Committing to Educational
Excellence by Learning from Hattie’s and SEL’s Limitations
[CLICK
HERE for the full Blog message]
Dear
Colleagues,
Introduction
The holidays. . . the New Year. . . a time
of reflection. . . a time of hope and joy and renewal.
I would love to say I am feeling
nostalgic. But. . . I’m not.
On a professional level, I’m dismayed. I’m disappointed. I’m determined. And I know there is a lot of work to do to
improve our schools in 2019.
_ _ _ _ _
In preparing this piece, I read through all
of the Blogs that I wrote this year. I
did this to “Review 2018” because—when you are preparing and writing two major
messages each month, while maintaining a national consulting business (with
almost 200 days per year “on the road”)—you tend to lose sight of what happened
in January. . . never mind September or October.
My Blog review revealed the following
themes:
- Theme 1: Choosing High-Success Initiatives. Here, we discussed the importance of schools doing their own science-to-research “due diligence” so that they adopt and implement defensible and high-probability-of-success initiatives and programs on behalf of their students and staff.
We also critically reviewed the research of John
Hattie—detailing the strengths and limitations of meta-analytic studies, and
emphasizing that schools cannot take Hattie’s effect sizes and move directly to
implementation. Indeed, because meta-analysis
pools many separate research studies together, these studies often have
different methods, procedures, strategies, and implementation sequences.
Thus, schools would not know exactly what to
implement without critically evaluating the separate studies.
- Theme 2: The Selling of Social-Emotional Learning (SEL). As a specific example of the Theme above, we encouraged schools to critically look at the history and foundation of the Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) “movement” (including “mindfulness” practices) so that they understand its political history and motivation, recognize the flaws in its research and practice, and “step back” to reassess how to effectively improve students’ social, emotional, and behavioral skills and self-management abilities.
- Theme 3: Preventing School Shootings. Here, we suggested that schools need to go “Back to the Future” by reviewing past recommendations from previous years’ school shooting analyses. . . when re-evaluating their current school safety systems and approaches. Clearly, this is especially important given the rash of school shootings during 2018.
- Theme 4: School Discipline and Disproportionality. Here, we reviewed the importance of proactive, scientifically-based, and multi-tiered school discipline approaches, as well as how to realistically, comprehensively, and pragmatically address the issue of disproportionality.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
Theme 1:
Choosing High-Success School Initiatives
My very first Blog this year (January 13,
2018) focused on what we know about school improvement—based on evaluations
from the “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) years, and what districts and schools
need to know about school improvement—from the science-to-practice approaches
embedded in strategic planning.
From an NCLB perspective, published studies
consistently conclude that there are lots of school improvement strategies, but
most educators do not know how to comprehensively analyze their school’s
current strengths, weaknesses, and gaps so that they can strategically and
systematically implement the most effective and efficient strategies that will
build their school’s capacity—resulting in sustained student outcomes.
We added a critical
point to this first conclusion—that school improvement is contextual.
That is, some
schools want to go from “great to greater.”
Some schools from “good to great.”
And some schools need to go from a Targeted or Comprehensive Support and
Improvement level, respectfully, to a point where they are simply providing a
consistent, foundationally sound level of good instruction.
In addition, we
emphasized that, in order for continuous school improvement and (especially)
school turn-around to succeed, it needs to be done at each involved school and
district site using coordinated and sustained activities that include:
- Ongoing local needs assessments and strategic planning science-to-practice processes;
- Local resource analyses and capacity-strengthening science-to-practice processes; and
- Local and on-site organizational, staff development, consultation, and technical assistance science-to-practice processes.
These “keys to
success” clearly require professionals both employed at each school site, and in-
or out-of-district consultants—all with the shared ability to use the strategic
planning processes cited above to select the best services, supports,
strategies, and interventions at the district, school, staff, and student
levels to facilitate ongoing and sustained success.
_ _ _ _ _
Below are the 2018 Blogs written in this
theme area. . . with their titles, dates of publication, and web-links to the
original message.
