recommendation #8: help get low-performing students back on track by designing literacy and math recovery programs

Transcription

1 recommendation #8: help get low-performing students back on track by designing literacy and math recovery programs Alabama Reading Initiative Initiative Description and History...31 Costs and Funding Sources...32 Enabling Authority...32 Evidence of Success...32 Resources...32 Boston s Literacy Initiatives Description of Initiatives and History...32 Costs and Funding Sources...33 Enabling Authority...33 Evidence of Success...33 Resources...34 Talent Development High Schools Baltimore City, Maryland and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Initiative Description and History...34 Costs and Funding Sources...35 Enabling Authority...35 Evidence of Success...35 Resources Considerations for Implementing Recommendation #8...35

2 recommendation #8

3 recommendation #8: help get low-performing students back on track by designing literacy and math recovery programs Students who enter ninth grade with below-grade level reading and math skills are less likely to graduate high school, and those who do graduate are generally unprepared for further education or the workforce. Accelerated literacy and math recovery programs help provide ninth-grade students with the skills they need to be successful in high school and the confidence and support they need to persist to graduation. These programs often provide additional instruction to accelerate students skills and enable them to take a college preparatory curriculum beginning in 10th grade. States can help ensure that more students have the skills they need to succeed in high school and take courses that will prepare them for college by designing and supporting these accelerated programs for implementation in high schools statewide. Alabama Reading Initiative Initiative Description and History The Alabama Reading Initiative (ARI) is a statewide, K 12 reading initiative whose goal is to improve reading instruction and achieve 100 percent literacy among public school students. ARI has three components: improving beginning reading instruction in kindergarten and first grade to prevent reading failure in later grades; improving reading skills in grades 2 12; and providing high quality, early interventions for struggling readers in all grades. The program uses a balanced approach to reading instruction that incorporates both phonics and whole-language techniques. To launch the initiative, ARI selected 16 literacy demonstration sites (sites) to serve as models of effective reading practices. In these sites, ARI provided intensive professional development on effective reading instruction, including a summer academy, and worked with the schools to improve their reading programs. After the first year of implementation, the sites served as models for visiting schools throughout the state, and additional schools were selected to serve as sites. New sites are selected from a pool of applicants who make the following seven commitments: to work towards a 100 percent literacy rate for their students; assure at least 85 percent of the faculty and administration are committed to the program; agree to attend a day summer institute focused on teaching reading; demonstrate principal leadership; adjust their reading instruction; model research-based reading instruction for other schools; and submit to an evaluation. Sites receive a great deal of technical assistance and professional development. Principals at sites are required to attend three continuous development meetings each school year. Each site must appoint a full-time reading specialist who works with teachers and struggling readers. Schools collaborate with higher education faculty partners, who act as mentors, provide information, and help teachers address instructional challenges. Schools in their third year of implementation are provided with intense professional development about ARI strategies and recertified. Although ARI hasn t been able to expand its program in secondary schools, it did adapt its strategies to meet their needs. ARI hasn t expanded the number of secondary schools it serves since the first four years of the initiative because funding has been targeted to grades K 3. About 128 middle and high schools currently participate in the program. In middle and high schools, the program provides professional development to content teachers about teaching comprehension strategies within their content areas. Content teachers receive professional development and then have the opportunity to work with other teachers in their discipline. To meet the needs of struggling high school readers, the ARI guides participating schools in developing intervention plans. High schools identify a teacher on their staff who is best equipped to work with struggling readers and trains them to provide reading interventions. Participating schools are also assisted by regional reading coaches. The coaches train representatives of participating schools to be teacher leaders who can train other teachers in their school. The teacher leaders provide five additional days of 31

