The is Dr. Johnson's presentation from the AAAE Conference.

1. Leading in High-Performing Urban Schools AAAE March 11, 2011 Joseph F. Johnson, Jr., Ph.D. Executive Director, National Center for Urban School Transformation

2. National Center for Urban School Transformation Dedicated to identifying, studying, and promoting the best practices of America’s highest achieving urban schools in a manner that supports urban districts in transforming teaching and learning http://www.ncust.org Learn more at the Annual Symposium on High-Performing Urban Schools in San Diego, CA – May 23-25, 2012

4. In the past five years, NCUST has identified 48 remarkable elementary, middle, and high schools in 15 different states.

8. Profiles of Two Schools State: District: Grade Span Enrollment: % Low-Income % Latino % Black % White % Asian % Eng. Learners % 8 th Prof. Reading % 8 th Prof. Math NCUST Winner FL Broward 6-8 1,010 73% 7% 87% 3% 1% 3% 60% 79% Neighboring School FL Broward 6-8 891 77% 9% 83% 3% 2% 6% 41% 50%

9. Profiles of Two Schools State: District: Grade Span Enrollment: % Low-Income % Latino % Black % White % Asian % Eng. Learners % 6 th Prof. Reading % 6 th Prof. Math NCUST Winner NY Rochester City PK-6 334 93% 4% 94% 2% 0% 1% 78% 100% Neighboring School NY Rochester City PK-6 381 96% 8% 87% 4% 0% 2% 46% 58%

10. What have we learned about these top-performing urban schools?

11. Characteristic #1: Top-performing urban schools have climates that nurture the commitment and engagement of teachers, parents, and students.

14. How Do Top Schools Build and Sustain A Great Climate? 2. Leaders value improvement and growth. People feel like they can take risks and try to improve because they know their efforts will be appreciated and supported. Leaders ensure that professional development is not “an event,” it is a culture that pervades the school. People are constantly learning to improve their craft.

18. How Do Top Schools Build and Sustain A Great Climate? 6. Leaders build hope. Leaders give students, parents, teachers, and support staff reasons to believe that their efforts are worthwhile. College and careers are constant topics of focus. Policies are designed/implemented to nurture, sustain, and rekindle hope.

19. How Do Top Schools Build and Sustain A Great Climate? 7. Leaders celebrate progress frequently. Frequently, leaders celebrate improvements (both formally and informally). They find elements of success worth celebrating in results others see as failure. They are skillful at acknowledging everyone who contributed to successes.

20. How Do Top Schools Build and Sustain A Great Climate? 8. Leaders build leaders. Leaders create platforms for the leadership of many others who want to influence school improvement. Leaders distribute leadership opportunities in ways that build the capacity of individuals to contribute to the school’s success.

21. Characteristic #2: Top-performing urban schools have challenging, meaningful, focused curricula

23. How Do Top Schools Build and Sustain Strong Curricula? 1. Leaders help educators focus on key academic content. Leaders encourage teachers to teach a few concepts to mastery rather than “cover” everything. Leaders encourage educators to increase rigor and depth. They engage teachers in using assessment data to identify critical content.

24. How Do Top Schools Build and Sustain Strong Curricula? 2. Leaders structure opportunities for teachers to learn content to greater levels of depth. Leaders create opportunities for teachers to work with each other to learn more about critical content. These opportunities are not structured to promote blame or shame. Instead, these opportunities provide a collegial way to build upon strengths and deepen levels of content understanding.

25. How Do Top Schools Build and Sustain Strong Curricula? 3. Leaders engage teachers in designing and implementing assessments that provide concrete, common understandings of the levels of mastery students should attain. Common assessments drive attention to deeper levels of understanding. By engaging in assessment design, teachers gain perspective on the levels of understanding students must acquire.

28. Characteristic #3: In top-performing urban schools, instruction is focused upon generating student mastery

30. How Do Top Schools Build and Sustain Instructional Effectiveness ? 1. Leaders pay close attention to instructional quality. Leaders visit classrooms frequently to gauge student learning. They constantly seek evidence that students are learning what their teachers are teaching. Regularly, leaders share this evidence in ways that build the capacity of teachers from day to day, creating a culture of professional growth.

32. How Do Top Schools Build and Sustain Instructional Effectiveness ? 3. Leaders help everyone remember that learning should be interesting and exciting. Leaders help educators teach in ways that students like to learn. They encourage teachers to build upon students interests, backgrounds, cultures, and prior knowledge. They help educators consider how they can make learning enjoyable.

33. How Do Top Schools Build and Sustain Instructional Effectiveness ? 4. Improvement is rewarded. Lack of improvement is not. Lack of effort is not tolerated. Leaders communicate their passion to transform relationships, teaching, and learning through their actions. They reward improvement efforts and they make clear that a lack of effort is unacceptable.

34. How Do Top Schools Build and Sustain Instructional Effectiveness ? 5. Teachers and principals share a common understanding of effective instruction. Teachers and leaders regularly make time to see and discuss effective instruction. Teachers regularly identify elements of effective instruction in their own teaching and in the teaching of others. Regular, detailed conversation nurtures a common vision of effective instruction.