School Improvement Services Data Use Capacity Improvement: We use a collective impact process to effectively monitor and evaluate formative and summative student performance metrics. Through the use of our data analysis process, we provide schools and teachers with actionable data to improve teaching and learning practices. We build the capacity of staff in analyzing the data that matters most to the school. We use an alignment framework that informs students and parents of individual performance metrics and establishing short-term strategic goals for future performances. Our process has yielded “B” state report card grades for Growth and Students with Disabilities.
Improve student learning and critical thinking skills • • •
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Excellent Educators and Instructional Practices: Our distributive leadership model is designed to help schools enhance the leadership abilities of teachers and students in their community. Through the use and application of the Ohio Improvement Plan (OIP), we build capacity in teacher leaders through examining the research-based best practices; develop classroom leadership and empowerment skills; focus on the academic growth and value-add measures of instructional practice.
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Rigorous Learning & Aligned Assessments Teacher Evaluation Portfolio Differentiated Instruction and Technology Alignment of Student Supports Literacy-Based Instructional Strategies Building Culture and Climate for Learning Creating a Professional Learning Network Data Analysis for Student Performance
LibertyLD.com
Tier 1: Strong Evidence “Well-Executed Experimental Study
Achievement Network’s Investing in Innovation Expansion: Impacts on Educator Practice and Student Achievement The program is based on the belief that if teachers are provided with timely data on student performance from interim assessments tied to state standards, if school leaders provide support and create structures that help them use that data to identify student weaknesses, and if teachers have knowledge of how to improve the performance of students who are falling behind, then they will become more effective at identifying and addressing gaps in student learning. This will, in turn, improve student performance, particularly for high-need students.
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The frequency with which teachers use data to inform their instruction remains among the strongest predictors of student achievement in both Math and Reading. An intensive data-based instructional program should work with providers to identify what is necessary for successful implementation. Across all teachers, we found that those who had more confidence fitting re-teaching into the school or district’s existing curricular scope and sequence and who more frequently used the content of upcoming interim assessments to plan instruction rated the alignment of their math interim assessments with the math curriculum and curricular scope and sequence more favorably. 2
Content-Focused Coaching - Whole Class
Professional Learning Communities Facilitator’s Guide
A professional development approach in which district coaches provide in-class demonstrations, weekly grade-level meetings, and individual monthly visits to all teachers each month for coteaching, observation, and feedback.
The Professional Learning Communities Facilitator’s Guide is designed to assist teams of educators in using the evidencebased strategies presented in the What Works Clearinghouse Teaching Academic Content and Literacy to English Learners in Elementary and Middle School practice guide. Through this collaborative learning experience, educators will expand their knowledge base as they read, discuss, share, and apply key ideas, strategies, and activities for supporting K–8 English learners.
Matsumura, L. C., Garnier, H. E., & Spybrook, J. (2013). Literacy coaching to improve student reading achievement: A multi-level mediation model. Learning and Instruction, 25, 35–48.
Dimino, J. A., Taylor, M., & Morris, J. (2015). Professional learning communities facilitator’s guide for the What Works Clearinghouse practice guide: Teaching academic content and literacy to English learners in elementary and middle school (REL 2015–105). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Regional Educational Laboratory Southwest. Retrieved from http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs.
Job-Embedded Professional Learning
Tier 1: Strong Evidence “Well-Executed Experimental Study
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Teacher Clarity * Clear Objectives * Clear Explanation - Lorem Ipsum
* Clear Demonstration * Clear Practice * Clear Questioning
Dylan Wiliam and John Hattie agree that you must be very clear about what you want your students to learn. You need to know exactly what you want them to understand and what you want them to be able to do. More importantly, you need to ensure that your students are equally clear about what they must learn and how they can prove they have learned it. Research showed that teacher clarity has an effect size of d = 0.75.
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Ask deep explanatory questions. Teachers should identify deep-level questions that they can use to prompt students to reason about underlying explanatory principles relating to the course content. Posing these questions during instruction is usually most useful after students have mastered the more basic factual content relating to a topic. • Students can be encouraged to make use of online self-checking quizzes that are frequently available on websites tied to textbooks. • Help students better identify what they have not learned, so that students can more effectively guide their study for material not yet mastered. It is important for teachers to help students re-envision quizzes as tools to help them learn, rather than as tools used to evaluate their performance. • Allow multiple valid explanations, allowing students to be exposed to different points of view and paths of reasoning. • Present problems that are anchored in the real world for which there is some obvious utility in solving the problem.
Use quizzes to re-expose students to information. Taking a test on studied material promotes remembering that material on a final test, a phenomenon called the “testing effect.” Experimental memory research has established that the testing effect is very robust. • Quizzes can be both formal quizzes and informal testing situations. • Take every opportunity to prompt students to retrieve information, and whenever a substantial number of errors are expected, to be sure to make corrective feedback available. • Require students to actively recall information (e.g., providing answers to fill-in-the-blank or short-answer/essay type items). • There are websites available to teachers that allow them to create quizzes quickly using content specified by the teachers.
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Combine graphics with verbal descriptions Many studies have demonstrated that adding relevant graphical presentations to text descriptions can lead to better learning than text alone. In addition, students learn more when the verbal description is presented in audio form rather than in written text, probably because a learner cannot read text and scrutinize an accompanying graphic at the same time. It should be noted that current evidence suggests that a well-chosen sequence of still pictures with accompanying prose can be just as effective in enhancing learning as narrated animations. • Visual representations should be integrated with verbal descriptions that help students focus on where to look and on what is being illustrated. • Teachers should draw students’ attention to the components of the visualization that are relevant to the abstract concept so that students understand that the same core idea is being expressed in multiple ways. Pashler, H., Bain, P., Bottge, B., Graesser, A., Koedinger, K., McDaniel, M., and Metcalfe, J. (2007) Organizing Instruction and Study to Improve Student Learning (NCER 2007-2004). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Research, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from http://ncer.ed.gov
Contact: Dr. Randall Sampson Email: RandallSampson@mac.com Phone: 740-545-8331