From Alex's Desk

alex.johnston@conncan.org

Lessons from Connecticut’s Success Stories

What will it take to close Connecticut’s achievement gap? Fortunately, we don’t have to search far for an answer. Across our state are a number of public schools serving diverse student populations that have made tremendous strides in raising student performance. Many have closed the achievement gap altogether, and numerous others are well on their way to doing so.

When you talk to the principals, teachers, and staff, they will tell you securing big gains in student achievement isn’t rocket science, but it is hard work that constantly tests them to bring their very best to school every day. While there is no silver bullet, here are several lessons that emerged again and again in conversations with these homegrown educational heroes.

Principals Need the Freedom to Lead.
Connecticut’s high performing schools come in all shapes and sizes, but one thing they all have in common is strong leaders who have been given or who secured the freedom to lead. Among Connecticut’s high-performing magnet and public charters, this autonomy comes in part from the structure of the schools themselves. By design, these schools have been given greater freedom to innovate, and their principals have used this freedom to ensure that all school decisions—whom to hire, which budget items to fund, what curriculum to use, when to begin and end the school day—are focused on the needs of their students and in service of raising achievement.

While principals in Connecticut’s highest-performing traditional public schools often operate within more complex governance structures, through their persistence, and with the support of their district leaders, they have secured the freedom they need to pursue their vision of excellence. 

Great Teachers Make Great Schools. 
National research has repeatedly demonstrated that nothing has a greater impact on student achievement within a school than teacher quality. When asked what the secret to their success is, all the principals from Connecticut’s highest-performing schools will tell you the same thing: great schools start with great teachers.

How do you ensure a school has the great teachers it needs to succeed? Principals in schools with control over hiring decisions have focused an extraordinary level of their limited time on recruiting the best possible teachers. Principals with less control over these hiring decisions have focused their energy on what they can control: creating a school culture that values great teaching and working hard to retain those teachers who are making the greatest gains with their students.

Achievement Must Be a Way of Life.
It doesn’t take long to realize you are inside a high-performing school. They practically buzz with energy. Their walls speak volumes about their high aspirations for their students and their common sense of purpose. Teachers and students alike demonstrate their passion for learning through their posture, expressions, and focus on the task at hand.

This culture of achievement is not a happy accident but instead a deliberate creation made possible by a team of adults working together with a shared vision. It is grounded in high standards, rigorous curricula, clear expectations for student behavior, a contagious love of learning, and a common commitment to do whatever it takes to ensure all of their students succeed.

Data Drives Better Decisions.
Principals and teachers at high-performing schools know that objective data is an educator’s best friend. They don’t just tolerate the Connecticut Mastery Tests (CMTs), they embrace them. They don’t just focus on getting students to “proficient” but instead set their sights on getting students to “goal” and “advanced.” Most importantly, they don’t just rely on these once-a-year tests to craft their instructional game plans.  Rather, they use frequent formative assessments throughout the year to target through personalized instruction the areas where students have fallen behind in order to catch them back up to grade level.

As Glen Horter, principal at New Britain’s Holmes School puts it, “Looking at student data, knowing exactly where they are, enables us to know exactly where our instruction begins and exactly where it has to go. And if you focus on the data, data does not lie.”