Balanced Leadership: School Leadership that Works ™

Balanced Leadership:School Leadership that Works™ Choosing the Right Focus Option 1: Additional Factors That Impact Student Achievement

Session outcomes 1. Understanding of the relationship between choosing the right focus and student achievement. 2. Understanding of research-based school and classroom practices and student-level characteristics and how they relate. 3. Increased knowledge about research-based leadership responsibilities associated with choosing the right focus. 4. Understanding of the importance of alignment.

Overview • Welcome back, Community Circle • Parent & Community Involvement • Safe and orderly Environment • Collegiality and Professionalism • Instructional Strategies • Classroom Management • Home Environment • Student Motivation

Contingent Rewards Discipline Focus Involvement in Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment Order Outreach Resources Responsibilities primarily associated with focus of change(p.7)

LEADERSHIP LEADERSHIP LEADERSHIP LEADERSHIP Influences on student learning(p.8) 1. Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum 2. Challenging Goals and Effective Feedback 3. Parent and Community Involvement 4. Safe and Orderly Environment 5. Collegiality and Professionalism 6. Instructional Strategies 7. Classroom Management 8. Classroom Curriculum Design 9. Home Environment 10. Learned Intelligence/Background Knowledge 11. Motivation

Research-based school practices (Marzano, 2000a; 2003)

School-level practices(p.18) (Marzano, 2000a)

School-level practices (p.26) • Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum • Challenging Goals and Effective Feedback • Parent and Community Involvement • Safe and Orderly Environment • Collegiality and Professionalism (Marzano, 2003)

Parent and community involvement (p.26) Parental involvement – the extent to which parents are involved in and supportive of the culture and operating procedures of the school (Marzano, 2003)

Parent and community involvement (p.27) • Parents are invited and genuinely encouraged to become involved in the school. • Parents are involved as classroom aides, monitor school activities, and are used as expert resources in classrooms. • Parents are included in school-level governance processes and decisions when appropriate.

Family Involvement Research shows that family involvement results in: • Higher grades • Better attendance • More positive attitudes toward school • Higher graduation rate • Greater enrollment in college (Henderson and Berla, 2004)

National PTA Standards • Meaningful, two-way communication between home and school • Parenting Skills are promoted and supported • Parents assist their children in learning • Volunteering • Parents are involved in school-based decision making and advocacy • Community resources support schools, families and learning (Joyce Epstein)

School-level practices (p.27) (Marzano, 2000a)

Parent & Community Involvement Action Steps 1. Establish vehicles for communication between schools and parents and the community. All communications should be issued in the major languages of the school’s linguistically diverse students. Phone calls, Parent-Teacher-Student Conferences, Internet

Parent & Community Involvement Action Steps 2. Establish multiple ways for parents and community to be involved in the day-to-day operations of the school. Classroom aides, hallway monitors, clerical assistants, guest lecturers Volunteer programs

Parent & Community Involvement Action Steps 3. Establish governance vehicles that allow for the involvement of parents and community members. School improvement (leadership) teams, other structures

Table Talk How are parents involved in your school… as partners in their own child’s learning? as volunteers? in school governance? Which leadership responsibilities are most important in managing parent involvement at your school?

Safe and orderly environment (p.28) School climate –the extent to which a school creates an atmosphere that students perceive as orderly and supportive (Marzano, 2003)

Students and teachers know and understand expected behaviors. Consequences are clear, fair, and consistently applied. Students are taught self-discipline and to assume responsibility for the quality of the learning environment. Safe and orderly environment (p.29)

Safe and Orderly Environment Action Steps 1. Establish rules and procedures for behavioral problems that might be caused by the school’s physical characteristics or the school’s routines. Prevention strategies

Safe and Orderly Environment Action Steps 2. Establish clear school-wide rules and procedures for general behavior. Communicate rules and procedures to students in a highly visible manner.

Safe and Orderly Environment Action Steps 3. Establish and enforce appropriate consequences for violations of rules and procedures.

Safe and Orderly Environment Action Steps 4. Establish a program that teaches self-discipline and responsibility to students.

Safe and Orderly Environment Action Steps 5. Establish a system that allows for the early detection of students who have high potential for violence and extreme behaviors.

Table Discussion How are you creating a safe and orderly environment at your school? Which leadership responsibilities do you use? Consider how you (1) establish schoolwide rules and procedures, (2) determine and apply appropriate consequences for violation of rules, (3) teach students self-discipline, and (4) identify students at risk for violence or extreme behavior.

