2008 Education Trust National Conference

In an era of “teaching to the standards,” many educators have resorted to low-level “teach-to-the-test” instruction and are frustrated by anemic results. Hear how two schools Dispelling the Myth Award winners Lincoln Elementary in New York and Imperial High School in California— use their state standards to build a rich curriculum that leads all students to high levels of achievement.

Schools where student achievement is high not only have good instructional support but also good emotional and organizational support. What does that look like and how can we replicate it, particularly in schools challenged by poverty and social isolation? In this session, you’ll hear about important research that demonstrates that student achievement isn’t accidental but the result of carefully developed support systems.

Presenter:
Robert Pianta, dean, Curry School of Education, University of Virginia

The New Teacher Center induction model assesses and improves teacher quality, supports new teacher retention, and serves as a catalyst for systemic reform. This session will describe New Teacher Center best practices in five urban settings—New York, Chicago, Boston, Durham, N.C., and Ravenswood, Calif.

Presenters:
Dara Barlin, associate director of policy, New Teacher Center at the University of California, Berkeley

The College Board works with urban school districts to increase college preparedness and enrollment rates. Learn how EXCELerator and other College Board initiatives expose disadvantaged, underserved students to challenging coursework in middle school and high school and provide them with the support they need to succeed.

Presenters:
Donna Flynn, executive director of implementation, the College Board, Baltimore
Bill Kohut, principal, South High School, an EXCELerator School in Denver
Ellen Flanagan, principal, South Bronx Preparatory School, New York

One of the knottiest problems facing educators is how to establish a safe, secure, and respectful environment for learning. Hear about two schools—Dispelling the Myth Award winner Ware Elementary School in Kansas and E.L. Haynes Charter School in Washington, D.C.—that have done so successfully.

Presenters:
Deb Gustafson, principal
Jennifer Black, assistant principal,
Keith L. Ware Elementary School, Fort Riley,
Kan Kate Franz, literacy coordinator, E.L. Haynes Public Charter School, Washington, D.C.

This session will teach participants about the Composite Learning Index (CLI), a formula that uses 15 indicators of risk to identify incoming secondary students who need support. Hear an overview of the formula and risk indicators as well as highlights of the ways schools can use these data. The presentation will focus on the internal changes the pilot schools and the district have been able to make based on the results of CLI data.

Presenters:
Ellen Guiney, executive director
Jennifer Amigone, research director, Boston Plan for Excellence

All too often, recruitment efforts merely consist of holding a job fair and are not strategic about investing in human capital. Come hear the strategies of two organizations making strides in recruiting talented teachers. The presenters will share the work they do at the central office level, including their efforts to help principals select the best candidates.

Presenters:
Ellen Hur, project director, policy and research, the New Teacher Project, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Keri Taylor, director of school leader and teacher recruitment, Achievement First, New Haven, Conn.

A model K-16 collaboration has evolved into an ambitious blueprint for transforming Puerto Rico’s K-12 public system. Beginning in 1993 in eight high poverty schools, the K-16 collaboration, under the auspices of the Ford Foundation’s Urban Partnerships Programs and the leadership of Universidad del Sagrado Corazon, has evolved into a remarkable catalyst for change. The model’s hallmarks include community involvement, collaborative work, and professional development for teachers and school staff.

This session explores the professional learning community structures in place in Lexington Park Elementary, a Title I school formerly identified as “In Need of Improvement.” Participants will learn about collaborative planning, standards in practice, and designing a school schedule. These structures involve staff in shared decision making and engage each staff member as an integral part of analyzing student data and teacher work, incorporating standards, and defining the changes necessary to increase student achievement.

Far too often, new teachers and veterans moving to new schools are handed a textbook and the keys to their classroom and told to go teach. New teachers often receive little or no support or organized introduction to their school. Good induction can help teachers understand how to be effective, feel less isolated, and contribute to their overall satisfaction. Learn about the strategies of two Dispelling the Myth schools for inducting new teachers.

Good teachers matter—now more than ever. Hear Jason Kamras’s vision for an aggressive human-capital agenda to close the achievement gap in the United States and a discussion of the policies needed to ensure highly effective teachers in every classroom.

Speaker:
Jason Kamras, Director, Human Capital Strategy for Teachers, District of Columbia Public Schools

At the Academy of the Pacific Rim Charter Public School, as at most urban schools, many students enter multiple grade levels behind and have significant skill gaps. To bring students up to grade level and prepare them for college, the academy has numerous systems, including a daily tutoring block, ongoing collaboration between general and special education teachers, individualized scheduling, consistent classroom practices, college placement, and a commitment to ongoing improvement. Join a discussion of how this school puts it all together.

