Leadership Matters February 2014

Matters FEBUARY 2 0 1 4 I ASA MONTHLY NEWSLETTER Leadership

In this month’s issue

Additional Items

2648 Beechler Court Springfield, IL 62703-7305 217.753.2213 800 Woodfield Road, Ste. F109 Schaumburg, IL 60173-4717 847.466.5075  IASA News in Brief P. 27  Getting to know your IASA Region Presidents P. 28  IASA Calendar of Events P. 34  Educating children in poverty: Four ’C’s’ are crucial for leaders P. 9  A system of care for children in poverty P. 11  Teaching with poverty in mind is more than a book title in Rochelle P. 13  Poverty & achievement gap: Teachers can be most important factor P. 15  As powerfully demonstrated by a principal in Brazil, leadership matters P. 17  So what goes into a school -closing decision anyway? P. 19  Now is the time to put ‘Accountability’ into teacher evaluation P. 20  ISDLAF+ Update - January 2014 P. 22  Vision 20/20 initiative builds momentum P. 23  Illinois Superintendent of the Year Reception will be held at AASA National Conference P. 26

Poverty: Elephant in public education classroom P. 5

So what goes into a school-closing decision anyway? P. 19

Now is the time to put ‘Accountability’ into teacher evaluation P. 20

Vision 20/20 initiative builds momentum P. 23

IASA Newsletter Editor Michael Chamness mchamness@iasaedu.org

Assistant Editor Mary Ellen Buch mbuch@iasaedu.org

1200 West Main Street Marion, IL 62959-1138 618.364.0501

Volume 2, Issue 2

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Tackling poverty in education a daunting challenge, but restoring GSA would help This year marks the 50 th anniversary of President serious harm. Addressing the educational challenges faced by children from disadvantaged families will require a broader and bolder approach to education policy than the recent efforts to reform schools.”

Lyndon B. Johnson’s “War on Poverty.” Statistically, not much has changed in those 50 years with regard to poverty. Whether it’s talking to those on the front lines of public education or

Message from the Executive Director Dr. Brent Clark

The paper goes on to cite research conducted by Sean F. Reardon of Stanford University, who studied more than 50 years of data and concluded that the achievement gap between high-income and low- income students now far exceeds the gap between white and African American students. There are, Ladd writes, several possible public policy responses to this problem, including: 1. Reducing the incidence of poverty. We’ve had the “War on Poverty” that dates back to the 1960s and various other programs, but the poverty rate just keeps on climbing. 2. Denying the issue and expecting schools alone to deal with any adverse effects in the educational context. This essentially is the approach taken by NCLB and many education reform groups. Some truly believe in the “no excuses” approach, while others might subscribe to the theory that we need to avoid what President Bush called “the soft bigotry of low expectations.” Of course, there are outliers -- schools that have overcome great odds -- but even those are few and most have had trouble sustaining their success. A fourth possible reason Ladd says for policymakers to ignore the evidence linking poverty to low achievement in school is one she labeled as “more nefarious”: to discredit public schools in order to generate pressure for greater privatization of the education system. 3. Setting the poverty context aside and focusing on improving school quality by reducing inefficiencies. Ladd includes under this heading the use of high-stakes testing for the evaluation of teachers, and providing competition for public schools through the creation of charter schools and the use of school vouchers. She acknowledges that this approach actually could do harm by draining resources from public schools. 4. Directly addressing the challenges (Continued on page 4)

studying the wealth of research on the topic, there can be no denying that poverty is the biggest obstacle facing students, teachers and school administrators. It is, as the theme of this month’s edition of Leadership Matters suggests, the elephant in the classroom. Presidents from both parties as well as many education reformers have taken the approach that schools must simply overcome the problems associated with poverty, no excuses accepted. President George W. Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” law set unrealistically high standards that have resulted in most schools failing to meet them. President Obama’s approach has been to emphasize evaluating teachers based on test scores and encouraging the creation of charter schools as an alternative to public schools though there is no consistent research that shows charters fare any better than public schools overall. Consider a paper written by Helen F. Ladd, professor at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. The paper was titled “Education and Poverty: Confronting the Evidence,” and the abstract said: “Current U.S. policy initiatives to improve the U.S. education system, including No Child Left Behind, test-based evaluation of teachers and the promotion of competition, are misguided because they either deny or set to the side a basic body of evidence documenting that students from disadvantaged households on average perform less well in school than those from more advantaged families. Because these policy initiatives do not directly address the educational challenges experienced by disadvantaged students, they have contributed little -- and are not likely to contribute much in the future -- to raising overall student achievement or to reducing achievement and educational attainment gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged students. Moreover, such policies have the potential to do

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Tackling poverty in education ________________________

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faced by low-income students. Ladd mentions such interventions as early childhood education and pre-school programs, school- based health clinics and social services, and after-school and summer programs.

