EDUCATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS SURVEYTM STAFF Edition V10.0 A study of organizational effectiveness through the lens of Organization and Educator Capacity. Includes the 7 Student and School Success Principles (Turnaround Principles) View.

The Center for Educational Effectiveness, Inc. The Center for Educational Effectiveness (CEE) is a service, consulting, and research organization dedicated to the mission of partnering with K-12 schools to improve student learning. NOTICE The Center for Educational Effectiveness, Inc. (CEE) makes substantial effort to ensure the accurate scoring, analysis, and reporting of the results of the Educational Effectiveness Survey. However, CEE makes no warranty of any kind with regard to this material, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. CEE shall not be liable for errors contained herein or for incidental or consequential damages in connection with the furnishing, performance, or use of this material. Reproduction rights granted for non-commercial use--including all school and district improvement activities. Published by: The Center for Educational Effectiveness, Inc. Copyright © Center for Educational Effectiveness, Inc. 2003-2012. Printed in the U.S.A. Contact Information: Phone: 425-283-0384 Fax: 425-947-0066 info@effectiveness.org www.effectiveness.org

Introduction BEFORE YOU BEGIN - READINESS FOR IMPROVEMENT This new section provides you with a “quick start guide” – elements which CEE’s research into over 100,000 staff survey responses has shown to be foundational to organizational change– the starting point for interpreting your EES™-Staff data. This section has a blue background and is on pages 6 - 8. Educational Effectiveness Survey™, version 10.0 While there is no single solution for all schools, research on effective schools identified common characteristics of high performing schools. Successful schools that are engaged in improvement activities focus on these characteristics of “organizational and educator capacity” to create and improve the system(s) that ultimately drive performance outcomes. Research Framework The Center for Educational Effectiveness brings leading research on “organization and educator capacity” - effective organizations, organizational trust, culturally responsive teaching, district support for improvement and attributes of effective instructional practice together with the 7 Student and School Success Principles (Turnaround Principles) to create a formative and diagnostic tool designed to stimulate conversations within your school and district. This tool is the Educational Effectiveness SurveyTM (EES), staff edition. Structure of the EES™ Report In order to simplify the material contained in this report, the reader can find further details on the research basis, the validity and reliability statistics, as well as other supportive material in your EES-Users Guide (included in the binder with every report). If you cannot find this document, please notify CEE at info@effectiveness.org and we will email you a copy immediately. The addition of the “7 Principles Supplementary Report” at the end of this document is to facilitate teams of educators and leaders as they write their Improvement Plans within the IndiStar® Tool. For many schools, this is a requirement within the support process for Priority, Focus and Emerging schools. CEE’s primary concern is that this report be useful and informative in stimulating conversation. If you require any additional assistance in using your report, please contact us at info@effectiveness.org.

Using Your EES™ Report- A Planning Guide The school improvement planning and transformation process is supported and driven by both quantitative and qualitative data. Data should be used to inform decisions, set goals, create school improvement plans and measure progress toward stated goals. We are accustomed to looking at the outcomes, particularly the outcomes that are published in the local newspapers (e.g. “high-stakes” test scores). Truly effective schools realize that these outcomes are influenced and driven by the Mission/Vision, Leadership, and Processes/Programs/Culture in place in their buildings and districts. If you are just starting with your EES™ data, the following planning steps are recommended: Readiness for Improvement: Organizational Trust and Professional Culture pps 6-10. Demographics - Who took the survey? Familiarize yourself with the demographics. Did you get a representative sample of employees? These charts set the stage by explaining who took the survey and their characteristics or contexts. See page 5. Organizational Trust: Relationships are at the heart of any organization. Trust is one of the most valuable, and vulnerable assets of any organization. See page 9-10. Comparison of your school with High Improving Schools: see pages 12 - 13. District Support for Improvement: This section provides district administrators with information on how the staff in this building perceive the support from the central office. See page 26. 7 Student and School Success Principles (Turnaround Principles): As a next step - spend a few moments looking at the overall view of each characteristic. See p 44. 7 Turnaround Principles- Individual Item Responses: Characteristics which are consistently present in high performing schools. See pages 47-56.

Demographic Charts- Who Took The Survey?

Before you begin –Readiness for Improvement All organizations are comprised of individuals. Harnessing the motivation, passion, and energy of each individual is the starting point for change. What do you see in the “I” perspective? NOTE: the scale on these items is: So how do you build on the professionals depicted above? One of the symptoms of lower trust is a difference between what individual’s believe and what they observe in their peers. A “GAP” between what individuals “say” and what they observe their peers “doing” is known as a “resistance factor”. The greater the “GAP” the greater the resistance factor and the more it will result in inhibiting or eroding trust.

