FOCUS on Student Achievement PATRICIA DAVENPORT

1. TQM EFFECTIVE SCHOOLS Integrated System for Improving Student Performance F O C U S FOCUS on Student Achievement PATRICIA DAVENPORT

2. What’s it all about? • It’s about building a system in which ALL children achieve at high levels • It’s about building a system that readily accepts the responsibility for ALL students leaving the system with essential skills and competencies • It’s about closing the achievement gap for ALL learners • It’s about teaching ALL children. . .Whatever It Takes!

3. By 2014, to create conditions, processes and structures within the school system that result in (1) all children mastering the essential curriculum and (2) closing the achievement gap among all sub-groups of the student population.

4. Improvement in Math and Reading ScoresUrban Fourth and Eighth graders Percent Proficiency Source: Council of Great City Schools, USA Today

5. FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS

6. FOCUS ON: • StateStandards • Curriculum Alignment • CollaborativeTeams • Continuous Improvement

7. Beliefs • Children of all races and income levels can succeed • Testing is diagnostic, not discriminatory • Tests determine whether each and every child is learning

8. Belief System • ALL children can learn the essential curriculum, given time and appropriate instruction • The school system controls the conditions that result in all students’ success • Closing the achievement gap in all schools will happen when there is: • Individual school improvement coupled with systemic restructuring • Dedication to the process of continuous improvement

9. Legal Moral Two Reasons:

10. Legal Reason • 50 of 50 states require students to take state assessments.

11. Moral Reason • If students are not literate, that is, they can not read, write, and do basic arithmetic: • 3 out of 4 will go on welfare. • 68% will commit a criminal offense. Source: National Adult Literacy Survey - 1998

12. Let us reform our schools, and we shall find little need of reform in our prisons. ~ John Ruskin

13. Some people change when they see the light, others when they feel the heat. ~ Caroline Schoeder

14. 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% Reading Test Scores - Brazosport ISD 98% 97% 94% White 94% 94% 82% Hispanic All Students African American 70% 64% 60% Economically Disadvantaged 50% 00–01 91–92 92–93 93–94 94–95 95–96 96–97 97–98 98–99 99–00

15. 98% 100% 98% 98% 98% 96% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 91–92 92–93 93–94 94–95 95–96 96–97 97–98 98–99 99–00 Math Test Scores- Brazosport ISD White 79% All Students 65% Hispanics 58% Afr. Amer. 54% Eco. Dsdv’d 50% 00–01

16. A rising tide lifts all boats — Proverb

17. TAAS Velasco Elementary DEMOGRAPHICS: Economically Disadvantaged 86.9% African American 18.5% LEP 33.3% Hispanic 65.4% Mobility 17.8% White 15.8%

18. Focus on Achievement Average API Growth

19. Visalia Unified School District, CA Elementary School 2002-2003 API Actual Growth vs. Target Growth

20. Martin County, FL Warfield ElementaryFCAT Scores 2002-2003

21. Alice Boucher Elementary Lafayette Parish, LA99.7% Free/Reduced lunch

22. Lake Don Pedro Elementary School, Mariposa, CA2002-2003 API Growth

23. TAAS Freeport Intermediate DEMOGRAPHICS: Economically Disadvantaged 65.1% African American 12.6% LEP 4.4% Hispanic 48.5% Mobility 20.1% White 38.4%

24. Martin County, FLIndiantown Middle SchoolFCAT Scores 2002-2003 State Rating: 2002 – C 2003 – B

25. Woodlawn Middle School, Fulton County, GA CRCT Test Score Results, 8th Grade Percent of students meeting or exceeding expectations

26. TAAS Brazosport High School DEMOGRAPHICS: Economically Disadvantaged 70.0% African American 14.0% LEP 2.7% Hispanic 47.0% Mobility 23.4% White 38.4%

27. 2002-2003 API GrowthMerced County, CA

28. Martin County, FLSouth Fork High SchoolFCAT Scores 2002-2003 State Rating: 2002 – C 2003 – B

29. High Performing Districts • Have clear and specific goals for what students should learn in every grade, including the order in which they should learn it; • Provide teachers with common curriculum, assignments; • Assess students every 1-3 weeks to measure progress; • ACT immediately on the results of those assessments.

30. Goal Student assessment results show NOsignificant difference in performance between any student groups.

31. Building Blocks • The PDCA Instructional Cycle is grounded in two sets of ideas: • Effective Schools • Total Quality Management

32. Pillars of Effective Schools Closing the Achievement Gap QUALITY EQUITY

33. “Effective Schools” Philosophy • FIRST GENERATION • Strong instructional leadership • High expectations of student achievement for ALL students • Pervasive and broadly understood instructional focus • Safe and orderly school climate conducive to teaching and learning • Measures of pupil achievement as a basis of program evaluation

34. “Effective Schools” Philosophy • SECOND GENERATION • Opportunity to learn and student time on task • Positive home-school relations

35. TQM • Defined as “an operational theory of management and set of process tools for implementation.” • Do it right the first time! • Continuous Improvement Cycles - PDCA • Don’t fix blame, fix the system!

36. Who’s To Blame? The college professor said: “Such rawness in a student is a shame, lack of preparation in high school is to blame.”

37. Who’s To Blame? Said the high school teacher: “Good heavens! That boy’s a fool. The fault of course is with the middle school.”

38. Who’s To Blame? The middle school teacher said: “From stupidity may I be spared. They sent him in so unprepared.”

39. Who’s To Blame? The primary teacher huffed: “Kindergarten blockheads all. They call that preparation – why, it’s worse than none at all.”

40. Who’s To Blame? The kindergarten teacher said: “Such lack of training never did I see. What kind of woman must that mother be.”

41. Who’s To Blame? The mother said: “Poor helpless child. He’s not to blame. His father’s people were all the same.”

42. Who’s To Blame? Said the father at the end of the line: “I doubt the rascal’s even mine.” Anonymous

43. The “programitis” trapThe tendency to look for a new program as the solution to low test scoresRather, we need to determine the root cause of the problem and develop a plan for improvement

44. “I never blame myself when I’m not hitting. I just blame the bat. And if it keeps up, I change bats.” ~ Yogi Berra

45. P L A N D O A C T C H E C K Plan/Do/Check/Act Cycle

46. FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS • Develop a plan • Implement the plan • Check to see that the plan is working • Act differently to adjust if it is not

47. P L A N D O A C T C H E C K PLAN

48. PLAN Study Data • Look at specific groups • Get to root causes by framing the problem: Identify weak standards

49. Weak And Strong Areas • Objectives from individual test items are identified from the disaggregated data. • Objectives represent areas that require improvement. • Weaker objectives are established as high priorities.

50. A Case Example