It took a while for four-time finalist Aldine, Texas, to win the . But it took even longer to craft the system that ultimately put the district over the top.
In fact, educators there say, the district鈥檚 instructional approach took more than a decade to develop, and is still being refined.
At a time when hard-charging superintendents, controversial teacher-pay plans, and pressure for school 鈥渢urnarounds鈥� dominate headlines, Aldine won the 2009 prize with a steady approach focused squarely on teaching and learning.
鈥淭he whole place just works,鈥� said Ledyard McFadden, the president of SchoolWorks, an education consulting company in Beverly, Mass., who visited the district for the award鈥檚 sponsor, the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation.
Spreading the Credit
鈥淭hey are a tight unit, and it doesn鈥檛 feel like any of the processes and strategies at work there are being driven by any one person,鈥� Mr. McFadden said. 鈥淵ou can spread the credit pretty evenly from the top to the bottom of the organization.鈥�
Mr. McFadden and other outside reviewers arrived in Aldine earlier this year to examine how the school district, which had been named a finalist for the Broad Prize every year since 2006, had bested its peers statewide in reading and mathematics. They found a well-honed system of curriculum and instruction that educators have been refining for years.
The Aldine Independent School District鈥檚 system of 鈥渕anaged instruction鈥� spells out clearly for teachers what content is to be taught and when, for every grade level, across every school.
Serving 63,000 students鈥�84 percent of them eligible for free or reduced-price meals and 31 percent English-language learners鈥攊n a working-class community in metropolitan Houston, the Aldine district managed to break the 鈥減redictive power of poverty鈥� when it comes to student achievement, according to the Los Angeles-based Broad Foundation.
Origins in Accountability System
But it took more than a dozen years for Aldine to get to that point, said Wanda Bamberg, a veteran of the district who became superintendent in 2007. The effort began in 1995, when Texas rolled out its accountability system for schools and began to factor minority students鈥� test scores into ratings that were highly publicized.
Aldine, Ms. Bamberg said, didn鈥檛 look good. The gap on state exams between black and Hispanic students, on the lower end, and their white peers was 30 points or more in some grades.
鈥淓veryone was working hard, but we didn鈥檛 rely on best practices and data, and, as a consequence, people鈥檚 hard work wasn鈥檛 producing the results we see now,鈥� said Viola M. Garcia, the president of the Aldine school board and a member since 1992.
Those stark numbers, along with recognition that the district鈥檚 high student-mobility rate was a major challenge, sparked a districtwide push鈥攍ed by then-Superintendent Sonny Donaldson鈥攖o map out exactly what needed to be taught and when over the course of a school year. Educators focused on creating that guide around the state standards that were then known in Texas as the 鈥渆ssential elements.鈥�
鈥淭hat鈥檚 where we had to start,鈥� said Ms. Bamberg, who at the time worked in the district鈥檚 curriculum and instruction department as the director of middle school language arts.
鈥淲e needed some uniform way,鈥� she said, 鈥渢o make sure that every student, regardless of whether they were in one of our schools one week, and in another of our schools the next, weren鈥檛 missing content.鈥�
Next, district leaders set benchmark targets, and later, the benchmark assessments to measure whether those targets were hit.
Over time, Aldine鈥檚 system evolved to fully integrate curriculum and instruction and professional development for teachers with student-achievement data. That information comes from regular, frequent assessments, as well as results from state tests and nationally normed exams.
Teachers of 2nd grade math, for example, can give a test, take the test sheets to a scanner, and, within an hour, look at how their students performed, Superintendent Bamberg said.
鈥淭hose immediate results allow them to make decisions about what to do the next day, about what needs to be retaught, and how to group the kids based on what skills they need to spend more time on,鈥� she said.
Six-Week Cycles
Students must be assessed every six weeks in all subjects, at the conclusion of a scope-and-sequence cycle. For secondary math and science, assessments are given every three weeks, because of lagging rates of improvement in those subjects, Ms. Bamberg said.
