Pfs Theory of Action: ALL, Alim and MST Principles

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Contents

Whakatauākī

Foreword

Programmes for Students

PfS Theory of Action

PfS Theory of Action: ALL, ALiM and MST Principles

Theory underpinning ALL, ALiM and MST – Levers for change

Guiding principles for the development and use of supplementary programmes

Intervention Logic

Figure 2: Evaluation Framework and Questions

The Chain of Influence

Building school-wide systems, capability and processes

Curriculum and Achievement Plans

Smart Tools

Implementation

Figure 3: Implementation Process based on Intervention Logic

Conditions for successful implementation

Selection

Undertaking the Intervention

The ALL, ALiM and MST Programmes

‘Step up’ in implementation over time

Workshops support in-school capability

Mathematics Support Teacher (MST)

Table 1: Funding for MST Year 1 and Year 2 (based on salary of $81,867)

Table 2: Workshops for schools participating in Mathematics Support Teacher (MST) Year 1

Table 3: Workshops for schools participating in Mathematics Support Teacher (MST) Year 2

Communities of Learning

Assessment and Reporting

Research, monitoring and evaluation

Figure 4: Three Fields of Knowledge

Knowledge building by Leadership Team

Table 4: Sources of evidence for programme outcomes from each school

Table 5: Sources of evidence for system outcomes from each school

References

Whakatauākī

Iti rearea teitei kahikatea ka taea

The rearea (bellbird) is one of the smallest birds in the forest, yet it is capable of reaching the top of the kahikatea, the tallest tree in the forest

The whakatauākī has a number of positive messages,for example:

• If effort is sustained, we can reach great heights.

• Out of small beginnings, great things can be achieved.

• Although we might be but a small bird, we too can fly to the same heights, should we put our mind to it.

This means that size is not relevant to the ability to fly to the heights. If we have the dedication and determination to succeed and achieve the greatest of greats, then we will get there!

• We are all born with ‘feathers’ but we need to use them in order to reach the heights of the forest.

We are all born with the same ability as each other. Each person has the ability to succeed; what we need to do is put the hard work and determination to succeed into action, just as the bird does when learning to fly.

If we put that effort in, then each and every one of us will be able to reach the same achievement levels, and we will be able to accomplish any task that is brought our way.

• A bird always looks up when aiming for the resting place at the top of the tree.

This means that regardless of where we are – on another tree, a close rock or on the ground – we should always look up and strive to get to the heights of the tall tree.

This is about having a vision and a purpose and a goal to reach up for. If we don’t have this, then we will look down to see how much it will hurt if we fall. We need to be more like the bird and keep that goal up high, that way we will, via our own persistence, get to that height.

Foreword

This Theory of Action has been drafted to provide a professional document for the leadership team,supplier regional leaders, Ministry of Education national office and area offices, senior advisors, mentors and school personnel regarding the interventions – Accelerating Learning in Literacy, Accelerating Learning in Mathematics, and Mathematics Support Teacher.

The document is a logic framework which supports the implementation of the Programmes for Students intervention.

Rationale

A range of international and national reports demonstrate that while the New Zealand education system has provided excellent outcomes for some students, overall improvement has been inconsistent, with significant groups missing out. In particular, the system has not altered the inequitable educational outcomes for a large number of Māori and Pasifika students, students with special education needs, or students from low income backgrounds.

Overall, Public Achievement Information (PAI) data shows that there are pressing issues of inequality. Whilst there are particular challenges and successes for each group, overall, achievement for Māori and Pasifika across the three National Standards is much lower than for Asian and European/Pākehā. With regards to gender, girls’ achievement is much higher than boys (except in mathematics).

The challenge for New Zealand’s education system is to bring more students to a higher achievement level, with a broader skill range and more equity of outcomes than ever before. In response to this challenge, the Government’s education targets include developing a goal for the sector of 85% of students at or above the reading, writing and mathematics National Standards by 2017.

To support this target, the Ministry of Education (the Ministry) is also focusing on accelerating the progress of years 1 to 8 students who are achieving below or well below National Standards in mathematics, reading or writing for their year group.

The system improvements needed include the way supplementary supports for students are coherent with the practices of “what makes a bigger difference”.

Programmes for Students

Programmes for Students (PfS) are a suite of supplementary supports for primary students: Accelerating Learning in Literacy (ALL), Accelerating Learning in Mathematics (ALiM) and Mathematics Support Teacher (MST).

ALL, ALiM and MST are designed to address underachievement in literacy or mathematics, and to ensure that every student in New Zealand has access to a quality education.

ALL, ALiM and MST are school inquiry and knowledge building interventions that accelerate progress for groups of students who are below or well below National Standards in mathematics or literacy, and sustain cycles of inquiry for systematic spread across classrooms, schools and the system.

