Tips for Improvement Planning: Lessons Learned Slide 1-Hello! I’m glad for the opportunity to share “Lessons Learned” from the improvement plans that may assist your future planning. (Planning requirements have been aligned within the agency with even greater alignment to come!) I thoroughly enjoy the work with schools and districts working on these plans. What follows on these slides applies to requirements for plans in response to academic status under NCLB and state law, Title III grant applications, and special education compliance monitoring. Submission deadlines or other aspects of these plans which differ will be noted. These tips apply generally to both district and school improvement plans. ISBE Innovation and Improvement

Resources The Resource Manual http://www.isbe.net/sos/htmls/improvement_process.htm Innovation and Improvement Division 217-524-4832 The Interactive Illinois Report Card eplans@niu.edu (815) 753-0978 Slide 2: Don’t reinvent the wheel when choosing next steps. See the resources from ISBE and the Interactive Illinois Report Card Site. I hope you’ll jot these down. Go to the link on this screen for access to all these materials. Included in these materials is a link to sample plans selected from the most recent batch we’ve reviewed. The relationship between data, their analysis, internal factors contributing to student performance, the collection of strategies and activities, and the process for monitoring progress is sufficiently strong in these plans to foster confidence that plan users could implement these plans with fidelity.

Center on Innovation and Improvement www.centerii.org The Mega System: Handbook for Continuous School Improvement Sam Redding Handbook on Restructuring and Substantial School Improvement Herbert J. Walberg Exploring the Pathway to Rapid District Improvement Brett Lane Slide 3: Don’t miss this site--- The Center on Innovation and Improvement has a variety of helpful tools such as these on the screen: The Mega System: Handbook for Continuous School Improvement Sam Redding This is a handbook discussing indicators of effective practice and useful improvement tools. Handbook on Restructuring and Substantial School Improvement Herbert J. Walberg The gamut of activities to guide restructuring. This is an invaluable resource that helps you create a comprehensive plan including all stakeholders. Exploring the Pathway to Rapid District Improvement Brett Lane Characteristics of rapidly improving districts and activities districts can take to improve. Districts need to consider their own capacity for supporting any schools, especially those in restructuring. Center on Innovation and Improvement www.centerii.org

District Improvement Plans Submission Date 90 days following initial notification of status at IWAS Slide 4: When will these plans be due? The district plans must be submitted 90 days following your superintendent’s initial notice of academic status in the IWAS system.

School Improvement Plan Submission date 135 days after the initial IWAS notification to district superintendent Slide 5: School Improvement Plans have 90 days for development and then a 45 day district peer review process---a total of 135 days following the superintendent’s initial IWAS notification.

Targeted Feedback Monitoring and Feedback Action Plan Key Factors Data Analysis Action Plan Slide 6: Title I funded schools will receive feedback on their required school improvement plans from ROES or ISCs and ISBE. ISBE will review required district improvement plans. You will want to invite “critical friends” to review the good sense of your plan and the strategies and activities. Key Factors

Tools for a Specific End Less Red Tape and More Learning Minimized hoop-jumping Focused planning on key audience overall “good sense” Slide 7-Over the past several years, ISBE has been moving towards aligning planning requirements as possible through the Illinois e-Plans templates. Our hope is to reduce red tape to see the impact of a system of support –with school and district plans as a central document—if ISBE minimized hoop-jumping and took our most appropriate role in reviewing the overall “good sense” of the plan. Our hope is that these improvement plans would lead to improved student achievement.

Harsh Realities “Perfect” plans ≠ improved student achievement Plans are required by NCLB and state law Clear and critical need to focus on learning Slide 8-Several harsh realities face us. First, as Doug Reeves has noted—there’s a low correlation between plans that look perfect on paper with student achievement. At the same time, plans are required by state and federal law and most would agree that there’s a clear and critical need for plans to improve student achievement.

“Winning” Plans Measurable Implemented with fidelity Monitored Focused on what works Slide 9-Happily, some planning “pays off”! “Winning plans” are those that are measurable, implemented with fidelity, and monitored for progress. And—winning plans take the team in the direction of what will really work in the context. As I mentioned before, happily, a number of resources are available to guide you---more about that later.

How? All plans submitted via the Interactive Illinois Report Card http://iirc.niu.edu Slide 10 Your required improvement plans must be submitted via the Interactive Illinois Report Card.

The Interactive Illinois Report Card http://iirc. niu The Interactive Illinois Report Card http://iirc.niu.edu passwords: gbuoy@isbe.net Sample login screen Slide 11 Username and passwords are not changed annually but if you need yours contact Gail Buoy at the email address indicated on the screen. New e-plan users, for your information: a variety of resources are available to help you complete the e-plans screens. The Interactive Illinois Report card includes the planning guides, interactive templates, and monitoring prompts. These resources are available as word documents at the isbe website. See the link on slide 2. Note that school planners will access plans at their school dashboards. District planners can access all plans for the district including the restructuring plans for schools at the district main menu.

