What steps would you take as building principal to ensure that your students are meeting the benchmarks?

Wow!  This is a BIG question and I could write a book on the topic.  Here are some critical considerations as it relates to ensuring that your students are meeting the benchmarks. 

#1: Set the foundation by looking at where you currently are. Ask yourself these simple questions: Is what we're doing really working?  What part of what we're doing is having significant effect on student achievement?  Where are we missing the mark? What data do we have to support our responses to these questions? 

#2: Examine what you have in place.  Ask yourself these questions: What materials are we using at each grade level?  What materials are we using with our neediest students?  How many instructional minutes do we have each day?  Are we consistently using our materials and are they research based?

#3:  Make decisions about what and how you'll teach.  Set a standard for teachers
on what they should be teaching and for how long each day.  Then begin to focus on the quality of the instruction provided to students.  The goal is to decrease the difference in instructional delivery between classes and increase the continuity of delivery between classes.  Include aides, Title teachers, Special Education teachers and other non-classroom teachers.

#4: Get outside help.  Technical assistance and outside influence is an important part of any implementation.  By providing your staff with alternative and broader perspectives on your implementation, you will be able to move beyond "business as usual". 

What is a dedicated reading or literacy block and why is it so important? Is it necessary to rework a schedule that doesn't accommodate a specified reading instruction time if things seem to be working well already or can it wait for the next school year when making these changes would be easier?

A dedicated reading block is a daily, connected, uninterrupted block of time relegated to only the teaching of reading. For most school districts and schools, interruptions for special programs, recesses, snacks, etc. are kept at a minimum to ensure that students are receiving the full amount of instruction from their teacher in the area of reading. The data nationwide tells us that instructional minutes are extremely critical in the overall teaching of reading and creating a system to ensure that students are, indeed, receiving the maximum number of minutes is a necessary step. In my work, I have found that schools that protect their reading time are more likely to rally their support services and instructional minutes around the important task of teaching reading. Although we do want to see literacy and reading instruction across the curriculum, we also know that the actual teaching and learning of reading and literacy require incredible focus and technical skill. Because of this fact, it's important to set aside time for the intentional focus on teaching reading and learning to read. For example, if one teacher is particularly partial to the teaching of math or science and "gets through" the reading program so that he can teach math, then the quality and rigor of the reading instruction will vary greatly and the student scores will reflect this.

As far as "things seem to be working well", my first question is: What does your data show and does it support that things are working well for ALL students? My second question is: How do you know that your students are receiving the same instructional minutes for reading, or any other subject for that matter? An instructional schedule does not ensure instructional quality, but it does begin to set the stage for the teaching of reading as a critical part of the instructional day. Once the instructional minutes expectation is set on a campus, then we can begin to focus on the quality of the instruction, which is most important.

I find that it's easier to make changes and "try out" your new ideas before you change your entire system…waiting doesn't net you anything – whether you wait or charge ahead, you WILL have to adjust along the way either way. For example, if instituting a dedicated reading block would shift the recesses or collaboration times for several of your grade levels, why not start with a couple of grade levels who are willing to be the "guinea pigs" for your new schedule. This will enable your school to work out the wrinkles in the schedule before full implementation. Why not jump in and get started?

How do I move away from constantly conducting demo lessons for my teachers and get them to do the teaching in front of me so that I can offer feedback?

Your first step is to work with your site leadership to revisit the goals and outcomes of coaching and then to share, collectively, your role and where you're looking to head within the next few months. Without the leadership's visible support of turning the coaching back to the teacher doing the doing, you're bound to be met with more resistance than necessary. Once you've established that this is the direction you're moving toward, then just jump in! (If you read my other responses or interviews, you'll realize that I'm a big supporter of just getting started!) I don't believe that we build buy-in ahead of time but we create buy-in by working on what we have control over and continually analyze what's working and what's not.

So, get into the classrooms and talk with the teachers and ask them, "What have you learned so far from my demonstrations and our debriefing conversations? What have you implemented based upon our collaboration?" Then say, "I am excited to see all of this in action. When can I come into your room and see you try XYZ with your students and provide you some feedback based upon the work we've done?" You're sending the signal that this is really not an option, but you are also validating that you've spent time working on whatever the topic might be. You're not setting teachers up to "catch them" doing something wrong, but creating the opportunity for them to receive some validation on their new implementation. The research on professional development and its effect on teacher skill clearly supports that idea that without coaching, we can provide teachers with endless theory, practice and demonstration, but without on-going, specific feedback all of the professional development in the world has little to no effect on their teaching skill.

