting 39.2
(league avg. 34.5)
D 1. Team practices 3 hours per day, 75 of which
is on offense. 2. Each team member shoots
approximately 50 free throws per day. 3. In a 48
minute game, the five starters averaged 37, 42,
38, 35, and 35 minutes of play. 4. Pre season two
a day practices last a shorter time than for most
teams 5. There is unrest among the reserves.
C 1. Team averaged 12.6 turnovers (league avg.
14.2) 2. Team free throw percentage 67.3
(league avg. 75.2) 3. Team averaged 39 rebounds
per game, 16 offensive, 23 defensive (league avg.
13.4 26.6) 4. Team committed 47 of its fouls in
the 4th quarter.
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Important and Useful Data
Which data do you think are the most important to
the teams stakeholders?
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Important and Useful Data
A 1. Won 41 lost 39 2. Second place in the
Division 3. Record away from home was 18 wins and
22 losses (league avg. was 13-27) 4. Team beaten
in the second round of the playoffs
B 1. Team averaged 102 points per game 2. Team
gave up 99 points per game (league avg. 94) 3.
Team percentage shooting 48.2 (league avg.
46.1) 4. Team 3 point percentage shooting 39.2
(league avg. 34.5)
D 1. Team practices 3 hours per day, 75 of which
is on offense. 2. Each team member shoots
approximately 50 free throws per day. 3. In a 48
minute game, the five starters averaged 37, 42,
38, 35, and 35 minutes of play. 4. Pre season two
a day practices last a shorter time than for most
teams 5. There is unrest among the reserves.
C 1. Team averaged 12.6 turnovers (league avg.
14.2) 2. Team free throw percentage 67.3
(league avg. 75.2) 3. Team averaged 39 rebounds
per game, 16 offensive, 23 defensive (league avg.
13.4 26.6) 4. Team committed 47 of its fouls in
the 4th quarter.
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Important and Useful Data
Which data would be the least useful to help the
team improve?
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Important and Useful Data
A 1. Won 41 lost 39 2. Second place in the
Division 3. Record away from home was 18 wins and
22 losses (league avg. was 13-27) 4. Team beaten
in the second round of the playoffs
B 1. Team averaged 102 points per game 2. Team
gave up 99 points per game (league avg. 94) 3.
Team percentage shooting 48.2 (league avg.
46.1) 4. Team 3 point percentage shooting 39.2
(league avg. 34.5)
D 1. Team practices 3 hours per day, 75 of which
is on offense. 2. Each team member shoots
approximately 50 free throws per day. 3. In a 48
minute game, the five starters averaged 37, 42,
38, 35, and 35 minutes of play. 4. Pre season two
a day practices last a shorter time than for most
teams 5. There is unrest among the reserves.
C 1. Team averaged 12.6 turnovers (league avg.
14.2) 2. Team free throw percentage 67.3
(league avg. 75.2) 3. Team averaged 39 rebounds
per game, 16 offensive, 23 defensive (league avg.
13.4 26.6) 4. Team committed 47 of its fouls in
the 4th quarter.
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Important and Useful Data
Which data would be the most useful to help the
team improve?
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Important and Useful Data
A 1. Won 41 lost 39 2. Second place in the
Division 3. Record away from home was 18 wins and
22 losses (league avg. was 13-27) 4. Team beaten
in the second round of the playoffs
B 1. Team averaged 102 points per game 2. Team
gave up 99 points per game (league avg. 94) 3.
Team percentage shooting 48.2 (league avg.
46.1) 4. Team 3 point percentage shooting 39.2
(league avg. 34.5)
D 1. Team practices 3 hours per day, 75 of which
is on offense. 2. Each team member shoots
approximately 50 free throws per day. 3. In a 48
minute game, the five starters averaged 37, 42,
38, 35, and 35 minutes of play. 4. Pre season two
a day practices last a shorter time than for most
teams 5. There is unrest among the reserves.
C 1. Team averaged 12.6 turnovers (league avg.
14.2) 2. Team free throw percentage 67.3
(league avg. 75.2) 3. Team averaged 39 rebounds
per game, 16 offensive, 23 defensive (league avg.
13.4 26.6) 4. Team committed 47 of its fouls in
the 4th quarter.
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Important and Useful Data
Summary

• B C data
• Targeted data
• Usually determined by District
• Usually not important to stakeholders
• Important and useful to educators to target NEEDS

• A data
• Big Picture data
• Usually determined by policy or legislation
• Usually ranked data
• Important to stakeholders
• Not very useful to educators

• D data
• Causal data
• Usually determined by principal teachers
• Usually not important to stakeholders
• Extremely important and useful to educators to
  explain A, B, C data and focus school
  improvement

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You dont fatten your cattle by weighing them.

