Increasing Achievement Levels for African-American Student Through Instructional Rounds

1. Increasing Achievement Levels for African-American Student Through Instructional Rounds Dr. Matthew W. Ross Asst. Supt., Educational Services Eastside Union School District Lancaster, California Dr. Mark E. Marshall Superintendent of Schools Eastside Union School District Lancaster, California

2. Facts about Eastside Union SCHOOL DISTRICT • We are located in East Lancaster. • We are an urban/suburban Community. • We are very diverse (60% Hispanic, 23% African American, 17% White and Other). • We have a free and reduced lunch rate of nearly 90% • We have increased student enrollment. • We have declining revenue from the State.

3. Respective Roles • The Board of Trustees develops policies. • The Superintendent ensures that the policies are being followed. • The District Office provides the technical expertise and supports the work of the schools. • School Sites have some autonomy yet the share in the accountability with regard to local decisions.

4. Celebrations in Eastside! • We have had 3 consecutive years of positive district API growth • We have Science partnerships with NASA • We are expanding the AVID program to our Elementary Sites, while Cole Middle is poised to be AVID Demonstration Site • Our Middle School Boys recently won the League Championships: for both Basketball and Soccer • We have major Capital Improvements in the works: Construction of Eastside Academy (Final Stages), and a 5th Elementary School (Ground Breaking) • We are working with High Desert Alliance of Black School Educators (HDABSE) to establish a Parent Academy • We have a partnerships with the City of and other entities to augment the services to our students.

5. The Goal My goal is to facilitate a 5 year Strategic Plan that addresses the following: Academics, Capital Improvement/Technology Enhancements, Fiscal Responsibility, Professional Development, Human Resources, Stakeholder Engagement, and Safety/Climate Needs of the Eastside Union School District. This action will serve as a pillar in our quest to become a “World Class System of School”.

6. The Outcomes • The Eastside Union School District will become a top academic achiever in the Antelope Valley. • The Eastside Union School District will be positively recognized by the State of California. • The Eastside Union School District will become a premier school district on the West Coast. • The Eastside Union School District will become a nationally recognized model school district. • The Eastside Union School District will be transformed into a World Class System of School that has attained excellence!

7. Elements of the Plan What does a “World Class System of Schools” Look Like?”

8. Attendance, Student Discipline,School Safety, and School Climate • Following state policies on enrollment and attendance, we ensure that our students attend school regularly and continue to develop incentives to foster positive attendance and student achievement. • All of our schools consistently follow the established student code of conduct. • School wide discipline plans and positive reinforcement plans are established at all of our sites. • All schools develop and maintain annual Safety Plans. • We work cooperatively with law enforcement and the judicial system to stay current in community trends.

9. Capital Improvements/Technology • We ensure that our school facilities are up to date and safe for all students. • Our students and staff members have access to up to date technology. • We stay abreast in funding opportunities that will enhance our capacity in this area. • We work closely with the individuals charged with carrying out the actual work in our school system (project managers, architects etc.). • We are transparent with the public as it pertains to any renovation, building projects, or technology upgrades.

10. Fiscal Responsibility • Budgets are developed to serve Students in the best manner possible. • The Board of Trustees are always provided with the data necessary to make budgetary decisions. • In the event of a financial crisis, a transparent and inclusive stakeholder process is used to make the hard decisions. • Financial reports are developed and provided to stakeholders on a monthly basis (or as requested) • We develop and maintain a healthy reserve fund balance.

11. Human Capital • We recruit, hire, sustain, and retain the best employees for our students. • Employees are knowledgeable of and follow the established policies of the Eastside Union School District . • All employees are evaluated at least annually and held to the highest standards. • Employees are encouraged to give feedback on our performance in this area.

12. Professional Development • An Aligned Professional Development Framework is developed (or enhanced) in our district and is a priority in our district to enhance student achievement. • Staff members are invited to give input relative to their Professional Development needs and the quality of our program. • We increase the number of staff members with advanced degrees and/or attaining National Board Certification. • School administrators engage in professional growth to stay current in the field; including leadership development and succession planning.

13. Stakeholder Engagement • We meet regularly with our stakeholders to keep them abreast of district initiatives and issues that impact student learning. • While we regularly promote the School District accomplishments, we will also be transparent in articulating the challenges. • Stakeholders have regular opportunities to give us feedback about our work. • We continue to network with colleges and universities. • We continue foster partnerships with local businesses.

14. Student Achievement • The School District and each individual School makes annual gains on its Academic Performance Indexes. • The School District and each individual School makes Adequate Yearly Progress. • At least 80% of our students meet or exceed Standards on State Assessments. • All students are exposed to a rigorous course of study, innovative instructional practices, and highly qualified teachers. • Our Schools become State (California Distinguished), AVID Demonstration and National Schools of Distinction

15. How do we get there???

16. A special Thank You to everybody who ever put anything on the internet for us to use as we developed our Instructional Rounds protocols.

17. INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP Instructional leaders are obligated to: • Establish goals and expectations • Ensure orderly and supportive environment • Promote and participate in teacher learning • Plan, coordinate and evaluate curriculum • Plan, coordinate, and evaluate teaching • Align resource selection and allocate to priority teaching goals (Hattie, 2009)

18. Moving from a “compliance culture” to an “inquiry and accountability culture” “Classrooms, schools, and districts are nested learning communities whose cultures are closely linked. Teachers who operate in a compliance mode with their principals are unlikely to create anything other than a compliance environment for their students. And as a former principal ... put it, ‘Principals cannot lead collaborative learning if they have not experienced it.’ Students are not likely to take risks, collaborate, learn together, and experience higher order tasks unless their teachers are. Recognizing these nested relationships helps leaders in a variety of roles take responsibility for leading learning.” -Dr. Richard Elmore-

19. Leadership Practice Organizational Processes Individual and Collective Efficacy Beliefs Structures in place Instructional mandate (vertical accountability) Attention to processes Explicit focus on group commitments Model public learning Create environment supportive of risk-taking (psychological safety) Focus on structures, processes and content of team work Examine available instructional supports / PD Increased exposure to instructional strategies and practices (individual) Increased expectation of group success leads to “normative press” (lateral accountability) Press leads to greater risk-taking, perseverance, resilience in face of failure Student Achievement Individual efficacy linked to classroom behaviors Collective efficacy a strong predictor of whole-school achievement

21. INTRODUCTORY ACTIVITY Write down what you know about the Common Core State Standards and how you believe they will affect classroom instruction in the year 2014. What challenges do you believe African-American students will encounter with the Common Core State Standards. What challenges do you believe you or your staff will encounter teaching the Common Core State Standards. How will you help African American students overcome those challenges with the Common Core State Standards. How will you help your teachers help African American students overcome those challenges with the Common Core State Standards.

22. COMMON CORE PERFORMANCE STANDARDS • Student must demonstrate Depth of Knowledge and application • Increased collaboration/interaction between the teacher and the student • Ability of the student to self-report learning and progress

23. PURPOSE Demonstrate how to use Instructional Rounds as one element of the instructional observation protocol in the rollout of the Common Core State Standard to build a culture of high quality instruction at scale and for identifying the various levels of academic engagement among African-American students in the classroom, ensuring that all students have access to high-quality instruction no matter which classroom they are in.

24. TOPICS TO BE COVERED • Origin of Instructional Rounds • What Instructional Rounds are and are not • Rationale for Instructional Rounds • The relationship between Instructional Rounds and the more general processes of school improvement • Instructional Rounds process

25. What Do Rounds Look Like In The Medical Profession? Identify a medical problem Discuss the next steps to solve the problem Follow through on the implementation of various strategies. How is the learning done? Observing Applying and utilizing shared strengths of team members

26. What Do Rounds Look Like In Education? Identify an instructional problem Discuss the next steps to solve the problem Follow through on the implementation of various strategies. How is the learning done? Observing Applying and utilizing shared strengths of team members

27. The basic premise of Instructional Rounds is that people best learn about the meaning of high quality instruction by observing teachers, students, and the work students are asked to do, followed by meaningful conversation and analysis.

28. FOCUS OF INTRUCTIONAL ROUNDS Instructional Rounds help in building individual and collective capacity to:  • Ensure that all students have access to high-quality instruction no matter which classroom they are in. • Understand what kind of teaching and learning is happening in each classroom, at each school across the district. • Build a shared language and understanding of high-quality teaching and learning in order to move exceptional practices from a single classroom to the school, and from a single school to the district, from a individual to the collective.

29. WHAT INSTRUCTIONAL ROUNDS ARE AND ARE NOT… • Focused on the instructional core • A Learning Community • Collaborative to Create Coherence Around Instructional Improvements at Scale • Tailored to A Common Instructional Problem • A Method to Examine Quality Teaching. Instructional Rounds Are • Evaluative • Punitive • Simplistic • Random • Isolated • Disconnected • Reductive Instructional Rounds Are Not

30. WHAT INSTRUCTIONAL ROUNDS ARE AND ARE NOT… Instructional Rounds Are • Culture-Building Practice • Instructional Problem-Solving • A Process • Descriptive, Predictive, Diagnostic • Professionalizing • Supervision and Evaluation • Implementation Check • An Event • Normative, Judgmental • Bureaucratic, Hierarchical Instructional Rounds Are Not

31. THE BIG IDEA! The idea behind Instructional Rounds is that everyone involved is working on their practice, everyoneis obliged to be knowledgeable about the common task of instructional improvement, and everyone’s practice should be subject to scrutiny, critique, and improvement. • Instructional Rounds informand are informedby improvement strategies. • Instructional Rounds start with a problem of practice, one that often emerges from some improvement strategy, and end with ideas for making our improvement strategies more effective. • Instructional Rounds are, then, a vehicle for improvingourstrategies and making us much more reflectiveabout our work.

