Texas

College and Career Readiness for All Students

"The higher the standards that are targeted, the clearer it becomes that the only way to take the students to those standards is early intervention and a long-term focus on improving the fundamentals of teaching and learning. Setting lower standards and targeting short-term incremental test score gains, on the other hand, often tempts educators into shortsighted 'quick-fix' practices."

—Chrys Dougherty, Lynn Mellor, and Nancy Smith, National Center for Educational Achievement

About the Organizational Levels

Recognition, Intervention, and Adjustment
Recognize, intervene, or adjust based on school performance
Recognize, intervene, or adjust based on teacher performance
Recognize, intervene, or adjust based on student performance
Monitoring: Compilation, Analysis, and Use of Data
Develop student assessment and data monitoring systems to monitor school performance
Monitor teacher performance and student learning
Monitor student learning
Instructional Programs, Practices, and Arrangements
Provide evidence-based instructional programs
Ensure the use of evidence-based programs, practices, and arrangements in every classroom
Use evidence-based programs, practices, and arrangements
Staff Selection, Leadership, and Capacity Building
Provide strong leaders, highly qualified teachers, and aligned professional development
Select, develop, and allocate staff based on student learning
Collaborate in grade level/subject teams focused on student learning
Student Learning: Expectations and Goals
Provide clear, prioritized academic objectives by grade and subject that all students are expected to master
Implement the district's written curriculum and ensure that all students achieve specific academic goals
Ensure the district's written curriculum is taught to and mastered by all students

In addition to Organizing Themes, the three levels of every school system--district, school, and classroom--provide a second organizational dimension to The Framework. Within each of the five themes, each Organizational Level plays a particular role in Consistently Higher Performing Schools. Different levels of the school system must be involved, to differing degrees, in order to reach maximum effectiveness in the specific theme area. The assignment of practices to a specific school level may be as important as the practices themselves (in other words, "who" is as important as "what").

All activities in The Framework must be performed, if student achievement is to be sustained over time. Certainly, an individual school or class of students may succeed without the involvement of a particular school level, but that success is less likely to be sustained over time than success deriving from a well-balanced effort by an entire system. For example, if a task, such as developing a detailed and coherent curriculum, were not assumed by the district as recommended in The Framework, effective school-based educators would create their own. (By contrast, ineffective schools would likely do without a cohesive curriculum, and thus would contribute significantly to their students' level of performance.) When schools or classroom teachers take on tasks that are most effectively assumed by another level of the system, in addition to the activities they should be addressing at their level, the entire system becomes strained. Both teachers and students perform less effectively, and grow more likely to burn out.