Looking to the Future by Reviewing the Past
Dear
Colleagues,
There are times when all of us need to
pause, consider, reconsider, and regroup.
This especially important given the speed of our personal and
professional lives- - because sometimes we are so focused on dealing with the
present, that we do not reflect and learn from the past.
On a professional level, the month (or so)
before the beginning of the new school year is a critically important time to
analyze the past . . . so that we can apply the “lessons learned” from the past when
the school doors open (in August or September) in the near-future.
And so, in this spirit, I decided to look
through some of my recent past blog messages to identify some of their themes
and patterns... hoping that this analysis will help all of us to better
address the future.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Controversies and Concerns
In looking at my past blog messages, I
realize that there are many controversies in education. In fact, even when some of the data and
information are irrefutable, the interpretations and implications are still
controversial.
And then there are times when controversies
occur because either (a) there is a difference of opinion, or (b) people are
afraid to acknowledge the truth.
In the latter situation, I have little
patience when colleagues know that something is wrong, over-simplified,
under-researched, or ineffective. . .and yet they are passive, quiet, involved,
or complicit. This borders on a moral or
ethical problem when students, staff, or schools are denied services and supports,
or are outright harmed. This happens far
too often in education because of ego, incompetence, or self-promotion, or just
because people are afraid of losing their funding, status, or jobs.
Among the controversies I have addressed
over the past 24 blog-months are the following:
* School Improvement and Turn-Around
Practices
* Strategic Planning and Organizational
Development
* Effective Teacher Training, Recruitment,
and Retention
* School Safety and School Violence
* Disproportionality and Zero Tolerance
* Teasing, Taunting, Bullying, and
Harassment
* The Efficacy of PBIS and its Branding by
the Department of Education
* Trauma Sensitive School Programs
* Disproportionate Suspensions of Minority
Students and those with Disabilities
* Student Accountability and the Restorative
Justice Bandwagon
* Effective School Discipline, Classroom
Management, and Student Self-Management
* Differentiated Classroom Instruction and
Instructional Student Groups
* Differences between Remediation,
Accommodation, and Modification
* Multi-Tiered Service and Support Systems
that Work
* Linking Functional Assessment with
Strategic and Intensive Intervention
Most of the time, these issues have been
prompted by a national report or event.
Some of the time, they have been generated by a situation or dilemma
that I have addressed during one of my national consultations in the
field. All of the time, I have directly
identified the issues, and tried to make specific and practical suggestions for
change- - from a student perspective.
If any of these issues are important to you
as you reflect on the past in order to prepare for the future, I invite you to
look at the middle right hand side of this Blog where you
will see a Subject Index to All Blogs list that will transport you to the
messages related to your interests.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Organizing your “Next Steps”
In order to help you to think about
different school improvement practices, and/or to help organize them for
implementation at the beginning of the coming school year, I would like to
briefly review our evidence-based model and approach.
Organized in “Seven Sure Solutions,”
we have a great deal of free (some paid) information describing many strategies
and approaches in each of these areas on our website (CLICK HERE TO LINK).
The Seven Sure Solutions for School
Success are:
Solution 1— Strategic Planning and Organizational
Development
Solution 2— Staff Cohesion, Consultation, Shared
Leadership, and Teaming
Solution 3— Professional Development, Supervision,
Coaching, and Accountability
Solution 4— Positive Academic Supports and Services (Effective
Academic Curriculum, Instruction and Multi-tiered Intervention)
Solution 5— Positive Behavioral Support Systems
(Effective Multi-tiered School Discipline, Classroom Management, Student
Self-Management, and Interventions for Behaviorally Challenging Students
Solution 6— Multi-tiered Response-to-Instruction and
Intervention
Solution 7— Community and Family Involvement and Outreach
The Seven Sure Solutions for School Success
Solution 1—Strategic
Planning and Organizational Development. This
solution initially focuses on assessing the organizational climate,
administrative style, staff decision-making, and other interprofessional and
interpersonal processes in a school.
Activities then move into identifying and reinforcing, or establishing
and implementing the organizational policies, professional development and
instructional practices, and year-round teaming and intervention approaches
that support the academic and social, emotional, and behavioral success of all
students.
The ultimate “products” of this solution are School Improvement Plans
(SIPs) that help schools build capacity and autonomy; identify, develop, and
deploy resources; facilitate communication, collaboration, commitment, and
innovation; and sustain student, staff, and system success.
_ _ _ _ _
Solution 2—Staff
Cohesion, Consultation, Shared Leadership, and Teaming. In order to facilitate staff’s ongoing
commitment to comprehensive school improvement, effective schools create a shared
leadership atmosphere, structure, and formal and informal leadership
interactions. The shared leadership
approach is guided by school-level committees that work seamlessly with
grade-level (for elementary schools) or instructional-level (for secondary
schools) teams. This solution uses all of
the components from the figure above to recommend and implement a school
committee blueprint that is used to facilitate staff cohesion, consultation,
and teaming.
_ _ _ _ _
Solution
3—Professional Development, Supervision, Coaching, and Accountability. This effective
school and schooling solution focuses on the evidence-based professional
development, clinical supervision, coaching, and evaluation/accountability
practices- - at the system, school, staff, classroom, and student levels- - that
ensure that effective and differentiated instruction and effective and positive
behavior management exists in every classroom for every student.
