There are a number of things going on within our organization, the Midwest Instructional leadership Council [miLc], that I would like to address in this month’s newsletter.  These items include an overview of the Early Learning Research to Practice Institute scheduled for March 2, 2012; upcoming professional development opportunities, and leadership.

Early Learning Research to Practice Institute

The second Early Learning Research to Practice Institute is scheduled to take place on March 2, 2012 at the Wilderness Territory in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin.  The theme of this year’s Institute is It All Starts Here: Foundations of Response to Intervention.

Dr. Judith Carta is this year’s keynote speaker.  Dr. Carta is the Director of Early Childhood Research at the Juniper Gardens Children’s Project.  The focus of her work is evidence-based intervention practices for children's language, literacy, and social-emotional outcomes; parenting interventions focused on vulnerable populations and their effects on young children, and tools for monitoring progress of young children.

Other speakers at this year’s Institute include the following:

• Models of Effective RtI in Preschool Settings presented by LuAnn Shields
  
• Core Instruction at the Preschool Level presented by Robin Miller-Young
  
• Teaching Vocabulary in Preschool presented by Maribeth Gettinger
  
• Promoting Social and Emotional Development - The Pyramid Model for Social and Emotional Competence presented by Julie Betchkal
  
• Evidence Based RtI Foundations for Preschool Settings: Early Language and Literacy Instruction presented by Judith Carta

Registration for the Institute is $195.00 per person and online registration will open on or before December 2, 2011.  More information on the Institute including a registration brochure and a link to online registration can be found at www.milcleaders.org/events. 

Upcoming Professional Development Conferences

We are in the process of planning two upcoming professional development conferences. 

Midwest Leadership Summit VI is scheduled for October 1-2, 2012 and will be held at the St. Paul River Centre in St. Paul, Minnesota.  Content of Midwest Leadership Summit VI is still being developed and it is likely that we will be3 able to provide more specifics in terms of sessions and speakers in our January 2011 newsletter.

As in the past, we will have leading researchers and practitioners from around the country speaking at Midwest Leadership Summit VI.

We anticipate that registration will open on or around May 1, 2011.  Please visit www.milcleaders.org/events to see the latest information on Midwest Leadership Summit VI.

Secondary Level Response to Intervention Research to Practice Institute

The inaugural Secondary Level Institute on secondary applications of response to intervention was very successful.  We received a tremendous amount of positive feedback about the Institute and are in the initial stages of planning the second Secondary Level Research to Practice Institute.

Several suggestions in the feedback we received about the inaugural Secondary Institute was that there is too much content to cover in one day.  Based on the feedback we received from participants, we are looking at expanding the second Secondary Level Research to Practice institute to two (2) days.

Tentative dates for the second Secondary Research to Practice Institute are November 1-2, 2012. 

We will have more information about this Institute in our January newsletter.

Leadership
Mia Urick’s article in this issue of miLc Matters focuses on leadership and skills that educational leaders need to possess and embody in order to be instructional leaders that serve to increase outcomes for all students.

At the Midwest Leadership Council we have been discussing the construct of leadership in terms of being an instructional leader for quite some time now across a number of different groups.  Through some data that we have collected, it is clear to us that leadership matters.  Good leadership matters and manifests itself in clearly supported change efforts that imbue professional and paraprofessional staff in increasing outcome for all students.  Poor leadership also matters and often manifests itself with disjointed and poorly supported change efforts and random instead of aligned acts of improvement.

We have initiated formal discussion with the Paul Bunyan Education Cooperative located in Brainerd, Minnesota about the potential development of a focused and embedded course of professional development activities that will equip educational leaders with specific skills sets to be instructional leaders and develop and implement aligned acts of improvement.

Our next meeting to discuss this professional development initiative is scheduled for January 2011.  We will provide an update in the February issue of miLc Matters.

“We know the importance of administrators.  We know that it is important for successful schools—whether it is in academic success or in creating healthy school cultures and collaborations with communities—to have an instructional leader guiding the educational process.  There is more to do than can ever possibly be done.”

(Sigford, J. L. 2005. Who said school administration would be fun?: coping with a new emotional and social reality. Corwin Press. p. 1)

My friend Jane is a wonderful instructional leader.  She recently retired from her school district curriculum leadership practice and is now teaching aspiring teachers.  I harvested some of her wisdom in the above quote because I think her phrase about there being “more to do than can ever possibly be done” is profoundly true, and it begs a conversation about how leaders ( all leaders) can successfully guide educational process, and, perhaps more importantly, why.