- Jonathan Kozol
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Personalizing the School Environment

• On any given day, I think every adolescent is
  at-risk in some way. How many schools approach
  such concerns with purposeful, planned and
  progressive awareness-building, educational, and
  intervention strategies in place as opposed to
  trying to deny these realities or being caught in
  a reactive, crisis-oriented position?
• 
  Marnik (1997)

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Personalization

• A learning process in which schools help
  students
• Assess their own talents and aspirations,
• Plan a pathway toward their own purposes
• Work cooperatively with others on challenging
  tasks
• Maintain a record of their explorations, and
• Demonstrate their learning against clear
  standards in a variety of media,
• All with the close support of adult mentors and
  guides.

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Personalized Learning Study

• Education Alliance at Brown
• Seven High Schools in 2000
• Shadowed 21 students in all 7 schools
• Characterize student needs
• Describe school structures
• Characterize interactions

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• Students need to make a strong connection to an
  adult they can see themselves becoming.
• 
  
  
  Author Unknown

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• To teach each student well requires that we know
  each student well.
• 
  Theodore Sizer

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HS Students Believe Schools Are Preparing Them
Well Grads, Employers and Professors Say
Otherwise
of survey respondents saying that high schools
prepare students well for
Achieve, Inc., 2005
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Standard

• P.O.T.S
• (person on the street)

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Rigor At All Levels

• Students can do no better than the assignments
  they are given.
• Dr. Katie Haycock, Education Trust

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10th Grade Writing Assignment

• Many novels center on the struggle between man
  and himself. Write an essay in which you discuss
  this struggle as it relates to a character from
  one of this semesters readings. Which aspect of
  the character wins the struggle? Support your
  point of view with evidence from the novel.

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10th Grade Writing Assignment (same school,
different section)
Write a three paragraph essay describing the
major accomplishments of Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr. Be sure to proofread your work. Neatness
counts.
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What is academic rigor?
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How rigorous is the course?

• How deeply are students required to delve into
  the subject matter?
• How independently are they required to think and
  work?
• Are they required to integrate new knowledge
  w/prior knowledge apply this sum in new
  settings?

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How rigorous is the course?

• Are students required to be evaluative of their
  own learning and performance?
• Are they required to weigh and judge the veracity
  of what they are told/taught?
• Are they required to examine knowledge and issues
  from a variety of points of view?
• Teacher Leaders Network

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Guidelines for a Rigorous Curriculum

• It is authentic?
• Product-oriented
• Quality standards set in advance
• Requires application of skills
• Open-ended and problem-based

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Guidelines for a Rigorous Curriculum

• It is thoughtful and reflective?
• Requires analysis, synthesis, evaluation
• Has multiple outcomes
• Requires new ways of thinking
• Judged on quality criteria and evidence

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Guidelines for a Rigorous Curriculum

• It is uncomfortable?
• Creates dissonance in learner
• Uses real-world problems
• No clear answer only high quality ones
• Requires new behavior, skills and learning
• Entertains the possibility of failure

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Guidelines for a Rigorous Curriculum

• It is individualized?
• Permits student to pursue interests
• Is differentiated
• Provides support
• Requires self-evaluation

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Four Conditions for Student Success With The
Hard Stuff

• 1. Success seems feasible.
• Im smart enough.
• The teacher has understandable explanations for
  the hard stuff.
• Extra help is available if I need it.
• 2. Lessons seem relevant.
• 3. Adults are supportive and resolute.
• 4. Peers are supportive.

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Managing Complex Change
CHANGE
Vision
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Immediate Next Steps
 
Conversations with People - Actions to be Taken
Faculty Superintendent Board Other School
Personnel Parents Students Community
Members Others Myself
 
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Priorities

• What are our highest priorities for improving
  student performance?
• Goal statement regarding student performance

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WHATS IMPORTANT
IF YOU DONT KNOW WHATS IMPORTANT
THEN EVERYTHING IS IMPORTANT
WHATS IMPORTANT
THEN YOU DONT HAVE TIME TO DETERMINE
IF EVERYTHING IS IMPORTANT
WHATS IMPORTANT?
AND IN TRYING TO PLEASE EVERYBODY
THEN YOU TRY TO DO EVERYTHING
THEN PEOPLE EXPECT YOU TO DO EVERYTHING
IF YOU TRY TO DO EVERYTHING
Arthur Combs Teacher College Record
1978
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Core Area Clusters
p. 16
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Core Area Clusters
R6 Diversity Policies
R22 Link ed. to future goalsR28 Teachers as
coaches, students active involvement in own
learningR30 K-16 articulation
R12 Personal learning plansR13 Personal
adult advocateR18 Identify physical, mental
health, social needs
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Strategies
 
M
Recommendation R12 (p. 84) Each student will
have a personal learning plan
Strategies Timelines Resources Stakeholders

Students participate in establishing learning
goals.
M
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?
Q
Progress review
Progress Measures
 
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Capacity Building
 

• Assess stakeholder attitudes. How do we build
  ownership and secure commitment?
• Assess stakeholder knowledge and skills. What
  needs to be done to increase knowledge and
  skills.

 
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Goal

• To help ensure your success as you work to
  improve student performance through the
  recommendations in Breaking Ranks II.