4/19/2017

Louisiana’s Comprehensive Learning Supports System 4/19/2017

A hard look at ourselves… “…schools fail because the challenges they face are substantial; because they themselves are dysfunctional; and because the system of which they are part is not responsive to the needs of the high-poverty student populations they tend to serve” Mass Insight, Education and Research Institute 4/19/2017 3

Spring 2007…. We were challenged to build a world-class Department of Education Each office in the Department was challenged to build a world-class Office within the Department by finding world- class assistance Office of School and Community Support found The Center at UCLA with support from Scholastic 4/19/2017 4

What Happened Next? UCLA, Scholastic and DOE met in Fall 2008 Superintendent gave us the charge to develop a plan for the state on how to integrate a system of support into the school improvement process We established a Design Team made up of a cross-section of DOE 4/19/2017 5

Louisiana’s Rankings #1 in Accountability #1 in policies for improving Teacher Quality Close to top for Content Standards, GLEs and Curriculum 4/19/2017 6

More Rankings Near top on: Poverty Childhood obesity Juvenile crime Adolescent drug abuse Teenage pregnancy Near bottom in student achievement Near bottom on children’s health Very low adult literacy levels 4/19/2017 7

What is our plan for improvement? To accomplish the essential public education goal of enabling all students to have an equal opportunity for success at school, research indicates the need for developing a comprehensive, multifaceted, and cohesive system of learning supports. 4/19/2017 8

A Definition… Learning Supports: The resources, strategies, and practices that provide physical, social, emotional, and intellectual supports to directly address barriers to learning and teaching and re-engage disconnected students. 4/19/2017 9

and School Improvement Barriers to Learning and School Improvement There are many barriers that interfere with ensuring that all students have an equal opportunity to succeed at school. All these barriers contribute to large numbers of disconnected students who need learning supports to address barriers to learning and teaching and help them re-engage in the learning environment . 4/19/2017 10

A Definition… Comprehensive Learning Supports System This system provides supportive interventions in the classroom and school-wide and is fully integrated with the efforts to improve instruction and management at the school. 4/19/2017 11

How Are We Currently Addressing Barriers to Learning? Fragmented Policy Fragmented Practices 4/19/2017

Traditional School Improvement Components in Education 4/19/2017 13

Escaping Old Ways of Thinking The foundation for rethinking school improvement involves adopting a three-component conceptual framework to guide development of a comprehensive system at every school in Louisiana for enabling/supporting learning: An Instructional Component that provides guidance for best practices for effective instruction. A Management Component that guides best practices for site management and administrative capacity. A Comprehensive Learning Supports Component that guides the coalescing of resources to address barriers to student engagement in the classroom.

A Unifying Concept to Address Barriers to Learning and Teaching * 07/16/96 A Unifying Concept to Address Barriers to Learning and Teaching Comprehensive Learning Supports Component: Designed to enable learning by addressing factors that interfere with learning and teaching Examples of programs, services, and initiatives: Positive behavioral supports Programs for safe and drug free schools Full service community schools & Family Resource Centers Safe Schools/Healthy Students School Based Health Center movement Coordinated School Health Program Bi-lingual, cultural, and other diversity programs Re-engaging disengaged students Compensatory education programs Special education programs Mandates stemming from the No Child Left Behind Act And many more activities by student support staff Add any current initiatives and programs for example EMPLoy that also fits into this list. * 15

What a Comprehensive Learning Supports System Is Not… A case-by-case approach that focuses only on individual students with problems and is unable to meet the needs of many students. A fragmented set of student and family services. A marginalized and highly restrictive set of student and family services and crisis responses. An approach that mostly focuses on using outside providers. An approach that is unable to meet the needs of most students even with capacity building. 4/19/2017 16

What a Comprehensive Learning Supports System Is Not…

What a Comprehensive Learning Supports System Is… A resource-oriented approach that uses aggregated school and student data and maps and analyzes resources to clarify what learning supports a school needs. An operational infrastructure at a school designed to recommend priorities for alignment and redeployment of resources to develop a comprehensive system of learning supports. A continuum of interventions that encompasses prevention and early intervention and is fully integrated into school improvement. 4/19/2017 18

What a Comprehensive Learning Supports System Is… Continued A system that emphasizes both school-wide and classroom supports, learns from best practices in our High Poverty/High Success schools, and seeks to weave in community supports. A system that can benefit from regional and state-level capacity building. 4/19/2017 19

What a Comprehensive Learning Supports System Is… Continued

Benefits of a Comprehensive Learning Supports System * 07/16/96 Benefits of a Comprehensive Learning Supports System Reducing student dropout rates Reducing teacher dropout rates Re‑engaging many disconnected students in classroom learning Narrowing the achievement gap Countering the plateau effect related to student achievement Reducing the growing list of schools designated as low performing Underlined areas are key components of the program. Stress how Learning Supports address the underlined goals. 4/19/2017 21 *

High Poverty / High Performing Schools Initiative Some Schools Get It! High Poverty / High Performing Schools Initiative 4/19/2017 22

How High-Performing, High-Poverty Schools Do it * How High-Performing, High-Poverty Schools Do it 07/16/96 Reengagement of students Explain the overall principal of this slide. As circle and arrows appear, explain how learning supports addressess these components of the Turnaround Challenge. Analysis of resources and how they are utilized Capacity building and support from district and state Operational Infrastructure The Turnaround Challenge, Mass Insight *

Meeting the Challenge… * 07/16/96 Meeting the Challenge… Reframe current student/learning support programs Redeploy resources Develop in-classroom and school-wide approaches, including learning supports found effective in our High Poverty/High Achieving schools Underlined areas are key components of the program. Stress how Learning Supports address the underlined goals. 4/19/2017 24 *

Continued… Develop the capacity to implement learning supports through leadership training Revamp infrastructures at the school, district, and state levels Develop and implement accountability indicators directly related to the Learning Supports System and fully integrate it into school improvement accountability 4/19/2017 25

A Message From Superintendent Paul Pastorek Teacher Tube Address 4/19/2017 26

A final thought…. Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation. John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) Thirty-fifth President of the USA 4/19/2017 27