Building the Capacity of Schools to Meet Student Needs

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Building the Capacity of Schools to Meet Student
Needs

• Pedro A. Noguera, Ph.D.
• New York University

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Turning around under performing schools
Understanding the difference between technical
and adaptive work

• Technical work - A focus on managing the
  operations of the system, insuring that
  procedures are working and that employees are in
  compliance with policy.
• Adaptive work - A focus on the dynamic and
  complex nature of the work, its substance,
  meaning and purpose. Work guided by a long term
  vision, with medium and short term goals. An
  awareness that we are trying to achieve our goals
  in a constantly changing environment
• Ron Hiefitz - Leadership on the Line

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Key Adaptive Questions

• What does it take to educate the children you
  serve?
• How do they learn at home?
• How do they use literacy and math?
• What are they interested in?
• What challenges do they and their parents face?
• What are their unmet needs that may impact
  learning?
• What are their dreams and aspirations?

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Building Capacity Requires

• Clear understanding of student needs
• Academic and non-academic needs
• Ability to understand what your staff needs to be
  effective in meeting student needs
• Ability to identify, access and utilize resources
  to meet student needs
• A plan for creating a culture that is aligned to
  your schools goals
• A plan for engaging your parents as partners to
  reinforce educational goals

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Group Discussion

• How can you and your staff learn about your
  students needs and interests?
• How can you use this information to develop
  programs, curriculum and instructional
  strategies?
• How will you learn about the community where your
  school is located?

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Building school capacity requires an
understanding of how to

• Build partnerships between schools, local
  government and CBOs in response to
• Health and social needs of children PS 188
• Extended learning plan aligned to the academic
  plan - PS 28 Brooklyn, NY
• Professional development for teachers based on
  student needs Serving ELLs at Edison Elementary
  School in Portchester, NY, Multicultural HS
• Ability to implement and modify reforms based
  upon demonstrated effectiveness
• Literacy across the curriculum at Brockton HS

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PS 28 obtains highest gains in literacy and math
in Brooklyn -2012
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Brockton scholarship winners 2012
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Capacity Building

• Intervene early and effectively in response to
  academic and social needs
• Minneapolis 3rd grade drop-out prevention plan
• Personalize the learning environment PS 12,
  Academy of Business and Technology, Bronx
• Use of data systems to monitor performance
• Implement interventions to meet student needs
• Engage parents in effective partnerships that
  reinforce child development and learning
• Partnerships focused on learning needs -
  McCormick Middle School, Boston
• Addressing parent needs Eagle Academy

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Building School Capacity
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II. Identifying and Responding to Student Needs
What does it take to educate the children you
serve?

• Analyze student achievement data
• What do the patterns reveal?
• Work with teachers to develop tools for
  diagnostic assessment
• Talk to parents and students about their needs
  and interests
• Work with social workers, nurses and CBOs to
  identify non-academic needs
• What are the challenges confronting their
  families and neighborhoods?

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Developing Professional Development Strategies in
Response to Student Needs

• Achievement data will suggest areas where your
  staff needs to concentrate
• Conduct regular classroom observations to get a
  sense of your teachers strengths and weaknesses
• Look for evidence of learning
• Engage senior teachers in peer mentoring
• Provide new teachers opportunity to observe
  effective teachers
• Ask teachers what kinds of training and
  assistance they need
• Bring teachers together on a regular basis to
  analyze student work

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Teaching and Learning

• We want teachers to see teaching and learning as
  connected activities teach the way students
  learn
• Use teaching strategies that foster engagement
  Socratic seminars, debate, project based learning
• Focus on evidence of mastery of skills and
  knowledge
• Focus on performance what can our students do?
• Class time must be on-task work time for
  students, direct instruction kept to a minimum

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Culturally Responsive Teaching

• They make expectations and standards explicit by
  modeling and exposing students to high quality
  work
• They utilize diagnostic tools to check for
  understanding
• They learn about their students interests in
  order to make their lessons culturally relevant
• They focus on motivation and engagement by
  soliciting feedback and questions from students
• They analyze student work with a focus on
  evidence of competence and mastery

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III. The role of the principal in developing
school capacity?

