Dear Colleagues,
We have been discussing ARRA discretionary and formula grants recently (e.g., Race to the Top and School Improvement Grants) and I would like to share the Center on Innovation and Improvement newsletter that delineates some of the resources available related to these grants. In addition, some of the resources described in the newsletter may be helpful to you if you are planning to apply for a new SPDG. Please let me know if you have any questions related to these resources. Best regards, Jennifer ******************************************************** Support for School Improvement e-Newsletter A joint project of the Council of Chief State School Officers and the Center on Innovation & Improvement April 2010 ________________________________ Welcome to the Support for School Improvement e-Newsletter, a monthly publication focusing on school improvement efforts at the state and district level. Our goal is to provide a forum around school improvement efforts through national, state, and district perspectives. Current and past issues are available at http://communities.ccsso.org/web/ssinews. ________________________________ >From the Center on Innovation & Improvement (CII- A National Comprehensive >Content Center Support for School Improvement. A sixth recorded webinar session, "Communicating About School Reform" related to the School Improvement Grants (SIGs) has been added to the CII series of recorded webinar sessions. Other topics include the selection process and one each for the four intervention models. These recorded webinar sessions, also available in a PowerPoint format, are free at www.centerii.org <http://www.centerii.org/> and have been developed by CII and the National Network of State School Improvement Leaders (NNSSIL). In addition, a newly-developed Toolkit for Implementing the School Improvement Grant (SIG) Transformation Model is also now available at www.centerii.org. Click on "Transformation Toolkit" from the red box on the center's home page for a free, downloadable version of the toolkit, developed to provide states and districts with action items and resources for implementing the SIG transformation model, and to help your districts and schools in their school transformation efforts. A number of other SIG-specific resources-including an enhanced search engine for current, research-based information on school improvement, district improvement, and school improvement grants-are available at www.centerii.org, accessed from the red School Improvement Grants box on the Center's homepage. NNSSIL recently hosted a webinar entitled "Monitoring LEA Implementation of School Improvement Interventions: Moving Beyond Compliance." The webinar featured Pat Mitchell and Suzanne Ochse from New Jersey Department of Education and Pat King and Jonathan Luknic from the Minnesota Department of Education who presented on their respective states' monitoring approaches and noted ways they use or plan to use monitoring to leverage for LEA capacity-building and ability to sustain student achievement. Webinar-related resources such as Profiles of State Monitoring Practices, which are excerpted from states' SIG applications, frameworks for capacity building, PowerPoint slides and link to the recording of the webinar are available from http://www.centerii.org/leaders/ Resources and Information. For up-to-date information on states' progress in school improvement, restructuring and supplemental educational services, go to www.centerii.org and click on "State Database." Report outputs are available in a variety of formats on any or all of these topics and for one or more states or regions. For questions or to inquire about technical assistance on CII priority areas, contact your Regional Comprehensive Center or Marilyn Murphy, mmur...@centerii.org. ________________________________ Support to Low Performing Schools: Learning from One Another Excellence in Teaching Project: Guides, Observation Forms, and Protocols http://www.chicagoteacherexcellence.org/ The Excellence in Teaching Project is a pilot program currently in place in a hundred schools in the Chicago Public Schools system. The program endeavors to transform instructional practice by facilitating ways to engage teachers and principals in guided and constructive conversations about instruction and professional growth. An alternative to the proverbial checklist, the guides, observation forms and protocols as a whole provide a means of defining good and bad teaching, common language between principals and teachers to talk about improvements and evidence for teachers to demonstrate how they meet specific performance criteria. ________________________________ Closing the Achievement Gap Enhancing Teacher Evaluation: Effective Practices for Evaluating Teachers of All Students http://www.tqsource.org/webcasts/evaluatingTeachers/index.php This webinar from The National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality (TQ Center) showcased a discussion among experts and practitioners on existing research and strategies that address evaluating teachers of at-risk populations. Featured presenters included Patrick J. Schuermann of Vanderbilt University and the Center for Educator Compensation Reform, Lynn Holdheide, also of Vanderbilt University, Andrew Croft of ETS, and Lisa Johnson of Learning Point Associates. In particular, the presenters focused on evaluating teachers of students with disabilities and English language learners. Has Progress Been Made in Raising Achievement for English Language Learners? http://www.cep-dc.