Turning Around Your School:
Helping Schools Improve Student Achievement

The Foundation for Educational Administration (FEA) has developed a comprehensive school turnaround model that includes research-based programs, practices, and successful strategies that help schools improve student achievement. This turnaround model will help districts and schools comply with requirements of School Improvement Grants, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Title I, Title II, and IDEA. It is also consistent with A Blueprint for Reform: The Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

FEA’s staff and consultants have had considerable experience and will coordinate the implementation of the model’s six steps. Several of the constituent elements have been implemented previously in FEA professional development programs, but are now offered as a complete end-to-end systemic model that specifically addresses the requirements of federal and state grants. The following is a description of each of the stages of the FEA Turnaround Model.

Vision and Mission

The critical underpinning of this reform model is the articulation and alignment of beliefs, values, vision, and mission for student success through FEA’s strategic visioning process. This effort is guided by pertinent research about current educational issues, a review of individual and shared values, a discussion about how students should be prepared for the future, and a belief that the process must result in high expectations for all students. It addresses the state and federal goal that public education must result in all students being prepared for both college and career. It involves school and district staff in a full discussion of beliefs, vision, and mission using the following framework: preparing, exploring and learning, agreeing on current realities, opening to a vision, creating strategies, implementing change, and living the vision.

The vision and mission are built on the beliefs of the participants engaged in the turnaround process. Beliefs are a series of statements that make clear what we hold to be true, and serve as a guide for plans we make. The vision is a concise verbal picture or mental image of the ideal that we wish to attain. It is a practical, positive, and inspiring view of the future, and a specific description of what it will be like when the mission is achieved.

The mission is a statement that puts the vision into action. It is how we accomplish the work to achieve the vision. It is a clear and compelling purpose statement that expresses in concise terms who we are, what is our purpose, what we do, and whom we serve.

Data Analysis

Another critical foundational process is the review and analysis of data that are available and used by the district and the school. This process is guided by three main factors that work together to improve student achievement:

Schools provide a strong rigorous curriculum and continuously measure student progress.
Teachers create classroom instruction to meet students’ ways of thinking, learning, and understanding, making instruction interesting and pertinent to their lives and interests.
Adults in the schools develop trusting relationships with students, encourage students to work hard, and provide additional assistance when students need it.

Multiple data sets are used to ensure that students are meeting high standards, some of which occur annually (lagging indicators such as state testing or Advanced Placement scores), others occur more regularly throughout the school year (leading indicators such as course-wide benchmark assessments and classroom assessments). In addition, there is a review of other critical student data such as course enrollment, suspensions, participation in extracurricular activities, and other relevant data.

FEA works with district administrators, principals, and teachers to determine how students perform against standards. Teachers have opportunities to discuss and analyze all of the information together and to work collaboratively to help all students achieve at higher levels. A key component is to help teachers get beyond test scores and assist them in understanding that assessment on a regular basis provides critical information about what students know and what they have learned. What do teachers do with information about what their students know? There is a review of how teachers provide feedback to students and how to improve the feedback mechanism.

FEA spends time at the district level reviewing what data sets are available to schools, and then works with school staff to ensure that they are using the information effectively. Because of the importance of data analysis, FEA works with school leaders, data analysis staff, and content specialists 20 days over the first summer, one day a week for the first semester, and once every two weeks the second semester. During the second year, FEA works with staff one day a month. In addition to FEA support, the school is expected to assign reading and math coaches to support the review and use of data in all classrooms and to help teachers in their team planning, through modeling, identifying critical strategies, planning units with teachers, etc.

Research-Based Instructional Practices

The FEA Turnaround Model implements research-based instructional practices that include aligning curriculum, assessing for understanding in instruction, helping struggling students, and reviewing how to extend the learning process through after school and summer opportunities. This part of the model starts with a review of the district’s curriculum and its alignment to the revised 21st Century Core Curriculum Content Standards and the common core standards. The curriculum in all content areas is reviewed to ensure that curriculum exemplars and other supports provided by the state are included. At the school level, FEA reviews how classroom teachers use the curriculum and exemplars, and, most importantly, how teachers work together in professional learning communities to create lessons that are rigorous and engaging. FEA also reviews how district and classroom assessments are aligned to the standards.

This phase includes research by teachers and school leaders. Using two comprehensive, integrated FEA professional development programs—Blueprints for Student Success and SMARTmove—teachers and school leaders expand upon their existing knowledge of essential strategies to improve teaching and learning. Both programs help districts narrow achievement gaps in low achieving schools.

Action research completed with the teacher’s students, in his or her classroom, helps to confer relevance and validity in a disciplined study. This research with embedded reflection, allows teachers to grow and gain confidence in their work. Action research projects influence a practitioner’s thinking skills, sense of efficacy, willingness to share and communicate as well as attitudes toward the change process. A brief description of the two programs follows.

