Raising Student Achievement Means Working Systemically
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL)

It's a scenario all too common to educators: Schools and districts desperate to raise test scores adopt a new improvement program or a new curriculum even though they don't have the capacity to carry out such a program successfully. Even worse, sometimes the programs are "quick-fix" approaches or only address some of the challenges schools face in improving achievement. To increase student achievement, it is necessary to work at all levels of an education system, aligning standards, curriculum, instruction, and assessment and building staff capacity and skills to sustain school improvement.

Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL) spent 4 years refining its Working Systemically model designed to improve reading and mathematics achievement. The model was developed and refined as SEDL staff helped low-performing schools in 20 districts build their capacity for school improvement.

Working Systemically , now available online, helps schools and districts build capacity across five key competencies:

• Creating coherence
• Collecting, interpreting, and using data
• Ensuring continuous professional learning
• Building relationships
• Responding to changing conditions

The model includes 14 modules: an overview, a facilitator's handbook, and an introductory module to the Professional Teaching and Learning Cycle, which is the process used to ensure the improvement effort is making a meaningful impact in the classroom. The other modules include six modules that focus on specific aspects of literacy and five that focus on areas in mathematics.

"Improving student achievement and working systemically are not easy," admits SEDL program associate D'Ette Cowan, who helped develop the model. "It takes dedication on the part of the school and district leaders to be actively engaged in the process and stay on course. It also takes an unwavering focus on aligning curriculum, instruction, and assessment with state standards and a commitment to collecting, analyzing and using data to monitor the alignment process," she says.

To view the Working Systemically materials online, visit www.sedl.org/ws/ .

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