1. Transformed by Literacy
High Standards, High Expectations, NO EXCUSES!!!
Sue Szachowicz
Senior Fellow, ICLE
Principal (retired)
Brockton High
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2. My Lesson Plan Why am I here? Our Brockton High story WHAT did we do?
FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS: LITERACY FOR ALL
The power of whole school literacy
Lessons Learned (if we can do this, ANYONE can!!!)
Wicked Awesome Results
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3. But please remember…
Ours is a story of every school, every teacher, every student. This IS NOT just about high school, NOT about urban, NOT about size of school. This IS NOT about any individual, any principal, any teacher… it is about us ALL. This IS about change. This IS about being the best you can be. If we can do this, anyone can!!!

4. The Brockton High Story: a Decade of Continuous Improvement
10 YEARS!!!
Sustaining
a Decade of Continuous Improvement

5. Brockton, City of Champions
Massachusetts
Boston
Brockton

6. Brockton High, School of Champions

7. Some info about Brockton High?
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Comprehensive 9 – 12
Enrollment: 4,155
Poverty Level: 80.2%
Minority population: 78%
39 different languages
39.3% speak another
language in the home
Approximately 17% LEP
Services
Approximately 11% receive
Special Educ. Services
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8. Who attends Brockton High?
Cape Verde
Islands
60% Black - includes African American, Cape Verdean, Haitian, Jamaican, and others
22% White
12% Hispanic
2% Asian
2% Multirace
2% All Other
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9. Countries of the 888 members of the Class of 2014
China
Columbia
France
Guinea-Bissau
Guadeloupe
Guyana
Italy
Jamaica
Liberia
Mexico
Russia
Somalia
United States
Cape Verde
Haiti
Puerto Rico
Dominican
Republic
Nigeria
Portugal
Brazil
Canada
Cameroon
Kenya
Peru
Pakistan
Senegal
El Salvador
Thailand
Barbados
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10. WHAT we faced… Any of these sound familiar???
Mass. implemented a high stakes test (MCAS)
Three-quarters of our students would not be earning a diploma
Culture of low expectations – “Students have a right to fail” (former BHS Principal)
Negative image in our city, in the state (nasty comments!)
Yet we were living in DENIAL!!!!
Who is responsible???? We had silos (My kids, your kids, not OUR kids)
Success by chance – depended on who your teacher was – are you lucky???

11. MCAS arrived, and here we were:
Failure
ELA – 44%
(Sped – 78%)
MATH – 75%
(Sped – 98%)
MCAS 1998
Advanced+Proficient
ELA – 22%
MATH – 7%

12. Remember, they MUST pass to graduate – NO EXCEPTIONS!!!
Just in case you were thinking MCAS is easy, take a look…
Remember, they MUST pass to graduate – NO EXCEPTIONS!!!

13. ELA MCAS 2013 Readings from Previous Years Include:
Burial at Thebes from Sophocles’
Antigone
Shakespearean Sonnet # 73
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Love in the Time of Cholera by
Gabriel Garcia Marquez (3 page excerpt)
Making Humus by Composting by Liz Ball
Proof (4 page play excerpt by David Auburn)
The Trial (2 page excerpt by Franz Kafka)
2013
ELA MCAS 2013

14. 2013
2013
Math MCAS 2013

15. Science MCAS (Biology) 2013

17. Accountability and the Achievement Gap:
Pressure for accountability in education and closing the achievement gaps among students will continue to increase.

18. Then, at the end some WICKED AWESOME stuff!…
That’s where we were…
Here’s a preview of where we are now…
Then, at the end some WICKED AWESOME stuff!…

19. THEN NOW MCAS 1998 ELA – 22 % MATH – 7 % MCAS 2013 ELA – 88% MATH –70%
Advanced+Proficient
ELA – 22 %
MATH – 7 %
MCAS 2013
Advanced+Proficient
ELA – 88%
MATH –70%

20. THEN NOW Failure ELA – 44% MATH – 75% Failure ELA – 1.8% MATH – 11%
MCAS 1998
Failure
ELA – 44%
MATH – 75%
MCAS 2013
Failure
ELA – 1.8%
MATH – 11%
As bad as these were – it was even worse to look at our subgroups – in Special Education our ELA failure rate was 78%, in math it was 98%!

21. It’s cool and fun to be smart
1998
859 STUDENTS
(4400 students)
19%
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Honor Roll
Statistics
2013
1608 STUDENTS
( (4155 students)
39%
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22. How Did BHS go from this to a Model School???