In the package of stories we have assembled in this edition of Leadership Matters, you can read about different perspectives and approaches taken by some of our colleagues from across the state. Interestingly enough, most of these approaches seem to fall into Ladd’s category No. 4 – directly addressing the challenges faced by low-income students. Like many of you, I am troubled by the issue of poverty in public education. It is my hope that IASA’s “Vision 20/20” initiative will offer some ideas, and I also am watching with great interest to see what recommendations will arise from Sen. Andy Manar’s Senate Education Funding Advisory Committee (EFAC). Those recommendations are supposed to be presented to the General Assembly this month (February) and I would guess that the recommendations might include things such as block grant funding and a fundamental change to the funding formula designed to redistribute funding to poorer school districts. The bottom line regarding the state’s funding of public schools is that General State Aid (GSA) must be restored to full funding. GSA was designed to be the great equalizer between school districts in a state that relies primarily on local property taxes to fund public education. Cutting GSA, as has been done the past two years and is predicted to happen again next school year, hurts all school districts. But it disproportionately harms poor school districts that get very little in local property tax revenue. Changing how you slice the pie won’t do any good if the pie keeps getting smaller.

This year marks the 50 th anniversary of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “War on Poverty.” In this photo, President Johnson signs the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in front of his one-room Junction Elementary School in Johnson, Texas. In speech after speech, President Johnson presented education — from Head Start preschools and Title I grants to help level the educational field for disadvantaged students, to the forerunner of Pell Grants to help them afford college — as the linchpin of the Great Society efforts. "Very often a lack of jobs and money is not the cause of poverty, but the symptom," he said as he declared an "unconditional war on poverty" in his Jan. 8, 1964 State of the Union address. "The cause may lie deeper in our failure to give our fellow citizens a fair chance to develop their own capacities."

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Poverty: Elephant in public education classroom By Michael Chamness IASA Director of Communications prenatal care and preschool. Of course, schools must improve; everyone should have a stable, experienced staff, adequate resources and a balanced curriculum including the arts, foreign languages, history and science.

Poverty. It’s the elephant in the classrooms of public schools across Illinois. Generational poverty is a vicious cycle. Many children in poverty are at a distinct disadvantage when they start school and that learning gap grows. If they fail to get a college degree or good education and they can’t find decent jobs to support their families, then their children start school behind other children. The cycle repeats. Ask front-line educators about the greatest predictor of school success and many will tell you that it is what happens or doesn’t happen in the home. Standardized tests simply confirm the prognosis. Consider the words of Diane Ravitch, a research professor at New York University and author of “The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education.” In a column published by the New York Times in May of 2011, Ravitch wrote: “The achievement gap between children from different income levels exists before children enter school… Families are children’s most important educators. Our society must invest in parental education,

If every child arrived in school well-nourished, healthy and ready to learn, from a family with a stable home and a steady income, many of our educational problems would be solved. And that would be a miracle.” How prevalent is poverty in Illinois schools? Using the federal eligibility guidelines for the free or reduced lunch programs, almost half (49.9 percent) of the K-12 students in Illinois were considered to be from low-income families in 2013, up 33 percent from 2002 (37.5 percent). Theories abound as to why kids from low-income families struggle in school, from middle-class teachers not understanding how to reach children from poverty-stricken backgrounds to the more obvious notion that children who are hungry, scared or without family support systems may be thinking more about survival than English or math. “Illinois’ proportion of low-income students has grown from 37.5 percent of the enrollment in 2002 to (Continued on page 6)

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Poverty in the public education classroom

The middle-class child comes to school with a language experience that is 10 times greater than the poor child,” Flynn said. “Then if you lay out a line of student achievement you can see the gap.” Using the Illinois Interactive Report Card, third- grade students from low-income families had achievement gaps of around 30 percent or more in

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about half in 2013, meaning more than 1 million students now live in households that struggle to meet their children’s basic nutritional, healthcare and housing needs,” State Superintendent of Education Christopher A. Koch said. “Research shows that children who live in areas of concentrated poverty often suffer higher stress levels and can demonstrate

reading, writing, math and science in 2003 – and those gaps had grown by the time they were tested as 11 th -graders last year. Flynn is not ready to surrender to poverty despite all of the barriers, and he cautioned against generalization. “Each child is different and as administrators and teachers we have to be aware of our own biases. We should have high expectations for all children,” he said. “All children have a gift. Some have a harder time showing their gifts, and some may not even know what their gifts are. It’s our jobs to uncover those gifts.” Flynn said there is no silver bullet solution, but the issue requires a comprehensive approach to each child. Jeanne Davis is superintendent in

more severe behavioral and emotional problems than their peers. These struggles can be huge road blocks on a child’s path to college and career readiness and lead to lower achievement scores and higher dropout rates.” Dr. Peter Flynn is a veteran of more than 50 years in public education and is a champion of providing a quality educational opportunity for all students, especially those facing the greatest challenges, including minority students and children from impoverished backgrounds. He was named the “Illinois

