Transformed by Literacy High Standards,

High Expectations, NO EXCUSES!!!

Sue Szachowicz Senior Fellow, ICLE Principal (retired)

Brockton High

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My Lesson Plan Why am I here? Our Brockton High story WHAT did we do?

FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS: LITERACY FOR ALL The power of whole school literacy

Lessons Learned (if we can do this, ANYONE can!!!)

Wicked Awesome Results

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But please remember… Ours is a story of every school, every

teacher, every student. This IS NOT just about high school, NOT about urban, NOT about size of school. This IS NOT about any individual, any principal, any teacher… it is about us ALL. This IS about change. This IS about being the best you can be.

If we can do this, anyone can!!!

3

Boston

Brockton

Brockton, City of Champions

Massachusetts

Brockton High, School of Champions

School of Champions

•Comprehensive 9 – 12 •Enrollment: 4,155 •Poverty Level: 80.2% •Minority population: 78% •39 different languages •39.3% speak another language in the home •Approximately 17% LEP Services •Approximately 11% receive Special Educ. Services

Some info about Brockton High?

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60% Black - includes African American, Cape Verdean, Haitian, Jamaican, and others

22% White 12% Hispanic

2% Asian 2% Multirace 2% All Other

Who attends Brockton High?

Cape Verde Islands

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Countries of the 888 members of the Class of 2014

Canada Cameroon Kenya Peru Pakistan Senegal El Salvador Thailand Barbados

China Columbia France Guinea-Bissau Guadeloupe Guyana

Italy Jamaica Liberia Mexico Russia Somalia

United States Cape Verde Haiti Puerto Rico Dominican Republic Nigeria Portugal Brazil

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Mass. implemented a high stakes test (MCAS) Three-quarters of our students would not be

earning a diploma Culture of low expectations – “Students have a

right to fail” (former BHS Principal) Negative image in our city, in the state (nasty

comments!) Yet we were living in DENIAL!!!! Who is responsible???? We had silos (My

kids, your kids, not OUR kids) Success by chance – depended on who your

teacher was – are you lucky???

WHAT we faced… Any of these sound familiar???

MCAS arrived, and here we were:

MCAS 1998 Failure

ELA – 44% (Sped – 78%) MATH – 75% (Sped – 98%)

MCAS 1998 Advanced+Proficient

ELA – 22%

MATH – 7%

Remember, they MUST pass to graduate – NO EXCEPTIONS!!!

Just in case you were thinking MCAS is easy, take a look…

2013

2013

Readings from Previous Years Include: Burial at Thebes from Sophocles’ Antigone Shakespearean Sonnet # 73 Heart of Darkness by Joseph

Conrad Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (3 page excerpt) Making Humus by Composting

by Liz Ball Proof (4 page play excerpt by

David Auburn) The Trial (2 page excerpt by

Franz Kafka)

ELA MCAS 2013

2013

2013

Math MCAS 2013

Science MCAS (Biology) 2013

Pressure for accountability in education and closing the

achievement gaps among students will continue

to increase.

Accountability and the Achievement Gap:

That’s where we were…

Here’s a preview of where we are now… Then, at the end some WICKED AWESOME

stuff!…

MCAS 1998 Advanced+Proficient

ELA – 22 %

MATH – 7 %

MCAS 2013 Advanced+Proficient

ELA – 88%

MATH –70%

THEN NOW

THEN NOW MCAS 1998

Failure ELA – 44%

MATH – 75%

MCAS 2013 Failure

ELA – 1.8% MATH – 11%

It’s cool and fun to be smart

Honor Roll Statistics

1998 859 STUDENTS

(4400 students)

19%

2013 1608 STUDENTS

( (4155 students)

39%

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How Did BHS go from this to a Model School???

Turnaround at Brockton High

BROCKTON - Brockton High School has every excuse for failure, serving a city plagued by crime, poverty, housing foreclosures, and homelessness. Almost two-thirds of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, and 14 percent are learning to speak English. More than two-thirds are African-American or Latino - groups that have lagged behind their peers across the state on standardized tests. But Brockton High, by far the state’s largest public high school with 4,200 students, has found a success in recent years that has eluded many of the state’s urban schools: MCAS scores are soaring, earning the school state recognition as a symbol of urban hope.

Principal Susan Szachowicz, shown chatting at lunch with Yiriam Lopez, is in many ways the school’s biggest cheerleader. (Essdras M Suarez/ Globe Staff) By James Vaznis Globe Staff / October 12, 2009

Emphasis on literacy brings big MCAS improvement

GO

Boxers!!!

September 28, 2010

Boxers in the NEW YORK

TIMES

High Expectations NO Excuses!!!

Transforming a Culture through Literacy

A.K.A. - It’s COOL to be smart at Brockton High!!!

As we say in Boxer Country, we are WICKED AWESOME!!!