23. Turnaround at Brockton High
Emphasis on literacy brings big MCAS improvement
Principal Susan Szachowicz, shown chatting at lunch with Yiriam Lopez,
is in many ways the school’s biggest cheerleader. (Essdras M Suarez/ Globe Staff)
By James Vaznis Globe Staff / October 12, 2009
BROCKTON - Brockton High School has every excuse for failure, serving a city plagued by crime, poverty, housing foreclosures, and homelessness.
Almost two-thirds of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, and 14 percent are learning to speak English. More than two-thirds are African-American or Latino - groups that have lagged behind their peers across the state on standardized tests.
But Brockton High, by far the state’s largest public high school with 4,200 students, has found a success in recent years that has eluded many of the state’s urban schools: MCAS scores are soaring, earning the school state recognition as a symbol of urban hope.

24. Boxers in the NEW YORK TIMES
GO Boxers!!!
Boxers in the NEW YORK TIMES
High Expectations NO Excuses!!!
September 28, 2010

25. As we say in Boxer Country, we are WICKED AWESOME!!!
Our Turn Around Story… We did it our way!
Transforming a Culture through Literacy
A.K.A. - It’s COOL to be smart at Brockton High!!!
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26. So, that’s who we are… What did we do?
Brockton and ICLE philosophy
Rigor
Relevance
Relationships
ALL students-and
ALL means ALL!!!
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27. So, what did we do??? Our turnaround: 4 Steps Empowered a Team
Focused on Literacy – Literacy for ALL, no exceptions- all means all
Implemented with fidelity and according to a plan
Monitored like crazy!
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28. Step ONE: Empowering a Leadership Team
Restructuring Committee – our “think tank”
Every department represented with a mix of teachers and administrators
Balance of new teachers and veterans, new voices, and voices of experience
Challenge for Change
funding (NOT grant $)
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29. We looked at the data And, our first plan:
Let’s figure out the test The result of that:
The Great Shakespearean Fiasco

30. After our Shakespearean fiasco, a better approach:
Asked “What do our students need to be able to do to be successful on the MCAS, in their classes, and beyond BHS? (Read challenging passages, difficult nonfiction, write – a LOT, solve multistep problems, explain their thinking… etc.)
Examined our data: what did we need to focus on, what skills did we need to target for ALL
LITERACY – First, defined it, then trained ourselves how to teach these literacy skills to our students. It HAD to be about LITERACY!!!

31. The “WHAT”: LITERACY for ALL: Reading, Writing, Speaking, Reasoning
Step TWO: Focused on Literacy for ALL
The “WHAT”:
LITERACY for ALL:
Reading, Writing,
Speaking, Reasoning 31

32. How did we determine our focus? Literacy Skills Drafted:32

33. Engaging the faculty:
After each discussion, back to Restructuring for revisions. This process went back and forth to the faculty four or five times that year. Review, discuss, revise, repeat!

35. So now what…
We had cool looking charts on the walls… SO WHAT… The KEY to our implementation is HOW we trained teachers to teach these Literacy skills to our students.

36. Says Mike Schmoker in Results Now
It’s about teaching, stupid…
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37. Step THREE: Implemented with fidelity and a plan
Faculty Meetings became Literacy Workshops KEY = Adult Learning Teachers teaching teachers – GOOD stuff!

38. We started with writing!
FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS
We started with writing!
Writing is
thinking
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40. OPEN RESPONSE STEPS TO FOLLOW
Our First Training: Open Response
OPEN RESPONSE STEPS TO FOLLOW
1. READ QUESTION CAREFULLY.
2. CIRCLE OR UNDERLINE KEY WORDS.
3. RESTATE QUESTION AS THESIS (LEAVE BLANKS)
4. READ PASSAGE CAREFULLY.
5. TAKE NOTES THAT RESPOND TO THE QUESTION.
BRAINSTORM & MAP OUT YOUR ANSWER.
6. COMPLETE YOUR THESIS.
7. WRITE YOUR RESPONSE CAREFULLY, USING YOUR MAP AS A GUIDE.
8. STATEGICALLY REPEAT KEY WORDS FROM THESIS IN YOUR BODY AND IN YOUR END SENTENCE.
9. PARAGRAPH YOUR RESPONSE.
10. REREAD AND EDIT YOUR RESPONSE.

