Public School Choice 4.0 Learning Seminars

1. Public School Choice 4.0Learning Seminars School Turnaround & Theory of Action September 13, 2012

2. Agenda • Self-Check: Where Are You Now? • Understand where your team is in the planning and writing process and what you need to do as you move forward. • Review: What Have We Covered So Far? • Review Cycle of Inquiry Process – Frame for where we’ve been and where we are headed • Dissect each proposal question – How to approach each question • Theory of Action: What Must We do to Achieve Our Desired Vision? • What is Theory of Action? • School Improvement vs. School Turnaround • Choose Your Adventure • What are your top 3-5 priority issues and why? What strategies, practices, policies will you use to address them and why?

3. Self-Check: Where Are We Now?

4. Where Are We Now? (Where Should we Be?) • 48 days (7 weekends) remain until Oct. 31st • If you haven’t already done so, begin writing so you have a substantive draft available by Oct. 8 – this allows plenty of time for proofreading and collecting feedback. • Remember to follow the 4.0 RFP and use the Evaluation Rubric as a guide – this year’s application is very different from the PSC 3.0 application! • If you are interested in writing for an alternative governance model, you should have already begun to share the information with your staff so that you can schedule a staff vote.

5. Review: What have we covered so far? School Data Profile & Analysis (Section B) Implementation (Section D) Root Causes of Key Challenges (Section B) VISION for your STUDENTS & SCHOOL School Turnaround / Theory of Action (Section C #1-2) Planning with your School Community (Section C #3)

6. Section A: Vision & Instructional Philosophy • What is your school’s vision for the child or youth who will matriculate from your school? • Outline the most important outcomes you want for your students as a result of having attended your school. • What will students know and be able to do upon matriculation from your school? (Descriptors, Elaborative Sentences and Evidence from Session 2) • What is the vision of the school that will help achieve the vision of the successful future graduate described above? • Convey where the school is headed over the next three to five years. • What must staff and adults do to ensure that children and youth are achieving the vision set forth above? • Describe the instructional philosophy that is connected to achieving the vision of the child/youth who will matriculate from your school and the overall vision of the school. Why do you believe this is the best approach? • Core beliefs and values about what powerful teaching and learning must look like at your school to ensure that students graduate with the outcomes set forth in A1 • Identify the key strategies that will drive instruction as well as what teaching and learning will look like, including instructional techniques and student activities that will be consistent across all classrooms.

7. Section C: School Turnaround Question 2 2. Describe the culture and climate (academic and non-academic) that is central to turning around your school and aligns with the instructional philosophy above. Why do you believe the culture described is one that will turn around your school? What research supports the actions you plan to take and the changes you expect to see? • Outline the plan for turning around the existing school culture to one that embodies the vision of the school and is supportive of achieving the vision of the successful future graduate of the school. • What do you want the school to feel like for adults? Students? Parents? • What structures, policies and/or procedures must be in place to ensure that adults, students and parents experience the school the way you envision?

8. Review: What have we covered so far? School Data Profile & Analysis (Section B) Root Causes of Key Challenges (Section B) Implementation (Section D) VISION for your STUDENTS & SCHOOL Planning with your School Community (Section C #3) School Turnaround / Theory of Action (Section C #1-2)

9. Section B: School Data Profile/Analysis • Where is the school now? What does the data/information collected and analyzed tell you about the school? • Tell a story using relevant qualitative, quantitative, empirical and anecdotal data • Go beyond stating the facts and convey a clear understanding of the data analyzed • Analysis should include: • Areas of strength and areas of concern • Areas where you have seen improvement in recent years • Trends – positive and negative - observed over a period of years • Underlying root cause(s) of persistent trends • Based on your analysis, please identify the most central and urgent issues/challenges that are hindering the school from improving student learning and achieving the vision of the successful future graduate and the school articulated above? What is the supporting evidence that leads you to identify the items listed above as high priorities? • Identify three to five issues/challenges that the school must address to turn around the school – instructional, operational and behavioral • Connected to helping you achieve the vision of the student who will graduate from the school and the school itself • Sound rationale and evidence for issues/challenges identified

10. Review: What have we covered so far? School Data Profile & Analysis (Section B) Implementation (Section D) Root Causes of Key Challenges (Section B) VISION for your STUDENTS & SCHOOL School Turnaround / Theory of Action (Section C #1-2) Planning with your School Community (Section C #3)

11. Essential Questions • What does it take to breakthrough and interrupt the unproductive patterns that have persisted in our schools? • What actions (strategies, practices, programs, policies) do you believe will address the MOST urgent needs and challenges for your school? • What is the underlying theory of action that supports your actions? • How will you put these actions into place at your school? • Why do you believe these actions are the ones that are necessary to impact your highest priority challenges? • What do you expect to happen as a result of the actions you take?

12. Section C: School Turnaround Questions 1 & 2 • Building on the priority areas identified above (in Section B) as central to turning around your school, what specific strategies, practices, programs, policies, etc. must be employed to address each priority area? What do you expect will change as a result of implementing these strategies, practices, programs, policies, etc.? What is the underlying theory/research that supports why you believe the strategies, practices, programs, policies, etc. identified above will dramatically improve student learning at your school? • State what will you do to bridge the gap between where you are now and where you are headed • Articulate what you expect to be true as a result of implementing the actions you outline • Clearly discuss the rationale or reasons behind your actions • Describe the culture and climate (academic and non-academic) that is central to turning around your school and aligns with the instructional philosophy above (in Section A). Why do you believe the culture described is one that will turn around your school? What research supports the actions you plan to take and the changes you expect to see? • Outline the plan for turning around the existing school culture to one that embodies the vision of the school and is supportive of achieving the vision of the successful future graduate of the school. • What do you want the school to feel like for adults? Students? Parents? • What structures, policies and/or procedures must be in place to ensure that adults, students and parents experience the school the way you envision?

