7 steps for sustaining reform: relentless focus on a single goal is key to long-term improvement of instruction

Leadership, Jan-Feb, 2002 by Nancy L. Akhavan

Given the current emphasis on student achievement, many principals have implemented some type of reform strategy. As schools continue with reform efforts, these instructional leaders must focus on two key elements simultaneously: improving student achievement and sustaining the reform effort. The following seven steps focused and sustained reform efforts at Hanford Elementary School District over the past two years and hold promise to other schools seeking a map to improved instruction.

1 Choose a goal. The principal focuses on one goal in relation to the improvement of instruction. By focusing on a single goal, the leadership team and the teachers have a clear focus and unifying vision. The goal is communicated and discussed at staff meetings, during professional development and at district-level meetings.

Professional development is delivered to improve instruction around the specific area that the goal targets. The principal weaves the goal throughout the school from agendas to accountability expectations, creating a laser-like vision around what is important.

Together the staff outlines how to measure progress toward the goal and chooses a benchmark. The benchmark states what the student work should look like when the goal is reached. The staff decides which assessments will measure progress and routinely discusses progress, barriers to reaching the goal, and successes a long the way (Schmoker, 1999).

The goal states what the instructional improvement will be, when it will be measured, and how it will tested. Last year one school in Hanford Elementary School District wrote this goal around reading instruction: By May 25, there will be a 30 percent increase students meeting grade-level standard in reading measured by the DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment) or Lit Conn (Literature Connection) assessment.

The staff measured reading achievement during the year with Running Records and other informal reading assessments. The staff regularly met to discuss improvements in student achievement related to the goal and outlined their needs in professional development.

2 Believe in the goal. The principal has to be the leader and role model of the instructional change. Ugo Betti (1946) wrote in the play "Struggle Till Dawn," "When you believe in something you also have to believe in everything that's necessary for believing in it." Instructional leaders will find this easier said than done, but will need to make it a mantra.

The principal has to believe in the goal enough to make tough decisions and move forward in regard to uncomfortable situations. If the principal waivers in diligence, vision or confidence in the goal, the focus on instruction by teachers and support staff will waiver.

The principal concentrates on ensuring reform efforts continue in the school. He or she must believe in the reform plan and everything that is necessary for believing in it. Changing instructional practice is difficult. To continue reform efforts, the principal needs emotional resolve to deal with the myriad situations that could derail efforts.

The principal must communicate effectively two components: why it is important to set a goal that can be measured with student work, and how goal setting will lead to improved instruction and student achievement. At Lee Richmond School in Hanford Elementary School District, the principal led the staff through a series of meetings on goal-setting. The staff developed the goal and then a plan for meeting the goal.

Many times the teachers would come to the meetings frustrated and feeling defeated because many of the students were not reading at the expected benchmark levels. Instead of giving up on the goal, or making excuses for the results, the principal and teachers brainstormed barriers and solutions for student achievement.

The principal gave the staff hope by never changing the expectation that the students would reach the academic levels that the staff had written into the goal.

3 Begin with the end in mind. To continue the change efforts the principal needs to develop a plan incorporating district standards and organizational change theory. The plan is a map that looks more like a construction schedule. What is constructed is adult learning. All of the staff development that teachers receive is delivered by the principal or other staff designated by the principal. The principal must know what he or she wants to teach the adult learners, and how that instruction is going to look as a result of the professional development.

The purpose of the plan is to change instruction by giving the adults time to learn and think about issues, practices and purposes. The plan outlines what professional development will be delivered each month at every staff meeting.

The leadership team writes the plan at the end of the previous school year. Team members begin by discussing the progress of the reform implementation at the school, taking stock of what students can do and demonstrate in relation to district standards. The next step is to outline what professional development the teachers need in order to improve achievement in deficit areas.