Allow principals, department leaders, and area leaders to keep and redeploy any resources they agree to cut/redeploy. They know the need, can identify the low performing iniatives, and remove the obstacle of waiting for "new money" before starting new efforts.

Superintendent's Leadership Theory of Action for Continuous Improvement to Improve Student Learning at Scale Across the District

January 2007

I. Theory of Action: a set of interrelated causal statements that describe actions or strategies that leads to the improvement of the quality of instructional practice and therefore the improvement of student performance, over time, at scale. At scale means that the improvements will reach all students in all classrooms through the daily work of teachers and administrators. ( R. Elmore)

II. Theory of Action for Continuous Improvement in the Farmington Public Schools:

My theory of action is comprised of a set of strategic actions that I purposely and intentionally use within the district strategic planning for continuous improvement process. The leadership decisions and framework underlying these actions have emerged through analysis and reflection on "the work" of school and district improvement over time, best practices in district leadership and the related research literature.

My leadership work is grounded in a well-established set of core beliefs that over time have come to reflect the district's philosophy and mission:

• The Farmington Public Schools are committed to the belief that ALL children are capable of attaining high levels of educational achievement in preparation for productive, rewarding lives and responsible citizenship.
• Students will reach this goal through their own diligence and effort, and through a school and school district learning climate that responds to individual student academic needs, a curriculum that challenges, adequate resources, and skilled, professional instruction. A belief in social equality underlies Farmington's commitment to providing a high quality education for ALL students.
• The mission of the Farmington Public Schools is to offer a common, standards-based educational program that will enable every student to achieve rigorous performance standards.

The theory of action statements below are intended to describe intentional organizational coherence and alignment with the district's strategic improvement process (philosophy, mission and five-year performance goals):

1. If we establish clear and appropriate student performance standards at all grade levels and in all content areas, then it will be possible to determine progress over time and to identify areas for capacity building tied directly to the most significant performance gaps.
2. If we use expertise in teaching and learning as the defining attribute for promoting and supporting distributed leadership across the district, then the focus of improvement initiatives will be more directly connected to the most important, mission-related learning outcomes.
3. If our annually developed district and school improvement initiatives are developed collaboratively with key stakeholders within the context of the Farmington School Development Plan format and content, then we will have classroom, school and district improvement strategies and expected results that tie directly to the continuous improvement of teaching and learning in measurable ways.
4. If the implementation of the district's Educator Evaluation and Professional Development Plan (EEPD) is grounded in collaboration, use of student performance data, an action research orientation, supervision and administrative support based on improvements in instruction, professional practice and measurable performance, then the improvements in student performance at scale will become more probable.
5. If the district's capacity to collect, portray and use student performance indicators at the classroom, school, and district level is made more effective, efficient and accessible, then the results of efforts to improve instructional practice and school leadership will be more available for further improvement analysis.
6. If we continue to provide professional development in and specific reinforcement for the instructional and leadership behaviors and school practices that reflect messages of high expectations for all students and the power of efficacy, then more students who do not currently meet district performance standards will meet them.

III. Strategies to implement this theory of action include:

1. Use organizational infrastructure to engage faculty and administrators in the continual establishment, review and refinement of student performance standards-Vertical Teams with administrative and teacher leadership, Summer Curriculum Development Academy, Districtwide Curriculum Coordinating Council, Professional Development Programs
2. Implement the Farmington District and School Development Planning process as the primary vehicle for systemic coherence, accountability, clear and data driven improvement plans.
3. 3. Continue to build district capacity to collect, portray and use student performance data at the school, classroom and district level. Realign resources in support of this work. Provide principals with the Professional Development to move the analysis and use of data as close to the classroom as possible.
4. 4. Continue the practice of bi-monthly District Leadership Council visits to schools for the expressed purpose of developing our own capacity and understanding of the effective instructional practice and to model the importance of actually "looking at" teaching and learning to better understand best practice.

(The detailed implementation plans for school district and school improvement are presented in the Farmington Public Schools 2006-07 School and Program Development Plans booklet available on the www.fpsct.org website.)

Farmington Public Schools

Collaborative Coaching and Learning Model

This model or heuristic is presented to provide a framework for a wide array of instructional improvement activities that Farmington educators engage in to address problems of practice in our ongoing efforts to improve instruction and student learning. Across the school district educators are spending more time and effort in discussing instruction, looking at student work and addressing the problems of practice in collaborative settings. Whether the process is part of EEPD, grade level or department instructional teams, teaching for understanding work groups or DLC members observing and discussing together teaching and learning-the key elements of these Collaborative Coaching and Learning Model activities are similar and involve observation, analyses and reflection.

In the broadest sense this heuristic is based on these components:

1. A Pre-Conference or Preliminary Discussion about the Teaching and Learning to guide the Focus of the Observation or Post-Teaching Discussion. Where possible, research and or best practices associated with this practice or lesson are identified and discussed in advance. This preliminary discussion sets the context for the examination of the teaching episode. The discussion may focus or narrow the scope of the observation or broaden its purpose. In addition, some "tools" for observing may be suggested to guide various observations.
2. A Teaching Episode is Implemented or Implemented and Observed by Some Form of Collaborative Group. This "lesson" or group study focus defined broadly is directly tied to the instructional practice previously identified. A critical defining attribute of this mode is that the main focus of the collaborative work is grounded in actual instructionally related practice, that is, the observation of teaching and learning in action.
3. A Debriefing Conference or Conversation follows among members of the collaborative team. The conference or conversation is most often facilitated by a team member who serves as coach for this episode. The primary focus of this meeting is to review and analyze the instructional practice or results from a planned intervention that was targeted in the preliminary discussion. The initially identified research or best practices are integrated into the discussion at this point. The debrief conference or discussion begins with reflections on the strengths, challenges or questions about the instructional practice. The goal is to describe teaching practice in precise ways, so that purposes, intentions and results can be better understood.

Is there evidence that the teaching improved student learning? Was there evidence that students were actively engaged with the content and main concepts? Which specific teaching strategies appeared to have the most impact on student learning? The discussion typically closes with members committing to introducing instructional improvements into their own practice(s) and identifying the main focus for the next cycle of the process.

The Farmington Collaborative Coaching and Learning Model is grounded in the following set of guiding beliefs:

• Collaboration around the continuous improvement of teaching and learning is a vehicle for improving the quality of teaching and learning. "Isolation is the enemy of improvement." ( Elmore)The primary focus of educators and the school and district culture, conditions, competencies and resources must be aligned with this belief.
• Teaching is an Intentional Act: What teachers do to guide the interaction between students, content/standards, and learning experiences must be consciously and deliberately acted upon to promote student learning.
• Instructional Core: The professional practices that comprise teaching and the support of teaching must be shared in actual school and classroom contexts as the entry point for discussions of improvement. This work must focus on the core of teacher, student and content.
• Public Reflection: Teaching must reside in a community of practice where teaching is validated through multiple perspectives, allowing deeper understandings about teaching to emerge.
• Feedback: Constructive and instructive feedback is a stimulus for change and should occur in regular intervals to strengthen our improvement of practice.
• Community: Every member of a team is a coach to one another as each individual has something to contribute to one another's learning.

Farmington Public Schools

Collaborative Coaching and Learning Model