[CLICK on the
Date below to link to the Original Blog]
January
13, 2018 Every School is in “School Improvement”
Every Year: Preparing for ESEA/ESSA–What Effective Schools Do to Continuously
Improve . . . and What Ineffective Schools Need to do to Significantly
Improve [Part I of II]
January 28, 2018 How Strategic
Planning and Organizational Development is Done by Every School . . . Every
Year: An Introduction to Successful School-based Strategic Planning
Science-to-Practice [Part II of II]
June
26, 2018 Learning from
Another Gates Failure: It’s Not Just the Money–It’s What You Accomplish
with It. How to Spend ESEA’s Title IV Money Wisely
July
21, 2018 Hattie
Haters and Lovers: Both Still Miss the Effective Implementation that
Practitioners Need. Critical Questions to Ask your “Hattie Consultant”
Before You Sign the Contract
August
4, 2018 School
Improvement, Strategic Planning, ESEA, and Multi-Tiered Services: An
Anthology of Previous Blogs. Integrating Successful Research-to-Practice
Strategies into the New School Year (Part I of II)
November
25, 2018 It’s Not Too
Late to Change: The School Year’s Not Even Half Over. Why Schools Fail to
Act When their Students Fail
December
8, 2018 Reconsidering
What Effective High Schools Do, and What Failing High Schools Miss:
Credit Recovery Programs Should be Strategic, Selective, Student-Focused, and
Not the Only Game in Town
_ _ _ _ _
The Take-Aways
Relative to
continuous school improvement and—especially— improvement at the Targeted or
Comprehensive Support and Improvement levels, respectfully, our Blogs looked at
recent national reports and other valid and previously-established
science-to-practice strategies that create a blueprint for school planning and
effectiveness.
Our School
Improvement Blueprint included the following components:
School Vision
Establish and Communicate a Clear Vision
Help Staff Understand and Embrace the
Need for Change
Improvement Goals
Prioritize Goals and Focus Areas
Make Action Plans Based on Data
Identify and Achieve a Few Early Wins
Reduce Time Focused on Nonessentials
Data-based Decision-Making
Establish the Expectations for a Data
Culture
Adjust Instructional Practice through Visible
Data
Use Data Continually to Solve Problems
Establishing a Culture of Change
Focus on Successful Tactics, Discontinue
Unsuccessful Ones
Break Rules and Norms, Take New Action
Change Systems and Structures
Effective Teachers and Leaders
Make Necessary Replacements
Attract, Select, and Retain Top Talent
Build and Lead a Team of Leaders
Ensure Ongoing Professional Growth
Opportunities
Instructional Excellence
Align Instruction to Assessments and
Standards
Monitor and Improve Instructional
Quality
Develop and Deploy a Team of Instructional
Leaders
Strategic Partnerships
Gain Support of Key Influencers
Enlist Partner Organizations
_ _ _ _ _
Critically, and as
emphasized above, this blueprint should not be used as a static,
one-size-fits-all menu. Instead,
needs and status assessments, resource analyses and coordination, and strategic
planning and organizational development strategies are required to
individualize the process for each district and school.
For districts or
schools in significant need of improvement, two questions are essential here:
- With all that a school in improvement status needs to do, which of the possible strategies are the immediate, high-hit strategies that will begin the improvement process in a timely way?
- Once these high-hit strategies are identified; exactly what is the training, who and where are the targets; and what are the resources, implementation steps, and short- and long-term outcomes needed such that improvement begins, is established, and can be maintained over time?
[CLICK
HERE for the full Blog message with the additional key Take-Aways
from this Theme #1.]
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _
Theme 2:
The Selling of Social-Emotional Learning
One of the most notable examples of Theme #1
above is the SEL (Social-Emotional Learning) movement as politically powered by
CASEL (the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning).
While recognizing that most schools
nationwide are doing “something” that they call “SEL,” this year’s Blog
messages provided extensive information on (a) CASEL’s political and
foundation-driven agenda, (b) the flaws and limitations in the research that it
uses as a rationale for that agenda, and (c) the research-to-practice
components of an SEL model that is focused on measurable and
developmentally-sensitive multi-tiered social, emotional, and behavioral
student skills.
In the context of Theme #1, districts and
schools are encouraged to take a “step back” off the SEL bandwagon, to
critically review the research-to-practice multi-tiered components, and
to reconfigure the strategies, resources, timelines, and training needed to effectively
improve their student, staff, and school “return-on-investment.”
Below are the 2018 Blogs written in this
theme area. . . with their titles, dates of publication, and web-links to the
original message.