“The achievement gap between children from different income levels exists before children enter school… Families are children’s most

important educators. Our society must invest in parental education, prenatal care and preschool. Of course, schools must improve; everyone should have a stable, experienced staff, adequate resources and a balanced curriculum including the arts, foreign languages, history and science. If every child arrived in school well- nourished, healthy and ready to learn, from a family with a stable home and a steady income, many of our educational problems would be solved. And that would be a miracle.” --Author, speaker and research professor Diane Ravitch

Superintendent of the Year” by the Illinois Association of School Administrators (IASA) in 2012. He retired after 12 years as superintendent in Freeport, where the poverty rate has grown to 72 percent, and just finished a three-month stint as interim superintendent of the Galesburg district while the superintendent there recovered from a stroke. Flynn worked with underprivileged students as a teacher in New Bedford, Massachusetts, in the 1960s and for the past 13 years has co-chaired a poverty working group in Stephenson County. Flynn described the situation pretty succinctly: “Take two children, one from a middle class background and one from a background of poverty.

Lewistown, where the percentage of students who qualify as low-income is about 39 percent according to the latest Interactive Report Card. Before coming to Lewistown, Davis for five years was superintendent of the Creve Coeur district, which had a poverty rate of 72 percent. Davis has seen both ends of the opportunity spectrum, having taught in an upscale private school where a parent wrote a $1,000 check so students

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Poverty in the public education classroom

Davis and others in the Creve Coeur school district did

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studying Shakespeare could go to Navy Pier and watch a live rap version and could see the Bard’s work come to life. Parental attendance at the private school events was about 80 percent compared to about 5 percent in Creve Coeur “if we were lucky,” she said. “Parents from low-income

more than pontificate about those issues. Despite dwindling state assistance – or maybe because of the lack of state funds – they did things like forming student support teams and partnering with local

agencies like the Center for Prevention of Abuse in Peoria. A student support team of 10 Creve Coeur Junior High staff members, counselors, social workers and interventionists from the Center for Prevention of Abuse met monthly and identified the top dozen children with the most critical needs. Those children were assigned a teacher mentor that they were required to check in with each school day. The teacher mentor was supposed to make sure the kids were feeling safe and were doing their schoolwork. “It was a system of care,” said Davis, noting the Mind Over Muscles and HARTS programs to help children navigate through conflict and improve their self-discipline. “Students who have social or emotional issues have their ability to learn disabled.” Davis said the one-on-one teacher mentor approach was showing good results in the Creve Coeur district. Davis and Flynn agree that early childhood education is a key component to overcoming the obstacles of poverty in education. School districts across the state have seen reductions in state support,

homes are no less loving or concerned, but they face huge obstacles when it comes to resources,” Davis said. “Parents in Creve Coeur were no less interested, but many were working more than one job or could not afford a babysitter. More affluent people tend to have done well in school and school is a comfortable place for them. Some of the low-income parents tend not to be comfortable at school. Some may be embarrassed that they can’t help their kids with homework and so they don’t come.” Davis’ 14 years as a teacher and nine as an administrator have led her to the observation that school practices are guided by middle-class norms and expectations that don’t easily translate for children who live in poverty. It’s a practical observation that is in sync with the writings and teachings of Ruby Payne, an educator and noted author who has presented her program titled “A Framework for Understanding Poverty” across the country the past several years. “There has to be a basic understanding about living circumstances, family structure and the challenges that people in poverty face,” said Davis, who

“Illinois’ proportion of low-income students has grown from 37.5 percent of the

enrollment in 2002 to about half in 2013, meaning more than 1 million students now live in households that struggle to meet their children’s basic nutritional, healthcare and housing needs. Research shows that children who live in areas of concentrated poverty often suffer higher stress levels and can demonstrate more severe behavioral and emotional problems than their peers. These struggles can be huge road blocks on a child’s path to college and career readiness and lead to lower achievement scores and higher dropout rates.” --Dr. Christopher Koch, State Superintendent of Schools

forcing districts to find alternative ways to keep programs going, such as reaching out and partnering with local non-profit agencies. In Freeport, the partnerships included a summer

also has worked for non-profit social agencies in her career. “You can’t begin to teach in the classroom until children are emotionally ready to learn, and many of them are faced with challenges many of us will never see in our lives, things like hunger, abuse or neglect, no support systems or stable homes.”