Blueprints for Student Success

Blueprints for Student Success helps teachers and school/district leaders better understand how learning occurs (cognitive processes) in an effort to develop effective strategies (mediate root causes) to further enhance student learning and understanding at higher levels of performance. It provides teachers with intervention strategies and information about how to make the links essential for learning to occur. Essentially, it helps teachers think creatively about new strategies to reach all students. The following is a review of each Blueprints module and a brief description of the content:

Cognitive Development: The effects of poverty, stress, extended illness, dysfunctional families and other limitations on the cognitive development of students are discussed and participants learn how to connect with, motivate, and provide effective learning strategies for students.
Cognitive Processing: The structure of cognitive processes and how to strengthen the links between concrete concepts and language development are practiced, as are language development and reflective thinking (meta-cognition).
Abstract Processes: The focus is on teaching students how to learn, so that they can be successful both in academic endeavors and later in the work place. Particular emphasis is placed on the effort students put forth in their learning process.
Controlling Impulsivity: Concrete strategies that students must learn in order to plan, predict, and identify consequences are planned and practiced. These strategies greatly curb impulsivity, improve focus, and increase concentration.
Linking the Concrete to the Abstract: Teachers design and create academic mental models so students can work at the abstract, meta-cognitive level of thinking—a necessary capability for school success.
Mediating Root Cause in Learning Deficits: A variety of diagnostic measures are used to help students who continually display a lack of academic growth, despite remediation in general education and use of traditional interventions.
Task Completion: Participants develop tools to teach basic organizational skills to students, so they are able to complete tasks and improve concentration and attention—a skill critical for test taking and sustaining classroom learning.
Non-Linguistic Representational Systems in Learning: Using visual learning strategies for improving student achievement for both the general and special education student populations is studied and practiced.
Working with Challenging Situations: Teachers learn how to plan an organized and productive classroom to minimize disruption and distraction.
Establishing Relationships of Mutual Respect: Comer’s quote, “No significant learning occurs without a significant relationship of mutual respect,” is important every day in the classroom and throughout the school. Specific skills reviewed include how to establish rapport and trust, and use of registers of language and voice delineation for improved interpersonal relationships.

SMARTmove

SMARTmove training provides participants with an overview of the theory and research that support key topics through a set of Big Ideas about the topic, and the opportunity to expand their understanding of each topic through a set of guided activities related to the topic. It provides teachers with the chance to reflect on their own classroom practice with regard to research-based strategies related to each topic, and engages them in meaningful and focused Teaching And Learning Conversations (SMART TALC). As part of these professional learning sessions, teachers receive a Toolkit that includes practical and easy-to-use strategies that teachers can implement immediately.

SMARTmove builds ownership, empowerment, excitement, and collaboration among participants—the hallmarks of sustainable learning communities that concentrate on continuous improvement. SMARTmove is designed around principles of adult learning. Coaching sessions about each topic support the development of powerful learning communities. The program includes the following components:

Assessment: Teachers deepen their understanding of summative, formative, benchmark and classroom assessment, as well as other kinds of evidence of student understanding. The focus is on the use of data and evidence for informing and promoting student learning. The training and coaching build on data that are already available to teachers in a school.
Learning Expectations: Teachers are helped to value the importance of being clear with students about what they will learn in a given class, or unit, rather than talking about what students will do. The training explores how to write and present these kinds of expectations so that teachers connect to what students already know and align with a “route map” that includes strategies to help students meet with success.
Questions: Teachers explore whether and how they use questioning to guide students’ learning. They explore the frequency with which they ask different kinds of questions and learn and practice strategies for thoughtfully designing questions that foster the development of higher-order thinking skills. Teachers learn about “hinge-point” questions to guide formative assessment and the importance of planning fewer, but more strategic questions, throughout their lessons.
Feedback: Teachers develop an understanding of the differences between evaluation, feedback, and guidance. Teachers explore the characteristics of effective feedback, review tools that are available for use in providing effective feedback, and practice giving effective written and oral feedback. They also look at the impact on students of providing a grade, a grade and feedback, and feedback without a numerical or letter grade. Participants begin a conversation about their own grading practices and grading policies in their school or district.
Student Self- and Peer Assessment: Teachers develop structures in the classroom that support self-assessment and peer-assessment for themselves and students. They learn why the systematic use of rubrics and exemplars by students is essential to timely feedback and student progress. They explore their current practices in this area and cultivate practical and easy-to-implement strategies for enhancing student achievement through such assessment.
Learning Walks: Teachers and school leaders learn how focused visits to classrooms throughout a school can improve teaching and learning through identifying patterns and trends regarding effective instruction and those areas where improvements are needed. These areas of improvement become part of the professional development within a school. Opening classroom doors through Learning Walks presents new opportunities for collaboration and positively affects the school culture. Strategies and tools for supporting this kind of change and building ownership within the school community are provided.
Grading Practices: Teachers explore why and how students are graded. They consider the advantages and disadvantages of different grading strategies for students and schools through reviewing the research on grading practices, examining and assessing different grading policies, and exploring case studies. The difficulties of changing existing grading polices are considered, as are effective strategies for addressing these difficulties.
Motivating All Students to Learn: Many teachers become frustrated in their effort to reach every student. Teachers consider the factors that motivate students and those that negatively impact student motivation. Participants focus on those factors they can control. Motivation is viewed as an exchange between the learner and the learning environment, not a characteristic of the individual learner. Practices that contribute to a motivated classroom are explored and strategies for implementation are provided.