I spend my days trying to come up with better ways to help school leaders hold up their end of the student-learning responsibility.  It is interesting to me that, in the span of the existence of school administration as a profession, the instructional leadership focus is a relatively new one.  In the earliest days of public education, school leadership was about providing students with a scholarly role model.  Then, the leadership role became focused on business management, still today a valued leadership function, as the stewardship of public funds remains a strong factor in determining the success of leadership practice.  In the mid-1900’s, a societal interest in the science of teaching and learning developed, further articulating the practice of school leadership to encompass both business and pedagogy.  This of course has been, for better or worse, enhanced in recent history by efforts in standards-based education “reform.”

Inasmuch as educational accountability has become embedded in our current cultural landscape, it is interesting that we still struggle to understand how leadership specifically impacts student success.  If the number of books on my shelves containing the phrase “instructional leadership” is any indication, a lot of people are trying to figure out just how to translate the relatively soft concept of leadership into specific skills that support student gains.

In January, 2011, several of Minnesota’s educational leadership associations and the state licensing board published “The Evaluation of Minnesota’s School Principals.”  The document outlines seven core competencies to be measured during the evaluation process.  It is closely aligned with state licensure competencies and is grounded on research-based criteria for effective professional practice.  One of the core competencies is “Instructional Leadership,” and its descriptor reads:

Over 300 people gathered along the Minnesota/Wisconsin border for miLc’s inaugural Secondary Research to Practice Institute focusing on applications of response to intervention at the secondary level.  Teachers, administrators, student services providers, and others gathered to learn more about RtI implementation at the middle and high school level.

In addition to position diversity, many different states were represented at this event. Perhaps most exciting, was the sizable group that flew in from North Dakota! Our presenters hailed from Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.

What was clear from the keynote and breakout presentations is that many developments in the past decade are advancing RtI implementation at the secondary levels. There are a number of middle and high schools across the nation who have well-developed systems of service delivery and are observing significant, positive enhancement of their students’ behavior and academic outcomes. Although there are special considerations and challenges at the middle and high school level, it is possible to implement a data-based decision making model of service delivery.

Some specific highlights from this event include the following “take-home points”

• Getting an RtI system up and running is a 5-8 year journey with bumpy roads and scenic vista (Windram and Johnson: Keynote)
•  There are multiple sources for good information about evidence-based academic interventions (Phillips: Breakout)
• Embrace multiple “right” ways to do this (Windram and Johnson: Keynote)

Based on positive feedback from attendees, we plan to offer another institute in the future and will likely expand this event to a two-day long event.

If you are interested in conference materials and handouts, please visit our website at www.milcleaders.org/events and look for the Secondary RtI section.

Teaching is one of the most difficult jobs to do well. Every day teachers prepare to stand on the front lines with their students and there are few people that understand the challenges facing teachers better than Dr. Anita Archer. With over 40 years of teaching experience and a dedication to research Dr. Archer offers some of the best advice for educators.  During her two days at Midwest Leadership Summit V [September 26-27, 2011] she energized and motivated dozens of practitioners. Her lectures focused on explicit instruction, literacy and the power of practice, but her style more importantly inspired the teacher in everyone.

Nearly every question in a classroom can be answered by applying the principles of explicit instruction. As defined in Dr. Archer’s book entitled, Explicit Instruction: Effective and Efficient Teaching (2011), explicit instruction is an “unambiguous and direct approach to teaching that incorporates instruction design and delivery.” What does this mean? Well, simply, doing things clearly until the student gets it. Dubbing the process systematic, relentless and engaging Dr. Archer could not stress the value of practice enough. Judicious practice as she stated is not a matter of drilling a concept to death, but rather drilling it to “skill” and perhaps “thrill”. Dr. Archer clarified that after having established a clear idea of what is to be taught, teachers will lead successful lessons by following a guided design that begins with “I do” (i.e., my turn), progresses to “we do” (i.e., doing it together) and ends with “you do” (i.e., your turn). The elegance and parsimony of this instructional style not only makes it highly desirable to apply but also literally “doable”. Ultimately Dr. Archer demonstrated how using clear and concise language, purposefully sequencing material, employing focused lesson plans, articulating goals, reviewing pre-skills and knowledge, offering step-by-step demonstrations, and both checking in and judiciously practicing with students (e.g., initial, distributed and cumulative) can ensure learning will take place.

Lesson delivery was also discussed as being at the heart of effective explicit instruction. For example holding one’s hands up and powerfully vocalizing “listening” instead of “listen” has not only been shown to effectively grab student attention in research, but works every time Dr. Archer leads a professional development seminar or an elementary school reading group. Additional specific strategies Dr. Archer mentioned included engaging students in lessons (e.g., scaffolding student responses and asking questions during lectures), offering both constant and appropriate praise, and carefully monitoring performance by “walking, looking and talking around”.  The extent to which Dr. Archer internalizes her lessons on explicit instruction in her daily living was a true reminder that a students learning can know no bounds.