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School change coaching – CSSR will provide
Breaking Ranks school change coaching services on-site for the school
year. The Breaking Ranks coach will prepare agendas, facilitate
meetings and document conclusions reached by the Design Team as it
prepares a plan for the completion of the smaller learning communities
initiative so that the high school will in fact become a personalized
learning environment. The coach will support the Design Team and will
support any sub-committees of the design that are created to further the
goals of the Design Team. |
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Data Team coaching – CSSR will also assist
in the creation and implementation of a data team that will use data to
inform the change process at the school. Building on the experience of
creating data teams at other Breaking Ranks sites, CSSR will assist the
data team to access extant data and provide data support to the design
team and other teams in the school where appropriate. |
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Values & Strategy Alignment
Values and belief systems underpin the development,
implementation, and sustainability of effective strategies. Workshops
and consultation in this area provide leadership teams with an
understanding of the contribution of values and school culture to the
accomplishment of SLC objectives. Best practices are provided for the
development and support of the values and belief systems that are
necessary for SLC strategies to be successful in both the short and long
term. In addition, the necessary alignment of values across
organizational boundaries, e.g., the high school, district, and state
are also addressed.
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Student Shadowing and Focus Groups
Students
have unique school experiences that are not always comprehensible to the
adults involved with their education. Often, this information is lost
because adolescents and adults see things through different eyes.
Accessing students’ understanding in grounded ways, through
incorporating student shadowing and student focus groups, has the
potential to improve school experience for more students, as well as for
teachers and administrators. Through a student shadowing exercise
(including classroom observations, debrief session, focus groups and
next steps planning session), schools will gain insight how to create a
richer, student-centered educational program. |
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This workshop will introduce teams to methodologies
for implementing effective teaming practices as well as the roles and
responsibilities of team members. Teams will plan for the organization,
record keeping, and use of Common Planning Time. They will explore ways
to increase teacher collaboration and student involvement through
integrated units.
Participants will also learn about effective ways to build partnerships
through communication between the team, the students, administration,
and the home. |
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This
workshop will assist teams of teachers in learning strategies to begin
personalization with the individual “persons” in the classroom.
Participants will consider methods to personalize content, product,
assessment, and instruction and discover a range of options for
personalizing teaching and learning both in and out of the classroom.
As a result of attending this workshop, teachers will create a fold-out
plan to incorporate personalization into existing lessons and units. |
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Successful Freshman Transition
The CSSR/Breaking Ranks approach to freshmen
transitions suggests that schools consider 12 components. The
components are listed in order of both difficulty of implementation and
the likelihood of producing a successful result. Many of these
components can be quickly and inexpensively implemented. However, the
components that will require substantial investments in time and
resources are much more likely to result in increasing student
performance both in their freshman year and subsequent years in the high
school.
- Gather eighth grade data
- Establish a summer bridge program
- Provide a freshman orientation program
- Support extra curricular opportunities
- Implement an advisor/advisee program
- Provide tutoring and support
- Establish a twilight school – for credit and
concurrent support
- Create a Freshman Academy
- Be sure that teachers of freshmen are united
(TOFU)
- Incorporate a freshman seminar class
- Team students with a matched set of teamed
teachers
- Appropriately modify staffing and scheduling
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Support for Freshman Academy Teams – The CSSR
coach will meet with each of the freshman teacher teams three times over
the course of the school year. Meetings will take place in the fall to
assess current practices and to recommend strategies for increasing team
effectiveness, and in the spring to review progress and plan for the next
school year. |
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Changing Roles and Responsibility Workshop Series
– The CSSR coach will conduct two all-day workshops designed to build
capacity of school, district, and community leaders to address the
changing leadership needs that are necessary to support the creation of
smaller, more personalized learning environments for adolescents. |
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Summer Training for Teacher Teams – CSSR will
plan and conduct a two-day summer training for teacher teams. The
agenda for the summer training will be developed by the CSSR coach in
consultation with the Design Team to insure that the training will
specifically address the current needs of the teams to help them become more effective. |
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Assistance on the Creation of a New Schedule
– CSSR will provide support to a committee organized to create and
provide training on a new course schedule that will be specifically
designed to meet the needs of middle and high schools.
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Critical Friends Training –
CSSR will
provide five days of Critical Friends Training for a group of 10
teachers and administrators. This training will be designed to allow
for these individuals to become Critical Friends Facilitators within the
high school Community. |
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Summer Retreat – CSSR will plan and conduct
a two-day summer retreat for the school leadership team and other key
players, including members of the community. The specific agenda for the
retreat will be developed by the leadership team as an important part of
the design and planning process.
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Planning for Future Grant Funding
– The CSSR
coach will provide grant writing consultation with the school leadership
team to assist in gaining additional funding to support continued
implementation of the Breaking Ranks II strategies and recommendations. |