Leadership Performance (Teachers and School Leaders)

A unique feature of FEA’s model is the collaboration with Learning Sciences International to integrate iObservation and the research of national experts throughout the improvement effort. iObservation is an instructional and leadership system that tracks longitudinal data on teacher growth and leadership practices connected to student achievement gains. This system aligns research-based classroom and leadership practices to increase student achievement by supporting a continuous improvement cycle that accelerates teacher effectiveness and principal performance.

iObservation uses longitudinal data to inform professional development differentiated to each teacher’s and leader’s individual growth needs. Virtual and face-to-face professional learning communities and job-embedded experiences help teachers and leaders engage in deliberate practice to improve student outcomes. FEA is providing exclusive, customized access to proven models of instruction and leadership, including Dr. Robert Marzano’s Observation and Feedback Protocol and Dr. Douglas Reeves’ Leadership Performance Matrix. A brief explanation of the highlights of this research follows.

Dr. Marzano’s Suite Connecting Teacher Growth to Student Achievement

Develop effective teachers in every classroom.
Understand when to use which research-based instructional strategies during a lesson to maximize student achievement gains.
Engage in continuous instructional improvement efforts through feedback loops from supervisors, mentors, peers, students, and self.
Participate in differentiated professional development tailored to teachers’ individual growth needs.

Dr. Reeves’ Leadership Performance Matrix

Strengthen leadership performance for teacher effectiveness and student results.
Engage in formative, constructive, and unambiguous conversations and feedback from supervisors, peers, staff, and self.
Provide instructional leadership that focuses on effective classroom instruction to build capacity for sustainability.
Use data to inform results-driven decisions by connecting leadership performance to teaching strategies and student results.

In the early stages of implementation, the focus is on improving teaching and learning through Dr. Marzano’s observation and feedback protocol. This includes 41 research-based strategies for effective teaching and data to support and monitor implementation of the strategies in the classroom. It also establishes a common language for improving instruction. This is critical so that every leader and teacher knows what effective teaching looks and sounds like, and they are able to articulate what good teaching is all about. Professional development is provided that is aligned to the common language and a model of instruction. The system also measures progress in improving teacher practice. Finally, there is consistency for data collection to measure progress across classrooms, schools, and districts.

iObservation provides a framework for every teacher to improve their practice every year. The program consists of a library of videos that model the 41 effective strategies. The program also includes three sets of data—the teacher self assessments, information collected and shared by peers, and data collected by the supervisor. All data are focused on the learning goals and high expectations for students. iObservation organizes data into easily accessible reports and individual teacher profiles showing level of growth and effectiveness. The focus is on two key indicators—whether the student is learning and achieving and whether the teacher is using the 41 strategies effectively. This content will be woven throughout all professional learning opportunities of the turnaround model.

Local Board, Central Office and Community Support

Critical to the improvement process is the communication and coordination that occurs between the school and the local board of education, central office staff, parents, and community members. FEA ensures that all of these entities are kept abreast of the school’s progress through presentations and reports. The goal is ultimately to obtain their support for the school’s efforts in making improvements.

Sustainability

FEA works with the school/district to plan a way to sustain this program and build in the ownership at the school/district. Ongoing teacher and school leader professional development is crucial. Teachers, coaches, and administrators must commit to professional learning. Teacher coaches are an important part of the process in that they are teacher leaders and their focus is to support teachers in the school. FEA continues to work with central office staff to sustain the turnaround once FEA leaves the school.

FEA builds capacity and sustains the transformational efforts of the school through principal/teacher leadership activities, and coaching of teachers and school leaders to ensure that what is learned in training is implemented in the classroom and the school. FEA monitors all phases of the turnaround model on a regular basis. Principals must be the instructional leader in the building, working regularly with teachers in the classrooms to ensure that they are as effective as they can be. Both principals and teachers receive assistance from FEA coaches in all of the strategies of the turnaround model.

Further Information

For further information about the turnaround model and to discuss costs, please contact Dr. Anthony Scannella or Dr. Jay Doolan at (609) 860-1200. They can also be reached via email: jdoolan@njpsa.org.or ascannella@njpsa.org.

Turning Around Your School: Helping Schools Improve Student Achievement