Organizing Adults
How adults are organized in a school is a foundational driver of its outcomes.
If the daily interactions of teachers, administrators, partners, parents AND students leave them more satisfied, more productive, more supported, more connected and more engaged, evidence shows that the school will achieve greater success.
The resources offered below highlight key actions and evidence-based findings that schools can take to improve school outcomes.
- Organizing adults in a more productive and engaging manner.
- Interacting with other adults and students, making decisions, and engaging in improvement efforts.
Featured Resource
TEDx Talks: Getting Relationships Right
In this talk, Dr. Kent Pekel shares five essential actions that adults can take to build developmental relationships with young people in families, schools, programs, and other settings.
Featured Resource
College & Career Academy Support Network:
Master Schedule Guide
This guide is designed to support schools that are using a Linked Learning approach and/or wall-to-wall or multiple pathways/academies approach to redesign high schools. Our goal is to build a community of practice around master scheduling so that all students are supported to be college and career ready in thematic pathways that combine rigorous academics, challenging technical learning, work-based learning, and personalized supports. Visit the CCASN website.
Want to Share Something?
Have a resource to share? Please share any useful resource, tool, website, etc. that you found helpful during your redesign. . .click here
Have a story to tell? Please share any experience, anecdote, cautionary tale you encountered during your redesign. . .click here
Teacher Teams
AudioCast
Teacher Teams is an audiocast cohosted by Dr. Robert Balfanz, Director of the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University and Linda Muskauski, Knowledge Development Director at the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University. The pair discuss how teacher teams serve as the building blocks for high school redesign initiatives.
Leadership, Development, and Support
Global Best Practices: An Internationally Benchmarked Self-Assessment Tool for Secondary Learning created by the Research Summary as prepared by the New England Secondary School Consortium.
Click to Download (PDF)
Click to View Web-based Version (Adobe Presenter)
School Organizational Contexts, Teacher Turnover, and Student Achievement: Evidence From Panel Data by Matthew A. Kraft, Brown Univeristy; William H. Marinell; and Darrick Shen-Wei Yee, Harvard University studies the relationship between school organizational contexts, teacher turnover, and student achievement in New York City (NYC) middle schools.
Data-Driven Decision Making (Follow the Evidence)
Design and Data in Balance: Using Data-Driven Decision Making to Enable Student Success to gain a better understanding of the dynamic between data and design, the New Visions data team took a closer look at schools that have used thoughtful approaches to achieve impressive results. This study describes how teachers and school leaders at the High School of Telecommunication Arts and Technology (familiarly known as Telly) used data and design to strengthen programming for students in grades 9 and 10, thereby improving outcomes for all students.
Improvement Research Carried Out Through Networked Communities: Accelerating Learning about Practices that Support More Productive Student Mindsets this paper from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching discusses the function of networked communities engaged in improvement research and illustrates the application of these ideas in promoting greater student success in community colleges.
Distributed Leadership
Fostering the Capacity for Distributed Leadership: A Post-Heroic Approach to Leading School Improvement this article examines the specific practices of six high school principals who fostered the leadership capacities of 18 other leaders in their respective schools. The findings illustrate the key steps these principals undertook in identifying potential leaders, creating leadership opportunities for them, facilitating their role transitions and providing them with continuous support.
Department-Head Leadership for School Improvement this review of research was prompted by the widespread belief that at least in a significant number of secondary schools, department heads are an underutilized, if not untapped, source of instructional leadership, the type of leadership critical to secondary-school improvement initiatives.
Examining Integrated Leadership Systems in High Schools: connecting principal and teacher leadership to organizational processes and student outcomes this study examines how leadership pathways are related in the context of high schools and compare findings to research in elementary schools.
The Relationship Between Distributed Leadership and Teachers’ Academic Optimism The goal of this study was to examine the relationship between four patterns of distributed leadership and a modified version of a variable Hoy et al. have labeled “teachers’ academic optimism.” The distributed leadership patterns reflect the extent to which the performance of leadership functions is consciously aligned across the sources of leadership, and the degree to which the approach is either planned or spontaneous.