This involves creating a culture, and planning and implementing the processes
whereby everyone recognizes that professional development occurs, formally and
informally, every day for every staff person.
With a goal of increasing staff knowledge, enhancing instructional and
intervention skills, and reinforcing confidence and independence, the essential
processes are research and self-study, professional development and in-service
instruction, clinical supervision and collegial consultation, and case study
practice and application using peer mentoring and professional learning
communities.
_ _ _ _ _
Solution 4—Positive
Academic Supports and Services (PASS).
This academic instruction and intervention solution focuses on creating
an effective “Instructional Environment” in every classroom within a
school. The Instructional Environment
consists of the interdependent interactions among Teacher-Instructional, Student,
and Curricular processes.
Expanding briefly, the Instructional Environment involves the
integration of:
* The different academic curricula taught in a classroom, as well as
their connection to state standards and benchmarks, and district scope and
sequence objectives (i.e., “What needs to be learned?”);
* The teachers who are teaching these curricula, and how they organize
and execute their classroom instruction (i.e., “Are appropriate instructional
and management strategies being used?”); and
* The students who are engaged in learning, their ability and motivation
to master the instructional material, and their response to effective
instruction and sound curricula (i.e., “Is each student capable, prepared,
motivated, and able to learn, and are they learning?”).
_ _ _ _ _
Solution 5—Positive
Behavioral Support Systems (PBSS). This
behavioral instruction and intervention solution focuses on implementing a
comprehensive positive behavioral support system across a school that help:
* Students learn, master, and apply interpersonal, social problem
solving, conflict prevention and resolution, and emotional coping skills and
interactions at a self-management level;
* Staff to create and sustain positive, safe, supportive, and consistent
classroom climates and school settings that motivate and engage students, while
also holding them accountable for their (especially, inappropriate) behavior;
* Schools to implement the multi-tiered strategic and intensive
behavioral instruction or intervention needed to address students with
non-responsive, resistant, challenging, or extreme behavior; and
* Communities to reinforce these goals in home and other community
settings.
While interactions in the common areas of the school (e.g., hallways,
restrooms, cafeteria, buses) are addressed explicitly in this solution, a major
focus here is how the PBSS is coordinated by teachers within and across grade
levels, and how PBSS activities impact classroom climate, interactions,
management, and engagement. Another
facet of the PBSS involves its multi-tiered continuum of services, supports,
strategies, and programs to address the needs of students exhibiting social,
emotional, and behavioral challenges.
_ _ _ _ _
Solution
6—Multi-tiered Response-to-Instruction and Intervention. All effective schools need to maintain a
focus on problem solving, teaming, and consultation processes. This includes the consistent use of
data-based, functional assessment, problem solving approaches that all staff
learn and use (a) when implementing effective academic and behavioral
instruction in the classroom, and (b) when addressing students who either are
not responding to this instruction or are exhibiting serious academic or
behavioral concerns.
For the latter students, a multi-tiered “Response-to-Instruction and
-Intervention” (RTI2) process is used that integrates problem
solving with consultation and intervention.
Rejecting the more “traditional” RTI approach that advocates a universal
intervention protocol, this RTI2 process emphasizes the importance
of linking the data-confirmed reasons why a student is not responding to
effective instruction to strategic instructional or intervention
approaches. These strategic approaches
then are implemented by classroom teachers with consultative support (if
needed) from other experts in the school.
This RTI2 process also recognizes that some students need
adapted, differentiated, different, or more intensive instruction to
address their needs, while other students need specific, focused, strategic or
intensive interventions.
_ _ _ _ _
Solution 7—Community
and Family Involvement and Outreach. The
parent and community training, support, and outreach solution focuses on
increasing the involvement of all parents, but especially the involvement of
parents of at-risk, underachieving, and chronically non-performing
students. Unfortunately, parents in
these latter three groups tend to be less involved in and supportive of the
school and schooling process, and thus, parent involvement often discriminates
achieving from underachieving students.
Relative to the community, many schools do
not use, and often are unaware of, the expertise and resources available to
them. In addition, there are times when
community agencies (e.g., after school programs) are providing services that
schools could use to reinforce or extend their instructional, intervention, or
other support activities. Finally, for
students with significant, 24/7 academic or behavioral/mental health
challenges, the need to coordinate and integrate school and community-based
professionals and their services, supports, strategies, or programs is
essential to the integrity of these approaches and the success of the students.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Summary
For
schools that need to quickly address one of the “controversial” issues
described earlier using one or more of the Seven Solutions, the webinar below
may be of use. Titled Fast-Tracking
the School Improvement Process:
Strategic Planning, Administrative Leadership, Staff Collaboration, and
Student Success, the webinar describes an 18-month turn-around blueprint
emphasizing the essential Solution areas needed for schools in need of
immediate change, improvement, and success.
For
schools that do not need to fast-track their processes, I hope that the Seven
Sure Solutions will be helpful either to address a weakness or limitation in
your school or district, or to move you to the next level of excellence as you
approach the new school year.
Meanwhile, if you are “on
vacation,” I hope that you are enjoying the break. If you are break but still thinking and
planning for the coming year, I appreciate your dedication.
As always, if I can help
your school(s) or district in any of the areas related to one or more of the
Seven Sure Solutions for Success, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Best,
Howie
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