[CLICK on the Date below to link to the
Original Blog]
February
10, 2018 The Folly and
Frustration of Evaluating Schools and Staff Based on the Progress of Students
with Significant Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Challenges: Understanding
the Student, Home, and Community Factors that Impact Challenging Students
June
2, 2018 Making Mountains
Out of Molehills: Mindfulness and Growth Mindsets. Critical
Research Questions the Impact of Both
October
13, 2018
Social-Emotional Learning: Education’s Newest Bandwagon . . . and the
History of How We Got There (Part I). Why Most Schools are not
Implementing Scientifically-Sound Practices—Wasting Time and Resources
November
10, 2018 The SEL-ing of
Social-Emotional Learning: Education’s Newest Bandwagon. . .
Science-to-Practice Goals, Flaws, and Cautions (Part II). Why Schools
Need to Re-Think, Re-Evaluate, Re-Load, and Re-Boot
_ _ _ _ _
The Take-Aways
All students need to learn and
demonstrate—at an appropriate developmental level—effective interpersonal,
social problem-solving, conflict prevention and resolution, and emotional
control and coping skills. In the
classroom, these skills are essential to maximizing their academic engagement
and achievement, as well as their ability to collaborate and learn in
cooperative and project-based learning groups.
The “Good News” is that this is increasingly
recognized across our educational communities.
The “Bad News” is that many schools are
targeting (often due to CASEL’s advocacy), SEL goals and targets that involve constructs
(instead of skills and behaviors) that are open to interpretation
(hence, they are unreliable) and, hence, that cannot be measured or measured
validly.
The additional “Bad News” is that “SEL” has
been “validated” by the popular press . . . using testimonials, “research” that
would be rejected by the Editorial Board of virtually any professional
publication, and data that will never demonstrate a causal relationship
between school-based activities and student-based outcomes.
[CLICK
HERE for the full Blog message with the additional key Take-Aways
from this Theme #1.]
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _
Summary
Obviously, my primary goal in writing these
Blogs is to help districts and schools to maximize the academic and social,
emotional, and behavioral skills and competencies of all students.
In a multi-tiered context, this means that
some students will need remediation, accommodation, and/or modification
services, supports, and strategies when struggling academically or presenting
with behavioral challenges. In addition,
other students will need strategic or intensive interventions as identified
through data-based functional assessment problem-solving processes.
But another goal is to add a
science-to-practice perspective to some of the national reports, approaches,
and beliefs that are published and accepted by others. . . sometimes without a
full understanding of their history or implications, and sometimes based simply
on the perceived “expertise” of the author or the organization sponsoring the
work.
Thus, a final goal is to help educators to
“stop and think” and “take a step back” from the premature acceptance of a
framework or program that either will not work with their students or
will not work with any students.
Time and resources are precious
commodities. When it comes to our
students, staff, and schools, we all need to make sure that these commodities
are used well, and that they have a high “return on investment.” This means that—before implementation—we
have validated that they have a high probability of success, that they can be
and are implemented with integrity and the correct intensity, and that we are
sensitively evaluating their short- and long-term outcomes.
_ _ _ _ _
In Part II (coming in approximately
two weeks), we will discuss and analyze the second set of 2018 themes:
- Theme 3: Preventing School Shootings. Here, we will encourage schools to go “Back to the Future” by reviewing past recommendations from previous years’ school shooting analyses when re-evaluating their current school safety systems and approaches. Clearly, this is especially important given the rash of school shootings during 2018.
This discussion also will critically review—in the most
depoliticized way possible—the Federal Commission on School Safety’s
Final Report released less than four weeks ago on December 18, 2018.
- Theme 4: School Discipline and Disproportionality. Here, we will review the importance of proactive, scientifically-based, and multi-tiered school discipline approaches, as well as how to realistically, comprehensively, and pragmatically address the issue of disproportionality. . . especially with minority students and students with disabilities.
This theme will discuss the implications of the U.S.
Department of Education’s December 21, 2018 rescission of the Obama-era
guidance aimed at reducing racial discrimination when students are
disciplined. This was done officially by
Secretary DeVos just three days after the release of the Federal Commission
on School Safety’s Final Report which included this in its recommendations.
Speaking of which, I hope that your Holidays
were filled with happiness and joy.
Please accept my best wishes for the upcoming New Year !!!
Best,
Howie
[CLICK
HERE for the full Blog message]
