Failure Is NOT An Option

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Failure Is NOT An Option

• What successful schools are doing to ensure they
  leave no children behind

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Dropout Nation

• 30-50 Dropout Rate Thats 1 in 3 freshmen that
  will drop out (using the lower number).
• 67 of prison inmates are H.S. Dropouts
• ½ of all dropouts are unemployed
• Kids from the lowest income quarter are six times
  as likely to drop out as kids from the highest.

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Dropout facts

• Dropouts are much more likely than their peers
  who graduate to be unemployed, living in poverty,
  receiving public assistance, in prison, on death
  row, unhealthy, divorced, and become single
  parents with children who drop out from high
  school themselves.

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Why they dropout

• Nearly 7 in 10 respondents (69 percent) said
• they were not motivated or inspired to work
• hard.
• 80 percent did one hour or less of homework
• each day in high school,
• two-thirds would have worked harder if more was
  demanded of them (higher academic standards and
  more studying and homework), and 70 percent were
  confident they could have graduated if they had
  tried.
• Even a majority of those with low GPAs thought
  they could have graduated.

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Oregons Graduation Rates

• All Students 69
• 31 Failure Rate
• African American Youth 25
• 75 Failure Rate
• Worst in the nation
• National graduation average 51.6
• 48.4 Failure
• Native American Students 37
• 63 Failure Rate
• Hispanic Students 55
• 45 Failure Rate

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Education and Boys

• 40 being raised without their biological fathers
• Between the ages of 5 and 14 boys are 200 more
  likely to commit suicide than girls.
• 36 more likely to die than their female
  counterparts.
• 60 more likely than girls to have repeated at
  least one grade (ages 5-12).

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Education and Boys continued

• Often boys are treated like defective girls.
• Elementary school boys are two times more likely
  than girls to be diagnosed with learning
  disabilities and twice as likely to be placed in
  special-ed classes.

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Boys

• The number of boys who said they didnt like
  school rose 71 percent since 1980.
• In 1975 58 of college students were male today
  44.

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Traditional Solutions for failing students

• Credit recovery
• Packet Classes
• Night School
• GED Diploma

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GED Reality

• A rash of studies over the last decade have found
  that life outcomes for GED holders are similar to
  that of dropouts.
• Most employers would pass up a GED holder for a
  high school graduate any day.
• The Department of Defense has come to the same
  conclusion. The military keeps a tight ceiling on
  the number of GED-holders allowed to serve, from
  1 in the Air Force to 10 in the Army.

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• Our youth now love luxury. They have bad
  manners, contempt for authority they show
  disrespect for their elders and love chatter in
  place of exercise they no longer rise when
  elders enter the room they contradict their
  parents, chatter before company gobble up their
  food and tyrannize their teachers.
• Socrates, Fifth Century B.C.

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The Ambulance or The Fence

• Twas a dangerous cliff, as they freely
  confessed,Though to walk near its crest was so
  pleasantBut over its terrible edge there had
  slippedA duke, and full many a peasant.The
  people said something would have to be done,But
  their projects did not at all tally.Some said,
  "Put a fence 'round the edge of the cliff,"Some,
  "An ambulance down in the valley."

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• The lament of the crowd was profound and was
  loud,As their hearts overflowed with their
  pityBut the cry for the ambulance carried the
  dayAs it spread through the neighboring city.A
  collection was made, to accumulate aid,And the
  dwellers in highway and alleyGave dollars or
  cents - not to furnish a fence -But an ambulance
  down in the valley.

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• "For the cliff is all right if you're careful,"
  they said"And if folks ever slip and are
  dropping,It isn't the slipping that hurts them
  so muchAs the shock down below - when they're
  stopping."So for years (we have heard), as these
  mishaps occurred,Quick forth would the rescuers
  sally,To pick up the victims who fell from the
  cliff,With the ambulance down in the valley.

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• Said one, to his peers, "It's a marvel to meThat
  you'd give so much greater attentionTo repairing
  results than to curing the causeYou had much
  better aim at prevention.For the mischief, of
  course, should be stopped at its source,Come,
  neighbors and friends, let us rally.It is far
  better sense to rely on a fenceThan an ambulance
  down in the valley."

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• "He is wrong in his head," the majority said"He
  would end all our earnest endeavor.He's a man
  who would shirk his responsible work,But we will
  support it forever.Aren't we picking up all,
  just as fast as they fall,And giving them care
  liberally?A superfluous fence is of no
  consequence,If the ambulance works in the
  valley.

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• The story looks queer as we've written it
  here,But things oft occur that are
  strangerMore humane, we assert, than to succor
  the hurtIs the plan of removing the danger,The
  best possible course is to safeguard the
  sourceAttend to things rationally.Yes, build
  up the fence and let us dispenseWith the
  ambulance down in the valley.

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Educations Ambulance Down in the Valley

• Credit recovery
• Packet Classes
• Night School
• GED Diploma

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Educations Fences

• Strict student accountability
• School-wide system of graduated interventions.
• Privilege tied directly to academic performance
• Full lunch time
• Off-campus privileges
• Free periods
• IPODS etc
• Response to Intervention for all students who
  struggle.

