An overview of many related issues are presented to improve the disproportionately below average performance of minority and at-risk students in NC.

Improving Minority and At-Risk Student Achievement:
Blueprint for Excellence

Introduction

This Blueprint provides a series of phases that can be used by individuals or groups, to develop a plan of action for improving the performance of minority and at-risk students. The conventional wisdom is that the most successful efforts for improving student performance will involve multiple organizations, interests, and perspectives. Such involvement will help ensure ownership of the solutions and outcomes and provide access to available resources. It is important to be sensitive to the needs of all involved groups. Blueprint activities should not give the impression that one group or another is somehow to blame, or that the problems belong only to one group. The expectation is that the performance of all students will improve in meaningful ways as result of these efforts.

The initiator(s) of the Blueprint in each community may vary according to local needs and interests. In some communities the local school system may initiate the Blueprint, in other communities business or civic leaders may take the lead. It is most important that communities take responsibility and initiate steps to establish a plan of action and strategies for improving student performance. This process will integrate a wide variety of information and data about students, existing programs and services, and key community resource persons. The data recommended for use in the Blueprint are not intended to be exhaustive, e.g., other data relevant to individual schools and the school system should also be included. The Blueprint is predicated upon the following Principles:

Principles for Excellence

1. Involve a wide range of constituencies as equal decision-making partners
2. Make data driven and/or research based decisions
3. Use a systemic approach to plan, implement, monitor and modify programs
4. Develop a collaborative mission, belief system, and vision
5. Allocate resources needed to cause change such as people, money, materials, time, space
6. Schedule adequate time for team members to meet and successfully complete tasks
7. Provide an opportunity for all constituencies to have input on decisions
8. Monitor progress towards your organization's mission and goal accomplishment
9. Encourage, recognize and verify participant groups and individuals
10. Provide a free flow of information to all stakeholders in the school/community
11. Empower administrators to provide quality leadership for collaborative reform
12. Develop skillful leadership teams to guide the improvement process

Definitions

Minority: A racial, religious, political, national, or other group (such as disabled persons) regarded as different from the larger group of which it is part.

At-Risk Students: A term liberally used to describe students who are at-risk of academic failure. These students may be performing below expected levels of proficiency; may be engaged in disruptive or non-productive behaviors such as absenteeism, violence, drug/alcohol use; and may come from families that have been identified as low income or low socio-economic status.

PHASE 1: The Initiation: Build Core Support

Improving student performance is a significant challenge and requires preparation and the involvement of all stakeholders in the community. The primary goal is to develop a strong and influential core of concerned individuals who share a vision of what needs to be done and who are willing to help do it.

 

A. Conduct an honest and non-judgmental assessment of student performance.

 

1. Identify the possible reasons why students are experiencing low performance in your school and school system
   
2. . What are the contributing factors?
   
3. Which of these factors do you have control over? Remember that we cannot control students socioeconomic status, gender, or ethnicity. Collected data should include descriptions of both controllable factors and indicators of minority status or at-riskness.
   
4. What can be done to eliminate or reduce the influence of these controllable
   factors on student performance?
5. Review disaggregated data for elementary, middle, and high schools by gender, ethnicity, and other factors in addition to comparisons of the average student performance
   

 

B. Identify resource individuals and organizations in the community. Consider involving:

1. Persons well known in the target community or population
2. Persons who are knowledgeable about the history and development of the community
3. Parents and family members
4. Persons who are oriented to conceptualization and/or action
5. Experienced persons with a variety of talents and resources and a record of perseverance in addressing community problems
6. Persons with civic and organizational identification
7. Persons who are on the receiving end of the problem
8. Youth leaders and high school students
9. School personnel
10. People in the business community
11. Church leaders (Ministers, directors of religious education)

C. Contact members of the key constituencies and enlist their support.

D. Determine their perceptions of the problem, the resources they are willing to contribute to help improve student performance, their preferences for action, and the role they are willing to assume in the process.

E. Hold a first meeting with the core support group and discuss roles and responsibilities. Agree on a beginning strategy to involve the appropriate people. Keep a record of the people you have contacted, their perceptions of the problem, and their suggestions for action. The number of persons in the core group will vary according to the number of essential stakeholders in each community.