Download the Study (PDF)
Read the Abstract
Building Relationships and Trust
School Organizational Contexts, Teacher Turnover, and Student Achievement: Evidence From Panel Data by Matthew A. Kraft, Brown Univeristy; William H. Marinell; and Darrick Shen-Wei Yee, Harvard University studies the relationship between school organizational contexts, teacher turnover, and student achievement in New York City (NYC) middle schools.
Whole School Organizations to Support Evidence-Based Redesign
A Better 9th Grade: Early Results from an Experimental Study of the Early College High School Model Funded through a federal grant from the Institute of Education Sciences, this five-year study is the first to rigorously examine the impact of the early college high school model.
Early College, Continued Success: Early College High School Initiative Impact Study This study from the American Institutes for Research (AIR) focuses on the impact of Early Colleges.
It addressed two questions:
- Do Early College students have better outcomes than they would have had at other high schools?
- Does the impact of Early Colleges vary by student background characteristics (e.g., gender and family income)?
Opportunity by Design: New High School Models for Student Success produced by the Carnegie Corporation of New York examines while it is important to graduate from high school, high school is not an end in itself, but rather preparation for college as well as life-long learning. It is one part of the path that leads students towards their ultimate potential in any of endeavor as well as in personal satisfaction in their lives. To reach these goals, students deserve the best possible education that we can provide.
Global Best Practices: An Internationally Benchmarked Self-Assessment Tool for Secondary Learning created by the Research Summary as prepared by the New England Secondary School Consortium.
Click to Download (PDF)
Click to View Web-based Version (Adobe Presenter)
Small High Schools and Student Achievement: Lottery-Based Evidence from New York City One of the most wide-ranging reforms in public education in the last decade has been the reorganization of large comprehensive high schools into small schools with roughly 100 students per grade. We use assignment lotteries embedded in New York City’s high school match to estimate the effects of attendance at a new small high school on student achievement.
Click to Download Report (PDF)
Implement Evidence-Based Practices
This section examines the “how” and “why” the evidence and research base supports core principles to consider when redesigning high school such as, staffing and how to most effectively deploy the adults in your school, teaming and leadership structures to facilitate strong relationships between adults and students.
Schools as Organizations from the Research Alliance for New York City Schools examines school climate, teacher turnover, and student achievement in New York City.
Understanding the Human Side of School Leadership: Principals’ Impact on Teachers’ Morale, Self-Efficacy, Stress, and Commitment This qualitative study from Ontario, Canada, reveals that principal behaviors shape teacher emotions in important ways, influencing teacher morale, burnout, stress, commitment, and self and collective efficacy.
Relational Trust in Schools from EL Education reviews the definition, critical attributes, and conditions of relational trust.
Trends and Issues in High School Scheduling is a look at the history of high school scheduling, analyze and compare most common high school scheduling formats, evaluates the infrastructure of the school scheduling process and much more in this in-depth presentation.
The Six Core Principles of Improvement from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Uses six core principles of improvement:
- Make the work problem – specific and user-centered
- Variation in performance is the core problem to address
- See the system that produces the current outcomes
- We cannot improve at scale what we cannot measure
- Anchor practice improvement in disciplined inquiry
- Accelerate improvements through networked communities
Implementing School-Based Teams Effective school-based teams are the anchors of successful on-track initiatives. In this toolkit, you will find tools to support accountable adult collaboration focused on improving student outcomes. The toolkit contains four tool sets.