Our Turn Around Story… We did it our way!

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Brockton and ICLE philosophy Rigor Relevance Relationships ALL students-and ALL means ALL!!!

So, that’s who we are… What did we do?

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So, what did we do??? Our turnaround: 4 Steps

1. Empowered a Team 2. Focused on Literacy –

Literacy for ALL, no exceptions- all means all

3. Implemented with fidelity and according to a plan

4. Monitored like crazy!

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Restructuring Committee – our “think tank” Every department represented with a

mix of teachers and administrators Balance of new teachers and veterans,

new voices, and voices of experience

Challenge for Change funding (NOT grant $)

Step ONE: Empowering a Leadership Team

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We looked at the data And, our first plan:

Let’s figure out the test The result of that:

The Great Shakespearean Fiasco

After our Shakespearean fiasco, a better approach: Asked “What do our students need to be able to

do to be successful on the MCAS, in their classes, and beyond BHS? (Read challenging passages, difficult nonfiction, write – a LOT, solve multistep problems, explain their thinking… etc.)

Examined our data: what did we need to focus on, what skills did we need to target for ALL

LITERACY – First, defined it, then trained ourselves how to teach these literacy skills to our students. It HAD to be about LITERACY!!!

The “WHAT”: LITERACY for ALL:

Step TWO: Focused on Literacy for ALL

Reading, Writing, Speaking, Reasoning

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How did we determine our focus? Literacy Skills Drafted:

LITERACY CHART: WRITING

• to take notes • to explain one’s thinking • to argue a thesis and support one’s thinking • to compare and contrast • to write an open response • to describe an experiment, report one’s findings, and report one’s conclusion • to generate a response to what one has read, viewed, or heard • to convey one’s thinking in complete sentences • to develop an expository essay with a formal structure

c Brockton High School, 2002

WRITING

SOCIAL

SCIENCE

MATH

ELECTIVE

ENGLISH

SCIENCE

Engaging the faculty: After each discussion, back to

Restructuring for revisions. This process went back and forth

to the faculty four or five times that year.

Review, discuss, revise, repeat!

• for content ( both literal and inferential ) • to apply pre-reading, during reading and post-reading strategies to all

reading assignments, including determining purpose and pre-learning vocabulary

• to research a topic • to gather information • to comprehend an argument • to determine the main idea of a passage • to understand a concept and construct meaning • to expand one’s experiences

READING

SOCIAL

SCIENCE

MATH

ELECTIVE

ENGLISH

SCIENCE

• to take notes • to explain one’s thinking • to argue a thesis and support one’s thinking • to compare and contrast • to write an open response • to describe an experiment, report one’s findings, and report one’s conclusion • to generate a response to what one has read, viewed, or heard • to convey one’s thinking in complete sentences • to develop an expository essay with a formal structure

WRITING

SOCIAL

SCIENCE

MATH

ELECTIVE

ENGLISH

SCIENCE

• to convey one’s thinking in complete sentences • to interpret a passage orally • to debate an issue • to participate in class discussion or a public forum • to make an oral presentation to one’s class, one’s peers, one’s community • to present one’s portfolio • to respond to what one has read, viewed, or heard • to communicate in a manner that allows one to be both heard and

understood

SPEAKING

SOCIAL

SCIENCE MATH

ELECTIVE

ENGLISH

SCIENCE

• to create, interpret and explain a table, chart or graph • to compute, interpret and explain numbers • to read, break down, and solve a word problem • to interpret and present statistics that support an argument or hypothesis • to identify a pattern, explain a pattern, and/or make a prediction based on a

pattern • to detect the fallacy in an argument or a proof • to explain the logic of an argument or solution • to use analogies and/or evidence to support one’s thinking • to explain and/or interpret relationships of space and time

REASONING

SOCIAL

SCIENCE

MATH

ELECTIVE

ENGLISH

SCIENCE

We had cool looking charts on the walls… SO WHAT…

The KEY to our implementation is HOW we trained teachers to teach these Literacy skills to our students.

So now what…

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It’s about teaching, stupid…

Says Mike Schmoker in Results Now

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Faculty Meetings became Literacy Workshops KEY = Adult Learning

Teachers teaching teachers – GOOD stuff!

Step THREE: Implemented with fidelity and a plan

We started with writing!

