For
decades, educational reformers have called for improved student achievement. No
Child Left Behind and Every Student Succeeds, the nation’s education laws, have
established superlative performance as the only acceptable goal. Burdened by pressures for improbable outcomes,
school and district leaders search for the golden fleece, the silver bullet,
the guaranteed fix. Innovations become
ends unto themselves and often create diversions from the fundamental purpose
of improvement (Fullan, 1989). As you can see from the date on that reference,
this problem has been going on for a long, long time. You have seen it, and so have I – the
pendulum swing of education that hopes for ultimate victory.
But
there are no quick fixes, just hard work. Whether it is losing weight, learning
to surf, or improving student learning, the key, once a practical route has
been charted, is to stay the course. Staying
the course is a nautical metaphor well-suited as a prescription for
dealing with the winds of educational change. If we change course mid-stream,
our progress is undone. Research
suggests that it takes three years for
educational changes to take root, to be firmly established and begin to bear
fruit.* Substantive change is not
sudden.
Last
year, I worked with a district on a professional development model focused on
improved instruction. Every school in
the district used the model all year long, and the district curriculum leader
wrote me a letter glowing with praise for all that had been accomplished, describing
teachers’ positive perceptions and citing the improvements they’d seen in
teaching and learning. I was surprised
and dismayed, then, to find out that this year they had dropped the model to
try something new. Can we please just stick with
something long enough to show that it works?
As
an instructional coach or leader, your influence could make the difference. Set
your sail on a steady course that is grounded in best practice and responsive
to your local needs, and encourage those around you to do the same. Share the
research below about sustained change. You could be the anchor who makes sure
that the latest innovation, if it’s a good one, is given a fair shake. Instead
of focusing on the next new thing, teachers can be given the chance to do this
thing right, whatever it is. If
we are stubbornly persistent, we will see the differences we are hoping for.
*Brown, R.
& Coy-Ogan, L. (1993). The Evolution of Transactional Strategies
Instruction in
one teacher's classroom. Elementary
School Journal, 94 (2), 221-233.
*Comer, J.P. & Haynes, N.M.
(1999). The dynamics of school change:
Response to the
article, “Comer’s
School Development Program in Prince George County, Maryland: A Theory-Based
Evaluation,” by Thomas D. Cook et al. American
Educational Research Journal, 36 (3), 599-607.
*Fullan, M. Bennett, B. & Rolheister-Bennett, C.
(1989 April). Linking classroom and
school
improvement. Paper presented
at the annual meeting of the American Education Research Association, San
Francisco, CA.
*Minnesota Center for Reading Research(2011). Consortium for Responsible School
Change in
Literacy. Downloaded December 5, 2011
from http://www.cehd.umn.edu/reading/projects/school-change.html
*Pressley, M., El-Dinary, P. B., Gaskins, I., Schuder,
T., Bergman, J. L., Almasi, J., & Brown, R.
(1992). Beyond
direct explanation: Transactional instruction of reading comprehension
strategies. Elementary School Journal, 92, 513-556.
This week, you
might want to take a look at:
A
coaching Success Story:
Info.
on un-standardized assessments:
Beyond explicit instruction, what else struggling
readers need:
Redos and retakes:
A podcast on creating a creative and spirited math
class:
That’s
it for this week. Happy Coaching!
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