4 getting it done 32 professional development to participating schools after their third year of implementation to review effective strategies for teaching reading. Costs and Funding Sources In , Alabama spent $40 million to serve students in 500 schools. Alabama has also received several federal grants to support its literacy initiative. In the school year, ARI received a $7.5 million federal, Reading Excellence Act Competitive Grant. In 2002, it won a federal Reading First Grant of $102 million for six years. The Alabama Commission on Higher Education gave ARI a $150,000 grant to evaluate the program in 1998 and The program has also received funding from private foundations and the state tobacco settlement. Local districts use Title I funds to pay for coaches and intervention teachers. Enabling Authority In November 1996, the Alabama State Board of Education passed a resolution appointing a reading panel to develop the Alabama Reading Initiative. Evidence of Success A recent evaluation that included a comparison of student performance in ARI schools to that in non-ari schools found that students in ARI schools scoring proficient increased by 4.5 percentage points from 58.8 percent to 63.3 percent. The comparable gain for non-ari schools over this period was 2.2 percent. ARI schools showed greater gains than non-ari schools for Black or Hispanic students and also for White or Asian students. An earlier evaluation found other positive gains for students in ARI schools after two years of implementation. The population of struggling readers was decreased by 10 percent. Discipline referrals decreased by 67 percent and special education referrals were reduced by 28 percent. Resources 1. Katherine Mitchell, Alabama Department of Education, (334) , kmitchll@alsde.edu 2. Alabama Department of Education, Alabama Reading Initiative, section_detail.asp?section=50&footer=sections 3. A+ Education Foundation, The Alabama Reading Initiative: Literacy for All, initiatives/ari/ari.asp 4. Edward Moscovitch, Evaluation of the Alabama Reading Initiative, sections/doc_download.asp? section=50&id=2154 Boston s Literacy Initiatives Description of Initiatives and History Accelerated adolescent literacy instruction is central to middle and high school redesign in the Boston Public Schools (BPS). Literacy is integrated into several different school district initiatives: 1) the Collaborative Coaching and Learning program; 2) High School Renewal; 3) Readers and Writers Workshop; 4) extended time blocks for English-Language Arts; 5) Scholastic s Read 180; and 6) Summer School Review/Transition. BPS also benefits from the literacy instruction provided through state support programs (see recommendation #9). The Collaborative Coaching and Learning (CCL) program is an intensive professional development strategy, which includes a school-based eight-week professional development cycle on literacy instruction using teachers common planning time. During this cycle, a team of teachers studies a strategy from a readers or writers workshop, observes the coach modeling the strategy with students, and practices the strategy with team members teaching demonstration lessons in their classrooms with other members of the team observing and debriefing the lesson. The High School Renewal or Focus on High Schools plan evolved after the BPS and several Boston-based non-profit organizations found that whole school reform was not as effective in high schools and that the high schools faced unique challenges in implementing reform. Improving literacy instruction is a central component of the Focus on High Schools plan. Strategies include providing a full-time instructional coach at each school to provide teachers with effective reading strategies and assessments to determine student progress. Coaches work with English and English as a Second Language teachers to improve their reading and writing instruction. They also help set up model classrooms, help teachers of other subjects use effective reading strategies, and plan a number of safety net and remedial programs, particularly for ninth-grade students. These programs include a ninthgrade Transition Program that served students not meeting benchmarks and the development of a safety net strategy an individualized program to address the needs of students more than three years behind.

