In schools with high-quality teaching and learning, school staff and the community engage in an ongoing dialogue on student performance. Expectations of excellence are developed and internalized by teachers, students, families and community members. They are posted publicly, and act as a point of reference for what students should know and be able to do by the time they graduate. However, it is not enough to expect all students to achieve. A consistent, ongoing system of accountability is required to gauge the progress teachers and students are making toward achieving the school’s goals, and supporting anyone struggling to meet the school’s standards.
In successful small schools the process of setting and communicating high expectations for all students complements the process of tailoring a path to success for each individual learner. In effective small schools—which value and foster trust and respect—teachers and students regularly ask themselves and one another, “How am I doing?” and “How can I improve?”
Some strategies for establishing and maintaining high expectations and accountability are:
- Establish essential learnings and adjust curriculum to meet the goal. Using state and local course standards as a guide, staff, parents, and community members can collaborate to identify key “power standards” that will provide rigor, focus and depth to the curriculum. These essential learnings should be limited to a short list (both school-wide and in each course area) to ensure proper emphasis. This first step helps the school to answer the question, “What do we want our students to know and be able to do?”
- Multiple assessment tools. Once essential learnings are in place, schools can forge agreements about assessment tools to measure these standards. By consistently using agreed-upon assessment tools (such as portfolios, performance, public presentation, research and analysis, written reports and tests) that combine formative and summative feedback, students can have multiple opportunities to demonstrate what they know and can do, and staff will be able to collect meaningful evidence about their teaching strategies. This step helps schools answer the question “How will we know (what evidence will we accept) that students have mastered our outcomes?”
- Accountability for all. In successful schools, teachers (not just students) benefit from regular opportunities to reflect on their practice. Using strategies such as curriculum mapping, compiling an annual portfolio, presenting their work to peers, and inviting other teachers into their classroom to observe as critical friends, teachers can define goals for themselves and reflect on their progress toward achieving them. In effective schools, teachers are learners, and, like students, are held to certain standards of accountability. Whereas as it is often clear the importance of creating a personalized environment for students, teachers must work equally hard to achieve a climate of trust, safety and mutual respect among themselves. Without the assurance of having an open, non-threatening dialogue, it is impossible for teachers to collaborate with peers in a way that results in meaningful reflection and improvement.
- Reviewing samples of student and teacher work.To help ensure that expectations for students are consistent throughout the school, teachers should regularly meet to discuss student performance, work samples, and achievement on the school’s essential learning assessments. State and national standards and student work exemplars can be used to provide additional grounding. This prevents an abstract debate on expectations and facilitates an evidence-based conversation of how teachers define high expectations and how they implement teaching and assessment practices to reflect that definition. These types of discussions not only help ensure that the school’s goals are uniformly defined for all students, but also promote a professional learning community.
- Using data. Data analysis and discussion provide schools with powerful tools to identify problems, target improvements, monitor progress and make informed decisions regarding allocation of resources. Too many schools mistakenly focus on the process of change without also examining the learning results those changes produce for students. When data-driven inquiry is in place, there is a better chance to improve results for students because results are directly addressed.
Focusing on student achievement and using data for planning and decision-making is a cultural shift for most schools. All schools collect data for district, state or federal purposes, but few collect and interpret ongoing performance data (such as chapter quizzes, writing, samples, student portfolios) that can help them to adjust instruction and support systems for individual students. If schools expect teaching and learning to be a powerful process of inquiry, then they should model this by operating as empowered, data-driven organizations.
- Student support strategies. Once schools know what they want students to know and be able to do, and how they will measure this learning, they must determine what they will do to support students who are performing below standards. Some of these strategies might include extra classes that support core academic subjects, after-school and peer tutoring programs, intensive work with learning specialists and mandatory summer school programs. Effective schools know that their ultimate success will be gauged by how well they meet the needs of their most challenging students.
Review this element on the Oregon Small Schools Initiative School Change Rubric Self-Assessment Tool.
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