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When Students Struggle Successful Schools Respond

• Base their response on INTERVENTION rather than
  remediation.
• Response is SYSTEMATIC School-wide rather than
  according to the discretion of individual
  teachers.
• Response is TIMELY Before it is too late.
  Quickly identifies students who need additional
  time and support.
• Response is DIRECTIVE Students are not invited
  to seek additional help the plan REQUIRES
  students to receive additional assistance.

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INTERVENTION rather than remediation.

• Take action BEFORE they fail.

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SYSTEMATIC Response

• Not left up to individual dedicated teachers.
• School-wide system that supports struggling
  students.
• Based on frequent, timely monitoring of student
  learning.

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Response is TIMELY

• Common 9 weeks (progress reports)
• Better 6 weeks
• Better Yet 3 weeks
• Best 24/7

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70 of high school students lie to their parents
about schoolwork!

• Need better school to home communication.

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Academic monitoring 24/7

• Two answers
• www.schoolloop.com
• www.parentbroadcast.com

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Response is DIRECTIVE not voluntary

• School culture DEMANDS effort and performance.
• 2 Million public school students eligible for
  free tutoring in 2004
• Only 225,000 (12) took advantage of the help.
• Optional tutorial programs are accessed mostly by
  motivated high-achieving students.
• PROVIDING THE OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN IS NOT ENOUGH!

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It takes Courageous leadership

• Without courage, all other virtues lose their
  meaning. Courage is, rightly esteemed, the first
  of human qualities, becauseit is the quality
  that guarantees all others.
• Sir Winston Churchill

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High Performing Schools Answer Three Critical
Questions

• If we expect all students to learn, what is it we
  expect them to learn?
• By grade level/by subject.
• How will we know if and when they have learned
  it?
• Formative and Summative Assessment.
• What will we do when they dont learn?
• Time and Support.

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What is it we expect them tolearn?

• In effective schools each of the teachers has a
  clear understanding of what the essential learner
  objectives are, grade by grade and course by
  course.

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How will we know if and when they have learned it?

• Emphasis on formative assessment
• Assessment for learning.
• Rather than summative assessment.
• Assessment of learning.

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Difference between Formative and Summative

• Summative Assessment
• Like an autopsy informs family what killed the
  patient.
• Sorry you failed
• Formative Assessment
• Like a physical exam doctor explains what needs
  to improve and how to improve to avoid the need
  for an autopsy!
• Now we know what you need to work on

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Formative Assessment exercise

• One million?
• 3 days
• 2 weeks
• 11 days

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One billion?

1. 3 months
2. 1 year
3. 32 years
4. 3 years

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Authentic Grading Policies

• Academic grade separate from behavioral
  non-academic factors..
• Full credit for late work non-academic
  punishment for turning work in late (detention,
  etc.)

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Authentic Grading

• It is essential to report academic and
  nonacademic factors separately. We can assess a
  student's ability to turn things in on time and
  report it as part of a nonacademic grade
  component. This assessment, however, should not
  distort feedback regarding that student's ability
  to understand a concept or write an essay.

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ABCI

• students are required to achieve a C or higher on
  every assignment. If a student's work is judged
  to be less than C quality, that student receives
  an I for Incompleteand teachers give the student
  as much time and support as needed to complete
  the work and get a higher grade.

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Collaborative Teaming Focused on Teaching and
Learning.

• Committed staff Shared mission, vision, values
  and goals.
• Staff is strongly supported.
• School culture of trust and respect.
• Staff authority to make decisions about teaching
  and learning.
• Time is created for teams to meet.
• Clear purpose and goals.

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• Key Elements to High Performing Elementary
  Schools
• Report from EDSOURCE.ORG

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Prioritizing Student Achievement

• The highest performing schools have teachers who
  take responsibility for student achievement and
  believe the school has well defined plans for
  instructional improvement.
• Principals at high-performing schools also say
  they understand their districts expectations for
  meeting the schools API and AYP targets and make
  those student performance expectations clear to
  their teachers.

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Implementing a Coherent, Standards-based
Curriculum

• School-wide alignment and consistency in
  curriculum, and instruction that is closely based
  upon state academic standards.
• Schools report that their districts have a
  coherent grade-by-grade curriculum and that the
  district evaluates principals based on the extent
  to which instruction in the school aligns with
  the curriculum.

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Analyzing Student Assessment Data from Multiple
Sources

• Principals use data extensivelyfrom a variety of
  student tests, including the Standards Tests.
  Principals personally use assessment data to
  identify struggling students and address their
  academic needs as well as to evaluate teacher
  practices and identify teachers who need
  instructional improvement.
• They also report that the district uses
  assessment data to evaluate the principal based
  upon student achievement.

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Ensuring Instructional Resources

• The district ensures an adequate supply of text
  books and support for facilities management.
  Classrooms have adequate instructional materials
  and teacher and principal years of experience
  were also positively correlated with overall
  school performance.

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Four Key Elements

1. Prioritizing Student Achievement.
2. Implementing a Coherent, Standards-based
   Curriculum.
3. Analyzing Student Assessment Data from Multiple
   Sources.
4. Ensuring Instructional Resources