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to overcome povert ‘A San Francisco principal is turning around his, low-performing school by focusing on literacy and classroom practice, with the help of his district. ‘ohn Mul Elementary School in So Francisco i Uke countless other schools in cite acros the United Sates, The udent body compris ‘osty lower income, Asean American tnd Latino students who despite being Just as inceligent a their white and Asian ‘counterpart traditionally nderacheve ‘onmany academic measure. ‘Talented, hard-working educators tied theirbesto improve che standardized test ‘cores a Muir But for the pas five years thos scores emalned largely at. During ‘the yearsspaning tom 200-200, roughly ‘7sperceatofthesadensinsecond rough ‘ith grades scored blow poficenon the Caliornis Standards Tet. Dest Sen Francisco Unified Sehool Disteet's best efforts to provide addtional support and funding during that time a vellashelp from several community mem- ‘ereandothervel-meaningorgniation, results remained the same and testo id not signitcantlyimpeove The will 19 improve achievement ws cleny thee but ‘theresa dd notchange. This sa familar talefor urban educators andiee our ges stresponsbliyo aaressithead-o, ‘have spent the pst 20 years of mye ‘working at schools jus ike John Muir, o- «ated actos the county fom the Bronx to ‘Los Angles, West Oakland and Sun Pra ‘isco. Asa teacher and principal Ihave had some sucesulexpviencesraingachieve- ‘mentlevelsamong the same demographics butever tothe velo reting long-term, sebool vide sustainable change. ‘After 9 yeutscthesesehooeTwascager to focus my energy onthe crt mission ‘of erasing the predictive power of demo- ‘raplcs” Sok wat with rest enthaslarm And excitement that accepted the tobe ‘thenew principal ohn Malrforthe2010- 201 acho! yea John Muir had ranked in theBotom 8 ota Rosato percent of «cools inl of California and ‘was in need of something new. met with incommand Richard Carranza, and my ew immediate rperitorGuadalope Ger ‘era They sll had the tame mesage or me ‘ire the achievement levelr ofthe tadents Knowing that strong educators ad pre viouly attempted to solve this lemma, sndthat the school distrcthad dedicated tried to think bout watitwas could offer to change that patter, Let aboot yng to develops tatgy to improve achievement ‘st Joha Mr. reviewed some ofthe car ‘ent literature around school reform and the achievement gp but became somewhat overwhelmed by the breadthand variety of solations sggeted “Turning tomy two decades of experience sean edustor thought abost the wayein which had besa sacceefl at my previ to rete sce realized that one factor Inhibiting improvement choose John lengesttherametime,otenending up with ‘medioerereaitsona wide range of ses. “Too often, we ignore the single mort tcl element of whathappene ats choo: ‘lasroom teaching. Fundamentally, be lieve that peat teaching can overcome the Ashiltatngimpactofpoverty spon oer dent? achievement sores Fr that e081 ‘sce tha teaching would be the center of my tratey st Mui. woul esp os ocot ‘on the elatstoom, snd in partclararoond ‘he iteraynstrctional practi. The Superntondent's Zoe Oneofthe uniqueaspects ofthe reforms taking pace at Muiris that we ate part of broader effort o systemically change the ‘tadtonalylower-performing schools in San Francisco, Two yar ago our suprin tenden tested «small cohort of schools and established the Superintendent’ Zone. ‘The schools selected were all extremely low= performing, and had received considerable ‘tventon inthe past with mite resus ‘The ofcily sated purpose ofthe Zone Isto“expand and coordinate our resources to ensure each school inthe Zone has the teaching an lerning conditions neces say to acelerate academic growth for ite dent” The superintendent se high tol for “every choo inthe Zone 0 rach the ditriet average Academic Peformance ‘ranking within the next 3 yeare” (From ‘USD Superintendents Zone: 2011-2012 School Yea SFUSD website). partofa larger ison, and forthe Beste Inmy carer asan educator the goal ofthe sehoolaelined up erect wit thesupport from the central office and all he depart- ments The Superintendents Zone ile ‘privity SFUSD, andar such many ofthe ‘old eystemi obstacles to improving student chievementare beng sow broken down. Forexample inthe past ow performing stools usually received the least experi- ‘nce teachers, of thote who had no expe encod rocea other sites. Inthe Supein: tendents Zone lnghard work between he central ofce andthe teacher unio sled to the cretion of