Agile Improvement Needed Now
Imagine your school district working across and within the organization at deep levels with focus and agility. Imagine being able to see, hear, and feel Radical Excellence at every level of learning.
What is radical excellence? Ambitious improvement and tireless focus for ensuring every student grows, thrives, and achieves to their fullest potential.
The Education Policy & Practice Group is relentless in this pursuit and is looking for other courageous leaders to join us.
What does Agile mean? Agile means being responsive to the realities of today, not obsolete mindframes. It means challenging traditional hierarchical structures and empowering people with shared accountability.
This is the how and the why of any improvement process. A School Improvement Process (SIP) that is courageously analyzed across each of the five Conditions will result in a deeply ambitious design that will close gaps, grow students, and instill a culture of shared accountability.
District Vision, Mission, and Current SIP Reality
District Vision and Mission
What is the current, stated district Vision and Mission?
Analyze how it includes (or does not include) ambitious improvements and a tireless focus on ensuring every student grows, thrives, and achieves to their fullest potential.
Current School Improvement Process (SIP)
Documentmyour district’s current SIP.
Conduct a deep and searching inventory of the ‘current reality’ to determine to what extent the SIP addresses ambitious improvements in curriculum, instruction, and assessment with a relentless focus on student growth and achievement.
Analyzing Data Through the Equity Audit
Conditions #2 (Students) and #3 (Practices) to examine how SIP aligns with radical excellence.
Condition #1 (General and Social Characteristics), #4 (Resources), and #5 (Governance) to identify enabling conditions that support ambitious improvements.
Evidence, Collaborative Practices, and System Support
What sources of evidence are being gathered and analyzed to determine IF students are learning what they are meant to learn? How do you know?
What student-centered discussions at the district, school, and classroom levels are taking place? How do you know?
To what extent, if any, is there a clearly defined nondirectional responsive system of support (e.g., Double Helix) that encompasses academic and social dimensions of learning to ensure equitable access to high-quality education? How do you know?
To what extent, if any, is the staff comprehensively situated where students are receiving their instruction inside the classroom? How do you know?
To what extent, if any, is there shared accountability through a collaborative team structure with supports to shift from teaching in isolation to teaching collaboratively so every student experiences a high-quality, ambitious education in a socially and emotionally safe environment? How do you know?
To what extent, if any, is there shared accountability of all educators, staff, families, and community for meeting the needs of all learners, in a culture supported and monitored by district and school teams? How do you know?
To what extent, if any, does the current implementation design include high expectations for all adults with necessary professional development and data-informed decision-making to meet the complex needs of students from different backgrounds and languages? How do you know?
To what extent, if any, is the current SIP fragmented by policy/governance, structure, and practice? If yes, document the conditions (especially Conditions #4 and #5) that affirm this reality based on Equity Audit data.
To what extent, if any, are human, fiscal, and material resources intentionally aligned to proactively support students’ academic and socioemotional learning while also supporting educators within and across the organization? How do you know?
To what extent, if any, is there a collaborative team structure in place with an expectation of collaboration over isolation? How do you know?
Instructional Alignment, Leadership & Inclusion
To what extent, if any, has the district collaboratively defined what students need to learn and what evidence will be used to determine if they have learned it? How do you know?
To what extent, if any, has the district identified standards with power and stretch to scaffold higher and more complex skills that inform vertical alignment and adaptive instruction (e.g., direct instruction, differentiation, feedback, formative evaluation, executive function? How do you know?
To what extent, if any, is coaching situated between students and collaborative teams as the connecting fiber between aligned professional practices, effective instructional and behavioral practices, including the higher Endrew F. standard for students with Individual Education Programs (IEP)? How do you know?
To what extent, if any, does the district structure promote ‘leaders as coaches’, creating an atmosphere of purposeful engagement, positive school culture, collaborative team structure, and strategic use of resources? How do you know?
To what extent, if any, are special educators and related service providers situated with general education colleagues and valued as equal contributing members of the improvement process and collaborative teaching structure? How do you know?
To what extent, if any, do teachers possess the skills to co-design and co-deliver aspects of specially designed instruction with precision? How do you know?
To what extent, if any, are IEPs aligned to challenging standards and supported by a variety of data sources to determine progress and whether students have received a Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE)? How do you know?
To what extent, if any, are students with and without disabilities receiving ambitious instruction through effective practices and supports that address academic and socioemotional/behavior gaps? How do you know?
Based on all findings, the Team develops a comprehensive improvement process that meets the needs of all students and, by extension, the adults in the system by reviewing collaborative structures currently in place.
The Improvement Process is then implemented and deeply monitored in short cycles, so course corrections can be made and acceleration guaranteed.
Here’s What You Can Do Next
You can find the Five Conditions of a Holistic System tool, the Double Helix System of Support, and other useful resources at EPPG
Let’s continue the conversation.
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