Making Achievement Happen

Innovative Strategies that move Schools Forward Despite the

Obstacles Facing Today’s SchoolsErik Feinberg

Kinoshita Elementary SchoolCapistrano Unified School District

Background Kinoshita Elementary School in

CapoUSD was PI Year 3 New administrator in 2007-08 API increased 93 points in two years Exited program improvement in those

two years Percent of students advanced or

proficient improved school wide during that time

How Did it Happen?

Culture Shift Curriculum was solid but despite hard work,

the school was considered unsuccessful Began to explore how we taught and what

we used to evaluate success or failure Implemented benchmark exams to

evaluate successful practices and areas in need of improvement

How Did it Happen?

Action Learning Systems Comprehensive professional development company

providing comprehensive and coherent solutions for district and school level issues of quality improvement and student achievement

Contracted with Capistrano to provide ELA and mathematics benchmark assessments customized to curriculum pacing and focus standards

Developed a PD plan to rollout assessments, clarify purpose and support teachers and administrators in analysis of benchmark data and subsequent instructional modifications

How Did it Happen?

Teachers Analyzing Data AND Planning Instruction

Closely examined standards and determined context vs. content issues to pinpoint student weaknesses specifically where learning deficits occurred and where our instruction was least effective

This led to discussions on what was working with what was not working

Teaching became less about what we felt was working and more about student performance

An authentic PLC was the result

Next Steps…

Underscore HOW we teach and WHAT students learn

Focus on student engagement Increase student to student, student

to teacher and teacher to student interactions

We Learn… 10% of what we read 20% of what we hear 30% of what we see 50% of what we both hear and see 70% of what is discussed with others 80% of what we experience personally 95% of what we teach to someone else

Next Steps…

Clear expectations for all Communicated clear expectations for

student learning including standards-based goals and objectives

Identified common assessments to evaluate progress along the way

Publicly displayed data in common areas around the school to celebrate success and provide public forum for goal setting

The Results

Exiting PI after 5 years of failure in two years

Sustained cultural shift of high quality, engaging, data-driven decision making school-wide from the administration to the classroom teacher to the librarian

A failing school is now thriving

Can it be Duplicated?

Obstacles remain Creating a cultural shift without the

culture “consuming” the strategies Less funding has caused the need for

greater creativity when funding interventions and little to no room for error