pei jobdeserption for teachers that outline sil tees, beliefs and expectations. In addition, HR sta belp crea and recruit techer based fon in-depth convertatons with principle fromthe Zoe, ‘Perhaps most sigaicantly the practice Fewicing teachers wth poor eahatons {nto school like fs Mun longer oecare {nthe Superintendents Zone. Allothesee- forts the central office ee pt those of ‘ut the choo stern postion where we ‘an be more confident tha the teachers we susemble hae the same dedieston tothe ‘ison at hand nd many of thesis they need to reach or goal “Another ator tht hs Bee intrumen: {alto our ability to make systemic change ‘st Mr is the fonding provigedthroogh the School Improvement Grant, federal grant pated down tothe tater and then to {nivalis The mse gant pro ‘vies John Muir, a well ar nine other San ‘Pranciso public schools, with x obetati mount of funding to elp with the work at hand. While monies ha ben directed to ‘werd John Muir and ater low: performing ‘coals in the pat, thirtieth amounts were greater, and there was clear advice from the Superintendents Zone regarding ow the fing cou be aed to improve schicvement Toots and materi for sucess Dring the 2010-2011 seboo year, fund Ing arived halfway into the school year, so the impact was somewhat diminished. [Nonethles, Iw aleto hie two Ieracy scelerton teachers for he second seme ten aparttime ELD coach, anda partsime patent iin to engage families. In a tion we purchased hundreds of ets of ‘led books, enhanced clasroom libraries ndupgradd some base classroom techno Jamuaryfcbruary202. 9 ‘ogy. Whilemanyofthereclementshadbeen ularly with our lederhip team help guide provided in yeas pat, the focus on axing ad ocuroureffortstomakethechangesat soled ina more powerulimpact ‘Our focus with this grant a with ll of {All School Improvement Grant schooler work, was to belp ui teacher capac: slsowork with content group, Partners it tench students in ablanced literacy for ScholInovaton. Tienon-proteds- framework The funding put sin a pos ‘ation organization haran outomeoren- sontosetupclasioomswithalthe ‘ston anda foc om systems change and als they ned fr siccen, and give teachers, ‘auity The two individuals who work rep- athe tolsthey need elective met he sistance towards Dressers eyes soyrs site eaiote totals ane seoming 10 Lesdership drexel.edu/sacramento EXPERIENCE THE DIFFERENCE (nl Uri Cercr fo rata Suis in Poyans afte aca palatal apricts erent geri, abst aseptic ne Pearce wadchngs naar waa stings. LIVE IT. their Aehating Every parent owe itt Be tre, as doesevery principal ata ees of educa tion It iwehy parents ght to ge heie chil Teer houre trying find and tract tiled botalio mane effciniy trained andy ‘ae bilty nda mechanism for improving igh ality profesional development Over bythe ack of follow-through provided by ‘most profesional derlopment plans are tomectthe needs of speci sitston. To dre there concer we provide alta ‘Four professionel developmenton site by ‘ron lieracy team, whichis peatheaded bono emarableteachere Les lle ad Missy Read have worked ss elastroom tncher and euppoct eal ‘caches for more than 20 years, and thes ‘combined knowledge and leadecehip hat teen fundamental to or secnt Ther we derstanding of Balanced Lterey gensine {atest in contioualy improving thelr wn ‘understanding ofbest practices and deter ‘mination tobe prt of stam tha brdger the achievement ap makethem araretam Indeed ‘Theo te, targeted professional devel ‘pment they provide tone of the most i ‘actu contributions they have made. We ‘ie afl spe approach + deni few key instructional prac ‘ier the ladeaip team believes willbavea Aramuticimpactonstudentachievement ‘Regolaly anes our teachers and their specie needs in an overly aon-a two decades thave ben frustrated Then provide speci profesional de ‘lopment based on trend observed while secting claroom practice ‘ur primaryfcasforthefallflat year was the practice of ide reading, and we Spent vera week watching ideo con oetng model lessons and reviewing var cusbest practiceschecliss prio tolaunch ing oor observations. Clea expectations vweesetforteachersandatherfatorrinthe <lassroom wer purpose ignored. or example one of teacher pestest alleges with guided reading was ow to ‘manage the stadens who were not athe {vided reading group with them. While ‘earl thie an important element of tffectiveclatroom, we decided to focaron that ater teacher were tat pyle tentonsothoreothercenterat fie andthe leadrsip eam di not commenton hese tives ofetodentsat other center. Setting spect, aggressive