I am a new coach and have not taught with the program that I am supporting at my school. I am really overwhelmed and don't know where to start. How do I get my teachers to trust that I have something to offer them, when I probably know less about the program than they do?

Congratulations on your new coaching position! First, it is important to remember that you are not the sole source of support in your system, and it's critical to establish with your administrator and instructional staff exactly what your role is and what it is not. Your main task is to improve instruction through providing the "second set of eyes" for each classroom teacher, regardless of classroom experience. Secondly, be visible right from the start. You are your best PR person, especially when those pesky staff members say, "I wish I had his job . . . he's not really accountable to anyone all day." While it is easy to get buried beneath the reports and hide behind the attractive data charts, it is essential to be in the classrooms regularly. Your being in the classrooms is the only way to learn the program. Offer to try sections of the lesson out while the teacher observes. Find out the answers to the teachers' questions about the program. Be immediately recognized as an active participant in the daily teaching of reading. Remember that the program implementation is not about your experience, but rather how you can shed light on the current practices and outcomes (data) from each classroom. Think of yourself as the "quality controller," constantly asking the important questions that cause teachers to reflect on their practice and adjust their instruction as necessary. The quality of the instruction and instructional materials determine the student outcome.

Our fifth and sixth grade students score well on the standardized test (with over 70 percent of students performing at or above the "passing" level outlined by our state test). We have created an after-school tutoring program for our students who are not currently meeting the benchmark. Our main focus is to work on comprehension and vocabulary, since those are the two areas that our struggling students tend to fall into, but we aren't seeing the growth that we need on the practice standardized tests. Help!

First of all, you are on the right track, providing extra instructional time for your struggling students. However, what you want to ensure is that you are focusing your time on the right THINGS. Here are several suggestions that might help you tighten the focus of your after-school program:

1. Administer an Oral Reading Fluency measure (DIBELS, TOSWRF) to determine whether students are struggling solely with comprehension and vocabulary, or whether they have underlying fluency weakness. (Use the Hasbrouck/Tindal norm chart to determine grade level benchmarks.) If students are at or above benchmark on the ORF, then comprehension and vocabulary should remain their focus.
2. For students scoring below the grade level benchmark, you should administer a multisyllabic word/phonics diagnostic measure. One I use regularly and recommend is the CORE Phonics Survey or Houghton Mifflin's Phonics Decoding Screening Test. These two measures will help you determine whether the students struggling with ORF have underlying multisyllabic word or phonics gaps (which is not atypical in struggling adolescent readers). If the student meets benchmark on the diagnostic (typically 80 percent or better on each sub-test), then you know that ORF is the target skill area for this student.
3. For the students scoring below benchmark on the phonics and decoding diagnostic, you will need to either design instruction to close the gaps in their phonics and decoding skills or purchase a supplemental program (like SIPPS or REWARDS) to faithfully follow. When intervening for struggling adolescent readers, especially, you should set aggressive ORF targets and make sure that students are meeting weekly ORF goals in order to meet benchmark quickly. Growth is not enough.

I am a principal of a school with a literacy coach who has turned out to be a thorn in my side. While I thought this person was going to be a team player and a motivator for the teaching staff, I now realize she is spending significant time complaining about the change process that we're undergoing and "stirring up" discontent with the teachers. What is my best approach?

This is a tough one. Your best approach is to keep the friction behind closed doors and go straight to the coach for a direct conversation about what is going well, what needs work, and why. Listen to your coach and avoid being defensive. You will not honor your organization and your necessary partnership with the coach by ignoring the "elephant in the room." Believe me, people are talking about it. To ensure a collective course of work, set up a meeting each week and hold yourself accountable for the meeting. Encourage your coach to visit other campuses where the principal/coach partnership is successful, and then talk with the coach about what he/she saw at the other campus. Also, straightforwardly ask your coach to refrain from speaking negatively about the change process and ask him/her to come to you directly with concerns, as you are proving yourself open to listening.

I am the curriculum director of a small district, and I am frustrated! We have implemented a research-based core program, adopted supplemental instructional programs for fluency building and multisyllabic word work, phonics instruction and phonemic awareness. AND we have a replacement core program for students who are well below grade level. I feel that we've followed all of the advice that we've been given, yet a large number of our most struggling students continue to make little growth. What are we missing?

