Minnesota's high school redesign built using McREL's Success in Sight
Picture four high schools, committed to preparing all students for success and using data to drive student learning. Through its North Central Comprehensive Center (NCCC), McREL is guiding this and other aspects of Minnesota's systemic school improvement effort. The state's multi-year initiative, "Systemic High School Redesign: Building a Minnesota Model," involves four pilot schools with diverse demographics: suburban Delano High School, urban high schools Fridley and Spring Lake Park, and rural Long Prairie-Grey Eagle High School.
"Supporting school staff as they take responsibility for any initiative's success is key to school reform," said NCCC Consultant Sammye Wheeler-Clouse. So, in 2007, NCCC and state staff identified and disseminated best practices to the schools. At the same time, NCCC consultants focused on helping the state understand what the schools needed to accomplish the redesign and the kinds of policies, programs, and professional development that would sustain their efforts.
Data tells the story
For example, the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) and the NCCC held a two-day data retreat for all the leadership teams in February 2007. After immersing themselves in 3-inch-wide binders of school data that Fridley Principal Dave Webb compiled, Fridley staff members realized that analyzing data was more than looking at test scores; it really meant looking at what was going on daily at their school. "We tore into it [our school data] and determined our building goals were good, but we wanted to increase student achievement," said Webb.
To involve more Fridley staff in the process, Sally Wherry, supervisor of school initiatives in the state, and NCCC Director Ceri Dean assisted the team in hosting their own data retreat, where the work surfaced an area of needed improvement—only about 30 percent of parents had been attending parent-teacher conferences. Fridley staff took action by making a small but meaningful change to the scheduled hours of the spring conference, and attendance increased by about 10 percent.
Later, they restructured their approach to the conferences, and total attendance doubled. These kinds of small changes are what McREL refers to as "fractal experiences," and are a key feature of its Success in Sight approach to school improvement. Success in Sight helps schools generate "quick wins" and immediate improvements, which, in turn, encourage school staff members to undertake broader and more comprehensive improvement efforts.
McREL's work with MDE will continue until the state and NCCC staff determine that the schools are ready to implement and sustain improvement practices on their own. "The goal is to have a replicable model but with different paths for different schools," said Wherry. "It isn't a one-size-fits-all approach." As work continues, the principals also meet as a community of critical friends to gain insights, learn more about research and best practices, and support each other's efforts.
Learn more about McREL's Success in Sight approach to school improvement.