Three Approaches to School Improvement: Will Any Work?

This is the second in a series of articles focusing on nationwide school reform ideas.  Please reply with your thoughts and ideas on the articles and recommendations for improving education at the Southwest Learning Center.

By Rick DuFour

It seems to me that there are three competing approaches to school improvement in the United States today that are based on very different assumptions.

1. We’re okay; they are not okay.

     This approach operates from the assumption that educators are doing a superlative job and need not consider making any substantive changes either to their professional practice or the structure and culture of their schools. The problems lie elsewhere. Society must solve the cycle of poverty. State governments need to pass more enlightened educational policies and provide more funding. Parents need to become more involved in the education of their children. Students need to become more responsible.

     The logic behind this approach is that the traditional practices of schooling continue to suffice despite the fact that the purposes of schooling have changed dramatically. Schools in the United States were not created to ensure all students learn: they were specifically created to give students the opportunity to attend school where they are sorted and selected according to their perceived aptitude, ability, work ethic, and likely occupation. The fact that the majority of students dropped out of the K–12 system throughout most of the 20th century was not a concern because there were ample opportunities for employment at a decent wage in agriculture and manufacturing. Clearly this situation no longer exists. Yet, despite the fact that we have dropped from 1st in the world in high school graduation rates to 21st out of 27 advanced economies and from 1st to 14th in college graduation rates, some educators continue to insist that there is no need for them to change. This is a perfectly logical approach to school improvement only if one assumes that educators bear absolutely no responsibility for the current conditions of schooling and no obligation to improve those conditions.

2. Sticks and carrots

     The assumption driving this approach is that educators have known how to help students learn at higher levels, but have lacked the motivation to put forth the effort necessary to attain these higher levels of achievement. If this assumption is correct, the solution to the problems of education can be solved by creating sufficient penalties and incentives to elicit the required effort. Thus, No Child Left Behind offered vouchers and charter schools to apply more competitive pressure to public schools. The law also established 37 different ways for schools to fail and threatened increasingly punitive sanctions, including closing schools and revoking the jobs of teachers and principals in those schools. Although those threats have failed to raise student achievement, they continue but are now coupled with financial incentives. Race to the Top (or as I prefer, “Dash for the Cash”) funds are now available for schools and districts that create improvement plans that align with federal guidelines. Merit pay incentives are to be offered to individual teachers to spur them to greater effort. These are perfectly logical strategies if it is true that educators have always had the ability to improve their schools but have been too lethargic to do so.

3. School improvement means people improvement.

     The assumption behind this approach is that educators have lacked the collective capacity to promote learning for all students in the existing structures and cultures of the systems in which they work. This strategy recognizes that the quality of a school cannot exceed the quality of its personnel, and so it deliberately sets out to create the conditions that ensure the adults in the building are part of a job-embedded continuous improvement process that results in their ongoing learning. Educators are asked to work collaboratively so they can learn from one another and support one another. They are asked to check for student learning on a ongoing basis, use the evidence of that learning to inform and improve their professional practice, and create a plan of intervention that guarantees students who struggle will be provided additional time and support for learning in a way that is timely, directive, and systematic. Above all, they are asked to work interdependently and to take collective responsibility for the learning of each student.

      The first approach contends educators have no responsibility for either the current state of public education or the effort to improve it. The second approach views educators as the cause of the problems of educators and sets out to coerce and cajole them into better performance. The third approach assumes that educators are working hard and doing the best they can in the flawed systems in which they work; however, if that system is to be improved, educators themselves will play the major role in doing so.

      Which assumptions and approaches seem most likely to improve schools? Which are driving the improvement efforts in your school?

Report examines promises, pitfalls of charter school autonomy

By the Center for Reinventing Education:

Seattle, WA, February 10, 2011 - A new report finds that charter schools use the freedoms they have from traditional school district mandates to define and operate schools in innovative new ways. However, expectations about what a school “should look like,” the stress of tight and unstable budgets, and overwhelming administrative demands are powerful forces pulling charter schools back to traditional practice.

This report offers great reason for optimism that charter schools are well positioned to answer President Obama’s call for public schools to innovate. But it also cautions that traditional regulatory structures and weaknesses in capacity must be addressed if they are to fully meet the challenge of innovation.

Based on a four-year study of the teachers, leaders, and academic programs in charter schools in six states, Inside Charter Schools: Unlocking Doors to Student Success observes that “autonomy only creates the opportunity for high-quality schools, it by no means guarantees it.”

Author Betheny Gross, a researcher at the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) at the University of Washington, argues that autonomy makes it possible for charter schools to: 

• Organize themselves around mission, not a collection of individual teacher or parent preferences.
• Develop programs that serve diverse student interests and needs (e.g., those of immigrant children, returning dropout students, or ethnic minority students in impoverished neighborhoods).
• Increase disadvantaged students’ access to college prep programs.
• Give principals real power to lead, with more control over staffing, budgets, curriculum, and programs.
• Enter into new teacher compacts that emphasize professional development linked to the school’s mission and give teachers substantial influence in the classroom and the school.
• Turn on a dime. The combination of a focused mission, strong leaders, a committed team, and an informal structure allows charter schools to assess how they are doing and quickly change direction when they feel they are off course.

However, increased autonomy brings new challenges. The study found that school leaders take on sweeping responsibilities that many are ill prepared to handle. Too often, their governing boards receive minimal training and offer little help. And retaining a stable staff can be difficult in urban charter schools with high-needs students. Operating with informal structures, charter schools become highly dependent on maintaining trusting relationships between teachers and leaders.

The report also identifies missed opportunities. Many charter schools look quite similar to district-run schools in their design, curriculum, and classroom practice. Charter schools also mimic their traditional counterparts in administrative structure and planning, as well as compensation.