5 The ninth-grade transition program provided 15 months of intensive instruction to students moving from eighth to ninth grade, who were struggling with reading and writing. The program began with summer instruction followed by a transition program during the academic year, which consisted of double periods of English-Language Arts instruction. The program provided students with smaller class sizes and additional assistance from transition specialists in English-Language Arts and mathematics. Transition specialists also worked with classroom teachers to help them address the needs of these students. The academic year instruction was then followed by a second summer program for the same group of students. The goal of the program was to accelerate the progress of students who were more than a grade level behind and enable them to reach 10th-grade performing on grade level. Unfortunately, because of funding cuts, the transition program was eliminated after three years of operation in The readers and writers workshop is central to the pedagogy and curriculum in all English-Language Arts (ELA) classrooms. Through CCL, school-based coaching support and district professional development teachers integrate instructional strategies to develop students understanding of the reading and writing process and to deepen their understanding of major concepts and content. Independent reading in the readers workshop provides extended time in and out of school for students to practice and monitor their use of strategies for comprehension, critical thinking, and vocabulary development as they build their stamina for reading and writing. The majority of ELA classrooms have independent reading libraries with a range of reading levels and genres. In most ELA classrooms, especially at ninth and 10th grade, teaching schedules have been extended to minutes of uninterrupted instruction. This time is used to provide students with more structured opportunities for guided practice, small group inquiry, and independent work with constructive feedback from the teacher through one-on-one or small group conferencing. Scholastic Read 180 is utilized in a majority of middle schools as a safety net program for students who are reading well below the appropriate instructional level that will allow them to comprehend grade level texts. The program is designed to build essential reading skills and develops fluency through a variety of supported-reading activities that include computer-assisted learning, small group instruction, and independent reading with books on tape. Read 180 has also been extended into three of the district s high schools. BPS intends to extend this opportunity to more high schools once funding is available. Another major component of literacy instruction in Boston is provided through Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) support programs. BPS provides MCAS support by assessing students MCAS scores and addressing students weaknesses in small classes that are generally held by regular high school teachers during the school day. BPS contracted with Princeton Review to develop individualized instructional programs in reading and math skills. While MCAS support programs were cut over the past couple of years, the state requires that remaining funding is focused on high schools, so these programs have remained in tact. Boston Public Schools also offers Summer Review for all high school students not passing English courses and Summer Transition for all middle and high school students not passing MCAS or not meeting the required benchmark in the district s formative assessment program. Costs and Funding Sources The district provides over $6 million to support the CCL program. Most of that money supports the coaches salaries. The coach is paid according to a teacher s salary schedule with a 5 percent incremental increase. The transition programs were funded at $21 million each year for three grade levels; approximately $5 million a year funded the eighth- to ninth-grade transition program. To fund the Focus on High Schools plan, the district also uses state funding, Title I funding, IDEA funding, and philanthropic grants from the Annenberg, Carnegie, Bill & Melinda Gates, and BARR foundations. Enabling Authority Boston s literacy strategies are authorized by the superintendent and the Boston School Committee that govern BPS. Evidence of Success According to one measure of student performance, the MCAS, Boston s literacy strategies have produced significant gains for high school students in the district. In 1998, the first year of the MCAS, only 17 percent of 10thgrade students scored at the proficient level in English-Language Arts and 10 percent in mathematics. In 2004, 30 percent of 10th-grade students were proficient in English-Language Arts and 21 percent in mathematics. 33

6 The ninth-grade transition program also demonstrated significant success. About 70 percent of students who were asked to participate in the literacy program participated. Of those students who participated, 75 percent of them made accelerated progress and began 10th grade prepared for grade-level work. Resources 1. Tom Payzant, Boston Public Schools, (617) , 2. Carnegie Foundation Proposal to the Carnegie Corporation, Focus on High Schools, ma.us/teach/carnegieproposal.pdf 3. Boston Plan for Excellence in the Public Schools, Overview , Talent Development High Schools Baltimore City, Maryland and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Initiative Description and History Talent Development High Schools (TDHS) is a comprehensive reform model established in 1994 through a partnership between the Johns Hopkins University Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed At Risk (CRESPAR) and Patterson High School in Baltimore. The goal of the model is to have all students succeed in a common college preparatory core curriculum, while exploring career themes and applications that match their interests. It is targeted to large high schools facing major challenges in the areas of attendance, discipline, achievement, retention, and graduation. The model is now being implemented in 50 high schools in 23 districts and 11 states across the country. One of the primary aims of the Talent Development program is to ensure that ninth graders are promoted to 10th grade on time. The model provides extra, accelerated instruction supported by innovative curriculums in reading and mathematics for students who enter high school with weak skills in these core academic areas. The math curriculum includes, Transition to Advanced Mathematics, an minute, semester-long course that prepares students for high school mathematics. The Strategic Reading course is targeted to ninth-grade students two or more years below grade level. Its goal is to help students develop reading skills and comprehension strategies so they are prepared to succeed in their other high school courses. In a block schedule, first semester ninth-graders take these courses and a Freshman Seminar course designed to motivate students and arm them with the study and social skills they will need to succeed in high school. During the second semester of ninth grade, students take the school district s standards-based Algebra 1 and English 1 courses. getting it done 34 TDHS curricular and instructional supports for ninth graders are typically implemented within a Ninth Grade Success Academy that uses a school-within-a-school structure and interdisciplinary teams to create a personalized and responsive learning environment for all freshmen. The teacher teams have common daily planning time and students on the team take their classes