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reading program with Barnes & Noble, the local libraries and even a group called Therapy Dogs International that provided therapy dogs for students in the summer program to read to as part of the “Paws for Readers” program. Flynn said the summer reading program helped stop a summer slide among students from low- income families. “What we were seeing was that we were making gains during the school year, in many cases greater gains among the poor and minorities, but then the problem was during the summer, when they were not in school, they would slide back behind the other students,” Flynn said. “After we started the summer program, the low-income students who participated have been able to maintain their grade-level advantages. “The state’s poverty block grant has been very helpful,” Flynn said. “When General State Aid was cut, the poverty grant helped offset those losses.” There are six preschool programs in Freeport and Flynn estimated that as many as 200 of the 300 kindergarten students had attended one of the preschool programs. When funding for the preschool program was reduced, Freeport kept the program going by using reserve funds that had been built up by years of conservative budgeting. Flynn credited the teachers union in Freeport with helping keep the program and other programs alive. “Our union got it,” he said. “We were able to budget responsibly in part because of the reasonableness of our union. We were able to maintain a rainy day fund, and it’s a good thing because it’s pouring out there.”

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Poverty in the public education classroom

By Arthur Culver East St. Louis District 189 Much has been written about educating children in poverty. Depending on whose research you believe, children who come from economically disadvantaged homes may or may not ever catch up to their middle class peers in college and career readiness skills. I fall into the camp that believes that all children can succeed if learning conditions are right. To quote the late Dr. Ron Edmonds, “We can, whenever and wherever we choose, successfully teach all children whose schooling is of interest to us. We already know more than we need to do that. Whether or not we do it must finally depend on how we feel about the fact that we haven’t so far.” For success to occur, the adults responsible for leadership, instruction, and support services must believe that their students have the intellectual capacity for academic success. Equally important, adults must believe that they have the ability to lead students to academic success regardless of past failures. Without a true belief in the intellectual capacity of their students, as well as in their leadership and instructional skills, they will not be able to justify the enormous amount of effort necessary to succeed. So, how can educators accelerate the achievement of economically disadvantaged children? I reflect on the four “Cs” of leadership – commitment, courage, capacity, and collaboration -- to ensure success. Your commitment must transition to a mission. Instead of going to work every day, you are engaged in a mission. Educators on a mission perform in a manner that is very different from those who are just doing a job. It takes courage to consistently make decisions that are best for all children, especially when decisions may not be best for some adults. In spite of pressure and criticism from peers, superordinates and subordinates, you must make decisions that emanate from what is best for all students. This will eventually cause controversy; however, if you stay (Continued on page 10) Educating children in poverty: Four ‘C’s’ are crucial for leaders

Arthur Culver came to East St. Louis District 189 -- where the poverty rate is 98 percent -- as a liaison from the Illinois State Board of Education in 2011 and two months later was named superintendent. “I am honored to be selected to serve the students and families in East St. Louis,” said Culver at

the time. “My entire career has been focused on improving educational outcomes for disadvantaged students. A student’s zip code, family income status, nor race should dictate their educational attainment. I am committed to creating positive changes for the students and staff in District 189. Many of our children come from economically disadvantaged homes, but they are rich in intelligence, ability, and the will to succeed. “ The East St. Louis District is aligning curriculum to the Common Core standards, providing professional development to teachers and administrators, making sure strong accountability standards are in place, and reducing the budget deficit. Also, under Superintendent Culver’s leadership, East St. Louis is implementing $8.6 million in competitive grants to support academic improvements. Culver has more than 30 years of experience as a teacher, principal and administrator, including nine years as superintendent for the Champaign Community Unit District 4, where African American elementary math and reading scores and enrollment of African American students in Honors and Advanced Placement tripled. These and other improved outcomes led to the successful settlement of a 10-year-old Federal Consent Decree for the district. His experience as a reform agent began with his first principal’s position in Texas where he took a school that was 88 percent minority and more than 50 percent low- income students and led it to “Recognized” status under the Texas Education Agency accountability system. As a superintendent and area superintendent in Texas school districts with high minority and low-income student populations, he led the majority of schools under his supervision to “Recognized” or “Exemplary” (Texas’ highest accreditation designation). In 2009, Culver was asked by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to be part of a “Blue Sky” Turnaround team to provide innovative ideas regarding school reform. He also served on the Illinois Education Funding Advisory Board (EFAB) and the Education Accountability Task Force.