Moving Forward: Problem Solving and Conflict Resolution Do you have the systems and adult culture necessary to discuss the organization’s problems, make decisions and hold one another accountable for those decisions? High performing schools exhibit the presence of “organizational and educator capacity” and “Turnaround Schools” adhere to the 7 Principles for Student and School Success as defined by OSPI as well as work on creating strong organizational and educator capacity. Before you are able to have constructive and difficult conversations about the presence (or absence) of those principles and what changes need to be implemented to improve, your team must come to the table with their peers to have those conversations, make decisions and hold one another accountable for implementation of those decisions. Is there is an unwillingness or inability to talk about problems and make decisions? You need to consider: Is there a lack of safety? If so, begin your work by creating an environment in which team members feel safe and valued in the conversation. Consider developing or revisiting communication norms. Do you have a clear decision-making protocol that is implemented with fidelity? If not, you need to implement/adopt a protocol for making decisions or revisit the existing one. Does your team avoid conflict? Whether it is a matter of feeling safe or not wanting to challenge their friends and peers – you need to talk about accountability to one another and to the agreements you make with each another. What does accountability look and sound like? Why is it important? Does your team avoid conflict? Does this impact the ability to move forward? You need to consider: Having regularly scheduled, open and honest conversations will reduce conflict. Communication norms will support the process. Discuss the concept of accountability and “holding one another accountable to decisions you make with each other”. Set the expectation that each member of the staff has a responsibility to the team and to students to implement decisions, policies and programs with fidelity. Willingness to be held accountable?

Understanding the Need To Change The first attribute of organizations that have successfully transformed themselves is a shared sense of urgency. Everyone understands that maintaining the status-quo is less desirable than stepping into an unknown future. The task of leadership is to create a positive vision of the future. Is there is a shared sense of urgency in the need to change? Beginning the journey by looking deeply at your school’s Readiness for Improvement. Individual motivation, passion, and energy: is this a strength you can celebrate? How might you use this data as a “launching point” for further conversations? _________________________________________________________________________ Gaps in “I” vs. “They” perspectives? How might you stimulate conversations around the gap and why it exists? _______________________________________________________________________________ Problem Solving: Communication for problem solving is at the root of change. How might you discuss the data on problem solving? How might you uncover barriers or reasons why this is not more positive? Conflict resolution: Resolving conflict requires problem solving protocols: conflict resolution enables you to openly discuss the changes to the status-quo, enabling movement toward a preferred future. What are the barriers or obstacles to resolving conflict? The Need to Change: The first step in managing the change process is to build the collective sense of urgency that change is necessary. What steps could the leadership team take to build this sense of urgency?

Organizational Trust Effective schools demonstrate a high degree of organizational trust. These items are extracted from the organizational and educator capacity characteristics and are presented as a unique graph to assist you in viewing the data from this perspective. The professional relationships in effective schools demonstrate integrity, openness, reliability, benevolence/caring, and competence. While many have attempted to define trust in terms of the presence of these attributes (see Mishra, 1996; Bryk & Schneider, 2002; Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 2000; and Tschannen-Moran, 2004), the focus of CEE’s work in this area is both to create an understanding that there are resistance factors which impact the building or erosion of trust (Galford & Seibold-Drapeau, 2004). Explicitly, the attributes of trust: Integrity: Honesty, honoring agreements, walking your talk, accepting responsibility and avoiding manipulation. Committed to doing what is right. Openness: Genuine listening and talking. Open communication and not hiding important information. Sharing power and decision making. Reliability: Dependability, consistency, demonstrating commitment and being diligent. Ability to count on someone. Benevolence/Caring: Caring about each other, being fair, positive interactions and expressing appreciation. Confidence that “well-being” is being looked out for. Confidential information is guarded. Willingness to go the “extra mile” for someone. Competence: Ability and skills to perform the task as expected. Pedagogy, content, instructional skills, curriculum/lesson design, and assessment literacy. Setting high standards and being results-oriented.

