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191
content standards. While the Hispanic/Latino subgroup has made considerable gains,
there are not specific programs targeted at these students to narrow the achievement gap
at this school.
Collaborative, professional culture and distributed leadership. The culture of
Stratus High School is perhaps its most defining feature. Collective leadership exists and
high levels of accountability make it a group effort to move more students to higher
levels of thinking and leaning. Budget constraints and loss of sections made it unfeasible
to maintain 0.8 SRTs. The science and social science SRTs returned to their full-time
teaching assignments but continued to provide support for teaching the standards and
informal coaching on a volunteer basis. This did not slow the expansion of the ILT,
however. The team expanded to now over 20 members comprised of faculty, counselors
and administrators. More was asked of these members, given that they all teach full time
and must meet during duty-free time like lunch and after school—all unpaid—to
complete their duties.
In a recent faculty survey, Stratus staff found that 96% of staff supports the
school’s instructional vision. Perhaps this is best reflected in the number of teacher
volunteers who lead presentations at faculty meetings. Instructional leadership is not
limited to the ILT, but is distributed to classroom teachers who best know how to reach
students. This culture of constant improvement is supported by the Focus on Results
monthly release days and school improvement framework that focuses on school staff
coming together to use data to drive instruction. In addition, professionalism abounds as
teachers use annual formal walkthroughs of classrooms to better understand what
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 203 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 191 content standards. While the Hispanic/Latino subgroup has made considerable gains, there are not specific programs targeted at these students to narrow the achievement gap at this school. Collaborative, professional culture and distributed leadership. The culture of Stratus High School is perhaps its most defining feature. Collective leadership exists and high levels of accountability make it a group effort to move more students to higher levels of thinking and leaning. Budget constraints and loss of sections made it unfeasible to maintain 0.8 SRTs. The science and social science SRTs returned to their full-time teaching assignments but continued to provide support for teaching the standards and informal coaching on a volunteer basis. This did not slow the expansion of the ILT, however. The team expanded to now over 20 members comprised of faculty, counselors and administrators. More was asked of these members, given that they all teach full time and must meet during duty-free time like lunch and after school—all unpaid—to complete their duties. In a recent faculty survey, Stratus staff found that 96% of staff supports the school’s instructional vision. Perhaps this is best reflected in the number of teacher volunteers who lead presentations at faculty meetings. Instructional leadership is not limited to the ILT, but is distributed to classroom teachers who best know how to reach students. This culture of constant improvement is supported by the Focus on Results monthly release days and school improvement framework that focuses on school staff coming together to use data to drive instruction. In addition, professionalism abounds as teachers use annual formal walkthroughs of classrooms to better understand what |
