A 100 Week 7

Short Topic: What can we learn from Gawande’s Better?

What can we learn from Better?

What we can learn from Better?

1. We should evaluate ideas by their effect on practice rather than their appeal in theory

2. Better requires examination of practice, diagnosis of failings, action, evaluation, rinse, repeat

3. Against utopianism, but also despair

Pragmatism – tomorrow one step better than today

4. We should all be striving to get better

5. We each have a piece and a role to play

6. Against either/or questions, in favor of “better” questions

Either/or: Are leaders “made” or “born”?

Better: How do we develop better leaders?

Is “better” a strategy for improving schools at scale?Yes No

Is “better” a strategy for improving schools at scale?Yes In decentralized system,

everyone has to get better

Given that success has come from people closest to kids exhibiting “ideas/hope/vision/energy” we need them to be better

No It asks too much from

people; people are just not this good

It relies on individuals rather than systems

Better Systems or Better People?

“If we want to make thousands of schools much better, we have to make the work of effective schooling more doable, less mystifying, and less reliant on superhuman commitment. In most sectors, if a job is so hard that most people can’t do it well, then you change the job. Or split up the job until you can reliably find people who are good at the component jobs. Or you provide better tools that help do parts of the job way more efficiently or effectively. My guess is that all of this is going to matter at least as much as all of your innovations in recruiting.”

-- Greg Gunn, Wireless Generation, Future of School Reform Pre-Writing, September 09

Agree or disagree?

What we can learn from Better?

1. We should evaluate ideas by their effect on practice rather than their appeal in theory

2. Better requires examination of practice, diagnosis of failings, action, evaluation, rinse, repeat

3. Against utopianism, but also despair

Pragmatism – tomorrow one step better than today

4. We should all be striving to get better

5. We each have a piece and a role to play

6. Against either/or questions, in favor of “better” questions

7. Better can be at the level of the system as well as the individual

Improving Schooling at Scale:Better Systems and Better People

Schools

Districts

States

Federal Knowledge r &d

Human Capital(Week 11)

Org process in schools

System Account-ability

NCLBWeek 8

Charter networks (Week 10)

Ontario and Victoria (Week 9)

Use the systems’ levers for improvement(Week 13)

Replace the system or reform through outside pressure(Week 12)

New Topic:

Effective Schools, 101, 201, 301

From the Coleman Report to Effective schools

Coleman report (1960s) Family background and school peers most important factors

Measurable resources not important for variation in outcomes

Large-scale statistical co-variation study

Effective schools (1970s) Intensive qualitative studies of schools that worked(Larry Lezotte,

Ron Edmonds, MSU)

Similar sets of characteristics in these school

Catholic schools (1980s) and charter schools (90s and 00s) Again, mission, coherence, critical

Schools That Work video

See Mass Insight – Setting District Level Conditions for School Turnarounds,

pages 5-7

http://www.agi.harvard.edu/presentations/2008Conference/Calkins.pdf

Effective Schools 101

Key characteristics of effective schools: Order and discipline High expectations Coherent culture Use of data Focus on improving instruction

Effective Schools 201

Key intangibles of effective schools: Relentless energy and urgency Problem-solving ethos Hope as opposed to fatalism Entrepreneurial leadership

See Elizabeth City, Resourceful Leadership.

Effective Schools 301: Change processesRon Ferguson: How 15 Schools Became Exemplary

Stage 1: Set goals, create urgency, mobilize stakeholders

“Core groups of leaders took public responsibility for leading the charge to raise achievement. Stakeholders crafted mission statements that later helped keep them on track; planned carefully, sometimes with outside assistance, for how they would organize learning experiences for teachers; clearly defined criteria for high quality teaching and student work; and implemented in ways that engaged their whole faculties. As they implemented their plans, these schools carefully monitored both student and teacher work in order to continuously refine their approaches.”

http://www.agi.harvard.edu/events/2009Conference/2009AGIConferenceReport6-30-2010web.pdf

Effective Schools 301: Change processesStage 2: Keep focus, build trust, study literature, be respectful but

demanding

“ Leadership teams succeeded initially because they used their positional authority effectively to jump-start the change process. Then they built trust. More specifically, they demonstrated commitment through hard work and long hours; they studied research-based literature to expand their knowledge and competence; they persevered to follow through on the promises they made; and they found ways to remain respectful of peers, even when asking them to improve their performance.

Effective Schools 301: Change processesStage 3: Push to next level of work, create processes for sustainability

“In these ways, leadership teams earned the respect of their colleagues and the authority to push people outside their comfort zones. With cultivated competence and earned authority, they were able to help their colleagues overcome the types of fear and resistance that so often prevent effective reforms in American high schools. All these schools remain works in progress, but they are not typical. Their stories convey critically important principles, processes, and practices that can help high schools across the nation raise achievement and close gaps.”