Writing is thinking

FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS

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LITERACY CHART: WRITING

• to take notes • to explain one’s thinking • to argue a thesis and support one’s thinking • to compare and contrast • to write an open response • to describe an experiment, report one’s findings, and report one’s conclusion • to generate a response to what one has read, viewed, or heard • to convey one’s thinking in complete sentences • to develop an expository essay with a formal structure

c Brockton High School, 2002

WRITING

SOCIAL

SCIENCE

MATH

ELECTIVE

ENGLISH

SCIENCE

Our First Training: Open Response

OPEN RESPONSE STEPS TO FOLLOW 1. READ QUESTION CAREFULLY. 2. CIRCLE OR UNDERLINE KEY WORDS. 3. RESTATE QUESTION AS THESIS (LEAVE BLANKS) 4. READ PASSAGE CAREFULLY. 5. TAKE NOTES THAT RESPOND TO THE QUESTION. BRAINSTORM & MAP OUT YOUR ANSWER. 6. COMPLETE YOUR THESIS. 7. WRITE YOUR RESPONSE CAREFULLY, USING YOUR MAP AS A GUIDE. 8. STATEGICALLY REPEAT KEY WORDS FROM THESIS IN YOUR BODY AND IN YOUR END SENTENCE. 9. PARAGRAPH YOUR RESPONSE. 10. REREAD AND EDIT YOUR RESPONSE.

Now I will model the ten steps students will use when answering an open-response item. The following chart includes the training steps that the facilitator will use and an explanation of the work to be done by the participants. Let’s go through the ten steps using The Book of Ruth as our sample text.

5: Take notes that respond to the question. Brainstorm and map out your answer. Remind students that they should be doing ACTIVE reading. They should use strategies to develop their answer, such as taking notes, circling and underlining key words, and using brackets. Follow reading strategies developed in the workshops.

Here’s an example of explaining a step:

First step:Training – ALL faculty Next step – HOW to bring this

into the classroom Lessons developed Implemented according to a

calendar

So then what… Success by design!

We didn’t leave it to chance. (Success by design, not by

chance!) The implementation was

according to a specific timeline…

Step THREE: Implemented with fidelity and a plan

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As a follow up to this activity, I am requiring Department Heads to collect from each teacher at least one student sample from each of the teachers’ classes. The student samples should include: Student Name Teacher Name Date Course Name and Level Period A copy of the reading selection and question Evidence of the student’s active reading All pre-writing work that the student has done, e.g. webs A copy of the written open response The new scoring rubric and completed assessment After you have collected the samples from each teacher and have had the opportunity to review them for quality and completeness, please send them to me in a department folder with a checklist of your teachers. Again, please be sure that your teachers clearly label their student samples.

The Open Response calendar of implementation is as follows:

Nov 2-6: Social Science, Social Sci Biling. Nov 30-Dec 4: Wellness, JROTC Dec 14-18: Science, Science Bilingual Jan 11-15: Business, Tech, & Career Ed. Jan 25-29: Math, Math Bilingual Feb 22-26: Foreign Lang, Special Ed Mar. 7-11: English, ESL, Guidance Mar 20-24 Family &Cons. Sci, ProjGrads Apr 5-9: Music, Art

What gets monitored is what gets done!

Monitoring the work of the students (rubrics and collection and review of the work)

Monitoring the implementation by the faculty (walkthroughs, evals)

Step FOUR: Monitored like crazy!!!

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How do we know the students are learning it?

What gets monitored is what gets done!

Implementation set by calendar

Admin team present in classrooms observing the literacy lesson

Follow up walkthroughs Frequent feedback provided

Monitoring the implementation

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Remember: It’s about the adults, not

the kids! We taught ourselves to

teach these literacy skills to the students. And we will ALL do it

THIS WAY!

From Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin The factor that seems to explain the most about great performance is something the researchers call deliberate practice… Deliberate practice is hard. It hurts. But it works. More of it equals better performance. Tons of it equals great performance.

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Third Key Trend So what does this look

like in the different subject areas??? GOOD STUFF!!!

Emily Dickinson is a poet who often wrote about her own emotional struggles. In two poems “Heart, We Will Forget Him” and “Knows How to Forget” she writes about how difficult it is to forget. Please read the two poems and the brief biography and answer the following three questions: 1. What were some of experiences in her life that

influenced her writing? 2. What do the two poems have in common? 3. How are the two poems different? Please use one quote from the poems or

biography in each paragraph.

Social Science /History Open Response

Explain how the article and the spiritual show John Brown’s commitment to the welfare of black people. Support your answer with relevant and specific information from the article and the spiritual.

Science Open Response

Algebra Open Response

Chinese Open Response

Art Open Response

Wellness/P.E. Open Response

There are ALWAYS critics…

The cookie-cutter comment

How did we incorporate these Literacy Skills in every discipline?

Even in our discipline policies and procedures we

incorporate our Literacy Initiative… remember,

WRITING IS THINKING!

Our Classroom Incident form requires students to write when they come into the office

Don’t think for a moment that everyone was happy…

BUT, if we waited for buy-in, we’d still be waiting.

SO, what did we do?? Meet Sharon and Penny

BUT….

INSERT PBS NEED TO KNOW VIDEO ON PENNY AND SHARON

To view the entire Need to Know segment on Brockton High, go to YouTube and search Need to Know Brockton High.

