Curriculum & Instruction

Idaho Falls District # 91

Factors Associated withHigh Achieving Schools

findings of Gordon Cawelti – Education Research Service

1. The reliance and persistent focus on standards and clear goals established in the schools.

2. The daily presence of visible principal working continually to keep a focus for everyone.

3. A faculty of teachers deeply committed to ensuring that all are taught and learn the school’s high standards.

Factors Associated withHigh Achieving Schools Cont.

4. A team structure in which teachers regularly work collaboratively to improve the achievement levels of their students.

5. Sustained concentration over a period of time on the multiple changes needed to improve student achievement.

Without guaranteed & viable curriculum, four variables predict

student achievement…

• Type of community• Poverty rate• The education of their parents• Number of parents in home

Curriculum in Chaos

Written

Reported

TestedTaught

Curriculum Unity Model

Taught

Written

Tested Reported

Talking the Talk

• Coordination: To provide consistency within subject areas and across grade levels and schools.

• Articulation: To ensure that there are no gaps or unnecessary overlaps on a K-12 continuum of curriculum objectives.

• Alignment: To match the test to what is taught and to the context and cognitive level in which it is taught. The closer the match between the written, taught, tested, and reported curriculum, the deeper the alignment.

Three Levels of Alignment

Thetest

Teaching

Test

TeachingTest

Teach

ing

Teach

ing

No Alignment

Surface AlignmentDeep Alignment

No Alignment

Student writes poems and keeps a journal.

Direct Writing Assessment (DWA) tests student’s ability to write an informational essay.

Surface Alignment

Student reads an informational essay as part of his/her literature

study.

Direct Writing Assessment (DWA) tests student’s ability to write an

informational essay.

Teacher instructs student in informational writing and student submits an original

essay that is assessed using DWA guidelines.

Direct Writing Assessment (DWA) tests student’s ability to write an

informational essay.

Deep Alignment

Four Lenses of Learning

The Achievement Lens

How are we doing compared to everyone else?

•Other Districts?

•Other Buildings?

•Other Classrooms?

•Other Students?

The Proficiency Lens

How are we doing against the state selected cut score? What percentage of our students is “proficient?”

Ex: If the “cut score” for mathematics at 10th grade is 242 what percentage of our students has reached that score or higher?

The Growth Lens

How much growth did our students make this year from fall to spring?

Ex: Whether students have reached a “cut score” or not, how much growth did they make in our district in one year? Six months worth? Two years worth?

The Instructional Lens

Using the data available from state, district, and classroom assessments, what do I as a teacher need to change or do to make sure that all of my students are learning the curriculum?

Do Tests Improve Learning?

No.“Learning only improves if we change what we are doing based on what we learn from the test results.”

Allan Olson, NWEA

“Tests, by themselves, do not

improve learning, any more than a

thermometer reduces fever.” (Hubert, 2000)

The main factor in improving

achievement is a

knowledgeable, skillful teacher.

(Breaux & Wong, 2003)

Percentile Entering

Percentile

Leaving

Highly Ineffective School/ 50th 3rd Highly Ineffective Teacher

Average School/ 50th 50th Average Teacher

Highly Effective School/ 50th 37th Highly Ineffective Teacher

Highly Ineffective School/ 50th 63rd Highly Effective Teacher

Highly Effective School/ 50th 78th

Average Teacher

Highly Effective School/ 50th 96th Highly Effective Teacher

Teacher Effectiveness (Randall, 2001)

In a study, researchers determined that students assigned to three effective teachers in a row grew from the 59th to 76th percentile in three years. A different group, assigned to three ineffective teachers for three years dropped from the 60th to the 42nd percentile in the same time period.

• 1900—Agricultural– Capital = Land

• 1950—Industrial– Capital = Labor

• 2005—Information– Capital =

Knowledge

In each age, people with enough capital could buy a home and raise a family.

A Little History

“Practically, if not idealistically, poor education for many students was not a

social problem when plenty of low-skilled jobs offering good wages were to be had. It is a problem today when

most jobs demand much greater competence.”

Linda Darling-Hammond, Teacher and Professor

A Look at the Future

“The traditional outcomes of our school systems—academic success for some and failure for others—are now more problematic than ever. High school dropouts now have less than one chance in three of finding work, and if they do find a job, they typically earn less than half as much as they would have twenty years ago.”

William T. Grant Foundation, 1988

A Look at the Future

“In 1950 there were sixteen workers for every person on social security; by

2010, there will be only three (SSA, 1996). If not all of these potential workers are

productive, our nation’s social compact will crumble.”

Linda Darling-Hammond

Two things U.S. schools have never before been called upon

to do:• To teach for understanding. That is, to teach

all students, not just a few, to understand ideas deeply and perform proficiently

• To teach for diversity. That is, to teach in ways that help different kinds of learners find productive paths to knowledge as needed.

Clear Targets Are Key

“It is 99.9% impossible for a blind man, on his own, to hit a bulls eye, but the percentage drops dramatically when he is instructed by someone who can see the target clearly with the desired results in mind.”

Clear Targets

“If students can see the target, and it stands still for them, they can hit it.”

Dr. Richard Stiggins