13. Theory of Action: What is it? • A clear and focused chain of actionsand subsequent changes that address your highest-priority challenges and ultimately improve student achievement • A theory of action allows you to be conscious and intentional about the strategies you implement. • In a year, everyone at your school should be able to say, “These are the actions we took… these are the reasons why… here’s what we wanted to happen… and now we are reflecting on the results of our actions.”

14. First- Vs. Second-Order Change First Order Doing more or less of something that you already do; generally reversible. Second Order To do something significantly or fundamentally different than what you’ve done before; not easily reversed Systemic in nature Modifies the very way an organization is structured Alters assumptions, goals, structures, roles and norms Requires a change in beliefs and perceptions A decision or requirement to do something significantly and fundamentally different Irreversible Transformational Requires new learning • Improves efficiency or effectiveness • Single, incremental, isolated • Does not alter the basic features of teaching/ learning • Reversible • Doing more or less of something we’re already doing • Non-transformational • New learning is not required • Adjustments within the existing structure Bateson, Gregory. Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity. New York: Dutton, 1979 Bergquist, William. The Modern organization: Mastering the Art of Irreversible Change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1993.

15. Theory of ActionSuggested Process • First, identify your 3-5 highest priority issues. • Taking one high-priority issue, discuss what KEY actions would address the problem. Play out how these actions would actually bring about different results. • Focus in on one or more KEY strategies that the group is committed to implementing. Attempting too many runs the risk of none being fully implemented. • State your theory of action in “IF… THEN…” terms. • A powerful theory of action addresses several domains: • Core instructional program • Professional learning community • Instructional leadership • Culture & climate • Family & community engagement • College & career supports

16. Theory of ActionChecking your Key Strategies As you identify your key strategies and levers for change, check to make sure you’ve identified the right ones. As a group, ask yourselves these questions: • Are the key levers you identified tightly linked to your goals? • Are the key levers coherent? • If we were to do these things (strategies, etc.) well, will we get the results we desire? • Do the strategies fit together in a coherent overall strategy? • Are we focused? Can we do everything we’ve proposed well, or is what we are proposing to do too much?

17. Developing a Theory of Action CURRENT REALITY Top 3-5 highest-priority challenges “IF we do this…” What KEY actions or strategies address the high leverage issue/challenge identified? “THEN we expect that this will change…” What will be true if you commit to effectively implement and really follow through on the key actions and strategies identified? Determine Root Causes for Each Priority Issue “Which will lead to the following measurable, positive results…” What is the vision of the successful child or youth who will graduate from our school? What is the vision of the school that will enable us to achieve the vision of this graduate?

18. Theory of action template

19. Choose Your Adventure • Option A – Data Analysis: Review a variety of data sets using the Data Analysis Tool from Session 9. Create data statements and spend a lot of time on Step 8: What are the root causes of the issues/challenges you see? • Option B – Meta-Analysis: If you’ve analyzed a variety of data sets, now reflect across the various sets of data and explore: • What kind of story is emerging? • What challenges feel most urgent? • What are the top 3-5 priority issues that you will focus on? • Option C – Theory of Action Template: If you’ve already determined your 3-5 key priority issues, use the Theory of Action Template to begin identifying: • What actions, practices, strategies are necessary to address each priority issue? • Determine your theory of action—what makes you believe that the actions you’ve identified will impact your high-priority issues?

20. underlying root causes: why are you getting these results? • Identifying the root causes requires you to DIG DEEP, several layers beneath your initial assumption! • Resist the urge to move straight to solutions; it is important to understand the genesis of the problem • Not understanding the origin of the problem leads to actions and solutions that miss the mark and don’t address actual cause of the challenges. • Understanding why a challenge exists is ongoing; you will come up with your best hypothesis at the time based on the data and understanding you have

21. underlying root causes: why are you getting these results? A problem is the cause of the pattern/ challenge that, if solved, would produce improved results for student achievement and equity. A problem is generally something that can be addressed by changes in how we do our work. Some examples include: • changing how we teach… • increasing or improving professional development in a particular area… • changing a structure or program in the school… • bringing parents in to the educational process more.

22. Understanding root causesSuggested Process • Select a priority challenge and begin discussing what possible causes of this might be. • Ask members of the team what is the high-leverage problem(s) that they believe is causing the priority challenge to exist. • You are trying to come up with your best educated guess – a hypothesis. • Engage in activities to deepen your understanding of the challenge: Dialogue, Further Data, and Outside Research and Expertise • Define and articulate your high-leverage problem. • The high leverage problem should be stated in a negative phrasing. It is the thing you want to change. • Example: “We have not been providing enough direct instruction of grammatical and mechanical rules, particularly for our Spanish speaking EL students.” • Discuss what related problems contribute to this high leverage problem. • Example: “Writing instruction is not emphasized across the content areas. Most of our teachers have not received adequate professional development in effective ELD instruction, especially around English grammar.”