About the UNL/NCA School Improvement Program

With the call for school improvement by national, state, and local constituencies, the demand for education leaders to guide schools through continuous school improvement efforts has risen tremendously. The North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement (NCA CASI) responded to the demand by identifying partners that could provide assistance with the training to increase the number of professionals knowledgeable about school improvement. Therefore, a partnership was born with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. (Isernhagen & Dlugosh, 2001)

The Program

The School Improvement Specialist Program, presented in cooperation with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), prepares school leaders to facilitate a quality school improvement process. Participants develop their school improvement plan as they navigate the program. At the completion of a four course sequence, participants have a model plan to implement in their school.

Program Features

All courses are offered on-line through an interactive web-based approach. This allows participants the opportunity to seek continuing education while accommodating demanding work and home lifestyles. New course sequences start each semester.

Participants take four graduate-level distance courses taught by UNL Department of Educational Administration graduate faculty. Within each course, students are organized into teams for discussion and are provided the opportunity to share with the entire class at various stages during the course work.

[The following sections use the student voice and the instructor voice as a presentation device to describe the program further and capture student reflections.]

Student Voice

My name is Shirley Mills, and I began the school improvement course work as an elementary classroom teacher endorsed to teach kindergarten through ninth grades with an emphasis on language arts for middle grades. My education began with a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from UNL in the late 1960s, followed with a master's degree in the late 1970s. Taking classes to improve my teaching strategies was never an option but always a necessity as I faced the ever-changing trends of the new century.

In 1990 I had the opportunity to learn how to turn on a computer and send email when completing a six week summer class at the university. I thought I had sufficient skills to take an online web-based university course recommended by professional colleagues at our local Educational Service Unit which is an educational support system for rural Nebraskans. The program that I selected was offered through UNL in partnership with NCA CASI and focused on one of my favorite topics of interest-school improvement. I had served on many NCA external teams designed to help schools to improve student learning. I found myself sometimes frustrated with my lack of knowledge about the entire process. The first course in the School Improvement Specialist Program changed my life and set a new path for me to follow.

Course One, Instructor Voice

Course One: "Getting Ready for a School Improvement Process that Works" serves as an introduction to the four course sequence. It requires learners to think about the 21st century skills needed for students to make successful transitions following high school graduation. It introduces the common elements of change and its effect on the school improvement process. In identifying and understanding the impact of those changes upon staff attitudes and behaviors, effective school improvement begins. Major players in the school improvement process are identified along with their responsibilities for building community and implementing a school improvement process that works. Common vocabulary, state and local standards, and accountability are addressed; and several school improvement models are compared and contrasted. Finally, a five year timeline is developed along with a school profile for use in the participants' respective schools.

Course One, Student Voice

Course One opened up the world of education in a way that I had never been aware of before. I had always functioned as a classroom teacher and rarely thought of myself as a leader. I found that my view of public education was very focused and narrow. The first course helped me to look through new lenses that broadened my perspective so that I could see a PreK-12 system as well as my community. Through the course discussions on line, I met teachers and administrators from all over the world-Japan, Italy, Germany, and various places within the United States. The course activities stimulated conversations about the inner-workings of our schools, and the many voices created options and solutions to practical, everyday school improvement problems. As we all worked with the course requirements, the course instructor would initiate a discussion topic pertinent to our learning, and class members would respond by talking about their own experiences related to that topic. This allowed class members to begin to build our school improvement tool kit of ideas that were effective in a real school setting. It enabled me to share these ideas within my own school district and in turn to move the district to a new level of understanding about school improvement planning.

While building my school profile, I found that data shed new light upon my community and school district. Because Oshkosh, Nebraska, was set in a rural farm and ranch area, the district always assumed that the majority of our families depended upon farming or ranching for their livelihood. Upon the return of the school survey, a startling discovery was made-the majority of the breadwinners worked at the local hospital/nursing home, school district, or a catalog return facility. Once that assumption was shattered, data took on a new emphasis. It was the beginning of many new findings about my school and community based on data instead of assumptions. The development of the school profile required in course one provided a new way of thinking about school improvement and its effects on our students.