41. Here’s an example of explaining a step:
Now I will model the ten steps students will use when answering an open-response item. The following chart includes the training steps that the facilitator will use and an explanation of the work to be done by the participants.
Let’s go through the ten steps using The Book of Ruth as our sample text.
Here’s an example of explaining a step:
5: Take notes that respond to the question. Brainstorm and map out your answer. Remind students that they should be doing ACTIVE reading. They should use strategies to develop their answer, such as taking notes, circling and underlining key words, and using brackets. Follow reading strategies developed in the workshops.

42. So then what… Success by design!
First step:Training – ALL faculty
Next step – HOW to bring this into the classroom
Lessons developed
Implemented according to a calendar

43. Step THREE: Implemented with fidelity and a plan
We didn’t leave it to chance. (Success by design, not by chance!) The implementation was according to a specific timeline…

44. The Open Response calendar of implementation is as follows:
As a follow up to this activity, I am requiring Department Heads to collect from each teacher at least one student sample from each of the teachers’ classes. The student samples should include:
Student Name
Teacher Name
Date
Course Name and Level
Period
A copy of the reading selection and question
Evidence of the student’s active reading
All pre-writing work that the student has done, e.g. webs
A copy of the written open response
The new scoring rubric and completed assessment
After you have collected the samples from each teacher and have had the opportunity to review them for quality and completeness, please send them to me in a department folder with a checklist of your teachers. Again, please be sure that your teachers clearly label their student samples.
The Open Response calendar of implementation is as follows:
Nov 2-6: Social Science, Social Sci Biling.
Nov 30-Dec 4: Wellness, JROTC
Dec 14-18: Science, Science Bilingual
Jan 11-15: Business, Tech, & Career Ed.
Jan 25-29: Math, Math Bilingual
Feb 22-26: Foreign Lang, Special Ed
Mar. 7-11: English, ESL, Guidance
Mar Family &Cons. Sci, ProjGrads
Apr 5-9: Music, Art

45. Step FOUR: Monitored like crazy!!!
What gets monitored is what gets done!
Monitoring the work of the students (rubrics and collection and review of the work)
Monitoring the implementation by the faculty (walkthroughs, evals)
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46. How do we know the students are learning it?

47. Monitoring the implementation
What gets monitored is what gets done!
Implementation set by calendar
Admin team present in classrooms observing the literacy lesson
Follow up walkthroughs
Frequent feedback provided
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48. Remember:
It’s about the adults, not the kids! We taught ourselves to teach these literacy skills to the students. And we will ALL do it THIS WAY!

49. From Talent is Overrated
From Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin The factor that seems to explain the most about great performance is something the researchers call deliberate practice… Deliberate practice is hard. It hurts. But it works. More of it equals better performance. Tons of it equals great performance.

50. So what does this look like in the different subject areas???
GOOD STUFF!!!
Third Key Trend

51. Emily Dickinson is a poet who often wrote about her own emotional struggles. In two poems “Heart, We Will Forget Him” and “Knows How to Forget” she writes about how difficult it is to forget. Please read the two poems and the brief biography and answer the following three questions:
What were some of experiences in her life that influenced her writing?
What do the two poems have in common?
How are the two poems different?
Please use one quote from the poems or biography in each paragraph.

54. Social Science /History
Open Response
Explain how the article and the spiritual show John Brown’s commitment to the welfare of black people. Support your answer with relevant and specific information from the article and the spiritual.

55. Science
Open Response

56. Algebra
Open Response

57. Chinese
Open Response

58. Art
Open Response

59. Wellness/P.E.
Open Response

60. There are ALWAYS critics…
The cookie-cutter comment

61. How did we incorporate these Literacy Skills in every discipline?
Even in our discipline policies and procedures we incorporate our Literacy Initiative… remember, WRITING IS THINKING!

62. Our Classroom Incident form requires students to write when they come into the office

63. BUT….
Don’t think for a moment that everyone was happy… BUT, if we waited for buy-in, we’d still be waiting. SO, what did we do?? Meet Sharon and Penny

64. Insert PBS Need to know video on Penny and Sharon
To view the entire Need to Know segment on Brockton High, go to YouTube and search Need to Know Brockton High.

