During the past few years, CTA has been asking teachers about how their lives and their schools are being affected by the intense pressure to improve student achievement in an era of standards-based reform, high-stakes testing and accountability.
We have commissioned surveys, visited school sites, held hearings, conducted interviews, and sponsored research. Early in November, we held discussion groups with teachers at four schools in the lowest decile of the Academic Performance Index (API).
Participants in these sessions were asked to respond to a simple question: "What would you like the California State Board of Education to know about your school?" Their answers were as varied as they were intense; in some cases they were very emotional.
This is a sampling of the hundreds of statements made by teachers:
...The staff development described in the school improvement plan was not offered.
...Teachers are not familiar with the site action plans.
...Reading instruction was not given the priority called for in the plan.
...There are large numbers of students in the classrooms.
...Because they fear retribution, only veteran teachers participate in discussions.
...Most of the new teachers are transferring out or leaving the profession.
...Boundaries continue to change. We have not had a stable student population because the attendance boundary has changed three times in three years.
...New mathematics books weren't distributed until late November.
...Our rooms need significant repairs. There is no air conditioning, there is rain damage and some rooms have been vandalized.
...There is a slow district response to site team requests to reduce tracks, adjust boundaries and fix the plant.
...There are unpredictable assignment changes.
...In the span of two years, we have gone from bonus to underperforming status.
...The school is restructured in name only.
...The evaluators never returned to assess whether or not the plan was making a difference.
Overall, the situation in these schools is one where teachers have little control. Schools are subject to extremely high external expectations, but they are not given the recognition, respect and resources necessary to make a difference. These schools appear to have six issues in common:
- Failure to implement plans;
- Failure to involve all major stakeholders in ways that are meaningful;
- Conditions that have changed dramatically and unpredictably;
- Teachers and schools that are not adequately prepared to address the needs;
- An emphasis on quantity over quality - rather than helping teachers to do things in a different way, teachers are being directed to work harder;
- Plans are not being monitored.
In this context, it makes little sense to subject schools to continued abuse and harassment. What is necessary is a fundamental shift in how schools view the challenge of change. First, schools must be encouraged to be inclusive as they deliberate and consider changes. Second, and more importantly, they must be urged not to see the school improvement plan as the result of a definitive act.
An excellent resource for schools taking this approach can be found in two documents available free of charge from the California State Department of Education.
The Voluntary Template for the Single Plan for Student Achievement is a document that contains many of the more important tools necessary for schools to create and/or modify their site improvement plans. It also describes a multi-step process to enable schools to move forward in a coherent and systematic way.
The Guide to the Single Plan for Student Achievement: A Handbook for Schoolsite Councils is a document that describes a planning cycle that is ongoing and circular. It contains an excellent inventory of many fiscal and content resources that schools can access as well as a useful collection of planning instruments.
Taken together, these documents and the resources they contain redefine school change. For information on these documents, contact the School and District Accountability Division for Assistance: (916) 319-0926.
Schools do not improve simply because a plan is crafted by a few individuals in order to comply with external requirements. Rather, over time, they improve because everyone is engaged in an ongoing dynamic - almost organic - and everchanging process.
CTA's Instruction and Professional Development Department can provide training and technical assistance for members to support this more effective approach to improving schools. This member benefit can be accessed by contacting your CTA primary contact staff.
As Dwight D. Eisenhower put it, "Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable."
Justo Robles
Robles is the manager of CTA Instruction and Professional Development.
