Anchor's Away: Sonora's Instructional Focus! Part 1

Schools, teachers, and administrators across America are constantly under scrutiny.  Test scores are at the heart of why we are being judged.  Yet, each institution of learning desires to have students achieve at the highest level.  At Sonora, our vision is, "innovate to educate", where innovate means to do something in a new way or to have new ideas about how something can be done.  That is exactly what we have done this year.

At Sonora, our students and teachers were all working hard, but we were all working hard in different directions.  Our school community did not have a system for meeting the need of all children at any given point in time.  Therefore, this year, with a study of several powerful professional development tools, we have created our system of intervention and extension.  It is a work in progress, but it is making a difference for our students.

This summer, our leadership team read a book that we affectionately call the 'green book', Annual Growth for All Students and Catch-Up Growth for Those Who are Behind.  The book give tells the story of a school district that aligned their resources to meet the needs of their students in reading and math.  The methods used are proven and easy to replicate.  This book was just the catalyst!  Within a week of having the team read the book, the district was part of a hybrid Professional Learning Community Institute through Solution Tree.  The content presented in both the book and the institute aligned perfectly.  We knew we were on to something.  Having 11 staff members present at the PLC Institute also gave momentum.  

During this same time frame, a new book was brought to our attention through Arkansas Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development (AASCD), Five Levers to Improve Learning: How to Prioritize for Powerful Results in Your School. Before asking my leadersip team to read, I previewed.  It, too aligned with our current focus of aligning systems to meet the needs of every student.  Our path was surely laid out in front of us, but we had work to do.  

The over-arching concept was that all children should have one year of growth, but those who are behind will always stay behind unless they get 'catch-up' growth, which equals more than 1 year of growth in the content area they are behind.  

So, why call this blog Anchor's Away?  Well, the convicting quote for every educator comes from the green book ...

"We never really leave our non-reading children behind.  We may forget about them, but we are chained to them socially and economically.  Like a ship and its anchor, we must either lift them up or drag them along behind us.  

It is time we teach our children to read.  It’s the promise of education.  There is no ethical or professional way to sidestep the obligation to deliver on that promise."

This is the first part of the 3 part blog.  I hope you come back in the next few days to hear about the changes that have led to increased student achievement and a systems approach to intervention and extension at Sonora Elementary.

Areas of focus in the next blog are:

1.  Children as readers!

2.  How many levers are impacted?

3.  Benchmarking your work.