Collegiality and professionalism (p.30) Communication and decision making – the extent to which the school leader is an information provider and facilitates group decision making Cooperation – the extent to which staff members in a school support one another by sharing resources, ideas, and solutions to common problems (Marzano, 2003)

Norms and standards for professional conduct are formalized and modeled by teachers and staff. Effort and quality performance are the basis for recognition. Collegiality and professionalism (p.31)

Professionalism & Internal Accountability • “Schools do not ‘succeed’ in responding to external cues or pressures unless they have their own internal system for reaching agreement evident in organization and pedagogy…they have a strong internal focus on issues of instruction, student learning and expectations for teacher and student performance.” -- Richard Elmore (2004)

Internal Accountability • “…there is a high degree of alignment among individual teachers about what they can do and about their responsibility for the improvement of student learning. Such schools also have shared expectations among teachers, administrators and students about what constitutes good work and a set of processes for observing whether these expectations are being met.” (Richard Elmore, 2004) Expectations, individual responsibility to act, and accountability are aligned and collectively held and reinforced= internal accountability.

School Climate Audit

Classroom-level practices (p.42) • Instructional Strategies • Classroom Management • Classroom Curriculum Design (Marzano, 2003)

Nine categories ofinstructional strategies(p.43) (Marzano, 2000a)

Research-based instructional strategies, classroom management, and curriculum design is the primary focus of school improvement. Ongoing professional development enhances teachers’ use of research-based instructional strategies, curriculum design, and classroom management practices. Research-based instructional strategies (p.43)

In teams of three: Become an expert on three instructional categories. Share the key ideas for the assigned instructional categories. Illustrate effective uses of the key ideas with classroom examples. Modified jigsaw (p.44)

How would you help teachers gain expertise in these instructional categories? How would you monitor these instructional categories? Small-group debrief (p.59)

What is classroom curriculum design? • Classroom curriculum design is…. • The sequencing and pacing of content along with the experiences students have with content. • Under the purview of the classroom teacher. • Based on a guaranteed and viable curriculum.

Classroom curriculum design(p.60) Learning is enhanced when teachers identify important declarative and procedural knowledge. Learning requires tasks that are structured for effective transfer of knowledge. Learning requires multiple exposure to and complex interactions with knowledge tasks that are structured for effective transfer of knowledge. (Marzano, 2003)

Classroom Management “Classroom Management is the confluence of teacher actions in 4 distinct areas: (1) establishing and enforcing rules and procedures, (2) carrying out disciplinary actions, (3) maintaining effective teacher and student relationships, and (4) maintaining an appropriate mental set for management.” (Marzano, 2003)

Effects of Disciplinary Techniques on Classroom Behavior Source: Stage, S.A. & Quiroz, D.R. (1997). A meta-analysis of interventions to decrease disruptive classroom behavior in public education settings. School Psychology Review, 26 (3) 333-368.

Teacher-Student Relationships “ Briefly, teachers should be effective instructors and lecturers, as well as friendly, helpful and congenial. They should be able to empathize with students, understand their world, and listen to them. Good teachers are not uncertain, undecided, or confusing in the way they communicate with students. They are not grouchy, gloomy, dissatisfied, aggressive, sarcastic, or quick-tempered. They should be able to set standards and maintain control while still allowing students responsibility and freedom to learn.” (Wubbels, Brekelmans, van Tartwijk, & Admiral, 1999)

Appropriate Mental Set The appropriate mental set for a classroom teacher has two essential and distinguishing features: (1) Withitness (the disposition of the teacher to quickly and accurately identify problem behavior and act on it) (2) Emotional Objectivity (implements and enforces rules and procedures, executes disciplinary actions and cultivates effective relationships with students without becoming upset if students violate classroom rules and procedures.)

Classroom Management Action Steps • Have teachers articulate and enforce a comprehensive set of classroom rules and procedures. • Have teachers use specific strategies that reinforce appropriate behavior and recognize and provide consequences for inappropriate behavior. • Institute a schoolwide approach to discipline. • Help teachers develop a balance of moderate dominance and moderate cooperation in their dealings with students.

Classroom Management Action Steps, cont. 5. Provide teachers with an awareness of the needs of different types of students and ways of alleviating those needs. (Five different types of students: Passive, Aggressive, Attention Problems, Perfectionist, Socially rejected) 6. Have teachers employ specific strategies to maintain or heighten their awareness regarding the actions of students in their classes (“withitness”). 7. Have teachers employ specific strategies that help them maintain a healthy emotional objectivity with their students.

Table Talk Consider the elements of a purposeful community: outcomes that matter to all, agreed upon processes, use of all assets and collective efficacy, and how they might be used to enhance teachers’ classroom management skills in your building. Identify key leadership responsibilities you would use to improve teachers’ classroom management skills.

Balanced Leadership: School Leadership that Works ™