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principle-centered, student success will be your reward. Although you cannot worry about politics, you must understand politics so it will not drive major decisions that impact student learning. Also, and equally important, your desire for a contract extension or salary increase should never drive decisions. Stay focused on the children. A district’s human resources are a critical part of the equation. You can have the necessary financial resources, systems, programs, policies, practices and processes in place; however, if your employees do not excel based on a deep data analysis, you must conclude that they do not have either the will or

existing conditions. It is more productive to improve failing schools than to analyze who is at fault. Remember, education may be the only safety net for the less fortunate. Making the changes necessary for all students to succeed can be uncomfortable, and it can result in complaints of “low morale,” “watering down the curriculum” or “teaching to the test.” I’ve heard them all, but I have never questioned the wisdom of changing people, policies, practices, or programs when it is in the best interests of students. From the beginning of my career as a teacher to my most recent assignment as Superintendent of East St. Louis School District 189, I have been committed to successfully educating all children. I know that children in poverty will succeed under the right conditions because I have been privileged to see it happen.

capacity to be successful. Therefore, you must have the courage to remove them from the organization. Of course, you will first provide the support necessary to improve. Ultimately, all students deserve to be served by employees with great capacity. Successfully educating all children is difficult work. However, it is not mission impossible. To succeed, one must collaborate with all people and organizations that may implement, support, have a strong feeling about, or be affected by decisions. A smart leader finds ways to share decision-making by consulting and collaborating. True collaboration includes working with parents, community members, organizations, businesses, teachers, unions, administrators, support staff and legislators to enhance academic success for all students. It is futile to play the blame game; excuses do not change

“I am honored to be selected to serve the students and families in East St. Louis,” said Culver at the time. “My entire career has been focused on improving educational outcomes for disadvantaged students. A student’s zip code, family income status, nor race should dictate their educational attainment. I am committed to creating positive changes for the students and staff in District 189. Many of our children come from economically disadvantaged homes, but they are rich in intelligence, ability, and the will to succeed. “ --Arthur Culver, East St. Louis District 189 superintendent

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A system of care for children in poverty

Jeanne Davis has been as educator for the past 20 years, serving as a teacher and as an administrator in both public and private schools and has experience in schools at both ends of the poverty/wealth spectrum. She is superintendent of the Lewistown District after

By Jeanne Davis Lewistown District 97

Facing a mountain of discipline referrals and a never ending litany of bad behavior reports, it became clear to me as superintendent that the students were out of control and the teachers lacked the knowledge to change their behavior. We needed a system of care for the staff and the students before real learning could begin. The journey that took five years began with addressing the issues surrounding teaching children of poverty. We first began by educating the staff so that they could begin to understand that the vast majority of the children in their classrooms did not have the social/emotional skills to develop successful relationships. They did not have the soft skills necessary to navigate conflict, to understand their role, nor did they possess the work ethic to organize their time and complete their work. We began to provide the opportunities at school that were not available to them at home. We built a continuum of care based on the Response to Intervention (RtI) tiered level of intervention and the results were remarkable. All students were guided by the practices embedded in the Positive Behavior Intervention System. The Center for Prevention of Abuse (later referred to as The Center) and the Mental Health Association assisted in suicide training and depression testing and guided staff in presenting information to students on diversity and bullying. They also demonstrated the tools that students needed in order to develop their social and emotional skills through programs like Second Step. The Star Student program highlighted students who improved academically and demonstrated improved behavior. An alternative education room monitored by an adult was designed as a safe zone where students at risk could work. Tier II intervention needed for some students Tier II intervention introduced more intense instructional support for a smaller number of students who did not meet with success at Tier I. Interventions included:  Interventionists from the Center guided groups in the HARTS program (Helping All Relationships to be Safe) and the Mind Over Muscles groups. Five to eight students made up the groups and

Jeanne Davis

one-hour meetings were held each week.  Licensed social workers provided training on impulse control, anger management and social skills. They also served as a link between the school and families and offered early behavioral health interventions. (e.g. grief work, adjustment reactions, anxiety). After school tutoring was also provided at this level.  Social workers addressed issues such as truancy, declining grades and disruptive behavior. They also addressed requests for individual counseling. Results showed marked improvement at Year 3 Approximately 40 girls were involved with the HARTS program provided by The Center . Comparing data over one year, 78% showed academic improvement in one or more core subject areas (54% in two subjects; 19% in three subjects). Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) scores indicated that 97% of the girls improved their scores in at least two of the three areas tested and 69% improved in all three areas. Mind Over Muscle began in November 2011 with (Continued on page 12) She also was principal of Bottenfield Elementary School, an urban public school in Champaign that received the Academic Excellence Award -- the state’s highest academic award -- for achieving at a 90 percent level for three successive years, despite a rising poverty rate that approached 30 percent. spending five years as superintendent of the Creve Coeur District, where the poverty rate was 72 percent. The social-emotional model she developed and implemented at Creve Coeur was one of 12 programs across the nation to be recognized as an exemplar program.

