Organizing Schools for Improvement: Lessons from

Chicago Guest presenter: Elaine Allensworth, Senior Director and Chief Research

Officer, at the Consortium on Chicago School Research, University of Chicago

Coalition for Community Schools

• Vision: The Coalition for Community Schools believes that strong communities require strong schools and strong schools require strong communities.  We envision a future in which schools are centers of thriving communities where everyone belongs, works together, and succeeds.

• Mission: The Coalition advances opportunities for the success of children, families and communities by promoting the development of more, and more effective, community schools.  

Coalition Partners

• With over 150 local, state, and national partners, the Coalition is comprised of organizations representing:– Nonprofit organizations: e.g. United Ways, YMCA’s– Youth development– Health, mental health and social services– K-12 and higher education– Local government– Community development organizations– Local community school initiatives…more

• Our partners recognize the community school advantage in achieving their own goals.

2011 Professional Development Opportunity

For more information email ccs@iel.org and visit: www.communityschools.org

Stay in touch with the Coalition!• Sign up for our Newsletter:

http://tiny.cc/wedng• Become a Facebook fan:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Washington-DC/Coalition-for-Community-Schools/142001244279

• Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/coalcomschools

Organizing Schools for Improvement: Lessons from Chicago

Webinar for the Coalition for Community Schools

Elaine Allensworth

Based on work with co-authors Anthony S. Bryk, Penny Bender Sebring, Stuart Luppescu and John Easton

A Tale of Two Chicago Schools:

Hancock and Alexander• Similar in many ways as Chicago decentralized

authority to local school councils in the early 1990s– Located in same area of the city, less than 2 miles apart

– 100% African American enrollment and 100% low income

– Both among 100 poorest-performing schools in reading and math in 1989

• One moves dramatically forward over the next seven years (Hancock) but the other does not (Alexander)

Hancock and Alexander were not unique

How did Hancock beat the odds?How did Hancock beat the odds?

Why did Alexander fail to do so?Why did Alexander fail to do so?

A Framework of Essential Supports

A Concept of Essentiality

The “baking a cake” metaphor John Kotsakis, CTU:What would a cake be if we forgot

the eggs or the baking powder?

Indicators of School Improvement• How much are children learning during the

period in which they are enrolled at that school?

Are these learning gains improving over time?

Is attendance improving over time?

Schools divided into groups, based on improvement in each area (attendance, math tests, English tests):

• Stagnant (25%)• Typical - small improvements (50%)• Improving – substantially (25%)

Perc

enta

ge o

f Sch

ools

that

Impr

oved

Sub

stan

tially

Likelihood of Improvement, Given Weak or Strong Supports

Attendance Improvement

• Safety and order – a basic need

• Advanced by “interesting instruction” –active student learning in an aligned curriculum

(new challenges)

• Among schools with weak instruction and poor safety:

• 0% showed substantial improvement in attendance• 53-67% had stagnant attendance (depending on the indicator of instruction)

Improvement in learning gains depended on adults working

cooperatively, focused on instruction and school climate• In schools with a poor learning climate

and…– Weak collaboration among teachers OR– Weak collaboration between parents and

teachers:

• 0% substantially improved math or reading scores

• 39-59% were stagnant

Improvement in learning gains depended on adults working

cooperatively, focused on instruction and school climate• In schools with a well-aligned curriculum and a

strong professional community among teachers• 48-57% substantially improved math/reading scores• 4-9% were stagnant (Depending on subject)

Teacher backgrounds much less important than collaborative work• Only mattered in schools without strong professional community

or quality professional development

• Strategic orientation• Nurturing multiple leaders,

collaboration• Focus on instructional improvement

School Leadership as a Catalyst for Change

Trust is a key enabler of school improvement

Projected effects of base level of relational trust on improvements in parent involvement

Revisiting Hancock Elementary• New principal invested heavily in developing

the teaching staff– Monthly breakfasts to discuss practice

– Collective focus on literacy instruction, then math instruction

– School-based workshops, common planning periods

– Social services support team – coordinating services from agencies throughout the community

– Efforts to connect with parents and bring them in as partners

Revisiting Hancock ElementaryBy the midpoint of this study, Hancock had

become very strong across most essential supports…

• Leadership: 99th percentile

• Parent involvement: 73rd percentile

• Teacher Professional community: 90th percentile

• Interactive instruction: 90th percentile

• But the school still struggled with safety and order (10th percentile), despite substantial effort and noticeable improvements.

Hancock was exceptional, but not alone

Improving schools were

located in neighborhoo

ds across the city

Stagnating schools were

concentrated in the poorest

neighborhoods

Supports were less likely to develop in schools in communities with weak social

capital• Bonding social capital

-the degree to which community members work together on community issues, belong to local organizations and religious institutions

• Crime in the school neighborhood and students’ neighborhoods

• Percent of students in the school living under extraordinarily difficult circumstances – histories of abuse or neglect or in out-of-family care

Supports were less likely to develop in schools in communities with weak social

capitalPercentage of schools with very strong essential

supports in 1994

Disadvantaged communities – schools needed robust essential support practices to improve student learning.

Better off communities – some schools improve with even average internal essential supports.

No schools improve with weak internal supports, despite their location.

If external social resources are weak, internal social resources need to be strong

But the essential supports were even more important for school improvement in schools in

communities with weak social capital

Subsequent work has shown the importance of parent involvement

in both elementary and high schools in the years after decentralization

Teacher stability

Teachers’ perceptions of parent support was one of the strongest predictors of staying in their school

– As important as….• Teacher-principal trust• Collective responsibility among teachers in the school

– More important than….• Professional development• Teacher-teacher trust and socialization of new teachers• Perception of principal as an instructional leader

– Only the learning climate was more important for teacher stability than parent involvement, and only at high schools

From The Schools Teachers Leave (2009)

Social-organizational features of schools explain differences in safetyVariation in school safety explained by:

Student Safety

Teacher

Safety

Poverty and Crime alone 48% 40%

…plus social resources in the community

57% 43%

…plus teacher collaboration 65% 67%

…plus teacher relationships with students and parents

74% 75%

The climate of safety

Other work has shown there are no “magic bullet” solutions• Drastic efforts (firing staff, replacing principal,

closing and re-opening) have had mixed results in Chicago– Depend on attention to organizational structure

• Accountability Sanctions (for students & schools) worked only for schools with strong organizational structures

• Requiring more rigorous curriculum not effective– Learning climate and professional capacity not sufficient

to support new curricula (college prep for all, IDS)

Narrow interventions are tools for organizational improvement, not ends in themselves

Concluding remarks

Five Essential Supports for School ImprovementSchool Leadership as Driver for Change

Robust Parent-Community TiesStrong Professional Capacity

Student-Centered Learning ClimateInstructional Guidance

•Narrow interventions are limited

•Tools for improvement, not ends in themselves

•Leadership requires work on multiple levels

•The development of social capacity is critical

School improvement requires systemic work on multiple fronts

About the bookEmail: organizingschools@ccsr.uchicago.edu

Website: ccsr.uchicago.edu/osfi

About CCSRWebsite: ccsr.uchicago.edu

Stay in touch with the Coalition!

• Visit our homepage: www.communityschools.org

• Sign up for our Newsletter: http://tiny.cc/wedng

• Become a Facebook fan: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Washington-DC/Coalition-for-Community-Schools/142001244279

• Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/coalcomschools