Supporting World ClassLeadership for Learning in

North Carolina

Changes in Societies are Creating Pressures for School Change

1900 1950 20000%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Low skill jobs Knowledge work jobs

How the demand for skills has changedEconomy-wide measures of routine and non-routine task input (U.S.)

(Levy and Murnane)Mean t

ask

inp

ut

as

perc

enti

les

of

th

e 1

960 t

ask

dis

trib

uti

on

The dilemma of schools:The skills that are easiest to teach and test are also the ones that are easiest to digitize, automate, and outsource

20th Century Teaching Cannot Meet 21st Century Demands

PISA 2009 Results

Reading

Korea Finland Singapore Canada New Zealand Japan Australia

US is #14

Mathematics Singapore Korea Finland Lichtenstein Switzerland Japan Canada

US is #25

ScienceFinlandSingapore JapanKoreaNew ZealandCanadaEstonia

US is #17

U.S. Reading Results by School Poverty

Poverty Rates of PISA Participants

What are the Highest-Achieving Nations Doing?

Societal supports for children’s welfare Equitable resources with greater investments in

high-need schools and students Equitable access to a rich, thinking curriculum Substantial investments in teacher and leader

education and ongoing support Schools designed to support teacher and

student learning Systems designed to cultivate collective

improvement and leadership

Nations / States Achieving Gains by Focusing on Educator Effectiveness

Finland (about the size of Wisconsin)

--Top Scoring Country on PISA Singapore (about the size of Kentucky)

-- Top Scoring Country on TIMSS & PISA Ontario, Canada (about the size of New York)

-- Top Scoring Jurisdiction in PISA & TIMSS

Teaching and Leadership in Finland

Top choice profession 2 year master’s degree Free to candidates Research-oriented Teacher Training Schools

-- Specially staffed

-- Clinical curriculum Collaborative practice Hybrid roles, including

“Principal teacher”

Teaching and Leadership in Singapore

Fully funded MA degree plus stipend

High salaries Intensive mentoring Collaboration time 20

hours / week PD -100 hours/year Action research and

lesson study Career ladders

“Just as a country is as good as its people, so its citizens are only as good as their teachers.”

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Teachers Day Rally, 2006

13

Evaluation and Career Development

Focus on whole child development Observation and feedback on practice by

expert teachers and principals Examination of curriculum and student work Emphasis on collaboration and contributions

to whole-school improvement Development of talent Support for sharing of

expertise

15

A Framework for Teacher DevelopmentTeaching and Leadership in Ontario

“Achieving results without ranking or rancor”

• A coherent framework of teacher development programs and resources funded by the province

• All programs respect principles of self-directed learning and are modeled on best instructional practices.

• Programs also reflect various stages, roles, profiles that teachers move through during their professional career.

Capacity Building With A Focus on Results:Leading Learning – Supporting the Instructional Core

BIP: Board Improvement Plan

SIP: School Improvement Plan

SEF: School Effectiveness Framework

17

17

A Framework for Leadership Development

In 2005, Ontario changed its expectations for the role of the principal from administrator to instructional leader.

Ontario developed a Principals’ Qualification Program of training, plus 2 years of mentoring for every principal and VP

Each school board develops a succession and talent development plan to: Identify and recruit the most talented teachers Train and develop aspiring leaders Select and match new leaders to posts Support professional learning & evaluation

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

2002/032003/04

2004/052005/06

2006/072007/08

2008/09

Year

Perc

ent a

t Lev

els

3&4

All

Girls

Boys

SpecEd

ESL/ELL

Building Collective Capacity

Literacy and Numeracy Strategy: Shift from large-scale provincial training to job-embedded

professional learning for teams Focus on building professional capacity through teacher

collaboration focused on student work to inform instructional change

Student Success/Learning: Appointment of 800 Student Success Teachers at school level

and Student Success Leaders at school board level Student Success Teams work collaboratively to support

curriculum, instruction, and student engagement

18

During the 1980s-’90s, NC built many elements of such a system

Raised & equalized teacher salaries Raised standards for teaching and teacher

education to respond to student standards Funded professional development schools Offered service scholarships to attract and prepare

