Month: July 2011

Eight Elements of High School Improvement

Eight Elements of High School Improvement

Reading Time: 2 minutes

[box class=”grey_box”]Developed by the National High School Center at AIR, with contributions from Circe Stumbo[/box]


Research on comprehensive school reform suggests that improvement strategies have the best opportunity for success and sustainability when they take into account the broad array of elements that make up the system being improved. Yet, many current high school improvement initiatives are focused only on specific priority topics (e.g., dropout prevention), specific intervention strategies (e.g., advisories, small schools), or program initiatives (e.g., Check and Connect). Although such approaches can have an important impact, their reach is too frequently limited to a subset of systemic reform elements. Implementing such initiatives may lead to success in addressing specific needs, but the probability of widespread improvement is small when initiatives are implemented in isolation from the broader education systems within which they operate.

The National High School Center’s goal is to encourage researchers, policymakers, and practitioners at all levels to engage in comprehensive, systemic efforts to maximize attainment for all high school students, with a focus on those students who have been historically underserved. To this end, we have developed a framework that consists of eight core elements and provides a lens for mapping school, district, and state high school improvement efforts. The exercise of mapping should inform strategic planning and implementation efforts by illuminating the connections among elements, revealing strengths and gaps in current state and district policies, and highlighting the stakeholders who should be aware of and involved in future improvement efforts.

This document offers descriptions of the eight elements of high school improvement:

  • Rigorous Curriculum and Instruction
  • Teacher Effectiveness and Professional Growth
  • Stakeholder Engagement
  • Organization and Structure
  • Assessment and Accountability
  • Student and Family Involvement
  • Effective Leadership
  • Sustainability

 

Four points are important to note. First, the particular combination or separation of the elements is less significant than an understanding that these elements, which are often treated as discrete, actually are inter-related parts of a single system. Each element has an impact on the others, so understanding their interconnectivity is a critical task. Second, a major challenge of using this framework is the risk of overwhelming those involved in the work. Every high school improvement initiative does not need to have some activity in each of the elements at every moment. Rather, mapping the implications of an improvement initiative among all affected elements at the outset will lead to more strategic decisions initially and over time. Third, every high school and related high school improvement initiative is situated in a unique geographic, cultural, demographic, political, and societal context, which influences the school’s vision, mission, structure, culture, and outcomes. Any efforts at high school improvement must take into account these particular school- and system-level contexts. These considerations affect each element and must be explicitly addressed when improvement strategies are devised. Fourth, if scalable and sustainable improvement is the ultimate goal, it is likely that the implementation of improvement efforts will require organizational change. No strategy can be complete without attention to the challenges of leading change within the respective organizational cultures.

Reform strategies give opportunities and voice to students

Reform strategies give opportunities and voice to students

Reading Time: < 1 minute

The National High School Center this summer is modeling two strategies that are central to education reform efforts: first by providing community-based education opportunities for local youth and second by giving voice to that student experience.

NHSC’s parent organization American Institutes for Research is sponsoring a student employee through Washington DC’s Mayor’s Youth Leadership Institute (MYLI), a community program that provides learning and growth opportunities to DC youth. Daisha Hale, a 2011 graduate from Benjamin Banneker Academic Senior High School in Washington, DC, is working at AIR and last week published a post for the National High School Center’s High School Matters blog describing her experience with the MYLI.

West Wind is serving on the High School Matters blog editorial team and we are looking for high school students to contribute to the blog. West Wind also has been including local students and youth in our own programming, as well, such as our employment of students with disabilities through the local schools’ Transitions Service Center, serving as a mentor and Bronze Sponsor for Iowa City’s Fast Trac program, showcasing artwork by Tate High School students in our office gallery, and by inviting student contributors to our blog.

Can your organization provide community-based programs for students? Do you have structures—publications, meetings, etc.—where student voice should be present?

Muscatine to Host the Iowa Latino Conference

Muscatine to Host the Iowa Latino Conference

Reading Time: 2 minutes

The 13th Annual Iowa Latino Conference is scheduled for October 28-29, 2011 in Muscatine, Iowa. West Wind Education Policy Inc. has had the opportunity to offer volunteer support to the conference; I look forward to representing West Wind and helping plan the Friday Youth Leadership Development Summit to offer new opportunities for a young and growing population. Although I was born and raised an Iowan Latina, this is my first time being involved with the conference. Through its absence in my youth, I know how important this event will be for young Latinos to come together, network and embrace their potential as the future of Latinos in Iowa.