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private agencies to ensure coordination of care of students and their families. A Check-n-Connect Mentoring Program was in place where identified Tier III students were paired with a staff mentor (teacher, secretary, principal, etc.) The student met with the mentor in the morning to review expectations for the day and to verify that they were safe physically and emotionally. At the end of the day, students’ progress for the day was reviewed and their safety verified. This care team included: a licensed clinical social worker, a special education social worker, the school psychologist, the principal, the RtI interventionist, The Center's interventionists, a lead teacher and the superintendent. The social worker served as team leader. The system of care was supported by assessments, monitoring, a one-to- one net book community and embedding instruction on test-taking and performance. Our fifth year, both schools and the district met AYP. A special note of thanks to former Champaign Superintendent Arthur Culver and Deputy Superintendent of Curriculum and Administration Dorland Norris for their instructional strategies, to Martha Herm of the Center of Prevention of Abuse, the McPheeter's grant for the Interventionists, to Katie Jones and the Mindock Association for their counseling strategies, and to Jeanne Williamson, retired Dunlap superintendent, for the testing and performance strategies .

approximately 30 boys, and, to date, 60% of the boys improved their grades in one or more core subject areas (25% in two areas; 20% in three or more). MAP scores indicated that 95% of the boys improved their scores in at least two of the three areas tested and 55% improved in all three areas. Of the students involved in these two groups, 34 had discipline referrals in FY2011. To date, 50% of those students have had fewer referrals this year than last. One student in the Mind Over Muscle group has reduced his referrals from 26 to seven! Tier III intervention for up to 5 percent The Tier III level of intervention was reserved for up to 5 percent of the students who had persistent behavior and academic challenges. These interventions were highly individualized and usually required functional behavioral analysis and inter- agency collaborations (e.g. children's home, police department, Hospitals, DCFS). A full-time academic interventionist worked regularly with Tier III identified students to assist with class work in order to improve academic progress and grades. Social workers and/or school psychologist met with students as part of individualized behavioral health treatment plans, which might include counseling, mentoring, obtaining community resources for individual families, home visits. School personnel (social workers, principal, teachers, etc.) worked collaboratively with outside community or

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Teaching with poverty in mind is more than a book title in Rochelle

Todd Prusator has been an educator for 27 years, the last nine as Superintendent in Rochelle after being a teacher, assistant principal and principal. His family has a distinguished heritage in education as his two brothers also are school

By Todd Prusator Rochelle Elementary School District 231

Rochelle Elementary School District, like many others, has seen an increase in students from low-income families. Our percent of low-income students has gone from 22.2 percent in 2000 to 62.2 percent in 2013. We have also had an increase in our English Language Learners (ELL) population, going from 4.7 percent to 21.1 percent over the same time span, with many of the ELL students also being low-income. There is an obvious correlation between academic achievement and social-economic status. If one were to simply examine the relationship of ISAT scores to percent of low-income students, it is clear that a higher percentage of low-income students results in a lower percentage of “meets” and “exceeds.” This has even been amplified with the new cut scores used in 2013. I do not believe that the differences in achievement levels are due to a lesser quality of curriculum and instruction. Most districts and teachers work extremely hard and do many of the same interventions to meet the needs of students. I would even make the general assertion that ISAT scores are less of an indicator of the quality of curriculum and instruction and more of an indicator of the relative wealth of a district’s demographics. However, this does not abdicate our responsibility to look deeper and more intentionally at how we can best serve all of our students. We have done what most districts are doing regarding aligning our curriculum to the Common Core Standards and monitoring and improving our instruction through the Danielson Framework. We have invested much time and effort in the Response to Intervention (RtI) process to identify deficiencies and provide the necessary interventions. We have also developed a bilingual program K-3. In addition, we applied for and received a 21 st Century Learning Community grant to provide extensive after school opportunities. Yet, if our circumstances are different and the needs of our students are changing, then we felt

Todd Prusator

strongly that we needed to understand our students better and how to address their needs. This led us to the work of Eric Jensen and his book, “Teaching with Poverty in Mind.” The concepts and information resonated with us. Each building did a book study on Jensen, who provides the research and impact on students who live in poverty. We also had all administrators, a teacher from each building, and a board member attend a four-day Jensen conference. This helped us go beyond what we were doing and focus on why our students have increased challenges when it comes to school and achievement. By understanding the “why’s,” it has helped us determine the “what’s” more strategically, intentionally, and comprehensively. Essentially from Jensen, we learned that “poverty is not a culture, but a chronic condition affecting mind, body, and soul resulting from multiple adverse risk factors.” The three main areas that impact students from poverty more than middle or upper class students are (Continued on page 14) superintendents in Illinois, his father is a retired superintendent, his mother is a retired school nurse and his wife is a special education teacher. As his column illustrates, he is using Eric Jensen’s book “Teaching with Poverty in Mind” as a tool for administrators, teachers and board members in the Rochelle district where the poverty level has grown to more than 60 percent.