Tool Set A: Facilitating Effective Adult Collaboration and Conversation
A focus on effective adult collaboration moves teams toward becoming accountable communities that are able to address issues with a problem-solving approach rather than trying to ignore or minimize them. Click to Explore Tool Set A
Tool Set B: Facilitating Data-Driven Conversations
Data-driven conversations require careful facilitation to ensure a safe and supportive environment wherein educators take ownership of their outcomes. Click to Explore Tool Set B
Tool Set C: Engaging Students in On-Track Conversations
Success Teams are responsible for creating multiple opportunities to engage students in On-Track conversations. Click to Explore Tool Set C
Tool Set D: Assessing Success Team Progress
Success Teams should regularly assess their progress to determine strengths and areas in need of growth. Click to Explore Tool Set D
Click to download the Full Toolkit (PDF)
This toolkit from the Thinking Collaborative is designed to provide resources for developing and sustaining productive group interaction through the practice of “Seven Norms of Collaboration.” Consistent use of these norms enhances the quality and productivity of all forms of conversation in any group.
SRI’s tools include protocols that offer structured processes to support focused and productive conversations, build collective understanding, and drive school improvement. Thoughtful use of these protocols is an integral part of building resilient professional learning communities.
Teaching Together for Change is an excellent resource for teams, the School Reform Initiative tools include protocols that offer structured processes to support focused and productive conversations, build collective understanding, and drive school improvement. Thoughtful use of these protocols is an integral part of building resilient professional learning communities.
Building Trusting Relationships for School Improvement this booklet examines the issue of trust within the context of school improvement, looking specifically at teacherteacher and teacher-principal relationships. Drawing on existing research as well as the experiences of individual schools, we offer a summary of current literature, discuss common roadblocks to trust-building, and identify specific steps that educators can take to increase the level of trust in their schools.
Examples of Actions Taken by Principals Trying to Lead Turnaround this report describes examples of actions that school principals have taken in trying to lead turnaround. Although not all of the principals highlighted in this report have turned around their schools successfully, these examples can be helpful to other principals, teacher-leader teams, and principal supervisors who are looking to approach turnaround work with strategic, but less common actions in an effort to get new, better results. The examples of actions described in this report are organized into familiar categories: vision, goals, data, change leadership, teachers and leaders, instruction, and strategic partnerships. These categories are also tied to domains and practices described in the Center on School Turnaround’s Four Domains for Rapid School Improvement: A Systems Framework.
Teaching Together for Change is an excellent resource for teams, the School Reform Initiative tools include protocols that offer structured processes to support focused and productive conversations, build collective understanding, and drive school improvement. Thoughtful use of these protocols is an integral part of building resilient professional learning communities.
Peer Coaching That Works is a report from McRel International examines that teachers, like all professionals, should continuously grow and learn by developing new knowledge, skills, and abilities that benefit their students academically, we do not believe that a deficit-based approach to coaching is the way to get there.
Design and Data in Balance to gain a better understanding of the dynamic between data and design, the New Visions data team took a closer look at schools that have used thoughtful approaches to achieve impressive results. This study describes how teachers and school leaders at the High School of Telecommunication Arts and Technology (familiarly known as Telly) used data and design to strengthen programming for students in grades 9 and 10, thereby improving outcomes for all students.
Classroom Q&A a teacher’s blog on Education Week’s website. In this post, Mr. Ferlazzo responds to the question: What are ‘Small Learning Communities’ (dividing large campuses into special interest small schools) and how do they work? Read the Post
Opportunity by Design is a report produced by the Carnegie Corporation of New York examines while it is important to graduate from high school, high school is not an end in itself, but rather preparation for college as well as life-long learning. It is one part of the path that leads students towards their ultimate potential in any of endeavor as well as in personal satisfaction in their lives. To reach these goals, students deserve the best possible education that we can provide.
Leading Indicators of School Turnarounds this report summarizes the research and experience from other settings—including venture capital, franchising, and research and development in industries such as pharmaceuticals—in which leaders have long relied on leading indicators to enhance the likelihood of success.