Beyond Effective Schools (401):The Nature of Good Schooling

Effective schools literature almost exclusively focused on test scores

Next generation of work will likely think more about values and purposes, and how they relate to practices

Not just “what works” but “what kinds of mini societies are we trying to create.”

And how does this map to the kinds of citizens we want, and the kind of world they are likely to be entering?

See Sara Lawrence Lightfoot, The Good High School

What Can We Learn from Effective Schools? What are the limits of this way of thinking?

What Do They Demonstrate What Are the Limits?

What Can We Learn from Effective Schools?

What Do They Demonstrate

That it is possible to create good schools in high poverty areas

That there are certain characteristics that consistently matter:

Mission coherence

Trust and relationships

Attention to individual student progress/use of data

Hope, energy, vision, ideas, and trust

Internal accountability

That good policy needs to foster more of these qualities

Conversely, that policy does not increase these qualities is likely bad policy

What

What Do They Not Speak To:

How to get to scale

How to create sustainable excellence

What are the limits of what we can learn from the effective schools literature?

Task for section:

If you were a state policymaker, how would you create more effective schools?

So, that’s your job!

From the School to the System:3 Frameworks for Instructional Improvement

Elmore: Instructional triangle

Student

Teacher

Teacher

Curriculum

From the School to the System:3 Frameworks for Instructional Improvement

Bryk: Five supports

Student

Teacher

Teacher

Curriculum

From the School to the System:3 Frameworks for Instructional Improvement

New Topic:

From either/or to better

+

From the inside/out

The answer to the first part of the class is:

All of the above

Need to professionalizing teaching, instructional rounds, peer assistance and review

Poverty, inequality, residential segregation, lack of political will

States

ProfessionsMarketsUnion influence, power of status quo, deregulating entry to teaching

A Puzzle With Many Pieces

A Problem With Many Pieces

State

Combating poverty

• Visiting nurses

• Early childhood programs

• After-school programs

• Extended learning time

• HCZ

Improving incentives

• Better human resource policies (hiring and firing)

• Greater flexibility in return for accountability

• Expanded opportunities for good charters

• Massively streamlining bureaucracy

• Inverting pyramid (NYC)

Increasing knowledge

• Better training and induction of new teachers

• Instructional rounds to improve practice

• Coaching

• Individual, team and organizational learning

• New systems of R & D

Market Profession

Good Solutions (Wherever They Come From)

Generally Integrate the PiecesState

Combating poverty

• Visiting nurses

• Early childhood programs

• After-school programs

• Extended learning time

• HCZ

Improving incentives

• Better human resource policies (hiring and firing)

• Greater flexibility in return for accountability

• Expanded opportunities for good charters

• Massively streamlining bureaucracy

• Inverting pyramid (NYC)

Increasing knowledge

• Better training and induction of new teachers

• Instructional rounds to improve practice

• Coaching

• Individual, team and organizational learning

• New systems of R & D

Market Profession

What Can We Learn from Effective Schools?

What Do They Demonstrate

That it is possible to create good schools in high poverty areas (go to next slide)

That there are certain characteristics that consistently matter:

Mission coherence

Trust and relationships

Attention to individual student progress/use of data

Hope, energy, vision, ideas, and trust

Internal accountability

That good policy needs to foster more of these qualities

Conversely, that policy does not increase these qualities is likely bad policy

What

An example of moving from Either/Or to Better:

Top Down and Bottom Up Ways that top-down and bottom up can be in tension:

assertions about competency at either end – the “other”

top-down edicts suck the life out of initiative and creatiivity

autonomy versus bureaucracy – david and goliath

the what and the how may be in conflict (such as: “use more data in your schools”;

Examples of policies that integrate the two:

accreditation models can be used to integrate top and bottom priorities

expanded learning time initiative for example

charter schools can create their own standard operating procedures

An example of moving from Either/Or to Better:

Top Down and Bottom Up Ways that top-down and bottom up can be in tension:

Battles over control – who gets to decide

Regulatory policies that create constraints at the school level

NCLB

Examples of policies that integrate the two:

Milbrey McLaughlin: “We can’t mandate what matters.”

Think comparative advantage: who is good at what

Districts, states, and feds can provide, for example:

Human capital pipeline Coaching

Curriculum Closing failing schools

Layers of Thinking About Improving Schooling at Scale

Schools

Districts

States

Federal

Components of reform

Knowledge r &d

Human capital

Org process in schools

System Account-ability

Qualities of Effective schools

Layers of Thinking About Improving Schooling at Scale

Schools

Districts

States

Federal Knowledge r &d

Human Capital(Week 11)

Org process in schools

System Account-ability

NCLBWeek 9

Charter networks (Week 10)

Ontario and Victoria (Week 8)

Layers of Thinking About Improving Schooling at Scale

Schools

Districts

States

Federal

Adding in politics

Knowledge r &d

Human capital

Org process in schools

System Account-ability

Replace the system or reform through outside pressure(Week 12)

Use the systems’ levers for improvement(Week 13)