It certainly sounds like you've got a recipe for success. However, materials and staff development, unfortunately, don't make the teacher. I would put down the catalogs and quickly get into the classrooms. Your job, now that you have each piece of instructional material you'll need for years to come, is to dig into the quality of instruction that is taking place in each classroom. Go beyond, "Are the teachers teaching XYZ program?" and begin to ask the question, "How WELL are they teaching XYZ program?" Your critical next step is to provide on-the-ground support for teachers, coaches, and principals in order to set good habits in place. Meet with grade level teams regularly, meet with the principals and hold them accountable for classroom observation daily, and go over literacy data with every group you assemble in your office. If it's not working, check the quality and then, refine, refine, refine.

What do you say to teachers who say that research can say anything you want it to say?

When I am faced with this question, I make sure that I am not engaging in a "my research can beat your research" game! It happens! First, figure out where the question is coming from. Is the teacher feeling like his or her professional integrity is in question? If so, then just laying out the criteria for research based practices, is not going to answer the question, even if you are accurate in your answer. I would begin by saying something like: "You know, I realize that we are asking teachers to incorporate many new strategies and routines and that all of us who, directly or indirectly, teach reading are continually asked to review our past practices. I understand that this is stressful. I would like to share with you the definition of and background information on what it means to be research based. The National Reading Panel (NRP) issued a report in 2000 that responded to a Congressional mandate to help parents, teachers, and policymakers identify key skills and methods central to reading achievement. The Panel was charged with reviewing research in reading instruction (focusing on the critical years of kindergarten through third grade) and identifying methods that consistently relate to reading success.

The Panel reviewed more than 100,000 studies. Through a carefully developed screening procedure, Panel members examined research that met several important criteria:

• the research had to address achievement of one or more skills in reading. Studies of effective teaching were not included unless reading achievement was measured;
• the research had to be generalizable to the larger population of students. Thus, case studies with small numbers of children were excluded from the analysis;
• the research needed to examine the effectiveness of an approach. This type of research requires the comparison of different treatments, such as comparing the achievement of students using guided repeated reading to another group of students not using that strategy. This experimental research approach was necessary to understand whether changes in achievement could be attributed to the treatment;
• the research needed to be regarded as high quality. An article or book had to have been reviewed by other scholars from the relevant field and judged to be sound and worthy of publication. Therefore, discussions of studies reported in meetings or conferences without a stringent peer review process were excluded from the analysis.

So what does this mean to us? It means that we use this criteria to help us be better informed as we purchase new materials, review our past practices, plan ahead for instruction, attend professional development and implement new information. Although we have more information to learn, we are at a point in time where we have overwhelming information, through research, that points us in specific directions—teaching reading is so much more about what we know for sure, rather than what we think might be true.

Would you recommend mandatory program training for teachers who have already taught the program one year or more?

I absolutely recommend on-going training for ALL teachers…it's a critical part of capacity-building and sustainability. However, it is essential to tailor the training to the teachers' experience with the program or skill you're working to implement. I can sympathize with frustrated and restless teachers who have attended the same professional development year-in and year-out and who fail to gather much new information for their implementation. Here are a few tips I have on professional development:

1. Realize your power as the consumer: When you hire a professional developer to come and speak with your teachers, make sure that you spend time discussing the prior training, necessary background about resistance and levels of implementation, what the teachers feel their professional development needs are, "hot" issues that the presenter could inadvertently slip into and the varied needs and levels of implementation at your site. The presenter may be the expert on the content, but you are the expert on your staff. Most professional developers will ask these questions, but ANY professional developer worth his or her weight will use this information to better position and tailor the presentation.
2. Clearly state your engagement and participant expectations to your staff: Your excitement about each professional development opportunity will breed excitement with your staff. It's important to prime the pump with your staff prior to the staff development by saying, "I am really excited that we have the opportunity to attend the 'English Language Learner' training on Tuesday. I have heard the presenter does a great job of reinforcing our foundational information and in leading us to the next steps in our work toward increasing achievement for our ELL students. I am expecting you to gain a lot of new information and we know that in order for us to gain new information, we have to be willing participants in each part of the day. Please engage in the training as you would expect your students to engage in you daily lessons and be prepared to share back with the staff what you will implement back in your classroom immediately." Then hold everyone, including yourself, accountable for what they say they'll implement.
3. Part of building capacity is realizing that we are continually refining our skills. Professional development is for everyone, all the time. Show your staff how important each professional development opportunity is by participating as a teacher-participant. There are VERY few principals and leaders that I have seen fully engaged in the entire professional development session. It's one thing to take notes and monitor your teachers as they work and a whole other thing to actually assign yourself to a group and work with the teachers, as a teacher. This speaks volumes. So, set down the blackberry or cell phone and ENGAGE!