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school, having worked at Cirrus HS for two years before taking on the new role. By the
time she became principal in July 2010, the Instructional Leadership Team had expanded
to include the principal, her associate principal and two teachers. Unfortunately, the
necessary momentum to move the school forward was not present. In an effort to tackle
the lack of collective responsibility and to tap new resources, the new principal expanded
the ILT again. Currently, the ILT includes 10 teachers—one from each core department
and one from visual and performing arts.
As the ILT analyzed student performance data as part of the Focus on Results
process, it was clear that getting students to reach proficiency on the CSTs and the
CAHSEE needed to be a focus. Nearly 80% of the student body at Cirrus is in the
English Language Development (ELD) program or at one time was classified as ELL.
As a result of the high percentage of students learning English as their second language,
reading comprehension is a barrier for many Cirrus students. This presents a challenge to
the school as the high-stakes tests are administered in English. At the beginning of the
2010-2011 school year, Cirrus High School was labeled a Program Improvement school
because the ELL subgroup failed to meet the AMOs two years in a row in English-
Language Arts. Reality finally had hit home with the PI designation. As the ILT worked
to clarify the school focus, the team published an urgent statement to all stakeholders:
“The Cirrus family owns the fact that schoolwide one of every two students is not
proficient in English and three of every five students are not proficient in social science,
math and science based on CST scores.”
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 252 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 240 school, having worked at Cirrus HS for two years before taking on the new role. By the time she became principal in July 2010, the Instructional Leadership Team had expanded to include the principal, her associate principal and two teachers. Unfortunately, the necessary momentum to move the school forward was not present. In an effort to tackle the lack of collective responsibility and to tap new resources, the new principal expanded the ILT again. Currently, the ILT includes 10 teachers—one from each core department and one from visual and performing arts. As the ILT analyzed student performance data as part of the Focus on Results process, it was clear that getting students to reach proficiency on the CSTs and the CAHSEE needed to be a focus. Nearly 80% of the student body at Cirrus is in the English Language Development (ELD) program or at one time was classified as ELL. As a result of the high percentage of students learning English as their second language, reading comprehension is a barrier for many Cirrus students. This presents a challenge to the school as the high-stakes tests are administered in English. At the beginning of the 2010-2011 school year, Cirrus High School was labeled a Program Improvement school because the ELL subgroup failed to meet the AMOs two years in a row in English- Language Arts. Reality finally had hit home with the PI designation. As the ILT worked to clarify the school focus, the team published an urgent statement to all stakeholders: “The Cirrus family owns the fact that schoolwide one of every two students is not proficient in English and three of every five students are not proficient in social science, math and science based on CST scores.” |
