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Turning Schools Around is a Retail Business

Announcement: Curriculum Support for Failing Students Due July 2 (Jun 18) Arizona Department of Education

Their Description: [T]he Arizona Department of Education (ADE) proposes to contract with Curriculum Consultants/Specialists to provide delivery and administration of school curriculums to Arizona Schools that have been designated as Failing to Meet Academic Standards. The focus for this intervention is at the school level, not the district.....

Arizona Schools that have been designated as Failing to Meet Academic Standards have been provided assistance from the Arizona Department of Education through site visits from Solutions Teams and Arizona School Site Improvement Support Team (ASSIST) Coaches. The Solutions Teams interviewed school and district personnel as well as parents and involved community members. The Solutions Teams summarized their work in a Statement of Findings that included a prioritized list of recommendations. The ASSIST Coaches worked with the school and district leadership to help develop and implement an action plan that addressed the list of recommendations for improvement.

Scope of Work.... Work with two schools; Indian Oasis Middle School and Rice Primary School, that are failing to meet academic standards.
Review the district curriculum documents to determine degree of alignment with Arizona State Standards. Submit the results of the review to ADE Deputy Associate Superintendent for School Improvement and Intervention.

Work with school administration to determine degree of alignment between the curriculum and the assessment and benchmark documents.

Work with the school administration to ensure a high degree of alignment between the curriculum and the assessment and benchmark documents.

Work with school administration to develop a process for communicating aligned curriculum to instructional staff.

Work with school administration to develop a process for communicating to instructional staff expectations for providing instruction based on aligned curriculum and the use of appropriate assessment tools.

Work with school administration to ensure that appropriate curriculum maps/pacing guides are in place and acceptable timelines for providing instruction are evident.

Work with school administration to develop a process for ensuring classroom instruction is aligned with curriculum and assessment documents.
Applicants must have:

a) a working knowledge of the Arizona Academic Standards
b) experience in curriculum development and aligning curriculum with state standards.
c) experience with developing formative and summative assessments which are aligned to curriculum
d) experience in establishing benchmarks that determine student progress.
e) experience in developing timelines for the implementation of classroom instruction

Our Thoughts: This writer can’t help but point out the irony of an RPP for “Failing Students” that is really about improving failing schools. Given the thousands of schools in or on the verge of some form of improvement status under No Child Left Behind, and despite the interest of many local education agencies in “district-wide” reform activities (e.g. Pittsburgh), there will be a growing business in individual school turn arounds.

Three abilities are required, to: identify school needs: prescribe appropriate interventions, and provide professional development in those interventions. The best option would be to disconnect the first two from the last, to avoid the “if I have a hammer, every problem is a nail” syndrome. ••••