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stress, executive function skills (short term memory, attentional focus, deferred gratification, etc.) and attunement (range of social emotional responses). All impact achievement. Therefore, we are intentionally making sure that imbedded in our “traditional” instruction we are intentionally addressing these areas through behavior, attitude, mental capacity building, and effort. Establishing positive relationships and providing security obviously is essential. What we now do differently are activities that specifically focus on short-term memory skills, defining grit and perseverance, and providing opportunities to focus on hope, optimism and gratitude. Also, by better understanding why students behave or perform differently, we are more strategic in our responses. We understand this is not a magic formula. Fortunately, our district is blessed by having teachers, staff and administrators who truly care about the success of all students and are willing learn, change and adapt to meet the needs of our students. They have embraced another precept of Jensen -- to look in the mirror instead of point fingers. It is not about the circumstances that we can’t control. It is about what we can do to benefit and enrich the lives of our students.

“The three main areas that impact students from poverty more than middle or upper class students are stress, executive function skills (short term memory, attentional focus, deferred gratification, etc.) and attunement (range of social emotional responses). All impact achievement. Therefore, we are intentionally making sure that imbedded in our ‘traditional’ instruction we are intentionally addressing these areas through behavior, attitude, mental capacity building, and effort. Establishing positive relationships and providing security obviously is essential. What we now do differently are activities that specifically focus on short-term memory skills, defining grit and perseverance, and providing opportunities to focus on hope, optimism and gratitude. Also, by better understanding why students behave or perform “differently,” we are more strategic in our responses.” --Todd Prusator, Rochelle Elementary School District 231

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Poverty in the public education classroom

Poverty & achievement gap: Teachers can be most important factor

By Dr. Peter Flynn Every school district in Illinois and our nation is concerned about improving student achievement for all students. To help all students we must examine the results of sub-groups, where we see the most startling differences invariably emerging among racial minorities and students of poverty. Are these differences just a “fact of life” or is it a challenge that we can overcome? From research on the national level we know that there is a high correlation (as high as .97 and .98) between students scoring lower on high-stakes tests and their parents’ income level. The same statistics emerge when looking at children in Illinois. In a February 2011 article in Catalyst Chicago Magazine titled “More Illinois children living in poverty, at risk of school failure,” it reported: “ Among the 10 largest states, Illinois had the second-widest achievement gap between students in poverty and other students. In the 2010 Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT), only 60% of low -income 8th grade students met state standards, while 88% of other students did so.” Poverty in and of itself is not necessarily a debilitating factor. Some families in poverty lack resources for such important skills as language development. For example, a lack of books, magazines or conversations with children by the adults puts children of poverty at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to the opportunity to hear and learn words. We can safely draw the conclusion from the research on poverty and achievement that there is a strong likelihood that children from conditions of poverty will not score as well on state assessments or nationally standardized tests without some intervention. The intervention that is required to overcome any anticipated disadvantage for the condition of poverty is usually a combination of three or more elements such as: lower class size (especially with K-3), a developmentally appropriate curriculum, and the consistent use of research-proven best practices. In the interest of time and space, let us deal with instructional practices, and for that we turn to the

Dr. Peter Flynn served as superintendent of schools in four states for a total of more than 33 years, including 12 in the Freeport School District until his retirement in 2012. His previous experience included 21 years as a superintendent of

Dr. Peter Flynn

research of Marzano, Pickering and others. Robert Marzano, based upon his many years working for the Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL), conducted a meta- analysis of more than 1,200 experimental studies on instructional strategies that had high success as evidenced on more than 100,000 student achievement scores. Through this analysis, Marzano developed a way of notating the potential success of specific classroom practices with “effect size,” or the strength of a phenomenon. A classroom strategy with an effect size of 1.0 could yield as much as a 34 percentile gain on a standardized test. For example, if a teacher were to faithfully and consistently use the practice of helping students to see the similarities and differences between the new skill or knowledge they are learning with something that they already know, this could have an effect size of 1.6 or an impact that is far greater than that of (Continued on page 16) Superintendents Association of America and a current member and Past President of the Century Club (100 Superintendents in the United States). Dr. Flynn was honored by IASA as the 2012 Illinois Superintendent of the Year. schools in Kentucky, Iowa and Pennsylvania. Prior to that, he was a central office administrator, college professor and a classroom teacher. Dr. Flynn for the past 13 years has co-chaired a poverty working group in Stephenson County. He is a current member and past president of the Urban

