Henrico County Public Schools Leadership Academy: Quarterly Meeting October 2011

Leadership is Key! Our Vision: Henrico County Public Schools will be the PREMIER school division in the United States. The vision and mission should guide our work as leaders….. What is our vision? (Raise your hand if you can tell me the vision for our school system.) (choral response or call on individuals) (Fly in vision.) It’s not enough to be a “good school” or a “good school district.” Not if we are going to be the premier school division in the United States! We need to be GREAT! (next slide)

GOOD is the enemy of GREAT! Remember Jim Collins . . . GOOD IS THE ENEMY OF GREAT!!- Remember in August we talked about the way to become great was to focus on good teaching- ( next slide) GOOD is the enemy of GREAT!

Baldrige Framework for Excellence (1. Remind them of the Baldrige framework as the structure we have chosen to use to ensure excellence in our schools and create a common language for continuous improvement.) (2. Walk them very quickly through each of the seven categories.) (3. End this slide by saying leadership academy is all about category 1- developing leaders to lead the organization to excellence.)

“ … the most important factor affecting student learning is the teacher. In addition the results show a wide variation in effectiveness among teachers.” Study by S. Paul Wright, Sandra Horn, and William Sanders ( 1997) That’s because research has proven that….. Read the quote.

School and Teacher Affects Remember this slide? Even if you are a very effective school as a whole…. That one ineffective teacher will not allow students the academic growth they deserve. Every one of us must strive to have the most effective school with the most effective teaching

Remember the Research Student achievement will not improve unless teaching improves Teachers working alone without feedback will not be able to improve no matter how much professional development they receive The challenge of Teacher Evaluation is to create a system of continuous improvement of instruction, professional development, and feedback Supervision needs to be frequent and focused on the improvement of instruction within a common language of Instruction Remember……. (Read the slide)

Why is this important? It is important if we truly aspire to be THE PREMIER division in the United States…… BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY- Because every child deserves good teaching.

Picture of crossing the line……. Maybe a runner and finish line Picture of crossing the line……. Maybe a runner and finish line? Pole vaulting? High Jump? I know this takes hard work to be the best…….. It does not come easy- I want to introduce you to a way of thinking about this work. I want you to think about crossing the line…… crossing the line from good to great- crossing the line from average to THE PREMIER…….. ( video)

Vision without action is dreaming… Vision without action is dreaming….. Action without vision is passing time….. Vision with action gets results!

1. Choose to Commit 2. Work Hard 3. Focus 4. Be Resilient (Remind them of the four things needed to cross the line. Have them talk at tables about a time they crossed the line…. A time they made extraordinary effort AND got the results they were seeking in student learning.)

Commitment for 2011-2012 Each administrator is asked to do a minimum of 39 observation cycles. That equates to about 10 percent of your time devoted to instructional feedback to teachers through observation. (After share out remind them of their commitment…. Say something like “This is the minimum…. And it may not be enough to cross the line at your school….. “) We do have people who have crossed the line to extraordinary results….

Crossing the Line Picture…………. I will have a script for you to recognize extraordinary effort and results…….. Crossing the Line

We Need to Cross the Line New Strategic Plan Goal: All students will achieve at the highest possible level of the Henrico County Public School’s curriculum. As you can see we have great things happening everyday- We have leaders crossing the line everyday. We have challenges if we are going to be THE PREMIER Division….. if we are going to DO WHAT’S RIGHT FOR CHILDREN. We have a new strategic plan goal added by the school board this year to drive us forward….. We must commit to crossing the line on this…… ( read the goal)

SOL Achievement Gap If we are to meet this new goal we are going to have to address the achievement gaps we see. I want to share with you some of the gaps we see as a school division overall…. We see our LARGEST gaps between Special Education Students compared to all students and Black students compared to white students. This slide shows the gap between black and white students on SOL tests in math and English. Now we are narrowing the gap ever so slightly, but not enough to meet the new strategic plan goal.

SOL Achievement Gap

Diploma Type Gap 34.1% 21.4% 55.2% 53.8% 69.2% 56.8% 58.4% 63.2% 39.6% 2011 Graduates - Majority of diplomas earned by type by race/gender groups Diploma Black Female Black Male Other Female Other Male White Female White Male Division Advanced 34.1% 21.4% 55.2% 53.8% 69.2% 56.8%   Standard 58.4% 63.2% 39.6% 40.6% 26.2% 35.7% When we look at the types of diplomas students earn…….and Yes, we are improving getting student to EARN a diploma, but look at the gap between the types of diplomas earned by black and white students. If you are a white student in Henrico Schools you are much more likely to earn an advanced diploma than if you are a black student. This will change if we meet this new strategic plan goal!

SAT Gap When we look at the SAT test results…. we are doing well at getting more students to take the SAT- But- Black students in Henrico are performing BELOW the state and national average…. While White students from Henrico are scoring WELL ABOVE the state and national average….. The trends we see for reading here are mirrored in the math and writing results. We must close this gap! Let’ s have ALL OUR STUDENT SCORING WELL ABOVE THE STATE AND NATIONAL AVERAGE!! Again- If we meet this new strategic plan goal we WILL close this gap.

Advanced Placement 68.8% Again- We are doing a good job of getting more students into AP courses…… this is moving us toward our new goal.. However, again we see a gap- Black students in AP classes are not doing as well as white students on the AP exams.

Discipline Gap Short-term Suspensions Long-term Suspensions Division 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 All 11,945 9,947 8,758 83 26 27 White 2,128 1,849 1,538 18% 14 6 4 15% Black 8,650 7,479 6,527 75% 63 18 20 74% Exceptional Ed 3,465 2,954 2,585 30% 25 8 7 26% And lastly…… we challenged you two years ago to reduce the number of long and short term suspensions… We did that well! However, we still have a gap! Black students are being suspended more often then white students…. We need to figure out why and how to solve this problem. Distribution

Commitment Hard Work Focus Resilience WE need to close these gaps…… It will take commitment, hard work, focus and resilience…..

We need to cross the line……..