To help charter schools put their autonomy to best use, the report includes recommendations for policymakers. Specifically:

• Expand charter-specific training programs to help more school leaders and governing boards overcome inevitable challenges.
• Encourage the creation of more charter school support organizations that unburden leaders of administrative functions such as payroll, accounting, or facilities leasing.
• Make state charter school funding allocations more predictable in order to minimize the uncertainty that keeps schools from trying bold new approaches to compensation, budgeting, and staffing.
• Offer flexibility in teacher certification rules and ensure that charter schools can operate outside district collective bargaining agreements in order to explore new staffing models.
• Encourage all charter school staff agreements to include basic protections for teachers.

Inside Charter Schools: Unlocking Doors to Student Success is the final report in a series of studies produced by the Inside Charter Schools initiative, part of the National Charter School Research Project. The studies are available at www.crpe.org.  

SLC Students Honored by the State of New Mexico

On Monday, the Math and Science Bureau at the New Mexico Public Education Department released their annual awards for the top achieving schools and teachers in New Mexico.  For the 5th consecutive year, the Southwest Learning Center captured many top honors.

In Southwest Secondary, last year's 7th grade students (current 8th graders) had the highest year-over-year gains in the state.  Congratulations to teacher Mike Weber and all of the SSLC 8th grade students for this accomplishment.

In Southwest Primary, last year's 5th graders (current 6th graders) had the highest percentage of students performing at "proficient" or "advanced" in mathematics in the state.  Congratulations to teacher Coreen Carrillo and all of the current 6th graders!

Also in Southwest Primary, last year's 4th graders (current 5th graders) had the highest percentage of students performing at "proficient" or "advanced" in both mathematics and science in the state.  Congratulations to teacher Debbie Doxtator and all of this year's 5th grade students.  We want to issue a special congratulations to teacher Debbie Doxtator.  2011 marks the 5th consecutive year that her students have earned the top spot in math and science for the state of New Mexico!

Congratulations to all of the students and all of the teachers!  The state legislature plans a one-hour ceremony  in honor of SLC students and teachers on Friday, March 11, 2011 at 12:00 noon in the State Capitol Building Rotunda.  Students and teachers will meet their legislators, the school's representatives and have an opportunity to talk about what makes SLC special.  Please plan to attend and support the students and SLC teachers as they are honored for their accomplishments!

New Mexico Charter Schools: A Model for Success

Charter schools were created with the idea that one size does not fit all when it comes to education. Inspired and passionate educators wanted to have the ability to make quality education accessible to all students, promote parent and community involvement in public education, and provide a system of responsibility for results in education. Charter schools are granted more autonomy than traditional district schools in exchange for being held more accountable for student achievement. Many skeptics question whether charter schools are really succeeding and would even go so far as to say they should be closed. A look at the facts shows that New Mexico’s charter schools are raising the bar for academic success, providing unique educational opportunities, and innovatively meeting the needs of diverse students and their families.

            New Mexico’s charter schools are academically successful. The National Center for Education Statistics and the U.S Department of Education rated New Mexico’s top ten high schools; five of the ten were charter schools. Southwest Secondary Learning Center, Albuquerque Institute of Math and Science, Academy for Technology and the Classics, East Mountain High School, and Cottonwood Classical Academy made the top of the list. For the year 2010, 50% of New Mexico’s Charter Schools made Adequate Yearly Progress compared to only 41% of district schools. Charter schools are challenging the traditional public school system, achieving great things, and offering parents and families choices in education.

            Exciting and creative educational opportunities are the norm at charter schools in New Mexico. In addition to providing the required academic classes, many charter schools offer creative and engaging programs to students. For example, Southwest Learning Center offers a state of the art flight program which allows students to work towards obtaining a pilot’s license while earning a diploma. The Digital Arts and Technology Academy offers a smoking cessation program which provides resources and support to students trying to break free of their addiction. At Amy Biehl Charter School, students must complete a year-long community service project in order to fulfill all requirements for graduation. Due to the flexible scheduling introduced and offered by charter schools, many students are able to take advantage of dual enrollment programs to earn college credits. 11.6% of all charter high school students participate in the dual enrollment program at Central New Mexico Community College while only 3.1% of Albuquerque Public School Students participate. At Southwest Secondary Learning Center the dual enrollment participation rate is 41%. Charter schools inarguably cater to students’ individual goals and needs with unique and innovative programs.

            New Mexico’s charter schools provide a quality education to some of the most underserved and underprivileged students in the state. Charter schools help these disadvantaged students succeed where the conventional system has failed. Over 45% of students in charter schools are Hispanic compared to the 36% average in many larger New Mexico districts. Most districts have an African American population of less than 2% while charter schools serve a 6% population of African Americans. 61% of students served by New Mexico’s charter schools come from low-income families and qualify for free or reduced lunch programs; only 52% of low-income students are part of the traditional district student population. Because of the smaller class sizes (charter school student teacher ratios are an average of 10 students per teacher while large districts average 25 students per teacher) the engaging opportunities, and the individualized attention these students receive, New Mexico’s charter schools are closing the achievement gap. Because charter school administrations are allowed more flexibility, they are better able to respond to the specific needs of students and families.

            Because of the success of New Mexico’s charter schools, they are becoming an increasingly popular choice for parents and students. Over 10,000 students are enrolled in charter schools across the state and over 10,000 more sit on waiting lists. (The Southwest Learning Centers have a waiting list of over 3,600 students.) Charter schools offer New Mexico’s families options for a quality education that meets students’ individual needs. Charter school students are able to learn in an environment that promotes their academic success and prepares them for their future as successful, responsible citizens of New Mexico. The facts show that charter schools are succeeding academically, consistently advancing education through models of innovation, and are effectively meeting the needs of the students and families of New Mexico.