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June 2008 -- For the past five years, campus leaders and teachers from 16 Houston-area high schools have been collaborating to redesign their structures and services, in order to offer more a more personalized, rigorous and relevant education for their collective 32,000 students. Schools in four Houston-area school districts (Aldine, Alief, Humble and Spring Branch) have participated.
As the project period has come to a close, the principals of these high schools, in collaboration with Houston A+ Challenge, authored a report to document key accomplishments in improving the school culture, learning conditions, professional competencies and student achievement in Houston-area schools:
- School Culture
- Establishment of Professional Learning Communities that are focused on collaborative reflection, goal-setting and results rather than intentions
- Personalization of relationships among students and staff
- Establishment of collaborative leadership
- Learning Conditions
- Establishment of time during the school day for teacher planning and collaboration
- Creation of smaller learning communities within the school to provide a more personalized experience for students
- Creation of new staff positions for direct support of teacher instruction
- Professional Competencies
- Improvement of professional and instructional skills through training for all staff members in support of all changes listed above
- Student Achievement
- Improvement in student performance on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) and other success indicators
In addition, the report presents a number of recommendations to district administrators and policymakers seeking to sustain and accelerate the transformational change that is needed for our high schools:
- Maintain a relentless focus on instructional improvement
- Set high expectations for teachers to provide high-quality instruction and assessment, while offering monitoring, feedback and support
- Provide sufficient support personnel to work directly with teachers
- Provide campus leaders with tools, time and training to monitor, coach and model good instruction
- Modify Board policies to support best practices in both instruction and human resources
- Support instruction-focused Professional Learning Communities
- Continue to deepen understanding and commitment to PLCs
- Support PLCs with time, resources and professional development
- Expand personalized learning opportunities for students
- Continue developing personalized environments and structures which ensure that no student “falls through the cracks”
Sample resolution language is included, to encourage School Boards seeking to support the ten areas identified as critical for deepening and sustaining this work.
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