WHY RAISE STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT? INTERNAL REASONS CORE CONVICTIONS Another criteria to use when searching for high skilled employees is the type of tasks they are skilled at doing. While schools in the United States tend to assign work to students which require them to memorize facts, other countries, such as Japan and Germany, are asking their students to do research, apply knowledge within and between disciplines, and to use this knowledge to solve real work problems. One employer put it well when he said, “I have never asked an employee to complete a worksheet!”  So if you were the DEO of a business looking for a highly trained employee for a technical position, who would you hair?  Question: If business and industry are 1) sending high skills jobs to other countries where students are trained to use high-level thinking skills, and/or 2) bringing high-skilled workers from other counties to the United States, what jobs will be left for our students?

About Kids, Learning, & Education INTERNAL REASONS FOR RAISING STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT CORE CONVICTIONS Many people have high expectations of students due to the convictions which they hold for all students. In this activity we’ll explore the convictions we have as a faculty and community regarding students, learning, and education. About Kids, Learning, & Education

CORE CONVICTIONS Definition: The beliefs we hold in our hearts  about students, learning, and education. Core convictions are those beliefs that we hold in our hearts about kids, learning, and education. For many of us, our core convictions are what made us become educators (or for the Advisory Council, community members interested in education).

EXAMPLE “All students deserve to be taught in a manner which compliments their individual learning style.” Here’s an example of a core conviction, “All students deserve to be taught in a manner which compliments their individual learning style.”

Local core convictions “drive” the change process. PURPOSE Local core convictions “drive” the change process. The Vision-to-Action change process will be driven by our local core convictions. In other words, InSAI is not driven by a funding source, a state mandate, or a prescribed set of core values. Rather, InSAI is driven by us -- by what we believe about kids, learning, and education.

The Lorraine Monroe Doctrine What do the teachers at Frederick Douglas Academy believe about kids, learning, and education? p. 86 Let’s take a moment to watch a video about a school in which the teachers live by their core convictions. As you watch, see if you can identify the teacher’s core convictions or beliefs about students, learning, and education. After watching the film, ask the participants to identify what the Frederick Douglas teachers believed about 1) students, 2) learning, and 3) education. Note: Someone is bound to bring up the fact that Federick Douglas has an application process while the local school admits all students. This is a good place to introduce the “Yeah But” list. You might say something like, “Terrific! You’ve identified a challenge which we need to overcome in order to help our students succeed, and we all know that the first step to overcoming a challenge is to identify it. In InSAI they call those challenges ‘yeah-buts.’ ‘Yeah but’ our school has to admit every students.’ Our challenge is to identify all the ‘yeah-buts’ and then make a plan to overcome them. That’s what Frederick Douglas did. They overcame ‘yeah-buts’ like, ‘Yeah but, our kids have parents on crack,’ and ‘Yeah but, our students come from violent homes.’ If Frederick Douglas can overcome those ‘yeah-buts,’ we can probably develop a plan to overcome our ‘yeah-buts.’

FREDERICK DOUGLAS ACADEMY All students are scholars – high expectations Anything’s possible Teachers don’t know “no” No excuses Any school can be like a private school Students want structure Academic rigor is parallel to discipline Can’t predict when a student’s going to respond The world belongs to all students What’s the alternative? Mickey Mouse schools? Remember, a brainstorm is just a quick listing of ideas without discussion. There are no right or wrong answers, and everyone’s ideas get recorded. The answers should come quickly, one after another. Brainstorming is good to increase creativity. (Break the group into teams of 4-5, perhaps by grade level or departments. Give each group a piece of flip chart paper and a marker.) You have 15 minutes to work on this activity. Go!

What does our community believe about kids, learning, and education? OUR CORE CONVICTIONS What does our community believe about kids, learning, and education? So, let’s look at what we believe about kids, learning, and education.

All kids deserve . . . IN OUR HEART OF HEARTS As we do this activity, please begin each of your core convictions with the stem, “All kids deserve . . .” That will keep us focuses on the students.

BRAINSTORM ON FLIP CHART STEM: ALL KIDS DESERVE . . . Quick answers No discussion No wrong answers Everything gets recorded The Steering Team will merge the responses of the faculty and Advisory Council to develop a list of core convictions for your approval. These convictions will “drive” the change process. Remember, a brainstorm is just a quick listing of ideas without discussion. There are no right or wrong answers, and everyone’s ideas get recorded. The answers should come quickly, one after another. Brainstorming is good to increase creativity. (Break the group into teams of 4-5, perhaps by grade level or departments. Give each group a piece of flip chart paper and a marker.) You have 15 minutes to work on this activity. Go!

Community Involvement GUIDANCE RELATIONSHIP Community Expectations Consider these areas . . . ENVIRONMENT School Policy Behavior Management Student Assistance Parent Involvement Community Involvement Resources Leadership GUIDANCE GUIDANCE CURRICULUM GUIDANCE RELATIONSHIP EXPECTATIONS Faculty Expectations Parent Expectations Community Expectations Student Expectations TEACHING Curriculum Content Instruction Assessment Extra Time / Help (After the groups have been working for about 5 minutes) To make sure we’ve thought about the things kids deserve in many different areas, think about each of these areas for a few seconds. What do students deserve in each of these areas? You have five more minutes to add ideas to your list. Go!

SHOUT OUT

InSAI Foundational Beliefs Every student deserves to be surrounded by a culture of high expectations. Every student deserves a rich array of educational and career options for the future. Every student deserves rich educational and career guidance in order to define the pathways to the options he or she chooses. While no core values or beliefs are prescribed by the Institute, InSAI was designed around the these foundations which provide several reasons for raising student. (Give participants time to read each conviction, or read the convictions aloud. If comfortable, share examples of situations in which you personally did not live up to these convictions. This shows participants that you’re just like them (good people who struggle to provide good things for kids), and helps them be less defensive about their own needs for improvement.) Every student deserves a rigorous curriculum and rich teaching within a supportive environment to realize the options and pathways developed through the guidance process. © Reynolds and Hines, 2000

LETTING GO

DRIVE THE PROCESS Local Core Convictions Great! Now, let’s just shout out a few of our convictions. All kids deserve . . . (Make sure each idea is repeated or paraphrased to make sure every knows they were heard). Super! Our Steering Team will take your core convictions and the core convictions of the Advisory Council (or faculty) and merge them into one list for your review. These core convictions will then become the driving force behind our InSAI initiative. Note: While the stem encourages participants to focus on students, everyone once in a while, someone will “twist” the activity so it becomes adult focused. For example, “All students deserve teachers who are well paid.” If that happens, you can give the statement a student-centered focus by asking a question about the adults, “Why would we want the adults to be well paid?” The answer will usually have a student focus, and then you point out what all students deserve. In this case the participant may answer, “So we’ll attract qualified people to the teaching profession.” And then you can respond, “So all kids deserve qualified teachers?” DRIVE THE PROCESS