The conference and summit will feature keynote speaker, Michael Benitez Jr., a Ph.D. student at Iowa State University. Benitez, Jr. is a seasoned speaker on a multitude of topics including Chicanos/Latinos, Education, and Hip Hop. He is said to challenge “the complacency students grow used to and how institutions cultivate apathy among our youth”[1]. This will align perfectly to the summit’s “leadership” theme.

In addition to Benitez, Jr., there will be a morning college fair and catering (the conference hopes to showcase the many local Mexican food restaurants) during lunch.  This is a great opportunity for Muscatine to display its community and embrace Latinos who make up 15%[2] of this city’s population while welcoming conference participants from across Iowa.

“Latinos are a growing part of our community, and I’m pleased to say that. The work ethic, caring and love they bring are qualities we desperately need in our community” said Bill Phelan, head of the Greater Muscatine Chamber of Commerce & Industry[3].

The conference is “the only opportunity for Latino leaders, artists and educators to come together as a community to learn and share their knowledge and talent with those who support and celebrate Latin American culture and traditions,” according to conference committee co-chair, Carlos Duran of Mobilizing Muscatine Excellence[4].

The Friday date for the Youth Summit serves Muscatine School District’s schedule well as there are no classes that day. Organizers are recruiting students from all around Iowa to attend. The opening day of the conference will also feature a Professional Development Institute (details forthcoming). On Saturday, October 29, the conference will be geared to all community members. You can find the latest information about the conference here.


[1] Speak Out! (2011, July 7). Michael Benitez Jr: Scholar and speaker integrating Hip Hop pedagogy and academic inquiry. Retrieved from http://www.speakoutnow.org/userdata_display.php?modin=50&uid=676

[2] Ferguson, Mike. (2011). Muscatine lands major Latino conference. The Muscatine Journal. Retrieved from http://muscatinejournal.com/news/local/article_dd7c71fc-9704-11e0-b42b-001cc4c03286.html

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

Thank You to All Our Para-Professionals

Thank You to All Our Para-Professionals

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Last month my mother, Sherry Bozarth, retired from 18 years in the Oklahoma public school system.   She took a position in the school cafeteria when I was in junior high so that she would have the same schedule as my sister and I – and, I suspect, so that she could keep an eye on us.  After several years, she became a para-professional, a position she held for 13 years.  Para-professionals support special educational needs students in the classroom.  Over the years she worked with a broad range of students with very different needs.  And during that time, as I watched her grow within her career, I learned a lot about what it takes to offer education to all students.

I have worked with students with special educational needs as a teacher, a teacher’s assistant, and as a volunteer.  I realize that providing these students with real, meaningful educational opportunities takes a great deal of time, effort, and patience.  My mother worked year after year, taking part in professional development to keep abreast of new technologies and new pedagogical ideas, reading textbooks at home at night to make sure she had an individualized plan for her students, and standing up for the students she supported inside the classroom and within the school.  She sometimes came home from work with bruises after a child had kicked or hit her in a difficult moment; several times I watched her cry when one of her students was ill or in trouble; and many times I heard stories about students spitting on her, yelling at her, or threatening her.  But she never lost her dedication to those students and their right to an education.  She took one of her students on a field trip to a renaissance fair in a city 60 miles away, because that was his dream.  Every year she looked forward to the Special Olympics like no other person I know.  In fact, sometimes after listening to her brag about the medals her students won my sister and I wondered if we needed to explain to her how the Special Olympics really work. All Special Olympic participants receive a medal and the top three receive gold, silver, and bronze medals; my mother never included the color of the medals in her success stories.

Each day she called me on her way home from work.  Some days she was tired, but her passion for her education and her pride in the daily accomplishments of her students was always there.

It was my mother’s dream to work in the public school as an educator, so it is hardly surprising that she did so with such zeal and dedication.  And that zeal is obvious when you run into one of her students.  My mother worked in a school in a rural town of 1,000 people – the same school I attended from K-12 – so it is unavoidable that you run into her students everywhere you go.  Just yesterday she told me that one of her students saw her getting out of her car and yelled her name until she came to say hello.  She worked with one girl for several years and if you happen to see her in town she runs over and shares everything she has done since the last time she saw my mother.  These students see what I see in her and so many educators in our schools—a true love of teaching and a pride in student achievement.

My mother’s dedication to equal educational opportunities for all students is something I see in our schools a lot, but it is not something we hear about in the news lately.  Our teachers, principles and superintendents are key to strong school systems, and the support staff play an equal role.  Strong support from a school’s para-professionals often makes the difference between a child with special educational needs receiving meaningful educational opportunities and a child moving through the system without the opportunity to grow.

So thank you Mom for all your hard work.  I am proud of you.  And thank you to all the dedicated para-professionals in our schools.

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