School Turnaround Leaders: Competencies for Success part of the School Turnaround Collection from Public Impact Fall 2016 updated with links to:
- More on Instructional Leadership, the Heart of a Successful School Turnaround
- Free “Opportunity Culture” Tools
- Competencies Aligned with Career Paths for Teachers, Teacher-Leaders, and Principals
Coaching and Developing Turnaround Leaders is a guide that contains the materials designed to implement a work session that builds the knowledge and capacity of leaders and staff members from regional comprehensive centers (RCCs), state education agencies (SEAs), and within-state regional centers.
CLICK TO ENLARGE
College & Career Academy Support Network:
Master Schedule Guide
This guide is designed to support schools that are using a Linked Learning approach and/or wall-to-wall or multiple pathways/academies approach to redesign high schools. Our goal is to build a community of practice around master scheduling so that all students are supported to be college and career ready in thematic pathways that combine rigorous academics, challenging technical learning, work-based learning, and personalized supports. Visit the CCASN website.
See it in Action!
Freshman Academy
Visit Bloomfield High School’s Website.
Freshman Academy With almost 2,000 students, Bloomfield High School is a suburban Newark high school urban in demographics and small-town-like in culture. As the demographics and state accountability measures changed, it became apparent that the way to improve graduation rates was to start before students were enrolled. According to the principal, “The most important people at Bloomfield High School are now the ninth-grade students and teachers.” The teacher-designed freshman program with its summer orientation, team structure, and common planning time is credited with reducing student failures by 50 percent and significantly improving academic achievement.
AudioCast:
Dr. Robert Balfanz
Teacher Teams is a six-minute audiocast cohosted by Dr. Robert Balfanz, Director of the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University and Linda Muskauski, Knowledge Development Director at the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University. The pair discuss how teacher teams serve as the building blocks for high school redesign initiatives. Listen to the Audiocast.
Want to Share Something?
Have a resource to share? Please share any useful resource, tool, website, etc. that you found helpful during your redesign. . .click here
Have a story to tell? Please share any experience, anecdote, cautionary tale you encountered during your redesign. . .click here
See it in Action!
9th Grade Summer School
The 9th Grade Summer School is a free program for students entering ninth grade. Students will gain valuable skills to prepare for attending high school.
This one-minute video demonstrates how Phoenix Union High School provides transition supports in a summer Freshman Academy.
Students who complete Summer School will earn one-half (.5) of a credit toward high school graduation. Credit is granted after the successful completion of one semester at a Phoenix Union High School District school. Students receive a free breakfast and lunch. Free bus cards are available for any student that lives 1.5 miles or farther from the summer school site.
This eight-part, in-depth series examines the benefits and steps to implement an effective Early Warning Indicator program.
The free video series and materials go far beyond how to collect and interpret EWI data. It also examines building a data culture, linking indicators to a tiered inteventions system, planning EWS for schools and districts, how to get an EWS started including, how to introduce school staff and faculty to the system, intervention review and data gap analysis and much more.
Visit the EWI video series home page.
The video series was developed by the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University School of Education in partnership with the New Mexico Public Education Department, and the High Plains Regional Education Cooperative.
Podcast:
Staffing for Student-Centered Learning
Betsy Arons, Geneviève DeBose, Hillary Salmons, and Michele Cahill answer questions and discuss ways to find and retain the best talent for your school. Featuring: Betsy Arons CEO of Urban Schools Human Capital Academy Geneviève DeBose National Board Certified Teacher and Commissioner of National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future Hillary Salmons Executive Director of Providence After School Alliance.
Video: Freshman Academy at Revere High School
See how Revere High School, located just outside Boston, MA, is addressing academic achievement and cultivating school culture by focusing on the 9th-grade year. Read more. . .
Have a resource to share? Please share any useful resource, tool, website, etc. that you found helpful during your redesign. . .click here to share
Have a story to tell? Please share any experience, anecdote, cautionary tale you encountered during your redesign. . .click here to share
One of the CSHSC’s goals is to maintain a network to share resources and experiences with other educators dedicated to improving the high school experience for all students.