PATHWAYS TO SUCCESS

1. PATHWAYS TO SUCCESS Making a Difference Through Scientifically Proven Instructional Practices & Professional Development Kansas University Center for Research on Learning Jim Knight (jknight@ku.edu)

2. Pathways to Success • Primarily funded by GEAR-UP • Co-exists with O.S.E.P. funded Strategic Advantage Project • Takes place in Topeka, Kansas • Our goal is to help more students graduate and be succesful in college

3. Three Questions Shaping Our Discussion Today • What do we do about instruction? • How do we make it happen? • Is it working?

4. But first … • A little background information…

5. How did I get into this? Effective, Proven Instruction + Effective Professional Development = Student Success

6. Topeka Public Schools • Home of Brown v. Board of Education • 34% do not graduate from high school • 61% receive free/reduced lunch • 19 % qualify for special services • Topeka has #1 crime rate in U.S. cities under 200,000 population

7. Half a century after the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision outlawed deliberately segregated schools, more than 60 percent of black fourth-graders can't read. Washington Post, 17 May 2004, on the 50th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education

8. What is the CRL? Founded in 1978 Mission: Dramatically improve the performance of at-risk students in grades 4-12 through research-based interventions • $70+ million dollars of contracted R&D • International Professional Development Network • 275,000 teachers in 3,500 school districts

9. CRL The Strategic Instruction Model (SIM) …is an integrated model of research- validated practices to address many of the needs of diverse learners. It has been under development for 25 years at the University of Kansas-Center for Research on Learning.

10. Why focus on instruction? Stuck Schools Stuck Instruction Eroding Expectations Student Failure

11. Why focus on instruction? Moving Schools Improved Instruction High Expectations Student Success

12. What do we do about instruction?

13. Developing a Foundation for Instructional Excellence ASSESSMENT INSTRUCTIONAL BASICS KNOWLEDGE & TARGETS BEHAVIOR

14. Ebb and Flow

15. Building Blocks for Instructional Excellence BEHAVIOR

16. START On Time • School wide • To reduce tardies

17. Results: START On Time (Robinson Middle School, Topeka, Kansas)

18. Developing a Foundation for Instructional Excellence KNOWLEDGE & TARGETS BEHAVIOR

19. When we asked 77 teachers if they knew the standards for their courses… 37 of 77 said they had “no knowledge” of their course standards (fall semester, 2003)

20. Knowledge and targets • We primarily use • Learning Strategies • Content Enhancement

21. Ed Ellis’ LINCS Vocabulary Strategy Land given by king for fighting in army fief Chief of his land chief

22. Learning Strategies Curriculum Acquisition Word Identification Paraphrasing Self-Questioning Visual Imagery Interpreting Visuals Multipass Storage First-Letter Mnemonic Paired Associates Listening/Notetaking LINCS Vocabulary Expression of Competence Sentences Paragraphs Error Monitoring Themes Assignment Completion Test-Taking

23. Content Enhancement . • All students learn critical content • required in the core curriculum • regardless of literacy levels. • Teachers compensate for limited literacy levels by using targeted planning, explicit teaching routines, and visual devices to promote content mastery. all most some

24. Content Enhancement Teaching Routines Planning and Leading Learning Course Organizer Unit Organizer Lesson Organizer Teaching Concepts Concept Mastery Routine Concept Anchoring Routine Concept Comparison Routine Explaining Text, Topics, and Details Framing Routine Survey Routine Clarifying Routine Increasing Performance Quality Assignment Routine Question Exploration Routine Recall Enhancement Routine Vocabulary Routine

25. What does it look like in school? • Amy Schroeder’s 7th-grade mathematics class

26. Results • Topeka reported this year that it had the greatest gains in the history of the district, and the greatest gains in the state of Kansas

27. Developing a Foundation for Instructional Excellence INSTRUCTIONAL BASICS KNOWLEDGE & TARGETS BEHAVIOR

28. Knowledge Creation

29. Strategic Instruction • Scaffolded • Intensive • Explicit • Involves multiple models • Extensive practice & feedback • Requires mastery • Multi-modal (eyes, ears, movement)

30. Strategic tutoring • Teaching strategies while tutoring • Assessing • Constructing • Teaching • Transferring • One-to-one or small group • 2 or 4 times/week

31. What does it look like in school? • Steve Slough’s 9th-grade algebra class

32. Developing a Foundation for Instructional Excellence ASSESSMENT INSTRUCTIONAL BASICS KNOWLEDGE & TARGETS BEHAVIOR

33. Your chance to talk • What have you been thinking about as you’ve heard about the “instructional hierarchy” • Where do you think your project should start if you wish to build a foundation for instructional excellence?

34. So how do we make it happen?

35. “One of the main barriers… …to turning knowledge into action is the tendency to treat talking about something as equivalent to actually doing something about it.” Jeffrey Pfeffer & Robert I. Sutton The knowing-doing gap

36. If you don’t plan for execution, nothing significant will happen! • “Execution is the great unaddressed issue in the business world today. Its absence is the single biggest obstacle to success and the cause of many of the disappointments that are mistakenly attributed to other causes” Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan, Execution

37. Instructional Coaches Act at the Moment of Greatest Need Reinforce Content and Standards Knowledge Nourish Relationships Partner with Principals Provide Intensive Support Provide Powerful Interventions

38. Effective change is paradoxical

39. Paradox # 1 Change needs to be “top-down” and “bottom-up”

40. Top down, by itself, doesn’t work “the direct approach of naming the goal and mobilizing to achieve it does not, and cannot work in something as complex as change agentry” Michael Fullan

41. We take a partnership approach • Our work embodies the principles of equality, choice, voice, reflection, dialogue, praxis, and reciprocity “We want to be just like any other teacher in the school”

42. The Principal … • Identifies teachers who should work with the coach • Applies pressure respectfully • Evaluates teachers’ use of interventions • Enables school-wide implementation • Champions the project publicly • Removes barriers to implementation • Celebrates successes

43. Paradox # 2 Interventions needs to be “easy” and “powerful”

44. Interventions that are embraced are powerful & easy ideas, values, technologies that do the job with the least demand on psychic energy will survive. An appliance that does more work with less effort will be preferred Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi -this also applies to knowledge transfer in schools; interventions that are powerful and easy to use are the going to be adopted by teachers

45. How do we ensure they’re powerful? • Scientifically based • Socially significant results • Targeting standards • Targeting teachers’ most pressing needs • Use demonstration lessons, checklists, video models, feedback and other tactics to ensure that teachers learn research-based practices

46. How do we make it easy? • Prepare materials • Coach prior to lessons • Simplify (translate) instructional materials • Model in the classroom • Observe teachers • Use simple, powerful instructional frameworks • Provide constructive feedback

47. Paradox # 3 Effective change needs to self-organizing & tightly organized

48. Ideas Spread Like a Virus ( )

49. Our Goal is Highly Structured Professional Learning Communities • Get the right people on board • Target standards • Develop positive cultural norms • Be tightly organized • Employ coaches to lead small groups • Develop powerful tools • Keep learning from each other

50. Paradox # 4 Demanding commitment ensures you won’t get it!