A MORAL ISSUE

In the video on the left, Kentucky Commissioner of Education Terry Holliday states that there is no excuse for low performing schools. Overcoming inequities in educational quality is “the moral issue of our time.”

In a professional learning community or for personal reflection, answer the following questions.

What does the disaggregated data in your school show? How well do poor and minority children who attend your school perform? How can schools overcome barriers to learning?

You can write your thoughts in the space below. When you are finished, click save. At the end of the module you will be able to print what you have saved.

HOUSE BILL 176 AND PERSISTENTLY LOW-PERFORMING SCHOOLS

In the 2010 Kentucky General Assembly, legislators impatient with persistently low performing schools passed House Bill 176 in record time, calling for action to turn around schools that are failing to help students learn at high levels. Ten schools were identified and audit teams of current and former educators, parents, and others trained in the process did intensive needs-assessments and made recommendations to turn these schools around.

The 10 schools will receive federal grant money and intense support to move from persistently low performing to high achieving. The audit teams assessed the schools using the Standards and Indicators for School Improvement as a basis to create a tool to assess school leadership. They gauged school effectiveness, reviewing academic performance, learning environment and efficiency within each school.

District 180 is a new one-stop shop to streamline resources, communication and monitoring of the 10 “turnaround schools.” KDE hopes to receive the necessary funding to make District 180 a resource for all Kentucky schools.

QUALITIES OF HIGH PERFORMING SCHOOLS

Research shows that high performing schools, regardless of location and students' socio-economic status, share many common qualities—qualities that can be replicated by any school truly committed to improving teaching and learning.

The book Change Leadership, A Practical Guide to Transforming Our Schools offers both conceptual and practical guides for moving our schools into a future characterized by standards and practices that will enable every student to learn successfully. Those practices include the following:

• Examining data regularly to understand every student’s learning and progress
• Having a shared vision of good teaching, including professional discussions about the criteria of good teaching using a shared vocabulary
• Regular meetings to address the craft of teaching and to model good teaching
• Well-defined standards for student performance
• Effective leadership that focuses on improvement in instruction
• Job-embedded, on-site professional development focused on student learning
• Regular diagnostic assessments to track student progress and insure early interventions

You can observe many of the qualities of successful schools in the video on the left featuring Ballard Memorial High School, a school that went from low performing to high achieving by instituting many of the practices described above.

In a professional learning community or for personal reflection, list the things you observed that you believe contribute to Ballard Memorial High School’s success.

You can write your thoughts in the space below. When you are finished, click save. At the end of the module you will be able to print what you have saved.

IDENTIFYING AND SUPPORTING THE NEEDS OF ALL STUDENTS

As you observed in the video featuring Ballard Memorial High School, a key component to the school’s turnaround—arguably the most important—was the school-wide commitment to ensuring learning for every student.

Ensuring that every student is learning is more challenging for some schools than others. It’s generally more difficult for high schools where one teacher may see 100 or more students each day. And at all grade levels, some students need more help than others. For example, in schools located in high poverty areas, teachers and other school staff must provide support for students’ physical, cultural and socio-economic needs in order to support them academically.

In the video on the left, former Kentucky Commissioner of Education and current Executive Director of the Council of Chief State School Officers Gene Wilhoit talks about the need for schools to move toward a more individualized approach to instruction regardless of challenges.

It is possible for schools with challenging student populations to successfully meet individual students’ needs. In addition to rurally located Ballard Memorial High School, Atkinson Elementary (Jefferson County Schools) has also successfully turned around poor student performance despite formidable odds.

In 2007 Atkinson Elementary in Jefferson County was the lowest performing elementary school in the state of Kentucky. The school had a reputation for low academic performance, violence, extremely high teacher turnover rates and conflict. Its surrounding community has the highest levels of parent incarceration and the lowest levels of life expectancy and high school graduates. The Bluegrass Institute, a conservative think-tank, labeled the school the "biggest waste of money in Kentucky" in its Bang for the Buck report. The school faced many challenges and very little hope.

In 2010 Atkinson's demographics have changed very little. Atkinson continues to rank as the highest-needs school in the district. However, that is the only statistic that mirrors the 2007 school year.

