BPI’s Partnership for Instructional Leadership program focuses on low-performing “regular” Chicago public elementary schools.  Its concern is the neighborhood school that, while not a likely candidate for “turn-around” or closure, is not achieving satisfactory levels of student performance for all students.   Such schools are by far the largest component of the CPS system. 

 

 GOALS

•  Introduce a proven “change process” to assist existing, low-performing regular elementary schools move to higher levels of student achievement for all students, and to  demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach among six CPS schools over a three-year period.
• Increase the potential for systemic change by expanding the Partnership’s work beyond the initial cohort of six schools to include additional schools throughout the CPS system.  

BPI PARTNERS

•  Targeted Leadership Consulting (TLC), the education consultancy responsible for designing the whole school “change process” successfully used in Massachusetts, California and Illinois schools. www.targetedleadership.net
• Chicago Public Schools and six Area 4 neighborhood schools.  Area 4 is a “sub-district” within CPS consisting of 28 schools in the Logan Square, Hermosa, and Belmont-Cragin neighborhoods.  The student population is predominantly Latino.  Chief Area Officer is Dr. Emil DeJulio.

PARTNERSHIP ROLES

•  BPI is responsible for program design and provides project management coordination, the fresh perspective of an external organization, and on-site coaching for individual schools (eight hours per month). BPI’s focus is upon building “ownership” of the change process and internal organizational capacity among both the participating schools and the Area over the three-year term of the project.
• Targeted Leadership Consulting provides the program framework, as well as training and site visits (four per year) for principals, school Instructional Leadership Teams, Area 4 staff, and BPI coaches.

ELEMENTS OF THE PARTNERSHIP “CHANGE PROCESS”

 

The elements listed below together create the internal school organization that drives the change process and instills a culture of continuous improvement.  Importantly, these elements align with the “five essential supports” for school improvement identified by the Consortium on Chicago Schools Research in a longitudinal study among non-selective Chicago elementary schools.

 

1) Schools Organize Themselves Internally

•  Participating schools form an Instructional Leadership Team (ILT) and each selects one focus area —such as reading comprehension, writing or problem-solving — upon which to concentrate the entire school’s professional development/learning effort.

 2) Schools Implement Powerful Practices

•  Schools choose a set of focus-related, evidence-based instructional and student-learning practices to be mastered by all teachers and students in at least four  6-8 week Cycles of Professional Learning each school year.
•  Cycles of learning include professional development, structured peer coaching/teacher collaboration, and examination of student work and assessment data.
• Learning walks and protocols for examining student work are tools for increasing professional dialogue and tracking progress during each Cycle of Learning.

 3) Goals and Regular Assessments Keep Schools on Course

•  Each school adopts specific, measurable, actionable goals that provide ambitious and attainable targets for all students.
• Regular formative and summative assessments are adopted to track student learning gains in the designated focus area.

4) Program is Tailored for a Predominantly Latino Student Population

•  This student population requires a special emphasis on instructional strategies that support language-learning and treat the home culture of students as assets, not deficits.
• Choice of this cohort reflects the rapidly growing proportion of Latino students in the Chicago student population, whose needs must be more effectively addressed.

5) Emphasis is Placed on Starting with Pre-K Programs

•  Pre-K programs are essential to early language development instruction and a child’s journey through elementary school. Currently Pre-K instruction is not well integrated with the rest of the school.