targets aiding teacher capacity is ceri ace ‘ral part of our work a Mui, but having a clear se of goals was another key element. Partofbcngableto getsomewhereisknow- Ing where you wanto go, endforhistorcaly Jow performing schools that seems quite vious; weneedtogoup. Bula year we went through a process of more specially de taling out exactly how far up we needed to goyby what measures and what that meant foreach clatsoom teacher ‘Thetargeswe set werenotanything new ‘or dramatically diferent than achievemest targets set everywhere for studestsin Cal fornia choos Butwetooksomerealtime to make them aggresie enough to pation pat formeetingthestatebenchmarkinser- ‘ral years, bt tsiable enough so tha the staf wally bought into the poss of reaching out goals ‘Once again we choose to focus just on ‘eadingachewementeven though we know how important mathematics is and were sae ofthe fit that we would be eld ‘ountblefor those soreae wall ‘When our achievement sores were leased after year one, we were obviously pleased and proud of our efforts and the ‘outcomes But we als recognize that theres ‘long road sllabead. Our increase of ELA roficeny rates by 13 percent, inclading ‘morethan doubling thatateamong African “American students, pot ws athe topo the titofchoae recivng School Improvement Grastmoniee ‘Bottwothinds of ouretudene still dont score proficient orabor and costohalfof ‘urAfrican America dent tl scorn the bottom wo ands (below and far below bi) Thirather ie of the data tall u we took anc Sirststep batthat our workisnot eat done “Armed with this information and ox sharedbalethat we ave much more todo, Recruiting a group of talented educators and giving them the Proper supportand resources can put usin aposition to make real progress toward ‘ensuring thatall children, regardless of thehand they have been dealt, can achieveat thesame high level. west about crating thisyearachlevement targets. am proud ofthe leadership team and tals determination o keep he pres- sure a, with even more aggresive targets foethisyearthan st. ‘ie gan ocnmited to working toward double-digit proieney ate incense pe- ‘leoalsforArican American and Eegih Jearer dens and internal golabased on ‘urdiagnostcreadingasesmentsthatbelp guide us along the way. We again decided ‘otto include specie math targets, based ‘ou determination to stay focused, and srmed with the knowledge that math scores for matched students dd not go down thie ‘pus year despite ourlackofateaton ther. This eyele of inquiry around teacher pratt and student outcomes was an ex- ‘emily effective way to help move stadent schevement forward st Male lat ee, and contiaues to be ou approach ia year evo. ‘Making the walkthroughs uoelated othe auation eee was eical tothe succes, ‘because then and only then were teachers let fel ef nought participate tie proces without far tht their summary ‘alastion war gong tobe bated on 2 per ‘ited weaknesrin a certain etching com: petency. Tha fear asd, teacher welcomed ‘the vst from thelenership team, the fer back resions, andthe opportanity to move theirown practice forward. Intheenditisimportantto remember we runt inthe beginning stage ofr work ‘Jon Mair Elementary, Wehave one eat ‘ofhard work and sliders behind but plenty of challenger ail ahead Thatcan be ‘id of many schools acrouthe country. and the rath that some of thot choo wil continue that progres while others wllsce ‘hose rel reversed in subsequent year. ‘ee are determined contin improv: {ng student achievement eel a Mut, 20 thatwecanaddto the undertandingofow beret por tudents who traditionally ‘underperform. We will keep os focas on ‘teraeyandcaeoom practice, bling sp the ilseeach teacher porte, timer ‘ignoring other importent challenges and orem our effort to stay focued. Providing every student the opportunity to gotoageat school ‘We wil make some stakes slong the waysbatewilkeep pushing forward witha determination to acceed, No single reform, pln setofarateicactons wilcompletly tole the achievement ap. But recrultinga rou oftalented educators and giving them ‘he proper support and resources ca putus {postion to make real progress award ensuring that al children, ards ofthe hand they avebeen dealt cen achieveatthe ‘same high evel We mast do this because ‘very child should hae the opportunity to gotoagreatchool receive ahigh quality ed ‘ation, andhavethesamechancetochooie Ilsorherownpahinlfe. SFUSD Strategic Pla: Beyond the Talk. SFUSD Web Serb: ffsd a. ins Resinbe pic ote Mur Banana Stel Sen Fanci Unied ‘SetelDiet Jamuary/February2012 11