Since then Atkinson, now the Atkinson Academy for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (A University of Louisville Signature Partnership School) was highlighted as the most improved school in Jefferson County and Kentucky. Due to a concerted effort to put systems in place that "encircle each child" with what they need to be successful, the school has seen substantial gains in literacy, math, science and social studies as well as a 90 percent reduction in suspensions.

Atkinson has accomplished this through a focus on each child's academic, social, and emotional needs. The school's "whole child" approach monitors the progress of each student and provides intensive interventions for students who are struggling.

In the second video, Atkinson's then principal Dewey Hensley describes the school’s “whole child” approach.

CREATING A CULTURE OF LEARNING

Teachers and academic leaders who, for whatever reason, lack confidence in their capacity to have a major influence on student learning create schools with cultures that reflect failure and hopelessness. How do you turn around a school with a negative culture?

Experts agree that leadership matters. Dr. Holliday observed that he’s never seen a poor performing school with a good principal. Highly effective leaders are motivating. They promote student and teacher growth regardless of where the school is located by creating experiences that foster the belief that all children can learn at high levels.

In a professional learning community or for personal reflection, answer the following question:

What characteristics are common to teachers and principals who inspire students to achieve at high levels?

You can write your thoughts in the space below. When you are finished, click save. At the end of the module you will be able to print what you have saved.

REFLECTION ACTIVITY

For this module's activity, you are to conduct a reflective needs analysis of your school. Using the text box below, create a list of your school’s instructional priorities, the obstacles you might encounter in implementing change for each, and ways in which the obstacles might be overcome.

You can write your thoughts in the space below. When you are finished, click save. At the end of the module you will be able to print what you have saved.

First, list your school's instructional priorities.

Next, list your school's possible obstacles.

And finally, list some strategies to ensure success.

RESOURCES

For principals, academic officers, and others who monitor and approve professional development credit, we have provided a list of the tasks required for each module. This provides an excellent opportunity for those monitoring and approving PD for credit to gauge participants’ engagement and understanding of the material.

Facilitator Guide for Module 6 (PDF)

Change Leadership, A Practical Guide to Transforming Our Schools. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2006. ISBN: 9780787977559

Kentucky Department of Education. Office of Leadership and School Improvement. 2008. Provides indicators that support educators as they make decisions about how best to manage their schools

Kentucky Educational Television. 2010. Host Bill Goodman and guests discuss how Senate Bill 1, the 2009 Kentucky education reform act, addresses the issue of helping the state's lowest-performing schools better prepare their students for college and careers in the 21st century. The video originally aired on KET in April 2010.

Office of Leadership and School Improvement. Kentucky Department of Education. 10 June 2010. This page at the Kentucky Department of Education web site describes the process Kentucky used to comply with House Bill 176 and meet the requirements of the federal School Improvement Grants.

Kentucky Educational Television. Kentucky Department of Education. 2008. Interviews with principals, literacy coaches, curriculum specialists, state educational cooperative literacy consultants, and teachers describe the type of leadership described in research-based standards

Westin, Susan Perkins. Prichblog.blogspot.com. The Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence. 19 June 2010. A list of schools delivering overall student performance in the top 25 percent who are in their grade level’s top 25 percent for free lunch eligibility

MODULE 6 REVIEW

Directions:

When you're ready, click the link below to open the review for Module 6. The review will consist of five questions. You need to answer at least four of the five questions correctly in order to get credit for this module.

SB1 Module 6 Review Quiz

Interactive

View

If you pass the quiz, you will be directed to an online survey about the module you just completed. At the end of that survey, click on the link to access a Certificate of Completion ready for printing. If you do not pass the quiz, you will be directed back to this module for a review of content.

If you have any technical problems or questions, please contact Brett Smith, KET Professional Development Division, 800-432-0951, ext. 7268 or bsmith@ket.org.

(Note: If you have trouble opening the survey, please disable the pop-up blocker in your browser preferences menu.)

For more information about Module 6, contact:

Kentucky Department of Education
500 Mero St.
Frankfort, KY 40601
502-564-2116 dewey.hensley@education.ky.gov