Trust- Resistance Factors It’s natural. It’s inevitable. It’s perennial. In the course of building and maintaining a trusting organization, you’re going to meet with resistance. (Galford & Seibold-Drapeau, 2002). As you begin your review and interpretation of the organizational trust information, recall that the EES survey is designed to give you information describing the drivers of behavior. In order to stimulate your conversations and interpretation of trust, it might be necessary to look at the factors that can inhibit the development (or rebuilding) of trust. One of the best indicators of resistance is in the form of embedded “I vs. They” mindsets (see Quinn & Rohrbaugh, 1983). As you look at the graph below, the focus should be on the size of the gap between the “I” and the “They” (i.e. “My colleagues...”) responses. The larger the gap, the greater the chance that the embedded “I vs. They” mindset will act as a resisting force to the development of trust.

Summary: Nine Characteristics of High Performing Schools This page summarizes your results on the Nine Characteristics of High-Performing Schools. As you look at these categories do you see one or two that indicate real strength as represented in significant green? Do you see one or two that lean more toward the negative values of orange and red? To further understand the meaning of this data you will need to review the breakdown of the individual items which comprise each of these categories. Those pages follow.

Comparison View-High Improving Schools This chart compares the “characteristic summary” value (combined positives) for your school (shown in a solid black line) to a representative sample of the Schools of Distinction at your level. The Schools of Distinction are the 5% highest improving schools in the state of WA for 2012 as measured by the state Reading and Mathematics assessments over a 5-year period of time. For more information on the Schools of Distinction and the methodology used to identify those schools, see www.effectiveness.org. Comparison based on Combined Positive Responses (the addition of the “Almost Always” and “Often True” percentages).

Comparison View-High Improving Schools Comparison based on Mean Scores

High Levels of Collaboration and Communication Effective schools intentionally foster teamwork to create an environment that celebrates individual differences and contributions to organizational outcomes. Effective organizations and teams are a reflection of equal participation, substantive conversations, clear expectations, accountability, and continual feedback. There is constant collaboration and communication between and among teachers of all grades. Everybody is involved and connected, including parents and members of the community, to solve problems and create solutions.

Clear and Shared Focus Effective schools are comprised of committed people who passionately embrace the vision and mission of education. They have a commitment to making a difference in the lives of their students and the communities from which they come. These schools are staffed with people whose purpose for working is for those they serve.

High Standards and Expectations “Excellence” is a reflection of the personal discipline that staff members bring to their work. Schools that place a high emphasis on performance development and have a clear understanding of the distinction between experience and expertise are more likely to experience a commitment from staff to achieving performance excellence. Teachers and staff believe all students can learn and that they have the skills and systems in place to teach all students. They hold one another accountable for student learning.

Effective Leadership Effective leaders are committed to the core values of the school and district, and provide feedback and encouragement to achieve performance excellence. Effective leaders bring maturity, good judgment, strategic and critical thinking to the process of creating within the organization they lead, the increased capacity for success.

Supportive Learning Environment The environment in which a staff works has a significant impact on its quality of work. Equality, safety, and a sense of fairness go a long way toward encouraging staff members to strive for excellence. A sense of community as distinct from being a team is another avenue to achieving organizational success, the pride and support of all staff members.

Parent and Community Involvement Effective schools create and sustain high levels of parent and community involvement. There is a sense that all educational stakeholders have a responsibility to educate students, not just the teachers and staff in schools. Parents, as well as businesses, social service agencies, and community colleges/universities all play a vital role in this effort. It is essential that parents be informed and involved in decision-making to support their student’s educational experience.

High Quality Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment New in EES-Staff V10.0 are items which investigate practices which are observed during classroom observation activities.

High Quality Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment Effective schools implement, with fidelity and rigor, high quality curriculum, instruction and assessment. Curriculum is aligned with the state standards for learning. Research-based materials and teaching and learning strategies are implemented. There is a clear understanding of the assessment system, what is measured in various assessments and how it is measured.

Frequent Monitoring of Teaching and Learning New in EES-Staff V10.0 are items which investigate practices which are observed during classroom observation activities.

Frequent Monitoring of Teaching and Learning Effective schools engage in constant, thorough, and rigorous monitoring of teaching and learning. Teaching and learning are continually adjusted based on frequent monitoring of student progress and needs. A variety of assessment procedures are used– both for monitoring adult work and student work. The results of the assessments are used to improve student performances and also improve the instructional program.

Focused Professional Development Effective schools are committed to ongoing professional training and development. The key is a commitment to excellence and the development of expertise. Casual exposure over time can be called experience, but it rarely leads to expertise. That can only come from focused professional development. Professional development for all educators is aligned with the school and district common focus, objectives, and high expectations.

