Obama’s push for improved school performance includes directives for improving the quality of teachers, use of data to both inform and track performance improvement, and a focus on turning around troubled schools. However, many school leaders feel lost in a sea of conflicting ideas and viewpoints about how to drive meaningful improvement in schools. Fortunately, leaders can learn from schools who have been pioneers in school transformation, blazing the trail for others to follow. There are a number of successful models that schools and districts can adopt.
Several models are emerging as viable options for schools and districts to pursue. Unlike the piecemeal attempts over the past decades to fund and implement niche programs and initiatives, these change models are comprehensive, involving everyone at the schools, and resulting in a dramatic change in culture, teaching practices, and student achievement. The most successful model for change is the Quality Improvement model, yet equally promising are technology driven solutions. Another alternative model is the adoption of certain innovative programs that also use a comprehensive approach to ensure program success. School and district leaders can look to these models to provide a framework to guide them in their improvement efforts. Diligent pursuit of one or more of these strategies will result in a Total School Transformation.
Quality Improvement Model
In 1987, the United States Government established the Baldrige National Quality Program in an effort to improve America’s global competitiveness in the face of a mounting threat from Japan. America had been losing not only jobs, but whole industries to another country that had been guided by quality gurus Deming and Juran following the conclusion of World War II (after they had been ignored by American industry). By the 1980s, many American industries had disappeared, along with the jobs, because of competition from better run companies in Japan.
In response to the threat, companies began Quality Improvement programs in the 1980s to become more competitive, and more specifically, to catch up with Japan. Over time, utilities, hospitals and other organizations jumped on the quality improvement bandwagon. It wasn’t until 2001 that the first school district had successfully competed for a Baldrige Award.
To date, only 5 school districts have earned the esteemed Baldrige Award, the most recent being Iredell – Statesville Schools. Many others have participated in the program or similar programs inspired by the Baldrige Program, or the original quality gurus Deming and Juran. To demonstrate success from using this model typically requires five years or more of hard, dedicated work. It is comprehensive and demands commitment from all levels, as well as a vision at the top of the organization to help sustain the effort. The Quality Improvement Model has a successful track record of over 20 years in America, and has proven successful in almost every field and industry. It holds great promise for all of America’s schools, and has proven successful in dozens of K12 institutions.
Technology Change Model
Similar to the Quality Improvement Model (and sometimes done in conjunction with it), a change program focused on leveraging technology to improve instruction can drive systemic change throughout an organization and drive breakthrough performance. A great example of a comprehensive program is the one being implemented by the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD).
In November of 2008, San Diego voters approved measure S which funded an ambitious effort to reinvent education with technology. Demonstrating uncommon leadership, SDUSD drew upon a variety of resources, including partnering with Intel and other local businesses. The result is a 5-year plan that includes a sophisticated professional development initiative to help teachers learn how to integrate technology into their lesson plans, as well as detailed measures of accountability.
As implemented at SDUSD, the program consists of much more than just making computers and other technology available to teachers and students, as so many failed efforts of the past had done. As Eileen Lento of Intel has said, “If you’re just sprinkling the technology on top of the curriculum, then you just have some expensive pencils.” One of the project goals is to use technology in the most effective ways possible. Another objective is to continuously monitor student outcomes and use that information to improve instruction.
Indeed, the challenge of educating today’s diverse student population is growing, but technology holds the promise of realizing previously unattainable goals. As Jim Shelton of the U.S. Department of Education recently elaborated:
"How does a teacher with 30 students in the classroom, with five or six different levels of current performance, with 15 different cultural and ethnic backgrounds, multiple languages at home--how does that teacher … figure out a way to reach all those students in the classroom? There have got to be tools to help our teachers understand how to reach each student. Improving instruction, enhancing the capabilities of our teachers, has to be a way for us to leverage technology."
Furthermore, SDUSD will be tracking progress on student engagement, academic outcomes, teacher outcomes and equipment performance. These measurement categories are consistent with the Obama administration’s goals to improve student performance and teacher quality. This approach will help SDUSD realize the program’s overarching goal for students to "graduate with the skills, motivation, curiosity, and resilience to succeed in their choice of college and career in order to lead and participate in the society of tomorrow.”
Another aspect of SDUSD’s plan is to expand its innovative virtual high school, iHiGH Virtual Academy, which was implemented last fall. With Measure S funds, SDUSD plans to put an online center in six high schools this year so students can complete credit recovery, AP, and college courses. Similar programs can be found in other states including Massachusetts, Georgia, Utah and Florida.
SDUSD is well on its way to transform the way students learn, consistent with the vision and goals of the Obama administration. The key to success is a well developed plan, integrating best practices from a wide array of specialties, and touching every part of the school system.
Other Comprehensive Programs
Several models focused at the school level have demonstrated consistent improvement in student achievement. These programs require a total commitment by everyone at the school to buy into and support the program. Two successful models include the Success For All (SFA) program, and KIPP Charter Schools.
While the SFA program comes with a specific curriculum and comprehensive approach to educating children, the most powerful aspects of the program are the requirement that everyone at the school, as well as parents, be committed to following the program. Schools adopting the program are encouraged to let teachers who don’t want to follow the program to opt-out and transfer to another school. SFA uses measurements and data intelligently (similar to the models described above), provides a significant amount of professional development for teachers, and provides additional support for children before and after regular school hours. SFA has a large number of success stories in inner city schools, demonstrating dramatic improvement in reading and math scores.
Similarly, the KIPP Charter School model is a comprehensive program that includes high levels of parental involvement and commitment, outstanding teachers dedicated to improving student achievement, significantly more time each day and during the year dedicated to student learning activities, and perhaps most importantly a culture of high expectations and achievement that permeates every aspect of their program. At more than 80 schools across the nation, students in underserved communities receive the instruction and support they need to succeed in school and in life. Indeed, KIPP’s track record is impressive. Although KIPP’s students come from disadvantaged populations (80% are low-income, and 90% are African American or Latino), more than 80% of KIPP alumni have gone to college. A glimpse at how dramatically different a KIPP school experience is compared to the average urban school experience is graphically detailed in the recently released and instant bestseller Work Hard. Be Nice.
Summary
These models provide America’s schools and districts with choices for comprehensive school reform. Indeed, many studies are arriving at the same conclusion—that comprehensive efforts are required for successfully transforming schools. As expressed in the Learning First Alliance report Beyond Islands of Excellence, the common features of successful change efforts include possessing the willingness to acknowledge poor performance and seek solutions, making the commitment to sustain reform efforts over the long run, taking a system-wide approach, instilling a vision focused on improved student learning and achievement, basing decisions on data rather than instinct, and a making a commitment to new approaches to professional development. In other words, to improve, schools need to take a comprehensive approach to transforming education, something we call Total School Transformation. It’s time for all schools and districts to make the commitment to achieve the long elusive goal of meaningful school improvement. The time for debate and experimentation is over—now it’s time for action.
No comments:
Post a Comment