High Leverage Practices: Policies, Practices, Implications, & Opportunities

Larry Maheady, Ph. D.

Exceptional Education Department

SUNY Buffalo State

maheadlj@buffalostate.edu

October 16, 2015

A presentation for the New York State Association of Teacher Educators & New York State Association of Colleges of Teacher Education, Saratoga Springs, NY

Purposes

• Introduce concept of High Leverage Practices (HLPs)

• Describe two sets of HLPs, general & special education • University of Michigan • Council for Exceptional Children

• Discuss implications and opportunities for teacher educators and P-12 schools

Clinically Rich Teacher Education Reform

•Practice has not been at the core of the teacher education curriculum or research.

•Reorganize TE curriculum around a set of core practices &

help novices develop knowledge and skills to use them to improve student outcomes.

•Can we agree on a common set of core practices around

which to organize learning of pre-service teachers & create infrastructure to implement it with integrity?

High leverage practices (HLP) are…….

• “a set of practices designed that are fundamental to support K-12 student learning and that can be taught, learned, and implemented by those entering the profession” (Windschitl, et al., 2012, p. 880)

•Practices are • used often in teaching • used broadly across curricula or instructional approaches • research-based and can improve student achievement • teachable to novices who can learn more about students and

teaching

U. Of Michigan HLPs • Explaining core content

• Posing questions about content

• Choosing and using representations, examples, and models of content

• Leading whole class discussions of content

• Working with individuals to elicit, probe, and develop their thinking about content

• Setting up and managing small groups

• Engaging students in rehearsing an organizational or managerial routine

• Establishing norms and routines for classroom discourse and work that are central to the content

• Recognizing and identifying common patterns of thinking in a content domain

• Composing, selecting, adapting quizzes, tests, and other methods of assessing student learning of a chunk of instruction

• Selecting and using specific methods to assess students' learning on an ongoing basis within and between lessons

• Identifying and implementing an instructional strategy or intervention in response to common patterns of student thinking

• Choosing, appraising, and modifying tasks, texts, and materials for a specific learning goal

• Enacting a task to support a specific learning goal

• Designing a sequence of lessons on a core topic

• Enacting a sequence of lessons on a core topic

• Conducting a meeting about a student with a parent or guardian

• Writing correct, comprehensible, and professional messages to colleagues, parents, and others

• Analyzing and improving specific elements of one's own teaching

Set Up and Organize Small Groups

•Choose tasks that require and encourage collaborative work

• Issue clear directives

•Have students work semi-independently (structures)

• Include strategies to hold students accountable collectively and individually

•Use time strategically and know when to use which groups at which times and for which purposes

Communicate well with parents or guardians

•Regular communication to • Provide information about academic, behavioral, and

interpersonal performance & progress • Seek information or assistance • Request parent involvement in school

• Take place in person, in writing, and/or phone

•Communications are attentive to cultural/linguistic differences and focus primarily on supporting parents to support their children

CEC PROPOSED High Leverage Practices (N = 25)

• Collaboration • Work with colleagues to improve student outcomes in GE curriculum

• Assessment • Design/select, implement, interpret, & communicate results from diagnostic and

formative measures to important stakeholders

• Instruction • Use explicit instruction • Use strategies to actively engage students • Analyze instruction for purpose of improving it

• Social/Emotional/Behavioral • Establish consistent, organized, & respectful environments • Use high rates of specific positive feedback

Establish Consistent, Organized & Respectful Environment

• Formulate proactive, positive, and instructive rules and routines

•Help students develop positive relationships with peers

•Manage transitions between activities

• Teach students social skills to work together

•Respond effectively to students who refuse to work together

Analyze Instruction for Purpose of Improving It

• Teachers study practice and impact on student learning in one domain over a reasonable time period.

• Teachers collect formative and curriculum-specific data to determine effects on student learning.

•Make instructional decisions (e.g., continue, adapt, or discard practices) continue monitoring performance.

