Identifying Solutions

The principal at Center K-8 School conducted classroom walkthrough visits. She saw different approaches in different classrooms and realized classroom strategies were not aligned. The current teaching strategies did not produce good results and even had a couple of complaints. One of those is that grades 4-8 students were not prepared when they entered their grades at the start of the school year.

To identify gaps and needs, during a staff meeting, the principal asked the 2 questions from each grade level:

1) What are 3-5 key ELA and Math strategies that you expect students to come prepared to do when they start your grade level at the beginning of the year?

2) What are 3-5 ELA and Math strategies that you expect students to know when they leave your grade level at the end of the year?

Each team listed their strategies on two separate chart papers (1 for the beginning of the year and 1 for the end of the year) and posted their charts on the walls. The principal asked the staff to conduct a gallery walk and take notes on their observations. During their observation, they saw that there was an issue regarding the students entering new grade levels. It was clear that students were leaving their classrooms unprepared for the expectations of next year’s teachers. 

After being aware of the problem, the principal provided support to lead and help the staff discover the root cause issues of their results. These enabled them to identify what needs to be done and take a big step into progress. They discovered that they needed a consistent curriculum and strategy implementation across their grade levels.

Despite those findings, there was still disagreement among veteran teachers who did not want to adopt a new program. They volunteered to create their own program for the school based on current resources. This group of teachers began reviewing their current resources and identifying key strategies. It didn’t take very long before they realized that it would take a lot of time and energy to create this work for every grade level.

Identifying the problem is an important part but what you do after you identify the problem is what will bring change. It is important that you  implement solutions to transform your results. After you have completed your root cause analysis and have identified your deepest root causes, it is time to identify a solution that will prevent or dissolve those causes. 

In identifying the solution, it is crucial to determine a solution that has already produced results in other schools. Including rigorous and relevant evidence that the solution is effective is important. This solution must also align with your SMART Goals and the school must have the capacity to implement it. This includes considerations like funding, staff, teacher skills, stakeholder support, etc.

This post will not give you a list of solutions for all your root causes. There is plenty of information and research about what works in schools available at the national, state, and local levels. This is written to help you analyze your intended solution and to be proactive to get rid of issues that will hurt future success. 

Questions to Consider for Selecting Solutions

When selecting a solution, the following questions should be considered to ensure that your new solution aligns with the ongoing efforts at your school. 

• What results does this solution promise? Do these results align with our SMART Goals?
• What evidence is there that this solution has achieved results in schools with similar demographics to our school? Do these align with our SMART Goals?  Does it solve our deepest root cause?
• What steps are needed to implement this new solution? 
• What might be the competing priorities, wants and/or needs in this solution?
• What resources are needed to implement this solution?  When considering your resources, do not only consider money. Also think about time, energy, teacher training, etc. 

When making organizational changes and establishing new patterns, mindset is everything. Teachers will not keep devoting time and energy without evidence that it is moving in the right direction. Evidence of progress is needed to celebrate and rejuvenate momentum. 

As you implement new solutions and changes, acknowledge incremental success along the way. Celebrating successes is important in increasing your staff’s morale. It also affirms that they are making a difference in their student achievement results. 

At Center K-8 School, their initial solution was not practical. It was focused on what veteran teachers wanted to do and not what was best for all staff. The good news is that these strong teachers quickly realized that they did not have the time to write lessons, and train strategies for every grade level. They agreed that it is time to consider a new evidence-based solution. They decided on a program that included a structure and common language across all grade levels. 

Historically this school was at the bottom of the district and known for low results.  As a result of their new solution, the school had better results in the first year of implementation, even though there were some implementation issues. Over 3 years, the average State assessment scores for grades 3-8 increased 5% in reading (58% to 63%) and Math scores increased 11% (58% to 69%). Grades 4 and 6 both increased by 9% in Reading. Grade 4 increased by 13% in Math and Grade 6 increased by 27% in Math. In this same year three, they outperformed four other district schools.  

If you are interested in more information or would like assistance analyzing your data and identifying solutions that align with your root cause, request a FREE consultation call. Fill in the Contact Form: 

https://debradurma.com/contact-us Type in "Request a FREE Consultation" in the "Additional Questions or Information Needed" box. You will receive a follow-up email with the next step, which is to schedule a phone call to discuss your needs and questions.