CONSORTIUM ON CHICAGO SCHOOL RESEARCH:

The “Five Essential Supports” for School Improvement

 

SUMMARY OF RESEARCH FINDINGS

•  Long-term research encompassing all CPS regular (non-magnet or non-selective) elementary schools conducted by the University of Chicago’s Consortium on Chicago School Research (“CCSR”) has identified five factors or “essentials” that are said to determine whether an elementary school will stagnate or progress to greater levels of student achievement. 
• “Schools that measured strong in all five supports were at least 10 times more likely than schools with just one or two strengths to achieve substantial gains in reading and math. Moreover, a sustained weakness in just one of these areas undermined virtually all attempts at improving student learning.” 
• The Consortium’s research provides strong evidence that the “essentials” work synergistically; significant school improvement appears to depend upon developing them simultaneously not sequentially.
• “To summarize, school organization drives improvement, and individual initiatives are unlikely to work in isolation. This has strong implications for states and districts focused on any number of reforms that have gained increasing political currency—for example, improving teacher quality, turning around low-performing schools, or mandating a single curriculum.”  

 

DESCRIPTION OF THE FIVE ESSENTIAL SUPPORTS

 

1.  Leadership 

The principal’s instructional leadership, the coherence of the school’s program, and how inclusive the principal is of teachers’ and the Local School Council’s “voice.” 

2.  Professional Capacity  

Amount and quality of professional development; how deeply teachers collaborate with each other; teachers’ receptivity toward innovation, problem-solving, and accountability.  Also, teacher background and the principal’s ability to hire quality teachers and remove problematic teachers.

3.  Instructional Guidance

Curriculum alignment so that students receive progressively more challenging instruction, and they are given the opportunity to actively apply what they are learning. 

  

4.  Student-Centered Learning Environment

Safety and order in the building and whether the school is engaging, personalized, and challenging to students.

5.  Parent-Community

How connected teachers are to the schools’ parents and community, and parent involvement in the school.

  

THE FIVE ESSENTIAL SUPPORTS AND CPS POLICY

•  The “five essentials” have been adopted by CPS and are integral to the CPS biannual school improvement planning and budgeting process, widely referred to as the SIPAAA process, for all Chicago Public Schools (mandated by Illinois law).  (SIPAAA = School Improvement Plan for Advancing Academic Achievement)
• The “five essentials” and the SIPAAA goals/plans are, in turn, linked to the new Performance Management initiative launched by CPS CEO Ron Huberman. 

THE PARTNERSHIP FOR INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE PROCESS

•  The Partnership for Instructional Leadership approach — with its focus on Instructional Leadership Teams, professional development and collaboration, cycles of learning, use of assessments and data to inform instructional changes, and parental involvement — encompasses all “five essentials.”
• The Partnership provides schools with a road map to address the “five essentials” in a coherent, three-year effort.