7 together. The Ninth Grade Success Academy provides the foundation for students to advance into one of several small, career-focused learning communities (career academies) for all 10th 12th-graders. These academies also are supported by TDHS acceleration curriculum in literacy and mathematics for students who still need extra supports in the 10th grade. Sophomores take Geometry Foundations and Reading and Writing in Your Career in addition to Geometry and English II. Other TDHS components include a reading lab for the lowest level readers students reading at the fourth-grade level and below and Twilight School which provides after-hours instruction in a smaller, more individualized setting for students who have difficulty functioning in the regular school environment. All organizational and curricular/instructional components of the model are supported by intensive start-up and sustained, on-site planning, implementation, and classroom-based professional development supports provided by TDHS facilitators and coaches. Both the Talent Development model and its ninth-grade instructional program were developed in Baltimore City High Schools. Baltimore currently is home to Talent Development s Innovation High School that represents the most advanced version of the model. TDHS has achieved its greatest district-wide use in Philadelphia, where seven non-selective, neighborhood high schools in Philadelphia serving close to 10,000 students have implemented the model over the last seven years. Costs and Funding Sources Implementing the program costs between $250 and $300 per student per year. This cost includes materials, technical assistance, and salaries for curriculum coaches and a full time program facilitator. The program is typically funded by federal Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) and Small Learning Community (SLC) grants, local school districts, and national or community-foundations. Enabling Authority The TDHS instructional program and model is authorized by the local school districts where it is implemented. Evidence of Success MDRC conducted an evaluation of the early implementation of the Talent Development High School model in five large high schools in a northeastern, urban school district. The evaluation found that the program had a positive impact on first-time ninth-grade students course completion, promotion rates, and attendance. While only 43 percent of first-time ninth-graders completed a core academic curriculum before the implementation of Talent Development, 56 percent completed the core after implementation. Promotion rates rose by 6 percentage points and attendance rates rose by 3 percentage points after the program was implemented. A recent evaluation of TDHS s ninth-grade instructional program found that students in Baltimore who received a double dose of mathematics and reading/english instruction in ninth grade scored a half year and seven national percentile points higher on standardized tests than students who had the same amount of mathematics and reading instruction but did not take the TDHS accelerated learning courses. In Philadelphia, schools that have used the model for four or more years saw increases in course pass rates and promotion rates into 10th grade. These gains translated into substantial increases in 11th-grade test scores and the percent of seniors taking a college preparatory sequence of classes, as well as increases in the high school graduation rates. Resources 1. Nettie Legters, Johns Hopkins University, (410) , nlegters@csos.jhu.edu 2. Johns Hopkins University, Center for Social Organization of Schools, Talent Development High Schools, 3. MDRC, NASSP Bulletin-Evaluation of TDHS Ninth-Grade Instructional Program, org/s_nassp/sec_abstracts.asp?cid=42&did=42 4. Philadelphia Education Fund-Talent Development Reports report.pdf and 20Report.pdf Considerations for Implementing Recommendation #8 States can have a significant impact on high school students academic performance by developing and disseminating effective adolescent literacy and math recovery programs. Effective adolescent literacy and math recovery programs acknowledge that many high school students need explicit instruction in read- 35

8 ing skills and the development of foundation skills in mathematics. Effective literacy programs include instruction in strategic reading skills and teach students to apply these skills to other subjects. Math recovery programs enable students to take college preparatory mathematics courses. Effective math recovery programs ensure students have the prerequisite skills they need to be successful in Algebra and higher level mathematics courses. States and districts have developed successful literacy and math recovery programs within the context of other high school reform initiatives. These programs have higher chances of success when they operate within effective learning environments. Some common elements among effective high school reform models are smaller learning environments and individualized instruction. A barrier to effective learning for many high school students is a large, impersonal environment in which struggling students get lost. States and districts will face real fiscal challenges trying to implement K-8 reform and redesigned high schools at the same time. In Alabama for instance, funding for a proven accelerated math and literacy program was cut when leaders decided scarce resources needed to be targeted to the earlier grades. Recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) does indicate, however, that reading gains in early grades can be reversed in the high school years, which suggests that continuing to make this trade-off will harm governors efforts to improve high school graduation rates. getting it done 36