32. THEORIES OF PRACTICE(Single-Loop Learning)

33. THEORIES OF PRACTICE (Double-Loop Learning)

34. The Ladder of Inference • In school leadership, we are conditioned to jump from observation immediately to evaluation. • The rounds process asks us to break this perpetual habit by using the ladder of inference: • Description before Analysis • Analysis before Prediction • Prediction before Evaluation

35. Ladder of inference Interpretive and Abstract • Assumptions • Beliefs • Values • Attitudes • What teachers are saying and doing • What students are saying and doing • What the task is Descriptive and Concrete

36. POP Cycle repeats as necessary POP evolving Continuous instructional improvement Placement of Instructional Rounds in the Instructional Improvement Process Various Outputs or Strategies Nextlevelofwork Nextlevelofwork ConsistentHigh QualityInstruction At Scale School Improvement Team IRsite visit IRsite visit SIT Various Outputs or Strategies Various inputs: CST, CAHSEE, API, AP, Surveys, IQT, Observations

37. FOCUS OF INSTRUCTIONAL ROUNDS • Collective learning rather than individual supervisory practice • Patterns of practice and predicted results rather than compliance with directives • Supportive of existing improvement strategies rather than a new strategy

38. TRADITIONAL BALANCE OF OBSERVATIONAL ATTENTION CONTENT STUDENT TEACHER

39. activity • What percent of your classroom instructional observations are focused on • The Teacher • The Student • The Content

40. INSTRUCTIONAL OBSERVATION TRIANGLE INSTRUCTIONAL CORE

41. Comparison of INSTRUCTIONAL OBSERVATION PROTOCOLS

42. Instructional Rounds Teacher Compass Narrow & deeper look Broad and comprehensive look Impartial network of observers More teacher directed Problem of practice (POP) generated from campus Defined set of “look fors” Identification of growth area & action plan to impact Periodic planned classroom visits focused on POP Constantly revisiting components of effective instruction Isolating singular element deeply Focus and structure for observing classroom instruction Network suggestions for next steps Analysis of data collected Component of improvement strategy Leading toward consistent quality instruction Capturing multiple data points Evidence-based classroom observation Next level of work

43. HIGH-QUALITY INSTRUCTION AT SCALE High-quality instruction at scale involves the systemic improvement efforts to the instructional core within individual classrooms and across all schools, which can be applied to all levels of practice that are needed to systematically improve instruction and increase learning for all students. In short, high quality instruction at scale moves the teaching and learning from a single classroom to the school, and from a single school to the district; and from the individual to the collective.

44. ACTIVITY Check In…Now that you know a little about Instructional Rounds, how do you see it in the context of your current observational protocols?

45. INSTRUCTIONAL ROUNDS PROCESS Problem of Practice Observation of Practice Next Level of Work Observation Debrief

46. PROBLEM OF PRACTICE Definition. The specific problem of instructional improvement that the school and the school system is working on and want feedback about . Using data to identifying a “Problem of Practice”: • Assessment Data • Formal/Informal Classroom Observations • Teacher Surveys • Student Surveys • Etc.

47. PROBLEM OF PRACTICE A Problem of Practice: • Focuses on the instructional core. • Is directly observable. • Is actionable (is within the school/district's control and can be improved in real time). • Connects to a broader strategy of improvement (school, system). • Is high-leverage (if you acted on it, it would make a significant difference for student learning).

48. PROBLEM OF PRACTICE Determining a Problem of Practice • What are the strength of your school's instructional program? • What areas of your schools' instructional program need to be strengthened? • How did you determine the strengths and weaknesses of your instructional program? • What are your sources of data? • How do you know if you are making progress in these instructional areas? • What else have you been learning from these sources of data? • What is puzzling to you about the data? • What has felt challenging? • What does your faculty continue to grapple with?

49. SAMPLE PROBLEM OF PRACTICE Problem of Practice. It seems to be a challenge to make the classroom task address material that is immediate to the student's time and place. The engagement of student skills to real-world problems that have some consequence. Not only on a singular basis, but as a regular practice for course design. Focus Question. How do we design our courses to integrate seamlessly with current and pressing issues and challenges that are in evidence to our students?

50. SAMPLE PROBLEM OF PRACTICE Problem of Practice. The students at our school infrequently collaborate or communicate on group projects or engage in project based learning. In the few instances where teachers are engaging students in this work, the school is seeing more higher order thinking skills being addressed as part of the core curriculum. These teachers are also having success engaging students outside of the classroom, extending learning beyond the school day. Focus Question. How do we integrate group projects that involve complex communication and collaboration into instruction?