From the A+ Office

Scott Van Beck, executive director of Houston A+ Challenge, knows a thing or two about student engagement—enough to say, "Student engagement is the holy grail.  We’ve got to figure this out."

As a regional superintendent of Houston ISD’s West Region, Van Beck and his executive staff visited campuses to collect data on school performance using a unique protocol titled, "ARE we there yet?"  Van Beck, his team, and school personnel would visit three classrooms to assess performance in three areas: A-Alignment, R-Rigor, and E-Engagement.  After almost 1,000 classroom visits over three years for this purpose, the findings were clear and obvious.  "Even in high scoring classrooms with what would be considered highly effective teachers, we found that engagement scores were usually the lowest. In fact, they were usually 50% of the alignment scores," Van Beck concludes.

The data also showed that elementary teachers generally had higher scores in engagement than secondary teachers did.  Van Beck suggests that one of the reasons for this disparity has to do with the  issue of skills versus content.  "Elementary schools tend to spend more time building skills," says Van Beck, "whereas secondary schools expect kids to know the 'how' as opposed to the 'what.'" 

At Houston A+ Challenge, Van Beck keeps coming back to a key finding from this earlier work: "with student engagement, you have to begin with the learner in mind. You can't look at content or teaching practice—you must focus on learners' needs and interests, and that's tough in an environment of accountability based on standardized tests.  Accountability is built around curriculum and teacher practice, not around learners’ behaviors and needs."

An oldie but goodie still flies off the shelves at Houston A+ Challenge on a regular basis: Phil Schlechty's Working on the Work from 2002.  It still circulates among staff and those A+ works with because it remains the best resource on student engagement that educators can lay their hands on. 

Building on his previous work, Shaking Up the Schoolhouse, Schlechty begins by categorizing student engagement in the classroom into five behavioral responses: authentic engagement, ritual engagement, passive compliance, retreatism, and rebellion.  These responses underscore the book’s strategic intent, which is to transform classroom practice into meaningful, engaged instruction.  The remainder of the book examines the ways in which leaders at all levels in a district can transform schools, and the thread through all of this is student engagement. 

It’s no surprise: professional development as it has been provided in many schools and school districts does not work.  In his highly useful and insightful book, Diaz-Maggioli starts here and asks the logical follow-up question, “So what does?”

The answer?  Teacher-Centered Professional Development.

For Diaz-Maggioli, professional development “should be understood as a job-embedded commitment that teachers make in order to further the purposes of the profession while addressing their own particular needs.  It should follow principles that guide the learning practices of experienced adults, in teaching communities that foster cooperation and shared expertise.” 

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