65. Here’s what gets the buy-in. RESULTS!!!

66. Changes in ELA Results Year One of School Wide Open Response

67. Changes in Math Results Year One of School Wide Open Response

69. Changes in ELA Results Year One of School Wide Open Response
Added a Literacy Workshop on Active Reading Strategies:
2002 22 14 25 13

70. TEACHER LEADERSHIP Some Schools Stand Out Comparisons of
Complacent HS and Brockton HS
Ronald F. Ferguson, PhD
Tripod Project for School Improvement ( and
Achievement Gap Initiative at Harvard University (

71. Proportions of students scoring in each decile
of the MCAS 8th grade ELA distribution

72. Listen to what Dr. Ferguson says about us
MCAS ELA gains 8th to 10th grade,
compared to others from the same 8th grade decile
(School rank percentile/100)
Listen to what Dr. Ferguson says about us

73. Video from PBS Need to Know

74. The Achievement Gap Initiative At Harvard University
The Achievement Gap Initiative At Harvard University Toward Excellence with Equity Conference Report by Ronald F. Ferguson, Faculty Director
“The main lesson was that student achievement rose when leadership teams focused thoughtfully and relentlessly on improving the quality of instruction.”
- Prof. Ron Ferguson, AGI Conference Report 74

75. “Brockton High demonstrates that you don’t have to change the student population to get results, you have to change the conditions under which they learn.”
Pedro Noguera

76. Wicked Awesome!
Our improvement over the past five years is perhaps even more impressive than the big jumps we had early on. 76 76

77. 2008

78. Composite Performance Index (CPI) measures progress towards the goal of narrowing proficiency gaps

79. Just listen to the students… Meet Nephie and Tatiana
If these results don’t convince you…
Just listen to the students… Meet Nephie and Tatiana

80. Video from CBS Evening News

81. Recap: The 4 Steps in our Turnaround
1. Empowering a team
2. Focusing on literacy:
Literacy for ALL – NO exceptions
3. Implementing with fidelity and according to a plan
4. Monitoring, monitoring, monitoring
The Result = Changing the Culture

82. And when you do those things
You can get some WICKED AWESOME results!
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83. Brockton School District Plymouth County
AWARDS, AWARDS, AWARDS, AWARDS!!!
Brockton High School
Brockton School District Plymouth County
470 Forest Avenue Brockton, Massachusetts (508)
2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014

84. 293 SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS
JOHN & ABIGAIL ADAMS BHS SCHOLARS 2014
293 SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS
33% of the class! Most ever!!!
Most in Massachusetts!!!
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85. Class of 2014 – over 90% went off to college!
College for ALL:
Changing students’ beliefs:
Class of 2014 – over 90% went off to college!
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86. Boxers in the NEW YORK TIMES
GO Boxers!!!
Boxers in the NEW YORK TIMES
High Expectations NO Excuses!!!
September 28, 2010

87. FINAL THOUGHTS:
Advice… for whatever it’s worth. This is totally NOT research based. It’s the “walk a mile in my shoes” advice…

88. Leadership Lesson #1: FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS
Make Literacy your target.
Literacy for ALL, no exceptions.
Resist the “next new thing” – LITERACY, LITERACY, LITERACY
You are on the right track!!!

89. Leadership Lesson #2: It’s ALL about instruction!!! (the adults)
You want to improve your school? It’s about instruction!!!
The key to our success had nothing to do with the kids. It was about adult learning.

90. Leadership Lesson #3: Implement with a plan
Implement with a plan. Success by design, not by chance. ALL students deserve the best!

91. Leadership Lesson #4: What gets monitored is what gets done
Leave nothing to chance.
Direct observation of the implementation.
Be visible, even coteach
Follow up with collection and review of student work.

92. Leadership Lesson #5: NO EXCUSES!!!
No excuses…life isn’t fair. Use the challenges to your advantage.
Changing expectations is FREE!!!
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93. High Expectations, THEY believe!
Amarr:
“It’s not us against them.”
Terrence:
“No one here would let me fail. I know, because I tried to.”
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94. Making change takes tenacity, not brilliance!
Here’s what we know
Making change takes tenacity, not brilliance!
(If we can do it, ANYONE can!)

95. FINAL THOUGHT:
If we can do this, anyone can! In 1999 we were called a “Cesspool” in our local media. Now we are called the “Jewel of the City.”

96. For more info:
Check out more on the Brockton Story and many of our scripts in our new book!!!
Proceeds go to Brockton High
Available at

97. If we can do this, so can you!!!
Thank You!!!
Sue Szachowicz, Senior Fellow ICLE, Brockton High Principal (retired)