September/October 2001 | NW REPORT

Charging the Laboratory with helping schools to become high-performing learning communities, the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement has renewed the Laboratory's contract for another five years. This aim not only guides the Laboratory's work around the region, but it is also a principle around which the Laboratory has organized itself internally.

As a high-performing learning community, says Bob Blum, director of the Laboratory's School Improvement Program, a school would share a vision; emphasize challenging curriculum and engaged learning; be proactive about family and community involvement; and foster a professional learning community among school staff.

To promote its own professional learning community, and to offer coordinated assistance to clients, the Laboratory has organized its research and development activities around five focus areas:

Working especially closely with 15 partner schools around the region, these teams work collaboratively to help schools identify needs and set goals, implement best practices, and collect and use data to inform decisionmaking. Laboratory staff will evaluate and document the effectiveness of services and products to these partner schools and others, and share this procedural knowledge widely.

Re-engineering schools. Re-engineering schools to improve student performance involves using educational theory, research, and experience to reshape the roles and relationships of schools, districts, and communities.

Alf Langland, team leader, notes that two products are in development to help educators identify schoolwide needs and goals: a research synthesis, Small Learning Communities as a School Reform Strategy: A Review of Recent Literature, by Kathleen Cotton and a guide, Moving Forward: From Wherever You Are to Creating the Right Foundation for School Improvement That Lasts, by Deanna Woods. Training institutes on school re-engineering will be presented annually throughout the region.

The Laboratory is also providing national leadership in re-engineering schools. Bob Blum directs the national work that includes synthesizing and disseminating research, presenting a national forum on comprehensive reform, and providing direct service to leadership teams in school systems—school districts, schools, and communities. A research synthesis on instructional improvement is in development, as is an indepth description of how Highland Elementary School, a school with many challenges in the Salem-Keizer School District in Oregon, turned around student achievement.

The first national forum will be conducted in February 2002 when researchers, school and district staff, state reform leaders, staff from the U.S. Department of Education, regional laboratory staff, and developers of school-reform models will meet to talk about issues facing an urban district as it implements comprehensive school reform.

The Laboratory and the three major national administrator associations—the American Association of School Administrators, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, and the National Association of Elementary School Principals—are developing direct support for district teams as they work to improve student learning by fostering high-performing learning communities. The support will include topical institutes on such issues as gaining commitment to a common purpose, using data to monitor progress, and following up with onsite assistance.

Quality teaching and learning. The quality of classroom instruction is key to student achievement and is dependent on the quality of the school staff. This team works to ensure that professional development focuses on the roles of the learner and teacher, and how learning takes place.

A teacher from Kodiak High School, Mike Sirofchuck, spent several weeks at the Laboratory researching what the possible challenges and strategies may be for developing professional learning teams at the high school level. His findings are being used to inform the team's design of professional-development approaches that will help high school educators overcome departmental isolation and form professional learning teams.

"Even in struggling schools, there's a lot of expertise in the school, but teachers don't know each other," says team leader Jerian Abel. “They may not have worked in an environment that truly collaborates and learns together.”

Student assessment. Well-aligned, authentic, and continuous feedback is needed to inform teachers, students, and parents of their progress in meeting state standards. This team's work helps teachers develop quality assessments for day-to-day classroom instruction and helps schools use assessment information to guide decisionmaking.

The team is approaching its work in three parts, says Dean Arrasmith, director of the Assessment Program. It is developing a series of indicators for school change. It is also producing case descriptions of schools that have successfully implemented the Laboratory's highly regarded 6+1 TraitsTM model for writing and reading, identifying those conditions that are essential for success with the model, such as school readiness, participation, and resources. A training module is also being developed to help classroom teachers learn the specialized language, concepts, and effective use of assessment tools. This knowledge can help teachers use assessment data, whether test results or other measures of student progress, to inform their practice.

Literacy and language development. By making research-based practices in language development accessible, and helping educators choose wisely from available resource materials and programs, this team enables teachers to address the learning needs of their students, helping them to meet challenging literacy standards.

The team is developing a family literacy resource guide, says team leader Rebecca Novick. "The guide is meant to help families provide their children with experiences with literature, regardless of the adult family member's reading and writing skill level,” she says. For example, children can collect oral histories from family members or tell their own personal histories.

"Telling stories is a big part of what our work is about," says Novick. Two products to support this work are in development: Supporting Language and Literacy Development With Technology by Judy Van Scoter and Suzie Boss, and Novick's Building a Strong Foundation in Oral Language.

School, family, and community partnerships. Student assessments of all types and for all grade levels usually overlook students' cultural and family considerations, attributes, goals, and individual strengths. This team helps schools collaborate with families and communities in identifying ways for all students to succeed and to demonstrate their learning and mastery of challenging standards.

"There's a lot of agreement on what kids need, and we're working with schools and communities to help parlay all of our resources for the sake of kids," says Steffen Saifer, director of the Child and Family Program. The team has developed a training manual, Planning for Youth Success, that identifies a process for evaluating assets, formulating goals, and implementing action plans for establishing or strengthening partnerships among school staff, students, families, and community stakeholders.

The Laboratory's Evaluation Program provides feedback on the effectiveness of the Laboratory's assistance and products, and the information is used to make further improvements.

"We may know what the best practices are, but what's the best way to implement them?" says Director Kim Yap. “That's the evidence we will be evaluating and documenting to share with others.”

Together, the Laboratory and its 15 partner schools are fostering a regionwide professional learning community by collaborating on long-term assistance, research, and program evaluation. And Northwest students are prime beneficiaries of all they learn about best practices for school renewal and student success.

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