Culturally Responsive Teaching As schools and districts throughout the United States become increasingly diverse– effective schools are implementing teaching and learning practices that are culturally responsive. While cultural competence denotes the skills– culturally responsive teaching applies those skills in specific behaviors and practices with the students they serve. While these items are embedded within the Nine Characteristics – this view is provided to assist you in understanding cultural responsiveness items in one consolidated graph.

District Support for Improvement While there is no single solution for a district, the Research and Evaluation Office, within the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction in the state of Washington, analyzed more than 80 research reports and case studies on district effectiveness that have been conducted over the past 10-15 years, and identified four categories of characteristics present in those improving districts. While this report focuses on school-level factors, schools are part of a larger organization– the district. These items enhance the Nine Characteristics with the view from school staff on how they feel supported by their district in their improvement efforts.

Nine Characteristics: Certificated vs. Other Staff View Recognizing that many of the conversations about school effectiveness occur within the learning community of certificated teachers, this view separates the data on the Nine Characteristics into both certificated teaching and non-teaching staff (labeled as “Other Staff”) views.

Certificated vs. Other Staff: Readiness for Improvement The charts below follow the Readiness for Improvement section on pages 4-6 of this report. NOTE: the scale on these items is: Certificated Staff Other Staff

Moving Forward: Problem Solving and Conflict Resolution Do you have the systems and adult culture necessary to discuss the problems, make decisions and hold one another accountable for those decisions?

Certificated Staff Other Staff Certificated Staff Other Staff

Certificated Staff Other Staff

High Levels of Collaboration and Communication Certificated and Other Staff Perspective.

Clear and Shared Focus Certificated and Other Staff Perspective.

High Standards and Expectations Certificated and Other Staff Perspective.

Effective Leadership Certificated and Other Staff Perspective.

Supportive Learning Environment Certificated and Other Staff Perspective.

Parent and Community Involvement Certificated and Other Staff Perspective.

High Quality Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment Certificated and Other Staff Perspective.

Frequent Monitoring of Teaching and Learning Certificated and Other Staff Perspective.

Focused Professional Development Certificated and Other Staff Perspective.

Culturally Responsive Teaching Certificated and Other Staff Perspective.

District Support for Improvement Certificated and Other Staff Perspective.

Increasing Capacity for Improvement Increased Student Performance Context Organization and Educator Capacity – Nine Characteristics 7 Principles Readiness for Improvement The “Context” defines the “current reality” of the student population, the school and community. The “Readiness for Improvement” defines the current capacity for change amongst the systems and adult culture of the school and district. The 7 Student and School Success Principles (Turnaround Principles) define the structure and attributes of the organization (school) and the intervention steps essential to “turn around” or increase student outcomes. The organizational and educator capacity defines the strength and capacity of the adult culture to implement the structures (intervention steps) defined in the 7 Principles. All four components impact the ability of the organization (school) to increase student performance.

Summary: 7 Principles of Student and School Success This page summarizes your results through the lens of the 7 Student and School Success Principles (Turnaround Principles). As you look at these categories do you see one or two that indicate real strength as represented in significant green? Do you see one or two that lean more toward the negative values of orange and red? To further understand the meaning of this data you will need to review the breakdown of the individual items which comprise each of these categories. Those pages follow.

Comparison View-High Improving Schools This chart compares the “7 Student and School Success Principles” (Turnaround Principles) value (combined positives) for your school (shown in a solid black line) to a representative sample of the Schools of Distinction at your level. The Schools of Distinction are the 5% highest improving schools in the state of WA for 2012 as measured by the state Reading and Mathematics assessments over a 5-year period of time. For more information on the Schools of Distinction and the methodology used to identify those schools, see www.effectiveness.org. Comparison based on Combined Positive Responses (the addition of the “Almost Always” and “Often True” percentages).

Comparison View-High Improving Schools Comparison based on Mean Scores

Principle 1: Strong Leadership - Team Structure (1.1)

Principle 1: Strong Leadership - Principal’s Role (1.2)

Principle 1: Strong Leadership - Principal’s Role (continued)

Principle 2: Staff Evaluation and Professional Development

Principle 3: Expanded Time for Student Learning and Staff Collaboration

Principle 4: Rigorous, Aligned Instruction

Principle 4: Rigorous, Aligned Instruction

Principle 5: Use of Data for School Improvement and Instruction

Principle 6: Learning Environment - Safety, Discipline, and Social, Emotional, and Physical Health

Principle 7: Family and Community Engagement