Personally, I learned I really didn't have nearly enough technology skills to build a school profile alone. I spent long but rewarding hours sitting in front of the computer at school with a phone tucked up to my ear talking to the UNL tech expert assigned to the course. Neighbors, parents, and friends in my small town soon learned that I was taking a new course that required lots of after school hours. Even the local sheriff's department in my small town knew who was working at the school late at night. "Oh, it's just Shirley working on that course she's taking," was the comment heard downtown. Without the technical expert help, I would never have been able to complete the profile. I never felt inadequate as he coached me through making all kinds of graphs to help me present my data, importing them to my document, and sending them to the desks of my instructors in Lincoln. I had lots of failures but they were always followed with success. The tech expert never gave up on me. The university had built in an important component to the class with easy access to tech support.

Living in rural Nebraska can be an isolating experience, but in this instance I never felt alone. My personal desire to use technology in new and different ways grew based on my experiences with the web-based course work and was passed on to my fellow staff members. Help was only a phone call away!

Course Two, Instructor Voice

Course Two: "A Process that Works-Developing a School Improvement Plan" intensifies the work with data and the school profile. Locally developed classroom assessments are analyzed and decisions are made based on data. Narrative summaries are designed to accompany each graph and chart. Finally assessments are examined noting the appropriate uses for norm referenced, criterion referenced, and perceptual information. The school mission and beliefs are revisited and revised as needed. The relationship between profile and baseline data is clarified. Target goals are established and three data points are selected to serve as the baseline for each goal. Best practice research to support each goal, interventions and related strategies, and staff development plans are identified for each goal. A formal action plan is developed with a timeline for accomplishing each goal. Finally, plans are ready for implementation within each participant's school setting.

Course Two, Student Voice

Course Two extended the improvement process to include target goals based on data and writing an action plan that would fit the learning needs of students in our school. For the first time I understood what a criterion referenced test was and set out to develop one to support our goal. It was the one time in the two years that I really felt frustration. Our school had always relied on norm referenced tests for our measure of student growth and because of the implementation of state standards in Nebraska, we were designing a whole new assessment plan for our school. Fortunately, I had already written my personal philosophy about standards and assessment during course one. I was able to use it as a frame of reference, and this made the requirements set by the new standards and development of assessments much easier.

The second hurdle of course two was writing the action plan using all of the components suggested by NCA. Our school had never written or used an action plan in a formal way. Based on suggestions received from the course instructor, a staff development plan was outlined and implemented in the district. The first development activity, an examination of the county mission and belief statements, brought five school districts together for the first time to work as an educational team for the good of the students in the county. The staff members of all five schools as well as the stakeholders from each community took an informal online personality test that had been a part of the course work. Our county assessment coordinator and fellow student in the course and I worked together to group everyone by their learning styles. We then turned them loose to examine our school's mission and beliefs. We put each of the four major groups together to refine and rewrite the mission and beliefs as they believed they should be written to meet the learning needs of our students. Ownership was established and everyone was extremely proud of the new mission and beliefs written that day. Everyone had enjoyed learning about their learning styles and had benefited from the experience. This was the beginning of a true understanding of the process and its effect upon the learning of our students.

The next step in the process required our staff members to look at their curriculum and begin an open conversation about things they had been doing for years in their classrooms. We discovered gaps and overlaps of basic curriculum. Teachers began writing local assessments that would meet and exceed Nebraska's state assessment requirements. These were the first steps toward bringing five diverse districts together in school improvement planning.

While researching best practice ideas for our action plan, another new experience for me surfaced. I had found that one of the best reading programs available was also very expensive. I researched the program, wrote a grant, and took four students to present the plan to a committee that gives grants to local non-profit organizations. We received $8000 for the new program. The program served as the basis for our action plan for our target goal of improving reading comprehension across the curriculum for all of our students.

Along with the new learning about school improvement, my technology skills were slowly improving also. Using the new NCA software was challenging but stimulating. Again the UNL technology assistance provided in tandem with the course work was always available and supported my learning.