high-need teachers (later, leaders, too) Required mentoring for beginners Invested in high-quality professional development

including Teaching Academies and National Board Certification

State Trends in Student Math Achievement, 1990s

208

213

218

223

228

233

1988 1992 1996 2000

231 Maine

229 North Dakota

228 MN, WI

227 Connecticut

213 North Carolina

215 KY GA WV

210 Arkansas

212 South Carolina

218 National Average

NorthCarolina

State Trends in Student Reading Achievement, 1990s

222

232

215 215

195

200

205

210

215

220

225

230

235CT

US Average

North Carolina

Connecticut’s Reforms Added Leadership

The Recent “Discovery” of School Leadership

• School leadership matters because the quality of teaching depends on it

• Most teacher learning takes place after initial certification

• Schools that succeed are sites of successful adult learning: schoolwide

How Principals Matter

• Hiring and retention of high quality teachers

• Strategic curriculum design• Instructional improvement in

each classroom AND across classrooms

• Schoolwide systems and routines for assessing and supporting student learning

• Teacher ownership of professional learning communities and school improvement

Different Theories of Change Theory X:

The key problem is

motivation. People respond only to rewards and sanctions (“carrots and sticks”). Incentives are the major element of reform.

Theory Y:

The key problem is learning. People want to be competent. They respond to information about how to succeed in doing their work. Investments in knowledge and capacity are the major elements of reform.

Incentives Alone Do Not Improve Outcomes

Studies have found that annual bonus pay for individual teachers allocated competitively based on student test scores has not improved student achievement.

-- Nashville experiment (Springer, 2010)

-- New York City experiment (Fryer, 2011)

-- Portugal experiment (Martins, 2009)

What Does Work: Investments in Teacher Knowledge and Skill

Research in NC and NY found that student learning gains are related to:

Strong academic background Quality preparation prior to entry Certification in the field taught Experience (> 3 years) The skills measured by National Board Certification

In combination, these skills predicted more of the difference in student learning gains than race & parent education combined (Clotfelter, Ladd, & Vigdor, 2008).

Policies should strengthen & equalize these features.

What Does Work: The Effects of Well-Designed Professional Development

A review of experimental studies found that high-quality professional development programs of about 50 hours on average over 6 to 12 months increased student achievement by 21 percentile points. (Yoon et al., 2007)

PD of <14 hours had no effect on student learning.

Professional Learning Opportunities that Impact Practice are:

Focused on learning specific curriculum content Organized around real problems of practice Connected to teachers’ work with children Linked to analysis of teaching and student learning Intensive, sustained and continuous over time

Supported by coaching, modeling, observation, and feedback

Connected to teachers’ collaborative work in professional learning communities

Integrated into school and classroom planning around curriculum, instruction, and assessment

© Linda Darling-Hammond 2010

But few US Teachers Get these Opportunities

Teacher preparation is highly variable Effective professional development is still rare Most US teachers (>90%) participate in 1 to 2 day

workshops and conferences. Well under half get sustained PD, get mentoring

or coaching, or observe other classrooms. Only 15% of U.S. teachers reported a great deal

of cooperative effort among staff members in 2008.

Instructional Leadership is Key

Great principals, teacher leaders, and superintendents focus on: building professional learning communitiesfostering educator professional developmentproviding instructional feedback working with educators to improve teaching practicesusing data to monitor school progress, identify problems and propose solutionsredesigning school organizationsfacilitating student learning beyond the test

Ensuring High Quality Instruction at Scale

•Strong preparation programs•Accelerated early career performance•Each school as a high-quality adult learning environment•Privatized practice replaced by quality teaching as a shared property of organizations

Implications for school leadership? Unit of work is the school, as well as the individual teacher

A working hypothesis

Improving school leadership is the single most cost effective way to improve student learning at scale (2615 principals in North Carolina)

*>80% Black, >95% Black/Latino and >90% low-income enrollments

At mostly Black/mostly low-income schools, 1st-year UIC principals are 4 times more likely make gains in the top 10% of 184 comparable schools (4 of 10)

At mostly Black/mostly low-income schools, 1st-year UIC principals are 3 times more likely to make gains in the top 30% of 184 comparable schools (9 of 10)

