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Our primary focus for the fall of last year


was the practice of guided reading, and we spent several weeks watching videos, con- ducting model lessons, and reviewing vari- ous best-practices checklists prior to launch- ing our observations. Clear expectations were set for teachers, and other factors in the classroom were purposely ignored. For example, one of teachers’ greatest


challenges with guided reading was how to manage the students who were not at the guided reading group with them. While clearly this is an important element of an effective classroom, we decided to focus on that later; teachers were told to pay little at- tention to those other centers at first, and the leadership team did not comment on the ac- tivities of students at other centers.


Setting specific, aggressive targets Building teacher capacity is clearly a cen-


tral part of our work at Muir, but having a clear set of goals was another key element. Part of being able to get somewhere is know- ing where you want to go, and for historically low-performing schools that seems quite ob- vious; we need to go up. But last year we went through a process of more specifically de- tailing out exactly how far up we needed to go, by what measures, and what that meant for each classroom teacher. The targets we set were not anything new


or dramatically different than achievement targets set everywhere for students in Cali- fornia schools. But we took some real time to make them aggressive enough to put us on a path for meeting the state benchmark in sev- eral years, but attainable enough so that the staff was fully bought into the possibility of reaching our goals. Once again we choose to focus just on


reading achievement, even though we know how important mathematics is and were aware of the fact that we would be held ac- countable for those scores as well. When our achievement scores were re-


leased after year one, we were obviously pleased and proud of our efforts and the outcomes. But we also recognize that there is a long road still ahead. Our increase of ELA proficiency rates by 13 percent, including more than doubling that rate among African American students, put us at the top of the


list of schools receiving School Improvement Grant monies. But two-thirds of our students still don’t


score proficient or above, and close to half of our African American students still score in the bottom two bands (below and far below basic). This other side of the data tells us we took a nice first step, but that our work is not nearly done. Armed with this information and our shared belief that we have much more to do,


Recruiting a group of talented educators and giving them the proper support and resources can put us in a position to make real progress toward ensuring that all children, regardless of the hand they have been dealt, can achieve at the same high level.


we set about creating this year’s achievement targets. I am proud of the leadership team and staff ’s determination to keep the pres- sure on, with even more aggressive targets for this year than last. We again committed to working toward


double-digit proficiency rate increases, spe- cific goals for African American and English learner students, and internal goals based on our diagnostic reading assessments that help guide us along the way. We again decided not to include specific math targets, based on our determination to stay focused, and armed with the knowledge that math scores for matched students did not go down this past year despite our lack of attention there. This cycle of inquiry around teacher


practice and student outcomes was an ex- tremely effective way to help move student achievement forward at Muir last year, and continues to be our approach in year two. Making the walkthroughs unrelated to the evaluation cycle was critical to the success, because then and only then were teachers


able to feel safe enough to participate in this process without fear that their summary evaluation was going to be based on a per- ceived weakness in a certain teaching com- petency. That fear aside, teachers welcomed the visits from the leadership team, the feed- back sessions, and the opportunity to move their own practice forward. In the end it is important to remember we


are just in the beginning stages of our work at John Muir Elementary. We have one year of hard work and solid results behind us, but plenty of challenges still ahead. That can be said of many schools across the country, and the truth is that some of those schools will continue that progress, while others will see those results reversed in subsequent years. We are determined to continue improv-


ing student achievement levels at Muir, so that we can add to the understanding of how best to support students who traditionally underperform. We will keep our focus on literacy and classroom practice, building up the skill set each teacher possesses, at times ignoring other important challenges and priorities in our effort to stay focused.


Providing every student the opportunity to go to a great school


We will make some mistakes along the


way, but we will keep pushing forward with a determination to succeed. No single reform plan or set of strategic actions will completely solve the achievement gap. But recruiting a group of talented educators and giving them the proper support and resources can put us in a position to make real progress toward ensuring that all children, regardless of the hand they have been dealt, can achieve at the same high level. We must do this because every child should have the opportunity to go to a great school, receive a high quality ed- ucation, and have the same chance to choose his or her own path in life. n


References SFUSD Strategic Plan: Beyond the Talk.


SFUSD Web Site: http://sfusd.edu.


Chris Rosenberg is principal of John Muir Elementary School, San Francisco Unified School District.


January/February 2012 11


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