Here’s what gets the buy-in.

RESULTS!!!

BUY IN???….

Changes in ELA Results Year One of School Wide Open Response

Changes in Math Results Year One of School Wide Open Response

Active Reading Strategies

1. Read the question.

2. a. Circle key direction verbs. For example – write, draw,

explain, compare, show, copy

b. Underline important information. Often there is information in a

question that is irrelevant to finding the answer.

3. In your own words, write what the

question is asking you to do.

4. Develop your plan/Answer the question.

Changes in ELA Results Year One of School Wide Open Response

Added a Literacy

Workshop on Active Reading

Strategies:

2002

22 14

25

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TEACHER LEADERSHIP

Some Schools Stand Out

Comparisons of Complacent HS and Brockton HS

Ronald F. Ferguson, PhD

Tripod Project for School Improvement (www.tripodproject.org) and Achievement Gap Initiative at Harvard University

(www.agi.harvard.edu)

Proportions of students scoring in each decile of the MCAS 8th grade ELA distribution

MCAS ELA gains 8th to 10th grade, compared to others from the same 8th grade decile

(School rank percentile/100)

Listen to what Dr. Ferguson says about us

Video from PBS Need to Know

“The main lesson was that student achievement rose when leadership teams focused thoughtfully and relentlessly on improving the quality of instruction.”

- Prof. Ron Ferguson, AGI Conference Report

•The Achievement Gap Initiative At Harvard University Toward Excellence with Equity

Conference Report by Ronald F. Ferguson, Faculty Director

Pedro Noguera

“Brockton High demonstrates that you don’t have to change

the student population to get results, you have

to change the conditions under which

they learn.”

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Our improvement over the past five years is perhaps even more impressive than the big jumps we had early on.

Wicked Awesome!

78 79.5 81

86.1 83.9

89.1 91.4

88.2 90.6

93.9

63.8 66.9 66.8

74 74.3 77.4

80.9 79.9 81.1

85.8

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Brockton HS Proficiency Index Gains

ECPI MCPI

Composite Performance Index (CPI) measures progress towards the goal of narrowing proficiency gaps

If these results don’t convince you… Just listen to the students… Meet

Nephie and Tatiana

•Video from CBS Evening News

Recap: The 4 Steps in our Turnaround

1. Empowering a team 2. Focusing on literacy: Literacy for ALL – NO exceptions 3. Implementing with fidelity and

according to a plan 4. Monitoring, monitoring, monitoring

The Result = Changing the Culture

•82 82

You can get some

WICKED AWESOME

results!

And when you do those things

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Brockton High School

Brockton School District Plymouth County 470 Forest Avenue

Brockton, Massachusetts (508)580-7633

AWARDS, AWARDS, AWARDS, AWARDS!!!

2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014

JOHN & ABIGAIL ADAMS BHS SCHOLARS 2014

293 SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS

33% of the class! Most ever!!! Most in Massachusetts!!!

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•85 85

Class of 2014 – over 90% went off to college!

College for ALL: Changing students’ beliefs:

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GO

Boxers!!!

September 28, 2010

Boxers in the NEW YORK

TIMES

High Expectations NO Excuses!!!

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Advice… for whatever it’s worth.

This is totally NOT research based. It’s the “walk a mile in my shoes” advice…

Leadership Lesson #1: FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS

Make Literacy your target. Literacy for ALL, no exceptions. Resist the “next new thing” – LITERACY, LITERACY, LITERACY

You are on the right track!!!

Leadership Lesson #2: It’s ALL about

instruction!!! (the adults) You want to improve your

school? It’s about instruction!!! The key to our success had

nothing to do with the kids. It was about adult learning.

Leadership Lesson #3: Implement with a plan

Implement with a plan. Success by design, not

by chance. ALL students deserve

the best!

Leadership Lesson #4: What gets monitored

is what gets done • Leave nothing to chance. •Direct observation of the

implementation. • Be visible, even coteach • Follow up with collection and

review of student work.

Leadership Lesson #5: NO EXCUSES!!!

No excuses…life isn’t fair. Use the challenges to your advantage.

Changing expectations is FREE!!!

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High Expectations, THEY believe!

Amarr: “It’s not us against

them.” Terrence: “No one here would let

me fail. I know, because I tried to.”

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Here’s what we know Making change takes

tenacity, not brilliance!

(If we can do it, ANYONE can!)

FINAL THOUGHT:

If we can do this, anyone can! In 1999 we were called a “Cesspool” in our local media. Now

we are called the “Jewel of the City.”

Check out more on the Brockton Story and

many of our scripts in our new book!!!

Proceeds go to Brockton High Available at www.leadered.com

For more info:

Thank You!!!

Sue Szachowicz, Senior Fellow ICLE, Brockton High Principal (retired)

If we can do this, so can you!!!