These interventions are led and driven by the school using their existing literacy or mathematics expertise.Schools’ annual plans and targets are used to identify groups of students who are below or well below National Standards in mathematics or literacy, and would benefit from additional support to accelerate their achievement.

Teachers provide short, intensive support for students in addition to, and connected with, their existing classroom programmes to accelerate their progress. It is expected that schools will engage with family and whānau to have greater impact on the outcomes of the students.

ALL, ALiM and MST are based on a Theory of Action which ensures design and delivery consistency and coherence.

Outcomes

ALL, ALiM and MST are designed to achieve the following outcomes:

• Acceleration for targeted students who are below or well below National Standards in literacy or mathematics
• Improved student achievement of learners, with a focus on priority learners, enabling greater percentages of students to reach curriculum expectation
• The development over time, of a school Curriculum and Achievement Plan (CaAP)
• System improvement and capability building across each participating school.

What this will look like in schools:

• Student achievement is lifted from below or well below National Standards in literacy and mathematics
• Student’s identity as successful learners in reading, writing and mathematics which supports their learning across The New Zealand Curriculum is enhanced
• Schools review their current intervention processes and practices so there is a school-wide response to student underachievement, reflected in a school Curriculum and Achievement Plan.

PfS Theory of Action

The theory of action builds on the 2010 – 2011 pilot studies, the intervention logic of the 2012 programmes, the evaluations of the impact and success of these programmes, and conversations with national and regional Ministry personnel, providers and schools about the impact, and improvements and successes. System level improvement theories based on student outcomes were used in the sense making process.

PfS Theory of Action: ALL, ALiM and MST Principles

• The primary focus of ALL, ALiM and MST is accelerating progress for small groups of students leading to school wide change.
• An inquiry process is central at all levels of this project.

“Teaching as Inquiry” in this project (as described in the New Zealand Curriculum) underpin the PfS interventions ALL, ALiM and MST. That is, the teacher’s continual monitoring, reflection and response to student learning and progress:

“Inquiry in to the teaching–learning relationship can be visualised as a cyclical process that goes on moment by moment (as teaching takes place), day by day, and over the longer term. In this process, the teacher asks:

• What is important (and therefore worth spending time on), given where my students are at?
• What strategies (evidence-based) are most likely to help my students learn from this?
• What happened as a result of the teaching, and what are the implications for future teaching?”

Inquiryalso draws on the experiences and knowledge generated from the practice of leaders and teachers as they develop their own inquiries within their specific school contexts. This can be seen as “professional inquiry”. By valuing and supporting the use of both practitioner knowledge and research knowledge, leaders and teachers are able to learn and innovate. Finding effective learning pathways and ensuring the most capable teaching of priority student groups enables participants to answer the question of, ‘what works for whom?’”.

An “inquiry question” is also a key focus of workshops for schools participating in ALL and ALiM.

• For Year 1 workshops, the inquiry question is: “What is acceleration and how do we achieve it?”
• For Years 2 & 3 workshops the inquiry question is: “How do we develop effective systems of support that sustain student acceleration and ensure intervention coherence at a school-wide level?”

The “inquiry” referred to in this Theory of Action is:

Teachers use evidence related to students and teaching to inform cycles of inquiry and knowledge-building

Leaders use evidence-informed cycles of inquiry and knowledge building to support school-wide systems and organisational conditions for improved student outcomes.

The Ministry uses evidence and cycles of inquiry to develop system wide improvements

• ALL, ALiM and MST are short, intensive supplementary supports for small groups of students, in addition to and connected with the classroom programme.
• Systems for transfer of knowledge support systematic spread across classrooms, schools and the sector.

System-level improvement

• Accelerating progress for students within a school context is due to particular instructional and leadership practices. e.g. (Stein)[1], Thompson and William)[2], designing for sustainability from the beginning (William and Leahy)[3], learning design (Cobb and Jackson)[4], chain of influence (Timperley and Parr)[5],using Evidence in the Classroom for Professional Learning (Timperley), acceleration not remediation. (Pepper Rollins)[6]
• Design is based on system-level improvement theories, teaching and learning research:

Best Evidence Synthesis (BES) quality schooling dimensions for the Supplementary Supports Framework

 These describe the guiding principles for all supplementary support for students, teachers, leaders and schools and ensure improvement focus is coherent with other foci.

Theory underpinning ALL, ALiM and MST – Levers for change

Best Evidence Synthesis (BES) “The BES model for systemic improvement that leverages evidence and expertise to make a bigger difference for valued outcomes for diverse (all) student” (Alton-Lee, 2012)[7] provides a map for improvement that will lead to this vision. The model has four components that are the levers for change:

• effective pedagogy for valued outcomes for diverse (all) learners,
• activation of educationally powerful connections,
• leadership of conditions for continuous improvement,
• productive inquiry and knowledge building for professional and policy learning.
  

These four levers for change are inherent in the design of ALL, ALiM and MST.

