1. Closing the Achievement Gap NO EXCUSES
Patricia W. Davenport

2. The Challenge For Education
All school districts face similar challenges:
Low student achievement results
Pressures for increased accountability
Customers dissatisfied with outcomes
Increasing student enrollment
Rising costs

3. The Challenge For Education
The search continues…
State-takeover of schools
Private takeover of schools
For-profit schools
Vouchers
Charter schools
Longer school days and school years
36 different education reform programs

4. Beliefs Children of all races and income levels can succeed
Testing is Diagnostic, not discriminatory
Tests determine whether each and every child is learning

5. Two Reasons:
Moral
Legal

6. Legal Reason
50 of 50 states require students to take state assessments.

7. Moral Reason
If students are not literate, that is, they can not read, write, and do basic arithmetic:
3 out of 4 will go on welfare.
68% will commit a criminal offense.
Source: National Adult Literacy Survey

8. Building Blocks
The PDCA Instructional Process is grounded in three sets of ideas:
Effective Schools
Total Quality Management
Malcolm Baldrige Criteria For Performance Excellence

9. TQM
Defined as “an operational theory of management and set of process tools for implementation.”
Do it right the first time!
Continuous Improvement
Cycles - PDCA
Don’t fix blame, fix the system!

10. Who’s To Blame? The college professor said:
“Such rawness in a student is a shame, lack of preparation in high school is to blame.”

11. Who’s To Blame? Said the high school teacher:
“Good heavens! That boy’s a fool. The fault of course is with the middle school.”

12. Who’s To Blame? The middle school teacher said:
“From stupidity may I be spared. They sent him in so unprepared.”

13. Who’s To Blame? The primary teacher huffed:
“Kindergarten blockheads all. They call that preparation – why, it’s worse than none at all.”

14. Who’s To Blame? The kindergarten teacher said:
“Such lack of training never did I see. What kind of woman must that mother be.”

15. Who’s To Blame? The mother said:
“Poor helpless child. He’s not to blame. His father’s people were all the same.”

16. Who’s To Blame? Said the father at the end of the line:
“I doubt the rascal’s even mine.”
Anonymous

17. “Effective Schools” Philosophy
Characteristics Of Effective Schools:
Strong instructional leadership
High expectations of student achievement for ALL students
Pervasive and broadly understood instructional focus
Safe and orderly school climate conducive to teaching and learning
Measures of pupil achievement as a basis of program evaluation

18. Brazosport ISD District Enrollment - 13,500 Student Population
Economically Disadvantaged %
Elementary Schools 11
Middle Schools 2
Intermediate Schools 3
High Schools 2
Alternative Schools 1
White
Hispanic
African American
Other
Student Population
56.8%
32.7%
9.1%
1.4%
District Enrollment - 13,500

19. TAAS Velasco Elementary
DEMOGRAPHICS:
Economically Disadvantaged 80.4% African American % LEP 36.5% Hispanic 59.8% Mobility 25.6% White 20.1%

20. TAAS Freeport Intermediate
DEMOGRAPHICS:
Economically Disadvantaged 62.9% African American % LEP 4.2% Hispanic 51.3% Mobility 20.2% White 37.8%

21. TAAS Brazosport High School
DEMOGRAPHICS:
Economically Disadvantaged 54.1% African American % LEP 6.6% Hispanic 50.2% Mobility 25.8% White 35.7%

22. PDCA INSTRUCTIONAL MODEL
8. Monitoring
7. Maintenance
2. Timeline Development
4. Assessment
3. Instructional Focus
5. Tutorials
6. Enrichment
1. Data Disaggregation

23. Plan/Do/Check/Act Cycle

24. From Theory To Practice
What the PDCA Cycle offers…
A proven track record for success
A step-by-step methodology for improving schools
A process built on the foundation of Effective School Characteristics
An alignment of planning, instruction, and assessment
An emphasis on the core curricula of reading, writing, and mathematics

25. Disaggregate Data PLAN
Arrange test scores to identify instructional groups.
Define weak and strong objectives.

26. TEST TALK

27. PLAN Timeline Development
Develop a campus calendar for all objective areas and time allocations based on the needs of the student groups and the weight of the objective.
The timeline is subject to change due to mastery of target areas.

28. DO Instructional Focus
Using the timeline, create a schedule of focused instructions to be followed by teachers.

29. CHECK
Assessment
After the instructional focus has been taught, administer an assessment to identify mastery/non-mastery students.

30. ACT Tutorials Enrichment
Tutorial time should be devoted to the reteaching of non-mastered target areas.

31. ACT Tutorials Enrichment
Target related enrichment is provided for mastery students.

32. CHECK
Maintenance
Provide materials for ongoing maintenance and reteaching.

33. CHECK
Monitoring
The principal assumes the role of instructional leader and is continuously involved in the teaching and learning process.

34. Benefits
Gives teachers flexibility in how to teach by focusing on what to teach.
Emphasizes key skills for every student.
Allows students to retain skills in order to build higher skills.

35. Benefits CONTINUED
Aligns planning, instruction, assessment, and support toward student performance.
Removes subjectivity and replaces it with a focus on results.
Test scores validate standards instruction.
It is a proven approach that achieves results.

36. Random Acts Of ImprovementG O A L S t u d e n c h i v m y s P r f o a
= Programs

37. Aligned Acts Of Improvement
In an aligned
system...
… improvement
efforts are integrated
and results-oriented
Knowing and managing the relationships helps align efforts toward desired results. This makes the best use of improvement efforts, resources, and time, ensuring that people and the system are working together to achieve desired results, such as improved student test scores, or better support services.

38. Short & Long Term Actions
ACTION PLAN
PDCA Process Implementation
Short & Long Term Actions
Solution
Who & When $$
Done

39. “It is perfectly all right to teach students curricula over which they will not be tested, but in this day of accountability for results, it’s fool-hardy to test students on curricula they have not been taught and taught to mastery...

40. Teaching one thing and testing another tends to discriminate against the socioeconomically poor and disadvantaged students, since they are the most dependent on the school as the source for their academic learnings.”
Dr. Larry Lezotte