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Poverty in the public education classroom

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coming from a home that is considered impoverished. Read more about this and other impactful strategies in Marzano’s book titled “Classroom Instruction That Works” (2001 ASCD, Marzano, Pickering & Pollock). Marzano also pointed out that the teacher is the most important factor affecting student

learning. So the teacher has to know his/her subject area, learn and reflect on these teaching practices, and receive coaching on these practices once they are being implemented in the classroom. Marzano is not the only one with insights about classroom practice. Since the variance in student achievement is often greater between classrooms of students on the same grade level in the same school than it is between the schools within the same school district, this in-school variance is worth pursuing. The secret lies in finding out what the teacher who is succeeding with children of poverty is doing that is different from the teachers who have not been able to be as successful.

It is the work of Marzano, other researchers and the successful teachers in our schools that give us great hope in our ability to face head-on the dilemma of the achievement gap when it comes to children of poverty.

*Test Scores, Poverty And Ethnicity: The New American Dilemma, October 20, 2006 Phi Delta Kappa “Summit on Public Education,” Washington, D. C., Donald C. Orlich and Glenn Gifford, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164-4237.

“Poverty in and of itself is not necessarily a debilitating factor. Some families in poverty lack resources for such important skills as language development. For example, a lack of books, magazines or conversations with children by the adults puts children of poverty at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to the opportunity to hear and learn words... The intervention that is required to overcome any anticipated disadvantage for the condition of poverty is usually a combination of three or more elements such as: lower class size (especially with K-3), a developmentally appropriate curriculum, and the consistent use of research-proven best practices.”

--Dr. Peter Flynn, 2012 Illinois Superintendent of the Year

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Poverty in the public education classroom

As powerfully demonstrated by a principal in Brazil, leadership really matters

Michael Shimshak is in his third year of leadership as Superintendent with the Carbondale Elementary School District 95 in Carbondale Illinois. The district is culturally diverse and is 72 percent poverty. His prior superintendent experience was in Wisconsin, serving three years in a high poverty district and, most

By Michael Shimshak Carbondale Elementary District 95

More than anything perhaps, she dreamt about the brand new school on the west side of the valley in Ecoporanga, Brazil. She had been there on the day it opened; terrazzo floors gleaming, brightly painted steel and masonry, so new, almost sterile. Her mind raced in circles about all she might do in that school. Her parents could attend evening class to learn how to read. She could have school all day. For a minute, she wondered how much better it might be if her teachers had all they needed. But Sra. Geanne Darc de Vete Alves had other concerns as she returned her focus to her school, backed up against the bold, bald, granite-bearing mountains that walled and cradled the impoverished community simultaneously. Something mattered more. As principal of the school on the east side of the valley, her first concern was how she could serve her students and families in poverty better. There weren’t the resources. Parents were illiterate and worked late into the evening in the granite mines or on small dairies. They were unable to help their children with reading. There were health concerns. She recalled the cases of Dengue fever, which had plagued the community in prior years. There were gangs, too, promoting a drug economy with her students, more lucrative in the short term than their parents’ labor. Poverty’s badge was apparent. Still, she approached each day with courageous enthusiasm, explaining that her greatest joy is feeling that she is making a difference in the lives of her students. What she didn’t know is that across the valley, the principal of the newly built school occasionally assessed his vista from the west. He secretly envied a different prize, the Premio Gestão Escolar, one of the highest honors and most important tools for the improvement of education in Brazil. The application process for this award includes documenting improved academic achievement through leadership for better instructional practices. Although his school had all the makings, his glorious amphitheater was at times a bit lifeless. The new school gleamed, but his students and families

Michael Shimshak

were still impoverished, indistinguishable from those across the river on the east side of the mountain. Not much had really changed with the new school and he was aware of the progress being made by his colleague. He hoped for more. Principal Sra. Darc’s leadership was having an impact. She’d developed a collaborative culture for organizational change. She’d nurtured teacher leaders and teams focused on improving instructional practices and accepting collective responsibility for all students to reach high academic standards. Teachers met regularly to plan common assessments and establish curricular objectives. She organized evening sessions held at the school for community members to provide literacy and job skills. Her teachers seek to employ practices known to have the greatest effect size. Students employ meta cognitive strategies and engage in hands-on learning. Three of her students won the state’s prize for applied mathematics, as they isolated the source of dreaded, sometimes deadly, Dengue fever in the community. The school is alive. Staff celebrates their recently, 10 years in moderately affluent district. As part of an administrative exchange program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, he joined nine other American school administrators in visiting schools in various Brazilian states and presenting at the 2 nd Annual International Educational Exchange and Development Seminar in São Paulo in the summer of 2013.

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