•Analysis can be collective (whole & small groups) and/or individual.

M = .64 C M = .59 A

M = .95 Completion M = .86 Accuracy

M = .65 C M = .64 A

M = .95 Completion M = .86 Accuracy

Implications and Challenges • Fundamental shift in TE practice

• From “learning about teaching” to “learning how to teach” • Dismantling the curricular divide in teacher education

• Organizational challenges • Teacher educators must agree on a set of core practices around which to

organize learning of pre-service teachers. • Reorganize structural arrangements to teach novices how to use HLPs

• Pedagogical challenges • To develop fluidity, novices need multiple opportunities to use HLPs &

coaching. • Opportunities can occur across a variety of settings, from more controlled

settings in the university to more naturalistic in classrooms

A Continuum of Options for Developing Practice

Low Effort

High Effort

Assign

readings, discussion, application

papers

In class

simulations, role-plays, &,

micro-teaching

Any of these methods may be useful for improving practice

Early clinical experience; tutoring programs

Student teaching

Clinical year & coaching

Opportunities

• Opportunity to align TE curriculum with P-12 practice • Which practices do P-12 teachers identify as most relevant, important, and

teachable?

• How can these practices be taught to novice educators?

• What types of assistance do novices and practicing teachers need to implement HLPs and assess effects on student outcomes?

• Opportunity to align existing TE practice with HLPs? • Which HLPs are most relevant and teachable for my part of the curriculum?

• How can we create and/or adapt clinical experiences to include HLP instruction?

• Any one or combination of HLPs might provide a constructive research agenda?

Opportunities

• Opportunity to strengthen links between TE practice and novice practice • How do our clinical experiences impact novices’ use of HLP?

• Are certain preparation experiences (e.g., coaching, Teach Live) more effective than others in improving teacher use of HLP?

• Opportunity to strengthen links between novice practice and student learning • In what ways are student better as a result of teacher use of selected HLPs?

• Which practices produce the most benefits and for whom?

Opportunities

•Opportunity to study teaching practice, what teachers do, and how it impacts important student outcomes

•Opportunity to elevate practice and its improvement as legitimate and important areas for empirical inquiry

•Opportunity to improve our professional standing among critical policy-makers and a skeptical scientific community

Some Unanswered Questions

• Does the use of HLPs improve teacher effectiveness as defined by improved student outcomes?

• What is the relationship of evidence-based and high leverage practices?

• How might we become more effective if we embrace the practice-based movement?

Takeaways

• High Leverage Practices provide a constructive vision with formidable challenges and multiple learning opportunities

• Teacher educators can • teach those HLPs that are more important, relevant, and teachable. • provide structured opportunities for novice teachers to use them (early & often) & via P-

12 partnerships • include “tools” to evaluate impact on students • conduct research on teacher practice & student learning

• SEA professionals • promote and implement policies that support use of HLPs that prove effective • encourage use of coaching to help teachers learn to use and sustain practices • support accountability policies & procedures that focus on teaching improvement over

evaluation

References • Ball, D. & Forzani, F. (2011). Building a common core for learning to teach: And

connecting professional learning to practice. American Educator, 35(2), 17-21, 38-39.

• Forzani, F. (2014). Understanding “core practices” and “practice-based” teacher education: Learning from the past. Journal of Teacher Education, 65(4), 357-368.

• Grossman, P., Hammerness, K., & McDonald, M. (2009). Redefining teaching: Re-imagining teacher education. Teachers and teaching: Theory and Practice. 15(2), 273-290.

• McDonald, M., Kazemi, E., & Kavanaugh, S. (2013). Core practices of teacher

• education: A call for a common language and collective activity. Journal of Teacher Education, 64(5). 378-386.

• Teaching Works http://www.teachingworks.org/work-of-teaching/high-leverage-practices

• Windschitl, M., Thompson, J., Braaten, M., & Stroupe, D. (2012). Proposing a core set of

instructional practices and tools for teachers of science. Science Education, 96(5), 878-903.