Rachael and John George Both principals in Oregon share their experiences of turning around schools.

• The Three Amigos
• Sandy Green Elementary School - lowest 10% of the schools. Working with a well-known publisher on reading and writing, and it wasn’t going as well as they thought!
• Year 1 from 10%ile to 50%ile. Year 4 82%ile. With highest Free and Reduced lunch rate in the district.
• Honed in on systems and structures
• Full staff turnover in those four years.
• 3-4 year plan
  1. First thing you need to do is establish relationships.
  1. You’ve got to be the examiner of systems and structures.
• Identify holes in intervention and enrichment.
• Each building has its own issues.
• Three changes in the first year: 1. Slow 2. Integrated with content, but lost on the students 3. No engagement
• Students were passively sitting there, while the teacher was doing all the heavy lifting.
• Level of community involvement.
• Need to do different because we are teaching different students.
• How do we do different different?
• It’s supposed to be hard.
  1. Be the filter: teach to cause a positive result.
• Modified Danielson Rubric for evaluation. I can’t evaluate you in Domain 1 unless I see your lesson plans.
• You can’t be good with what you do without a game plan.
• Look at the standards and make them meaningful.
• New teachers out perform due to effective lesson plans.
• Need guidance and coaching and mentoring around lesson plans. Provides the opportunity for reflection in lesson plans and it makes them better as teachers.
• Lesson plans provide feedback on Professional Development - if we can’t see it reflected in lesson plans.
• Keeping your lesson plans to reflect on later.
• Planning formative assessment.
• CoTeach model - special education & ELL population
  1. Be in classrooms a lot.

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Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL, and Renaissance Learning:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

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IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

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