March 4, 2022
Lessons from High Poverty, High Success Schools:
Focus on Student Achievement
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No significant learning occurs without a significant relationship. – Dr. James Comer
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In January, we embarked on a journey of identifying several impactful school practices shown to be effective in closing achievement gaps – particularly in high poverty schools while also maintaining equity. These identified practices use the research of Doug Reeves as their primary source. In today’s article, we focus on yet another impactful practice, that of maintaining the right focus.
Schools that are high achieving for all students over time sustain an intentional, foundational, and primary focus on student achievement. While most every school claims to focus on student achievement, those who sustain positive results typically do so by 1) displaying visible indicators of student achievement throughout the school; 2) allocating their time differently; 3) having leaders who focus most of their time entirely on students rather than administrative tasks; 4) maintaining intense, deep, personal relationships with students and colleagues.
1) Visible Indicators
Observing what’s on the walls of a school provides immediate information as to how important student performance really is, or isn’t, in a given school. Tables, charts, and graphs displaying student performance data is highly visible in these high performing schools, and trophy cases are abundantly full of exemplary academic work such as essays, art work, science projects and more.
2) Allocation of Time
During grade-level, department, and all-staff meetings, time is allocated exclusively on discussions about teaching and learning with little or no time being wasted on announcements. Every meeting has a purpose, and teams focus consistently on learning for all students by asking, discussing, and answering the following four critical questions (see Issues 2/18/22):
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- What do we want students to know and be able to do? (Learning)
- How will we know if they learned it? (Assessment)
- What will we do if they have not learned it? (Intervention)
- What will we do if they already have learned it? (Extension)
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The focus on student achievement is also evident in classrooms with charts displaying weekly progress, and literacy and math skills being a responsibility shared by all. Teachers prioritize comprehension over coverage by routinely checking for understanding. Finally, interventions in these schools occur primarily during the school day, because the students who most need interventions do not come to after-school and weekend sessions!
3) Leadership Focus
Doug Reeves has shadowed school leaders in the high-poverty, high-performing schools. While the leaders are diverse, they share the trait of frequently being in classrooms, hallways, and common areas of the schools. They are committed to spending their time during the school day with students and teachers for the purpose of improved teaching and learning, and they handle administrative tasks at other times.
4) Relationships
The value of relationships goes beyond rhetoric in these schools. Leaders and teachers know individual names, and it is common to maintain student portfolios of academic performance and also something about the life of the student outside of school. Many of these schools have slogans such as “data has a face” and have pictures of every student alongside of the data. Possibly most important in the area of relationships is the personal trust and credibility of the leader (Kouzes & Posner) who keeps promises and builds/maintains social capital.
While nearly all schools claim to focus on student achievement, the high-performing schools operationalize it in very specific ways. They intentionally maintain visible indicators, allocate their time purposely, have leaders who prioritize learning, and put high value on meaningful relationships!
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Kouzes, J.M., & Posner, B.Z. (2011). Credibility: How leaders gain and lose it, why people demand it. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Reeves, D. (2020). Achieving Equity & Excellence: Immediate Results from the Lessons of High-Poverty, High-Success Schools. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press
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Stark Education Partnership is a catalyst, engaging and collaborating with education, business, civic and community stakeholders to drive sustainable improvement and innovation to provide all students with education and career success. View as Webpage
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