District Involvement in School Planning Increasing assistance with planning as school does not make AYP MAXIMUM RESPONSIBILITY RESTRUCTURING Slide 12 Who’s charged with writing these plans? District improvement plans are written by district planners. Districts also have the ultimate responsibility for school improvement plans. This is true for any of the plans. In all cases, I recommend that the team of planners share responsibility for the development of the plan and Not writing the plan in isolation. NCLB places the responsibility for school planning-- first at the school level by a school planning team, then the district, and ultimately the state if the school does not make adequate yearly progress year after year. It’s the district’s responsibility to pay attention when one of its schools is not showing progress. Districts are charged with greater and greater involvement in school planning as a school fails to make AYP. This arrow shows the increasing involvement of a district in a school’s planning. District responsibilities as regards to planning include—minimally-- oversight for the planning process and Peer review—to ensure the development of a viable focused on student learning. Districts must also identify and provide support for the plan’s implementation. By the time a school is in watch or corrective action status, the district is determining significant actions to effect a change in the status quo. The School improvement Plan should reflect the corrective actions, if applicable. If a school is in Academic Watch 2 or restructuring planning status, the district must create a restructuring plan for the school and may consult with the school staff. There’s no law AGAINST taking ‘“a stitch in time to save nine” philosophy—districts may plan for restructuring before required by law. We encourage districts to plan with a long-range view and continuous improvement. The e-Plan templates presumes involvement of district staff to these ends.

Lessons Learned from the Best Foster little doubt about implementation Build a strong relationship between data, strategies/activities, and monitoring Detail roles, responsibilities, expectations Plan critical changes in classroom practice Slide 13 Simply stated, the strongest or best plans convince the reader that the plan can and will be implemented with fidelity, there’s a strong relationship between the data and information and what strategies and activities are selected to respond to key factors or root causes that have contributed to student achievement. Strategies and activities center around what can be different at the classroom—what must students do and what must staff and parents do to ensure that students will achieve. These lessons learned prompt 6 tips which I recommend as you complete your improvement plan. Don’t write “academic” or “flowery” language.  It’s more important that plans are reasonable.  Does the plan use and reflect on available data? Available assessment data and data about instruction? Is the plan doable?  Does the plan reflect all the district’s constituencies (parents, community, businesses)?  And, although we’re not looking for sheets and sheets of information – two sentences rarely indicate thorough reflection on a question.

Plan implementation is the Huge Assumption- What do plan users have to know to implement the plan with fidelity and monitor progress? Slide 14 Just because district or school planners write down a good idea in a plan doesn’t mean that that good idea will actually be implemented…This is a big assumption: that people know what’s in a plan and their role in it and will do what it takes to effect the needed change. The best plans embed “how” and “who” and “when” strategies and activities will be implemented. These plans consider what plan users must know to be able to implement the plan. And this is the first tip.

Tip 1: Write for the Right Audience The primary audience for the plan is the user—those who will implement this plan. Slide 15 Write the plan for the most critical audience for it, which is the plan user---those who must take responsibility and be involved in the work. This includes those who will measure the success of the strategies and activities to accomplish their purposes. The best plans focused on the key audience but also provided sufficient background information for other audiences. You need to plan for implementation and for how you will monitor the progress in achieving your objectives. Don’t write the plan primarily for other audiences.

Tip 2: Look Beyond AYP Slide 16 Tip 2: Look beyond your AYP deficiencies. Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) isn’t the only indicator of progress. The AYP deficiencies (if any) are populated in the objective pages for your improvement plan but you should look beyond the AYP page to consider your strengths and weaknesses. The monitoring prompt—the checklist ISBE staff use to review plans may be useful in guiding your analysis of available data. Think about this: the AYP deficiencies may appear to be the most obvious indicators of weakness—but do the AYP deficiencies provide needed context for your school? How many students comprise your subgroup: Many kids or a few? Does one subgroup represent 5% of your overall population or 95% of it? What’s your progress over time? What strengths are evident in your data? What else do you know that contributes important information such as freshman failure rates, attendance and so on? And what about effective instruction? Report Card and other data are more than AYP deficiencies See the monitoring prompt Strengths and weaknesses

Tip 3: Take Care to Consider the Factors Contributing to Achievement What’s contributing to your progress? Are these factors internal or external? Are you blaming the kids? Slide 17 Tip 3: Take care to consider what’s contributing to achievement. Once you’ve identified your strengths and weaknesses, consider what’s contributing to them. Why are you doing well or not doing well? What factors external to the school matter? What’s contributing to student achievement that’s internal? Be careful of blaming the kids for having needs and don’t discount their capacity to achieve just because they do have needs.