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=document_ext.showDocumentByID&nodeID=1&DocumentID=305 The Center on Education Policy (CEP) produced this report which recounts findings from an analysis by CEP and the Human Resources Research Organization (HumRRO) of 50-state assessment data on statewide assessments in reading and mathematics from 2006 through 2008. The late release of revised federal regulations concerning the testing of English language learners (ELLs) limited the trend data to three years. Nevertheless, the report finds that, in general, ELLs' performance on state assessments have improved, but that language barriers, rapid demographic shifts, and policy changes for testing and classifying students as ELLs make further pronouncements on the success of ELLs elusive. ________________________________ Examining Policies to Impact School Improvement Preliminary Review: CCSSO Strategic Initiatives Identified in State Phase 1 Race to the Top Applications http://www.ccsso.org/Publications/Download.cfm?Filename=RTTT%20preliminary%20review%20March%202010.pdf CCSSO, in partnership with Learning Point Associates, conducted a document review of the 41 applications submitted by states for Round 1 of the Race to the Top (RTTT) competitive grant. The analysis and reporting is organized to align with CCSSO's strategic initiatives pertaining to the following: Education Workforce, Information Systems and Research, Next Generation Learners, and Standards, Assessment, and Accountability. The analysis and release of the report occurred prior to the naming of Delaware and Tennessee as RTTT award recipients. Thus, the report makes no judgments on the quality of the applications. Since the Phase I winners were announced, two other analyses have surfaced: The Real Race Begins: Lessons from the First Round of Race to the Top http://www.tntp.org/files/RealRaceBegins.pdf from The New Teacher Project and Let's Do the Numbers http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/BP263/ from the Economic Policy Institute. Strategic Staffing for Successful Schools: Breaking the Cycle of Failure in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools http://erstrategies.org/resources/details/breaking_the_cycle_of_failure_in_charlotte_schools/ This report from the Education Resource Strategies recounts how the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district came to its present reform initiative after several years of providing support to turnaround low-performing schools and achieving mixed results. Building on its framework of supports for the lowest-performing schools, the school district's leadership in the use of effectiveness data, and a mission focused on high-performance for all schools, the school district launched its strategic staffing initiative. The initiative provided the mechanism and resources to replace principals and teachers―deemed mismatched to and ineffective for the low-performing schools' needs―with turnaround leaders that come in with a team of highly effective teachers and supporting staff. After three cohorts of schools have undergone leadership and staffing changes, the report suggests that the strategic staffing initiative holds promise. Publications and Sites of Interest ECS 2010 State Policies/Activities Database http://www.ecs.org/ecs/ecscat.nsf/Web2010All?OpenView&Count=-1 This website from the Education Commission of States offers summaries of state education policies enacted in 2010. The database was compiled using information collected from state Web sites, state newsletters, and other databases such as StateNet, LexisNexis and Westlaw. Descriptions in the summaries often reflect the content of bills as introduced and do not reflect later changes due to the legislative process. Time and Attention in Urban High Schools: Lessons from School Systems http://erstrategies.org/documents/pdf/TimeAndAttentionFINALApril2010.pdf This report chronicles findings of a study conducted by Education Resource Strategies (ERS) with the National Center on Time & Learning (NCTL) on six of the nation's largest school districts-Atlanta, Chicago, District of Columbia, Los Angeles, Rochester, and St. Paul-to examine how the districts use time, people, and money. Overall, the report found that districts' adherence to rigid school schedules and traditional graduation requirements prevents more effective use of time and attention to improve teaching and learning. This spills over to most schools' use of resources. As a contrast, the report also highlights the practices of exemplary schools which use data to allocate time and resources according to students' needs. Meeting I3 Grant Evaluation Requirements Webinar http://educationnorthwest.org/event/1060?utm_source=ARRA+Newsflash&utm_campaign=29f1d91dfd-ARRA_Newsflash4_8_2010&utm_medium=email Education Northwest hosted this webinar for parties interested in applying for the Investing in Innovation (I3) competitive grant by providing them an overview of the expectations and requirements in the evaluation portion of the grant. Presenters at the webinar discussed the evaluation criteria, offered advice on search criteria for an independent evaluator, and responded to questions from participants. PowerPoint slides and a link to the recording of the webinar are available at the above website. Principal Effectiveness and Leadership in an Era of Accountability: What Research Says http://www.caldercenter.org/upload/CALDER-Research-and-Policy-Brief-8.pdf This policy brief from the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER) summarizes what is known thus far about principal leadership and effectiveness, using longitudinal state data to estimate the effects of principals for different kinds of schools and students. Highlights from the brief point to evidence that the quality of a principal affects a range of school outcomes including teachers' satisfaction and their decisions to leave or stay in a school. The brief also raises equity concerns about the distribution of effective principals. Evaluation of the Comprehensive School Reform Program Implementation and Outcomes: Fifth-Year Report http://www.wested.org/cs/we/view/rs/1023 This is the final report of a five-year study conducted by WestEd and the American Institutes for Research to evaluate the implementation and review the outcomes of the Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) Program. The report found that though nearly 7,000 schools received CSR grants between 1998 and 2006, only one-third of the award recipients fully implemented the CSR model. The report includes recommendations for federal policy and for additional research. This report has a companion qualitative piece, Achieving Dramatic Improvement: An Exploratory Study http://www.wested.org/cs/we/print/docs/1280 , which profiled 11 CSR schools that exhibited growth in academic performance. ________________________________ To submit a news item relevant to school improvement efforts at the state or district level, provide feedback, or subscribe/unsubscribe, email Carlise Smith carli...@ccsso.org. The PDF version of this newsletter is available at http://communities.ccsso.org/web/ssinews. Center on Innovation and Improvement 121 N. Kickapoo Street Lincoln, Illinois 62656 voice: 217-732-6462 * fax: 217-732-3696 http://www.centerii.org/
