“Successful school reform must grow “from the inside out,” (Drago-Severson, 2009, Kindle e-reader).” School leadership teams must first recognize and acknowledge a problem(s) exist and set about to do the work of implementing interventions needed for change; appropriate for their populations. The inability of educational institutions, to correctly isolate the root cause(s) of underperformance, and execute corrective action creates an environment beset with barriers to academic and professional success, yielding devastating consequences for the student, school, and community.
Educate,
Empower,
Engage!
Brooke Smith– Educational Rockstar and School Leader
Thorough examination of a variety of data sources exposed a number of pain points, contributing to underperformance of students in urban schools. The following topical categories emerged as headings, housing the suspected root causes of underachievement on summative assessments. Teachers, curriculum, instruction, students, school leadership and parent engagement. Each of the categorical headings and associated sub-points underscore the need to address deficiencies in student achievement through the reformation of PLCs and instructional leadership. Left unchecked, long-term implications of failing to address the root causes of the issue extend well into postsecondary endeavors.
Teachers, Curriculum, and Instruction
Educators seek to educate a more diverse population and ensure a higher level of skill attainment for more students (Drago-Severson, 2009). Yearly teacher data is a strong representation the instructional staff requirements, specifically, the additional professional development needed to gain a better understanding of student performance levels. Furthermore, this data also highlights the risk factors associated with minority and economically disadvantaged subgroups requiring schools to revisit their instructional plans after further disaggregation of data as a school, a departmental unit, and at the individual teacher level. Working with schools and teachers to better understand data and their role in data analysis and implementation of diverse instructional strategies targeted at an ever changing population of learners, revealed teachers are experiencing incremental and unstained growth in student achievement scores within minority and economically disadvantaged subgroups. In addition, a growing number of teachers are suffering from year after year decline in the number of students achieving satisfactory or higher competency levels.
Enacting appropriate strategies focused on teachers, curriculum and instruction translates into minority and economically disadvantaged students showing significant gains in achievement.
Project Based Learning
With the goal of developing capable students, adequately prepared to participate in a highly technical world, a group of motivated educators with varying degrees of content familiarity, decided to put PBL to the test. In subsequent discussions reflecting on the design and implementation of the PBL professional development, participants shared, their initial desire to engage in the instructional strategy, yet felt they lacked understanding of how to approach teaching their content in a transdisciplinary manner built around PBL (Herro, & Quigley, 2017). Whereas, concluding sentiments shifted to appreciation; in which educators expressed projects-increased understanding of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics (STEAM) content and permitted the construction of a resource toolbox filled with collaboratively manufactured learning aids (Herro, & Quigley, 2017). Simultaneously proving the impact and influence of professional development and PBL on student achievement, revealing the value of fortifying instruction with “relevant activities” and connecting with peers throughout the learning process. Doing so allowed students, in this case educators, to make connections and deepen their understanding of the subject matter…