What’s preventing students from learning? How do you know? School culture doesn’t foster shared responsibility for all kids’ learning Supplemental support is weak or not rigorous Failure to use the intended curriculum by all staff for all kids Teachers need ELL training School culture doesn’t reflect “rigor, relevance, relationship” Insufficient teacher learning/team time Coarse and fine grain internal factors Teachers do not have adequate coaching or support to implement strategies Instruction doesn’t span cognitive levels Slide 18 Figure out barriers to learning so that you select and coordinate the most reasonable strategies and related activities. Here’s some examples of factors that might be contributing to performance. Might some of these factors be contributing to performance in your school or districts? And ask yourself: what makes you think so? What data or information do you have to support this hypothesis? What’s preventing teachers from reaching students, specific subgroups? What factors you uncover should guide the selection of strategies and activities. Indicators of effective practice available at centerii.org. “Mile wide and inch deep curriculum” Teachers aren’t clear about what’s expected in classrooms Kids don’t have equitable access to the curriculum Kids aren’t in the least restrictive educational environment

Paying Attention to What Matters Doing What Works dww.ed.gov/ Slide 19 When you consider all these factors, why not review researched based indicators of effective practice? Here’s another place where you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Whether you are using indicators from High Schools that Work or Advance Ed or the Marzano and so on—you’ll likely get the best bang for your bucks committing people and time for improvement on the right things. Do yourself a favor and review these…you’ll find lots of overlap in the indicators from different sources. Doing What Works dww.ed.gov/ Indicators of Effective Practice www.centerii.org

Tip 4: Be Specific and Thorough Is the plan specific enough? Is the action plan sufficient? Slide 20 Tip 4: Be specific and thorough. The collection of strategies for the objectives should provide sufficient direction for users to effect change at the classroom level. For example: writing “Implement PBIS” doesn’t provide enough detail for me as a teacher or explain what role I might have related to this strategy if I’m a parent of a student in the school. Is it clear how you will track progress?

Tip 5: Focus and Coordinate Strategies and Activities Slide 21 Tip 5: Focus and coordinate strategies and activities to result in a doable plan. It helps to have an overall view of the strategies for the objectives. The following action plan pages provided specific activity descriptions.

Objective: While the current achievement in math for students with disabilities subgroup is 66.5% meeting/exceeding for ISAT, this subgroup will make AYP of at least 85% in 2011 and 92.5% for 2012 or Safe Harbor. Strategies: 1 double block math instruction 2 coaching for math staff 3 student and staff review of student work 4 beef up test taking skills 5 progress monitoring to drive instruction Slide 22 Here’s an example of a math objective and strategies that a school might outline related to that objective. The strategies need to be fleshed out with a description of the activities necessary to accomplish the goal or objective. This leads to the last tip. Note that this objective identifies the current achievement level and that which is required to make AYP.

Tip 6: Focus on Student Learning Slide 23 The best plans focus and coordinate efforts to effect change for the classroom for learning. You should identify expectations for teaching and learning, then expectations for staff ongoing professional development and the parents roles necessary for kids to perform as expected in the classroom. The best plans generally don’t outline all of the on-going activities within the school or district---these can be discussed in the attributes and challenges pages or the district responsibilities pages…the action plan is reserved as the place to identify what the priority focus will be for the years of the plan. By the way, as a rule, school and district planners need to consider ways to engage parents in making decisions about their children’s learning and assisting them in helping their children learn at home and school. The best plans are very clear in their commitment to this.

Sample Plans While no plan is perfect, planners can learn lots from models and we have lots of them to share. Time will tell how good…. Contact your ROE/ISC for samples. Slide 24 As mentioned earlier, we have selected some plans to generate discussion in your school or district. They’re not perfect but they reflect different ways district and school planners have described their course of action in response to the data. Time will tell if they’re really good or not. The Resource Manual includes a link to some plans but your ROE and ISC will undoubtedly have some plans to share as well.

For assistance Contact your ROE/ISC The Interactive Illinois Report Card eplans@niu.edu (815) 753-0978 Carol Diedrichsen cdiedric@isbe.net Slide 25: I hope these tips help streamline your planning work! Please contact your Regional Office of Education or Intermediate Service Center for assistance. Don’t hesitate to contact the IIRC—they’re always willing to assist with the technology. I would also welcome the chance to talk with you and hear your ideas. Best wishes as you plan!