The Results of Investing in Principal Knowledge and Skill

In 2010 ISAT scores for UIC-led elementary schools were:• 3.5 x more likely than CPS to score in the top 5% in value-added• 4 x more likely to score in top 10% in gain scores for high poverty African American

schools• 4x more likely to score in top 20% in gain scores, all184 schools

UIC Ed.D. in Urban Education Leadership

Model: Highly selective, practice-based, focused on information cycles in schools

* Full-year, paid, supervised residency* Ongoing coaching for all candidates* Capstone thesis on leadership theory and practice

Common Features of Effective Programs

Purposeful recruitment and selection

Focus on instructional leadership, organizational development, and change management

Robust year-long residenciesCollaborative partnerships between

programs and schools Cohorts as a long-term support

The Power of the Internship / Residency

“There is nothing, no class, no lecture, no other experience than being in the driver seat with the steering wheel in your hands, with the controls right there… I was an intern and I said, ‘I love this. It’s stressful.’ I would say that everything I experienced in ELDA [the Educational Leadership Development Academy] was relevant to what I am doing today.”

Helpfulness of Professional Development

Figure 2 - Principals' Views of the Helpfulness of Professional Development (1= Not at all Helpful; 5= Very Helpful)

4.17

4.06 4.044.01

3.93 3.91 3.91

3

3.25

3.5

3.75

4

4.25

4.5

Mentoring orcoaching by an

experiencedprincipal

Participating in aprincipal network

Peer observation /coaching to share

practice

Readingprofessional books

or articles

Individual orcollaborative

research on a topicof interest

Workshops,conferences in

which you were apresenter

Workshops orconferences in

which you were nota presenter

Principals’ Access to Professional Development

Figure 1 - Principals' Access to Professional Development in Last 12 Months(% of Principals Participating )

21.6

34.4

45.8

49.9

67.7

71.7

81.7

95.2

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Mentoring or

coaching by

experienced

principal

University

courses

Workshops, as

a presenter

Peer

observation/

coaching

Visits to other

schools

Individual or

collaborative

research

Participating in

a principal

network

Workshops, as

a participant

In-Service Learning Opportunities for Principals (San Diego)

Principal Informal

Networking

PeerCoach/

Staff

Developermer

Professional Development

Institutes

Mentor

Principal

Informal

Conferences

Instructional

LeaderWalk-

Throughs

Formal

Networking.

Learning

Communities

FormalPrincipal

Conferences

What Policies Drive Achievement Differences?

One Important Strategy:North Carolina Teaching Fellows

Are academically able candidates who receive service scholarships to prepare to teach

Teach high-need students upon graduation Raise elementary and secondary math scores

more than teachers from other programs do Stay in public school classrooms for 5 years or

more at much higher rates than other NC teachers from traditional or alternative routes.

(Henry, Bastian, & Smith, 2012)

Build on, Refine, Reclaim, and Scale up North Carolina’s Proven Successes

Make strong preparation affordable to attract a talented, diverse teaching & leadership force

-- North Carolina Teaching Fellowships

-- North Carolina Principal Fellowships

Make all preparation programs excellent

-- Stronger expectations for program quality

-- Residencies in high-need communities

-- Teacher and Administrator Performance Assessments

Build on, Refine, Reclaim, and Scale up California’s Proven Successes

Maintain a strong infrastructure for learning

-- Expert mentoring for novices

-- Teaching and Leadership Academies

Create strong, useful teacher evaluation linked to administrator preparation & evaluation

-- Standards-based examination of practice

-- Multiple sources of student learning evidence

-- Regular feedback & links to PD

-- Peer assistance and review

-- Timely, accurate decisions

Key Policy Levers

1. State priority: improving leadership prep

through provider regulation • Learning-focused programs• High selectivity • School district/provider partnerships• Extended residencies• Public accountability for impact measures• Performance-based licensing and

accreditation

Key Policy Levers

• State funding of high-quality innovative programs for high-need schools

• Investment in residencies and mentoring• Regional infrastructure for principal

learning communities

(e.g.Teaching and Leadership Academies)• Technical assistance for districts and

programs to “get it right” via convenings and sharing of models