How can good evaluations help school districts develop school leaders, and what do good evaluations look like? Attend this session to learn about VAL-Ed, a rigorous new tool for evaluating school-leader performance. The technique uses “360 degree” evidence and a comprehensive assessment of leader behavior. Hear about lessons learned in field-testing VAL-Ed, and results and challenges encountered by districts implementing the assessment.

When Boston Collegiate Charter School realized that too many good teachers were leaving, officials made a conscious commitment to change retention practices. Hear how the school’s teacher development and retention process evolved, and learn about the new structures and strategies to develop and retain teachers.

Presenters:
Eileen Callahan, dean of curriculum, founding history teacher
Katie Joseph, dean of administration, Boston Collegiate Charter School, Dorchester, Mass.

2008Callahan.ppt

Teacher efficacy has risen dramatically at Graham Road Elementary, as educators have realized that collectively they have the power to improve student achievement. The engine driving this we-can-do-it attitude is the grade-level professional learning community. The fuel firing the engine is data—the collection, analysis, and use of the results to improve instruction and academic achievement.

“Systems elevate averages” is the mantra by which the Steubenville, Ohio, school district operates, and the district’s rising test scores are testimony to the positive impact that coordinated, research-based reading, math, and science instruction can have across a district. And at Wells Elementary, where the rigorous curriculum is enriched with a focus on the arts, students have excelled beyond the average.

Students cannot be expected to perform at higher levels unless the assignments they are given align with the standards they are expected to achieve. Join members of The Education Trust’s practice team for an overview of the Standards in Practice (SIP) protocol, a professional development model that engages teachers in collaboratively examining assignments to determine how well they align with state standards. Participants will learn about the SIP protocol and how it can become a tool for increasing instructional rigor.

Experience shows that one of the best ways to foster constructive conversation—and action—is for school and district leaders to organize and explain data clearly, then invite teachers and parents to examine what the data suggest about the need for change. Hear Education Trust staff share ideas on how to collect, analyze, and communicate about data in ways that highlight strengths and make clear where work needs to be done to serve all students well.

This session seeks to help participants understand how state legislators create strategies to improve educational achievement, the processes grassroots and public groups can and should use to inform these strategies, and why these processes are effective.

Presenter:
David Rainey, Arkansas state representative, Dumas, Ark.

A big challenge facing educators is how to scale-up successful programs. Meet the Challenge, a systematic approach to improving the reading and math skills of low-achieving middle school students, was developed for two middle schools in the Indian River School District in Delaware. After student achievement in these schools improved to levels that met accountability goals, the approach was successfully replicated in schools in three other districts. Learn how the program supports struggling students and what it took to expand the program.

The Pathways to Education Program significantly reduced high school dropout rates and dramatically increased postsecondary participation among the most disadvantaged—and previously unsuccessful—youth in Toronto. The session will outline the program’s approach, which includes high expectations for all students and provides the support required to meet them. The results include a 75 percent reduction in dropouts and a nearly four-fold increase in postsecondary attendance.

Presenter:
Norman Rowen, director of research and evaluation, Pathways to Education, Toronto, Canada

Norfork Elementary regularly outperforms most schools in Arkansas—and this year tied for third in sixth-grade literacy scores. But the school is rural and isolated, and 80 percent of its students are low-income: Even the parents—many of whom never graduated from high school—didn’t expect little Norfork to excel. In this session, hear how teachers combined state standards with a dedication to excellence to overcome geographic isolation and achieve extraordinary results.

School leaders are struggling with an array of challenges to improve academic quality. Yet tinkering with parts of the system has not proved effective. Today, educators are looking for comprehensive school improvement solutions that can make a systemic difference in achievement. This session will highlight seven promising practices and strategies for increasing the performance of all students, with a focus on subgroups and minority populations.

In many schools, “evaluation” has become just another form to fill out. And in many districts, once a teacher has earned tenure, it may be years before he or she ever receives feedback again. But teachers need rigorous and thoughtful feedback to improve instruction and remain effective in the classroom. Hear how one Dispelling the Myth Award winner uses teacher evaluations to improve instruction.

Presenters:
John Capozzi, principal;
Jason Mach, chair, English department, Elmont Memorial Junior-Senior High School, Elmont, N.Y.

This interactive session provides an overview of how North Carolina’s successful GEAR UP program has increased the numbers of students enrolling in postsecondary education. Learn how the GEAR UP principles of collaboration, data collection and use, and sustainability have been used to prepare students for college. Presenters will discuss the essential goals of GEAR UP, illustrating ways the program has made a positive impact on high school graduation and college enrollment rates.

The Content Literacy Continuum (CLC) is an instructional program designed to meet the diverse literacy needs of secondary school students. A school wide framework, CLC creates a tiered and integrated instructional environment that facilitates learning. In this session, you’ll learn about successful teaching and organizational practices for implementing CLC in middle schools and high schools.

Speaker:
Donald D. Deshler, Director, Center for Research on Learning, University of Kansas