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101
teachers out of their classrooms to collaborate. Doing this once a month in school ILTs
and in district collaboration days among secondary schools, it has been possible to
increase communication between and within schools. And, these conversations are
focused—the communication is constantly on instruction.
Understanding the performance problem and challenge. School district
leadership also took a hard look at student performance districtwide. An analysis of the
data showed that 30.4% of CUSD students are not yet proficient in English-Language
Arts and 27.1% are not proficient in Math. There has also been a decrease in the
percentage of high school graduates within several subgroups who have met the UC/CSU
a-g requirements. This gap is more pronounced within the Hispanic/Latino subgroup.
Bearing this in mind, the District chose to commit resources in 2010-2011 to: (1)
academic language development, (2) providing professional development and
collaboration opportunities to explore effective teaching strategies and (3) promoting
student enrollment in a-g courses, the rigorous coursework necessary for post-secondary
success. The three sample schools’ vision statements are aligned with the District’s
priorities—a first step to ensuring the strategies used at each school will have a more
targeted impact.
Thanks to FOR, the individual schools in this study have been provided one full
day a month to spend considerable time analyzing student achievement data. On the
FOR pullout days, ILTs from each of the secondary schools come together to work
through a series of activities to better understand their students’ performance challenge
and how they can better achieve the goals of their instructional focus. The District
Object Description
| Title | Navigating troubled waters: case studies of three California high schools' resource allocation strategies in 2010-2011 |
| Author | Landisi, Brian Anthony |
| Author email | landisi@usc.edu; blandisi@charter.net |
| Degree | Doctor of Education |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | Education (Leadership) |
| School | Rossier School of Education |
| Date defended/completed | 2011-03-28 |
| Date submitted | 2011 |
| Restricted until | Unrestricted |
| Date published | 2011-04-28 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Picus, Lawrence O. |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Hentschke, Guilbert C. Nelson, John L. |
| Abstract | This study was conducted to examine instructional strategies and resource allocation in successful schools. The study was based on the analysis of three comprehensive high schools in one school district in Southern California. Each of the study schools increased students’ academic achievement over time as measured by sustained growth on California’s Academic Performance Index. The efforts of these study schools also contributed to narrowing the achievement gap.; Successful schools in this study were analyzed primarily through the lens of Odden’s (2009) 10 Strategies for Doubling Student Performance. In addition to effective organizational and instructional strategies, this study also analyzed human and fiscal resource allocation at the sample schools. The study used the Evidence-Based Model (Odden & Picus, 2008) to analyze how the schools allocated resources during 2010-2011, navigating a catastrophic economic crisis facing California and the rest of the nation. Interview data, student achievement data and information on school-level resource use were included in case studies on each of these successful schools.; The findings indicate that although the resource use patterns of the study schools were significantly fewer than what the Evidence-Based Model suggests, the improvement strategies showed many commonalities to those suggested in the body of literature on school improvement. Strong leadership from the district office supported the reform efforts at each of the school sites. This leadership came in the form of a single district focus combined with continuity of leadership, development and retention of talent within the district and a common school improvement framework.; A heavy investment of time and fiscal resources into professional development created a collaborative culture within and between the high schools in the study. The schools that were most successful in raising student achievement demonstrated a commitment to collaboration and embraced the role of teacher leaders. The most effective schools in the study had in place internal accountability structures to support the implementation of the school and district focus. It is the effective implementation of research-based strategies, not simply resource allocation that makes schools successful and contributes to further growth in student achievement. Implications for policy and practice are discussed. |
| Keyword | education finance; secondary education; educational leadership; budget crisis; instructional leadership; Odden and Picus; resource allocation; school finance; school reform |
| Geographic subject (county) | Los Angeles |
| Geographic subject (state) | California |
| Geographic subject (country) | USA |
| Coverage date | 2010/2011 |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m3797 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Rights | Landisi, Brian Anthony |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Filename | etd-Landisi-4355 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume14/etd-Landisi-4355.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 113 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 101 teachers out of their classrooms to collaborate. Doing this once a month in school ILTs and in district collaboration days among secondary schools, it has been possible to increase communication between and within schools. And, these conversations are focused—the communication is constantly on instruction. Understanding the performance problem and challenge. School district leadership also took a hard look at student performance districtwide. An analysis of the data showed that 30.4% of CUSD students are not yet proficient in English-Language Arts and 27.1% are not proficient in Math. There has also been a decrease in the percentage of high school graduates within several subgroups who have met the UC/CSU a-g requirements. This gap is more pronounced within the Hispanic/Latino subgroup. Bearing this in mind, the District chose to commit resources in 2010-2011 to: (1) academic language development, (2) providing professional development and collaboration opportunities to explore effective teaching strategies and (3) promoting student enrollment in a-g courses, the rigorous coursework necessary for post-secondary success. The three sample schools’ vision statements are aligned with the District’s priorities—a first step to ensuring the strategies used at each school will have a more targeted impact. Thanks to FOR, the individual schools in this study have been provided one full day a month to spend considerable time analyzing student achievement data. On the FOR pullout days, ILTs from each of the secondary schools come together to work through a series of activities to better understand their students’ performance challenge and how they can better achieve the goals of their instructional focus. The District |