Course Three, Instructor Voice

Course Three: "Developing Community Support for a Process that Works" provides time for each participant to implement their school improvement plan as appropriate within his/her own school settings while engaged in Course 3. Basic elements of establishing an effective relationship with the community and key strategies leading to success are learned. Relationships with mass media, quality communication with them, and the dynamics of organizations and communities are studied. The components of an effective communication plan are considered, and finally students develop a communication plan for their district that will meet the needs of their school district.

Course Three, Student Voice

Course Three contained many wonderful components that I had never had much interest before because I didn't think I needed them. Boy, was I wrong! We learned how to write articles for the media, respond in a public interview, and develop a communication plan for our district that provided all the components for effective communication. Our district's communication plan had not been changed for many years and did not meet the standards of the 21st century. With a lot of research and work, a new plan that truly met the needs of all five districts in our county was constructed as a requirement for the course. Our plan was two pronged focusing upon involving the community in the daily activities and improvement of the school and preparing us for emergency communications within our communities. The plan was written and adoption is expected by all five districts' school boards in the fall of 2002.

Course Four, Instructor Voice

Course Four: "Completing a Cycle of School Improvement-Documenting and Reporting Results" is a culmination of all of the work completed by the students. They have to write a report of results summarizing the work they have completed. An analysis of post data to baseline data is developed and analytical interpretations of the data are presented. Finally students are required to organize and reflect upon two portfolios that they have been working on throughout the coursework-a school portfolio showing their work with their school and a student portfolio demonstrating their personal growth in school improvement.

Course Four, Student Voice

Course Four helped me to conceptualize the entire school improvement process. The report of results required that I re-examine baseline data and compare it to post data. I was able to verbalize to the district where we really were with our target goals and interventions. Recommendations were made based on data, not assumptions as they were in previous years. My school still has a lot of work to do in the five year cycle, but from the fall of 2000 to the present, they have grown tremendously in the process thanks to the NCA/UNL School Improvement Courses.

Organizing and reflecting upon the portfolios was a lot of work but rewarding at the same time. As I had progressed through each course, both my school district and I had grown tremendously in our understanding of school improvement and its impact upon improving student learning. Through the building of course experiences I examined my own belief system and how it was related or different from the belief systems of others in my school, my district, and my county. With each step my vision and my views about education became more focused by interacting with my course colleagues around the world about the improvement process and how it was working for them. As I saw the need for all educators and interested stakeholders to be active in the process of school improvement, I began to think about my own career in education.

After 37 years of teaching, I qualified for Nebraska's early retirement plan in May of 2001. After much personal soul searching and discussing my career goals with UNL staff, I decided to make the move to Lincoln, Nebraska, to enroll in the doctoral program and continue my study of school improvement. Enrolling in the doctoral program in educational administration, landing a graduate assistantship, and beginning the process toward achieving my PhD with a focus on school improvement seemed like an appropriate avenue for my life. One by one all of the doors opened to make that happen following the end of Course Two and I moved to Lincoln.

Student Voice Summary

School improvement is a national concern but can only be impacted by those at the local level. The partnership between NCA and UNL in conjunction with school districts across the world impacted student learning in a positive way in my school district and for me personally. I'm excited to have been a part of the course work. I don't expect everyone who takes the NCA/UNL School Improvement Courses to have a life changing event such as I did, but I can say, without a doubt, that it will be a challenging and rewarding experience for you and your school. Many staff members are participating in school improvement without really understanding it. With local, state, and national demands for improvement in student learning and a call for new and innovative assessment plans that meet local and state education standards, schools are going to be forced to look at school improvement as one of the most important functions of their district. The NCA/UNL School Improvement partnership can and will certainly make a positive impact on those who participate and the schools they represent. I would encourage any interested educator to check it out. It is a cutting edge program using web-based technology that can be accessed right where you are geographically and can offer valuable understanding of the school improvement process. The program can make a positive difference for you, your school, and community. It will help to ensure that "no student will be left behind."

References

Isernhagen, J. & Dlugosh, L. (2001). Developing quality leaders for school improvement: The NCA/UNL school improvement program. Journal of School Improvement 2(1).