Accelerating learning supports student achievement

Students who are underachieving risk remaining on a trajectory to continued underachievement. Acceleration is described as the learner’s progress showing a noticeably faster upward trajectory than their previous learning; and progressing faster than the expected rate of their peers in order to catch them up. This rate of progress brings the learner’s achievement level to that consistent with, or beyond, a set of benchmarks or standards.(See Figure 1 - Designing Pathways for Accelerating Learning).

Schools collect data about the impact of the intervention and to plan where to next. This student achievement data also supports the Ministry’s evaluation of ALL, ALiM and MST.

Programmes for Students: ALL and ALiM focuses on accelerating learning through teaching a group (or groups) of students in readiness for classroom learning in advance of their class peers. Acceleration is, therefore, not primarily focused on mastering concepts of the past, but uses the child’s strengths to build the expertise, attitude, skills and knowledge needed to meet their current New Zealand Curriculum level. Acceleration in this way avoids a remediation focus of drilling isolated skills or items that students have failed to master. Instead, acceleration teaching approaches ‘readies students for new learning where past concepts and skills are addressed, but always in the purposeful context of future learning.’ (Rollins, 2014)[8].

Acceleration in the context of ALL and ALiM requires teachers to be thinking about their classroom programme, and how they can teach their intervention group to build expertise, attitude, skills and knowledge ready for their new learning. To do this, teachers need to be able to identify the ‘big’ ideas of reading, writing and mathematics and understand the progression of each of these over time. Pathways of progress for intervention students will assist this learning.

The ALL and ALiM intervention includes close monitoring, intensive planning and evaluation, and the provision of many rich and intellectually rigorous opportunities for learning provided by the teacher. Each student would experience being part of a learning community, develop learning strategies and personal self-evaluation skills[9]along with the particular knowledge and skills that had been identified to ensure they can engage with all aspects of the school curriculum appropriate for their peer group.

Figure 1 - Designing Pathways for Accelerating Learning[10]

Supplementary Supports for Students

Supplementary programmes can neither substitute for nor compensate for poor-quality classroom instruction. Supplementary instruction is a secondary response to learning difficulties. Although supplementary instruction has demonstrated merit, its impact is insufficient unless it is planned and delivered in ways that makes clear connections to the child’s daily experiences and needs during instruction in the classroom. (Snow et al, 1998, p327)[11]

There are three tiers of teaching support for students:

• Tier 1: Effective classroom teaching.
• Tier 2: Supplementary support.
• Tier 3: Specialist support.

Most students should progress through their schooling in an effective classroom teaching programme where the teacher uses supplementary support and adaptive teaching to meet the students’ needs and accelerate their progress (Tier 1). Those students who do not make the expected progress in Tier 1 will require supplementary support programmes at Tier 2 and Tier 3. These should supplement core classroom teaching.

Tier 2 is a short and intensive school-based intervention inside and/or outside the classroom for some learners, and Tier 3 is a long-term specialist intervention intended for a very small number of students. (See the diagram above).

Guiding principles for the development and use of supplementary programmes

From the BES body of knowledge and the work of other researchers focused on system improvement (e.g. Cobb & Jackson, 2011; Fullan, 2009; McKinsey Report, 2010) a number of guiding principles have been identified for the development and use of programmes that supplement effective classroom teaching.

Effective pedagogy for valued outcomes

• The aim of any supplementary programme for students is to support them to access the school curriculum and reach valued educational goals, i.e. it is a matter of equity.
• The New Zealand Curriculum 2007 identifies teacher actions to promote student learning (pages 34-35).
• Assessment is used to inform decisions about who needs to access to supplementary supportand how successful the teaching and learning is.Ongoing monitoring of student progress aligns with the school curriculum and the educational goals and improves evaluative capability.
• The content of these programmes aligns with the school curriculum and is based on high impact pedagogies[12] – i.e. the ‘what’ and ‘how’ focus and is not on low-level skills.
• Curriculum resources and tools are ‘smart’.
• Learning occurs within socio-cultural contexts.
• As particular groups of students, namely: Māori, Pasifika, students with special education needs and students from low socio-economic backgrounds are under-represented in the student population reaching the valued student outcomes, the curriculum of accelerated teaching and learning needs to be cognisant of and responsive to their strengths, needs and aspirations. For example, a significant number of students have diverse language backgrounds.

Activation of educationally powerful connections

• The success of a supplementary programme for students is determined by the quality of the educational interactions between and amongst student - student; student - teacher; teacher - parent/whānau/family; student - parent/whānau/family; teacher-teacher; teacher-school leaders/visiting leaders.
• Generally people need to learn how to engage in deep constructive talk that focuses on improving learning (for example see BES Exemplars[13] for student talk, Timperley, 2011[14] for teacher talk).

Leadership of conditions for continuous improvement