• Provide the vision keep the big picture clear
• Why are we doing this?
• What will we achieve?
• Share the vision to achieve buy-in
• Use data to help staff understand the challenges
  facing your school
• Staff, students and parents must understand the
  vision and their role in achieving it
• Develop a plan with clearly delineated roles and
  responsibilities for parents, students, teachers
  and staff

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Role of Principals continued

• Help staff to understand why certain practices
  and strategies are important
• Create conditions that enable teachers to be
  successful
• Stay focused on morale and quality control in all
  aspects of your school
• Take responsibility for maintaining a safe and
  orderly environment
• Work on team building, model respect and a
  willingness to cooperate
• Keep systems working - maintenance, operations

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Characteristics of Effective Principals

• Function more like coaches than generals
• Lead by example
• Share leadership, do not make themselves
  indispensable - Your work is secondary to the
  most important activity in the school teaching
• Know their students and staff well
• Know parents and the community well
• Find balance between flexibility and
  decisiveness willingness to collaborate and
  willingness to make tough decisions

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Skills Needed by Principals

• Instructional leadership
• Knowledge of finance and budget management
• Public relations
• Human Resources
• Data management/analysis
• Strategic planning
• Knowledge of social welfare service delivery

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Reflection

• Which of the skills needed by principals do you
  have already?
• How have your past experiences and training
  prepared you for a leadership role?
• What do you regard as the necessary steps for
  building support for school change?

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IV. Obstacles to School Improvement

• School policies and practices are at odds with
  academic goals
• Ineffective discipline - over reliance on
  suspension, failure to address underlying causes
  of behavior problems, discipline not connected to
  educational goals and character development
• Inability to utilize your most effective teachers
• Too many teachers are isolated
• Inability to achieve consensus and buy-in among
  key stakeholders on plan for change

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III. Developing School Culture Focus on Students

• Create opportunities for students to display
  leadership at school
• Solicit student ideas for school improvement
• Provide opportunities for leadership
• Cultivate attitudes and habits that promote
  academic achievement
• Confidence and competence
• Self discipline, self motivation
• Organizational and study skills
• Implement extra-curricular programs that help in
  developing these traits Chess, Robotics, Poetry

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Developing a Student Centered School Culture

• Adopt rituals and practices that reinforce core
  values
• Develop an advisory system with clear guidance to
  teachers on how to use the time
• Devise strategies to break and counter race and
  gender-based stereotypes
• Teach code switching
• Create an environment where racial identity and
  achievement are not linked - Is it cool to be
  smart?

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Focus on Teachers and Staff

• Use achievement data to make it clear why change
  is necessary
• Set bench marks
• Analyze patterns
• Hold a retreat with staff to set goals and devise
  plans on how to achieve them
• Must find ways to win buy-in
• Provide training in how to relate to parents and
  build strong relationships with students

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Key Principles

• Develop partnerships with service providers to
  address unmet non-academic needs
• Health, nutrition, counseling, etc.
• Maintain quality control in interventions through
  ongoing evaluation
• Title I and Special Education
• Adhere to key principles
• Kids who are behind must work harder and longer
  under better conditions
• Improving the quality of teaching is the most
  effective way to raise student achievement
• Look for evidence of learning when evaluating
  teaching

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Key Questions When Developing a Schools Culture

• What will it take to educate your students?
• What are their academic and social needs? What
  challenges do they face?
• What skills and resources are needed to meet
  their needs?
• How will you achieve buy-in from staff,
  students and parents?
• What practices and rituals will serve as the
  basis for your schools culture?

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IV. Close the Gap Between Parents and School

• Engage parents in partnerships to support
  students based on respect and shared interests
• Initiate contact before problems arise
• Design a variety of activities to engage parents
  throughout school year for parents
• Hire personnel who have cultural competence and
  are effective at working with parents

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Basic Requirements for Building Strong
Relationships Between Parents and Schools

• Must be based on a recognition of mutual need,
  responsibility and respect
• Must be based on the recognition that all parents
  can help their children
• Must b e based upon understanding and empathy for
  the situation confronting parents and families
• Schools need personnel who can communicate
  effectively with parents - language and cultural
  skills
• Are We Ready for Parental Involvement?
• What if parents are unhappy with quality of the
  school?
• Tolerance for tension and some degree of conflict
  is necessary

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Keys to Success

• Staff understands the external pressures students
  face and have devised ways to counter the pull of
  the streets
• gangs, teen pregnancy, pressure to work
• Strategies for helping students to plan and think
  concretely about their future are in place
• Code switching is taught explicitly
• Adoption of social skills that make adults in
  authority feel at ease
• Learning to code switch
• Speech, dress, demeanor