PHASE 2: Develop Ideas and Specific Strategies Decide who will be participants and collaborators in the improvement process. Think! Talk! Listen! Ask questions. Discuss the obstacles or barriers faced by the community that will impede success. Be candid.

A. Decide who has important information and should be contacted.

B. Define specific questions that are related to improving student performance and how to solve them--the what, why, when, and how questions.

C. Your goal is not to reinvent the wheel but create a better performing wheel.

1. What has already been done to address low student performance in your community; avoid strategies that may or may not have met with success in the past
   
2. Make an initial assessment of available resources
   
3. Ask individuals and groups what they are willing to do to help
   
4. Discuss action strategies
   

PHASE 3: Build Community Interest and Support for Improving Student Performance

A. Build community interest through contact with organizations and influential individuals. Offer to present your ideas at meetings of community groups.

B. Develop contacts with the media.

 

PHASE 4: Reach Consensus on a Plan of Action

A. Be inclusive. Include the people you have contacted and that have been involved in previous meetings and discussion groups.

B. Let group members give their perceptions of the most pressing problems and causes.

C. Reach an agreement on the problems or contributing factors for low student performance that should be addressed first.

D. Discuss the kinds of feasible, visible, and effective actions that would help eliminate the problems or contributing factors that have been identified.

E. Agree on a preliminary action or strategy.

 

PHASE 5: Develop the Blueprint for Excellence.The Blueprint should include a:

1. Mission Statement
2. Goals Statement
3. Description of Essential Tasks

Suggested Tasks

 

1. Review school system and school policies, procedures, practices, curriculum guides, lesson plans, instructional materials, etc. to be sure they are free of bias or that they do not negatively affect any racial, ethnic, gender, religion, cultural, or disabled group. For example, this review may reveal policies that essentially discourage, although unintentionally, minority and at-risk students from enrolling in more academically challenging courses such as higher level mathematics and sciences

2. Analyze all student outcome data for your school district and school (test scores for the past three years in every subject; other factors such as student attendance data; dropout data; number of hours students watch television/play video games; number of

hours students spend doing homework; number of hours students spend working; number of students suspended/expelled; number of students in academically gifted programs; number of students in exceptional children programs; ratio of students per teacher; number of students in Achievement Levels I, II, III, and IV; number of students proficient in the five core high school courses; number of students taking the Scholastic Achievement Test and how well they ve done; number of students who have passed the North Carolina Competency Tests in Reading and Mathematics; number of students enrolled in alternative programs

3. How many students are performing at Level I or II or below proficiency levels for high school courses?

4. Disaggregate the above data ( 2 and 3) by gender , ethnicity, and other factors

5. Meet with teachers, principals, curriculum coordinators, parents to candidly discuss the data and other information. Form a school-wide committee that is representative to address the Blueprint for Excellence

6. Contact school system curriculum coordinators for ideas and assistance. Involve them.

7. Use faculty who are knowledgeable about teaching minority and at-risk students to train others or teach their classes

 

D. Timeline

 

E. Evaluation Plan (Evaluation may be conducted by the core group or an independent group according to available resources; evaluations should be formally tied to improvement objectives and goal.)

 

PHASE 6: Inform and Educate the Larger Community About Your Plan

 

A. Establish a beginning date.

B. Build a strong, documented case for the need and for the probable success of the effort to improve student performance.

 

1. Continue to solicit resources and generate support for the programs
2. Use local media and develop a plan for communicating with the public

PHASE 7: Implement the Blueprint for Excellence

 

A. Use sound techniques to assure the continuing interest and commitment of key people.

B. Maintain an action focus.

 

PHASE 8: Evaluate and Improve Your Blueprint for Excellence

 

A. Identify program objectives you plan to evaluate.

B. Decide how you will ascertain the amount of progress made toward each of your objectives.

C. Collect information about the progress of the Blueprint Initiative.

D. Summarize and publicize the results for potential funders, media, community reports, etc.

Blueprint developed by Dr. Cassandra Atkinson and incorporated Bain, J.G. and Herman, J. L., (1989) Improving opportunities for underachieving minority students: A planning guide for community action. Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing UCLA Center for the Study of Evaluation, Los Angeles: CA.