Leading Education Organizations Call for Districtwide Strategies to Raise Student Achievement

For More Information Contact:

Claus von Zastrow, 202-296-5220, x13

 

Monday, March 24, 2003

Washington, DC. - A new case study report released today by the Learning First Alliance shows that five high poverty school districts raised student achievement by focusing on districtwide strategies to improve instruction. Titled Beyond Islands of Excellence: What Districts Can Do to Improve Instruction and Achievement in All Schools, the report outlines lessons from the five districts and identifies practical steps that school districts can take to move beyond a few excellent schools to success across entire systems.

The five districts studied are: Aldine Independent School District in Houston, Texas; Chula Vista Elementary School District in Chula Vista, California; Kent County Public Schools in Maryland; Minneapolis Public Schools; and Providence Public Schools. The districts were selected based on their ability to exhibit at least three years of improvement in student achievement in mathematics and/or reading across multiple grades and across all races and ethnicities.

The study findings are particularly useful as states and school districts work to meet the requirements of the No Child Left Behind legislation, which intensifies the requirement for school districts to raise the achievement of all students. “We cannot continue to point to heroic principals and extraordinary teachers to improve the performance for all children,” said Judy Wurtzel, Executive Director of the Alliance. “Ensuring the success of all children requires systemwide approaches that support teachers and principals, not simply school-by-school fixes. The districts in our study are putting in place strategies that touch every school and every child.”

More specifically, the study findings reveal that the districts:

• Had the courage to acknowledge poor student performance and the will to seek effective solutions.
• Recognized that to raise student achievement they had to focus more intensively on improving instruction and put in place a coordinated set of strategies to support this work.
• Significantly shifted teacher and principal professional development from single-workshop approaches to comprehensive research-based strategies to improve teacher and principal skills.
• Based decisions on good data, not instinct - using multiple measures of student and school performance to guide decision making.
• Recognized that no one group could carry the reform alone and engaged everyone - parents, principals, universities, teachers, school board members, unions, central office staff and the community - to improve results for students.
• Recognized that there were no quick fixes and showed the patience, hard work, consistency and long-term support necessary for improvement.

Leaders of the Learning First Alliance, a partnership of the nation’s leading education organizations, will work extensively to spread the strategies used by the study districts. For example, leaders of the two teachers unions, the superintendents’ organization, and the school boards association have agreed to encourage their members to focus intensively on instruction as the primary vehicle to raise student achievement. According to Wurtzel, “It is our hope that the report and district case studies will be useful tools for other districts and policymakers as they seek strategies to increase the achievement of all children.”

For the Leadership Brief, click here 

The Learning First Alliance, founded in 1997, is a permanent partnership of leading education organizations working together to improve student learning. The Alliance members are: The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, American Association of School Administrators, American Federation of Teachers, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Council of Chief State School Officers; Education Commission of the States, National Association of Elementary School Principals, National Association of Secondary School Principals, National Association of State Boards of Education, National Education Association, National PTA and the National School Boards Association.

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Learning First Alliance

Claus von Zastrow, Interim Executive Director
Learning First Alliance
T: 202-296-5220, ext. 13 vonzastrowc@learningfirst.org

Linda Embrey
National School Boards Association
T: 703-838-6737 lembrey@nsba.org

Anne L. Bryant, Executive Director
American Association of School Administrators
Barbara Knisely
T: 703-875-0723 bknisely@aasa.org

Paul Houston, Executive Director
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
Barbara Gleason, Director of Public Information
T: (703) 575-5610 bgleason@ascd.org

Gene Carter, Executive Director
Mikki Terry, Deputy Executive Director
National Education Association
Denise Cardinal, Senior Professional Associate in Communications
T: (202) 822-7239 dcardinal@nea.org

John Wilson, Executive Director

Districts

Aldine Independent School District

Wanda Bamberg, Assistant Superintendent
T: 281.985.6318
wbamberg@aldine.k12.tx.us

Nadine Kujawa, Superintendent
T: 281.985.6318
nkujawa@aldine.k12.tx.us

Carlos Diaz, School Board member
T: 281.443.2237
cdiazs@msn.com

Margaret Byrd, Former principal, current Area Superintendent
T: 281.985.6427
mbyrd@aldine.k12.tx.us

Chula Vista Elementary School District

Dennis Doyle, Assistant Superintendent, Government and Community Affairs
T: 619.425.9600, ext. 1325

Kent County Public Schools

Jon Baker, Community Relations Coordinator
T: 410.778.7179
jbaker@kent.k12.md.us

Bonnie Ward, Superintendent
T: 410.778.7113
bward@kent.k12.md.us

Joan Buffone, Assistant Superintendent, Instruction, Curriculum and Staff Development
T: 410.778.7144
jbuffone@kent.k12.md.us

Gina Jachimowicz, Supervisor of Instruction
T: 410.778.7120
gjachimowicz@kent.k12.md.us

Minneapolis Public Schools

Melissa Winter
Communications Department
T: 612.668.0228
http://www.mpls.k12.mn.us

Dr. Carol Johnson, Superintendent
T: 612.668.0200
mpssup@mpls.k12.mn.us

Kerry Felt, Teacher and Instructional Services Executive Director
T: 612.668.5300

Judy Farmer, School Board member
T: 612-379-7429

Providence Public Schools

Mike Sorum, Director Office of Research, Assessment, and Evaluation
T: 401.456.9128
Mike.Sorum@ppsd.org

Dr. Melody Johnson, Superintendent
T: 401.456.9214 or 401.456.9221
Melody.Johnson@ppsd.org