If you want great schools…

Essential Questions What can we do to organize schools to maximize student learning? What will it take to make every Alabama school successful? What role do you as leaders have in helping make that happen?

Your perspective Thinking about your K-12 schooling, what value did it add to your life? What do you think the most important goals are for public education?

It’s all about the learning! Teachers Content Students The Instructional Core

Good Teaching Matters Most … Multiple studies demonstrate that effective teachers play the single most important role in accelerating student achievement. Having one very effective vs one very ineffective teacher can make a difference of more than a year’s growth in student achievement. Effective teaching can overcome the influence of poverty and other factors in the child’s home.

Good teaching matters most… Different teachers within schools make twice the difference that different schools make. An effective teacher is far more important than smaller class size. Even in the earliest grades K-2, where the effects of class size are strongest it is five times more important to have an effective teacher than a small classroom.

And having a very effective versus a very ineffective teacher workforce can profoundly influence a country’s economic growth trajectory.

Common Sense & Research Converge “The quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers.” “How the World’s Best Performing School Systems Come Out on Top,” McKinsey & Company, September 2007

Key Findings 1.Hire most talented people 2.Invest in their development and success 3.Organize around success for all students

What we do at the district & community level matters most…

Education Organizations Non-profits Research Market Forces Communities Home Local State Federal

George Hall Elementary School Mobile, Alabama 530 students 100% African American 99% Low-Income

George Hall Third Grade Scores

George Hall Elementary, Grade 5 Math – 2009 Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama, “Does the System succeed with All Kinds of Kids.

George Hall Elementary, Grade 5 Reading – 2009 Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama, “Does the System Succeed with All Kinds of Kids.”

A+ Education Partnership, Alabama Best Practices Center, A+ College Ready

Historic gains in 4th grade reading 2007, Alabama made the historic gain of 8 points 2009 results held steady, again scoring 216 Source: National Assessment of Educational Progress

Gains in 8th grade reading In 2009, Alabama gained 3 points Alabama is one of only 9 states to make progress Narrowed gap between AL and U.S.