06-14-2011 (4.04 MB)

Duration: 4:25 m

Rx for student success: Instructional rounds

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What do Grey’s Anatomy and Fort Vancouver High School have in common? The TV drama won an Emmy for a program featuring medical rounds. Fort Vancouver received a Washington State Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development Award for its “Learning Walks” program.

Learning walks actually are a lot like medical rounds. Groups of practitioners—teachers and administrators—travel from class to class, make observations, and then share reflections in a brief post-visit conversation about lesson design, student engagement, and instructional practice. Prior to rounds, staff members agree on a specific focus and things to look for. The observer is the learner in this deliberate practice.

And the process? Instructional meetings are used to discuss, develop, and reflect on lessons in preparation for a school-wide round. Educators design a rubric to provide specific information about the focus area. The rubric evolves as teachers use and refine it to inform their instruction. On learning walk days, teams of teachers use prep periods to collect school-wide data based on the rubric. They follow learning walk norms that they developed together. The teams debrief the learning walk experience and the data collected in a setting that uses “I noticed” and “I wonder” language. The data then is reported out through an instructional newsletter and guides next steps for professional development. The process takes place four times each year.

This year the focus has been on learning targets. The Fort team looked for the following:

1. The learning target is evident.
2. Class activities are aligned with the learning target.
3. Students are engaged in the class activities.
4. Students are engaged in high-level thinking.

Ninety percent of Fort’s staff volunteered to participate in learning walks, observing 167 classrooms. The Fort team is committed to continuous quality improvement, and its reflective practice using diagnostic rounds is delivering results.

Fort made strong gains in reading and writing as measured by the 2011 High School Proficiency Exam (preliminary results)—from 63.2 percent to 71.4 percent proficient in reading and 73 percent to 77 percent proficient in writing. We celebrate Fort’s accomplishments.

We also celebrate the success of all our high schools. District-wide trends demonstrate improvement: reading scores are up by nearly five percent—from 76.5 percent to 81.2 percent; writing scores are up by 2.3 percent—from 82.7 percent to 85 percent.

As you know, this type of success doesn’t just happen. It’s deliberate and systemic. Our own professional teams are making a positive impact on instructional quality at Fort Vancouver High School and throughout our school district. The prognosis for the upward trend is good!

I know it has been a challenging year. Once again, we’re being asked to do more with less. And unfortunately, some of the K-12 public policy debate around this country is more about placing blame on our talented and dedicated front-line professionals than addressing root causes, such as poverty and mobility.

In Vancouver Public Schools, we’re taking a broader, and some might say, bolder approach to ensuring that our students are college, career and life-ready. And we recognize that we can’t do this vital work alone. We need schools, families, and communities interacting as partners to strengthen opportunities for all kids to learn and grow.

Teamwork—now that’s a prescription for student success!

Stay well, and have a restful and renewing summer break.