All Systems Go: The Ontario Case Perspective U.S. Department of Education April 13/14, 2010 Michael Fullan Special Advisor on Education to Dalton McGuinty, Premier of Ontario

Context — Ontario ★ 12 million people ★ 2 million students ★ 4,000 elementary students ★ 900 elementary schools ★ 72 local school districts

Ontario — Pre-2003 ★ Stagnant student achievement in literacy and numeracy ★ Stagnant high school graduation rate ★ Low morale of teachers and administrators

Ontario — 2009 ★ Literacy and numeracy achievement (including higher order skills) increased by 13% since 2003 across the 4,000 schools ★ High school graduation rate increased from 68% to 79% across 900 schools ★ Attrition rate of new teachers in the first four years of teaching has declined by two-thirds from 32% to 9% ★ Ownership, commitment and capacity to go deeper is strong

Ontario Strategy ★ Built on English Literacy and Numeracy Strategy (with less emphasis on targets and punitive accountability) ★ Appreciated the capacity building component of the English LNS ★ Refined as implementation unfolded and in relation to what was going on in other countries

Ontario Strategy Storyline ★ Unwavering commitment from the top ★ Core focus ★ Guiding Coalition monitoring implementation ★ Change in cultures and role of the Ministry of Education/ new capacity to engage in implementation ★ Partnership with the sector ★ Focus on collective capacity building with a linkage to results ★ Transparency of results and practice ★ Reduce distractors including establishing long-term (4-year) collective agreements

The Sea of Implementation Implementation fails when: ★ The reform strategy is too complex and/or vague ★ One or more ingredients vital to success is missing or weak (Note: advance agreement relative to the reform is not correlated with the quality of subsequent implementation)

Implementation Success Implementation succeeds when 3 sets of factors are well established and working in concert: 1. The content of reform priorities 2. The implementation strategies 3. The reinforcers

The Content of Reform Priorities Moral purpose with respect to raising the bar and closing the gap for the well being of children ★ Literacy ★ Numeracy ★ High school graduation ★ Early learning (Note: The above are deeply defined to include higher order skills and associated instructional innovation)

Implementation Strategies ★ High standards ★ Clear, accessible data ★ *Collective capacity building ★ Transparent accountability (re results of practice) *The most powerful strategy and typically the most underutilized

The Reinforcers ★ Resolute leadership ★ Respect for the sector ★ Communication ★ Reduce the distractors

Collective Capacity Building Moral purpose and high expectations relentlessly pursued through horizontal and vertical capacity building re basic and higher order skills, innovation and effective teaching

Collective Capacity Building ★ Mutual allegiance and commitment via collaboration ★ Collaborative competition as results are leveraged ★ Mobilizes people to work on improvement of ‘the system’

Incentives That Work for Teachers ★ Good salaries ★ Decent surroundings ★ Positive climate ★ Strong instruction ★ Extensive professional learning ★ Opportunity to work with and learn from others ★ Supportive and even assertive leadership about the agenda ★ Getting helpful feedback ★ Reasonable class size ★ Long term collective agreements (4 years) ★ Realizable moral purpose

Intelligent Accountability ★ Relies on incentives more than on punishment ★ Invests in capacity building so that people are able to meet the goals ★ Invests in collective (peer) responsibility — what is called ‘internal accountability’ ★ Intervenes initially in a non-judgmental manner ★ Embraces transparent data about practice and results ★ Intervenes decisively along the way when required

Deceptive Inadequecies ★ Standards, assessment, accountability overshadow capacity building ★ Focus on effective teachers and principals favors ‘individual’ to the neglect of ‘collective’ capacity building

Scholastic/Gates: The Five Solutions 1. Standards 2. Student performance data 3. Teacher performance measures/retention 4. Classroom innovation 5. Home and school (Note the absence of collective capacity building)

Directional Solutions ★ Individual capacity is arithmetical; collective capacity is geometrical ★ Technical assistance centers provide support but are not connected to line authority ★ Capacity without serious delivery = squandered reform ★ Delivery without capacity = superficial reform ★ Collective capacity + serious delivery = outstanding reform ★ Collective capacity is an investment in the long-term health of the system Barber & Fullan, 2010

The Power of Collective Capacity Individual capacity empowers the teacher; Collective capacity empowers the profession.