Overview
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While the designations attached to groups of students attending Ohio schools may be useful to teachers and administrators, they do not provide adequate information for delivering instruction in ways that meet the individual learning needs of each child. This module will focus on holding high expectations for all students through providing students with ample opportunities to learn and by selecting instructional frameworks that presume the competence of all learners. It will discuss the following questions:
- How do school systems build infrastructures that support learning for all students, especially the most diverse?
- How do our efficacy beliefs affect our expectations for all students?
- How do instructional frameworks support districts/schools as they work to improve learning for all students?
- What is the role of leadership in ensuring all students learn?
This module aligns with Ohio’s Leadership Development Framework in the following areas:
- Area 1: Data and the Decision-Making Process
- Area 2: Focused Goal Setting Process
- Area 3: Instruction and the Learning Process
Discussion Questions
Identify the varied forms of diversity represented across the student population and in the larger community served by your school district. Discuss the degree to which you feel different segments of the population participate as valued members of the school system. Are some segments more involved than others? If so, consider possible reasons for this difference and what might be contributing to it. Then, think about what the district and the schools within the district could do to increase meaningful participation and engagement of all students, families, and community members.
Discuss how teachers' experiences might contribute to their feelings of competence in meeting the needs of students with diverse learning needs. What steps can the district and schools within the district take to improve teacher efficacy? Consider the organizational structures and role of administrators in providing the kind of support needed to increase individual and collective teacher efficacy.
Activities
Introductory Activities
Identifying and Capitalizing on Funds of Knowledge
Identify the various groups of students served by your district and school(s) within your district:
- List the deficit view typically associated with each group (e.g., females are less capable in math and science).
- List the assets of each group.
- Consider the ways in which each group typically adapts to the school environment.
- Identify the messages that are communicated to each group (intentionally and unintended) and/or actions taken and the possible effects those messages/actions have on performance and achievement.
- Identify what can be done to alter messages/actions that contribute to unintended consequences.
- Identify what can be done to replace deficit thinking with an assets-based view of diversity.
Advanced Activities
Shifting from Program Ownership to Collective, Shared Ownership
As a DLT or BLT, visit the Moving Your Numbers (MYN) website at www.movingyournumbers.org and go to the tab labeled Tools & Resources. Then go to MYN Downloadable Resources and access the District Self-Assessment Guide (one of the "MYN Publications").
As a DLT or BLT, complete the self-assessment paying particular attention to the depth and breadth of implementation of strategies and actions for improving learning for all students and student groups.
- Determine, as a team, whether selected strategies and actions are being implemented as designed.
- Determine, as a team, whether selected strategies and actions are being implemented at a sufficient scale (i.e., across all classrooms in a school, across all schools in the district) to support higher levels of learning for all students.
- Determine, as a team, whether the strategies and actions being implemented are having the desired effect on all learners.
- Plan for needed improvements in implementation by the DLT, BLTs, and TBTs and how OIP and OLAC resources can be used most effectively to support team efforts.
You can earn credit and contact hours for modules, webinars, and podcasts completed on the OLAC site.
For more information, visit the Credit Corner. If you’re seeking credit for the Gifted Education Professional Development Course or the Culturally Responsive Practices Program courses, you can find that information on the course overview pages.