The challenge for teachers, she noted, is balancing the needs of students who may require some skills to be retaught with the imperative to stay on pace to cover all the skills within the six-week intervals in time for the district assessments.
鈥淭hey don鈥檛 have the luxury of spending six weeks on fractions,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t can be very difficult.鈥�
As teachers work through the scope-and-sequence cycles, they tap into the Triand system, a commercial, Web-based tool that
provides model lessons that have been vetted by the district鈥檚 curriculum experts. They also use Triand to submit their own lesson plans for weekly reviews by their principals.
The model lessons, said Ms. Bamberg, 鈥渁re a great asset for new teachers.鈥� That鈥檚 important in a growing district that hires roughly 300 to 400 teachers a year.
鈥淭hey can look at Miss Smith鈥檚 lesson, as well as at her student data on how well she taught a certain skill, and consider using all or part of that themselves to get the same successful results,鈥� Ms. Bamberg explained.
While Aldine鈥檚 curriculum is largely dictated by the central office, there are opportunities for flexibility based on the needs of children in an individual school, said Mr. McFadden, the consultant who visited the district as part of the Broad Foundation鈥檚 evaluation of its finalists for the award anounced last month.
鈥淏ut any decision to make changes must be defended and backed up with data,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a very rigorous process, but if someone offers good rationale for changing something, the district leaders listen to them and allow them to innovate.鈥�
Development of a culture in which educators constantly examine student-achievement data鈥攁nd are willing to talk constructively about what failed and what succeeded鈥攊s an elusive aim in many districts, Mr. McFadden added.
鈥淲here that comes from is really hard to say, but it鈥檚 something that Aldine has taken years to work toward,鈥� he said. 鈥淭his is not a story of restructuring, it鈥檚 one of refinement. This is a really mature organization, though it鈥檚 not a stagnant one.鈥�
Cultivating the district鈥檚 instructional model somewhat gradually was a deliberate strategy, Ms. Bamberg said: 鈥淒oing that gave people an opportunity to buy in.鈥�
The district relies on principals to keep the system working well at the school level.
鈥淎nything that we add or change to the curriculum, we train our principals first,鈥� Ms. Bamberg said. 鈥淭hey can鈥檛 support teachers or hold them accountable if they aren鈥檛 aware of how it should work.鈥�
Stable Leadership
Ms. Garcia, the school board president, credits much of the district鈥檚 culture to stable leadership. Aldine鈥檚 transformation, she said, began with Mr. Donaldson, the superintendent from 1996 to 2001. His successor was Nadine Kujawa, a former head of the curriculum and instruction department who oversaw much of the development of the current system.
Ms. Bamberg, who also served as the chief of curriculum and instruction before becoming superintendent, has continued to push for refinements and improvement, Ms. Garcia said.
鈥淲e鈥檝e always believed that what we are here to do is to teach children,鈥� she said, 鈥渟o having a leader whose major strength is curriculum and instruction is paramount.鈥�
The school board recently adopted a policy to formalize the district鈥檚 commitment to using managed instruction.
鈥淎ll of the processes are in place after many years of evolving, and we were concerned about sustainability,鈥� Ms. Garcia said. 鈥淲e want this work on curriculum and instruction to outlast all of us.鈥� Mr. McFadden has little doubt that it will.
鈥淚 think over time Aldine developed a great set of tools and processes to make sure that, number one, students are receiving the content that they are supposed to, according to state standards, and that, number two, [district officials] are perfecting the way to deliver that content over time,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hird, the system allows them to figure out when students aren鈥檛 getting the content so that they can provide them with the additional supports and interventions they need to get it.鈥�
The district is still on a high from winning the Broad Prize, which carries with it $1 million in scholarship money for students, Superintendent Bamberg said. But she added that there鈥檚 much more work to do, especially to increase the high school graduation rate.
鈥淚t鈥檚 gratifying to have our improvements recognized by this prize,鈥� she said, 鈥渂ut it鈥檚 important for people to know that we still have many challenges ahead, and much more that we want to do for the children in our district.鈥�
