Turnaround 4C Plan Tools: SR3 and Parent Contracts

Turnaround 4C Plan Tools:

Three Tier Teacher Evaluations, SR3 method of evaluating teachers, 5 x 5 Parent Contract

The Tier Teacher Evaluations, SR3 Method of Evaluating Teachers, and the 5 x 5 Parent Contract, integral components of the 4C Turnaround Plan, are key strategies designed to support new teachers in enhancing student learning and building leadership capacity across all stakeholders: students, teachers, administrators, and the community.

When implemented with fidelity, these tools foster school improvement through the four pillars of Climate, Culture, Curriculum, and Connections. This holistic approach not only promotes student success but also encourages the development of leadership within the school environment, ensuring long-term growth and positive change.

For more information about the the topics discussed,
Bryan Wright: brwright44@gmail.com
Mark McBeth: mark@educationalrelevance.org

Thanks for listening. If you would like to share your thoughts or topic ideas, or would like to be a guest, you can find Educational Relevance on Facebook, YouTube or contact us at oliviaw1201@educationalrelevance.org

Transcript

bryan_1_09-26-2024_093340: 0:00

Hello. Welcome to Educational Relevance, a platform for experienced educators to share proven successful strategies to educate today's students. I am Bryan Wright. I'm an administrator for the last 30 years in public schools. I'm also an adjunct professor at Concordia University at this present time. With me is my partner in crime, Mark Mcbeth. Mark is an educational leader, but also a accomplished author regarding academics What we're going to discuss today is teacher evaluation. if you're going to talk about the turnaround 4C plan, you're going to have two things. You're going to have naysayers. You're going to have people saying what we can or cannot do. That's the first thing, but then the second thing you're going to have teachers that you need to assist along the way. How administrators assist those teachers in becoming successful by helping our students reach their academic and educational goals So Mark we're going to talk about the SR3 program and that's SR3 stands for support, repeat, remediate, remove. Mark, I'm gonna turn this over to you and start us with the. Tiered level of evaluation that you've used

mark_1_09-26-2024_093346: 1:00

very good. I appreciate that. A lot of people talked about instructional leadership. That's what school administrators are supposed to be working towards. It's really about supporting the people that are at the line helping kids directly, and that's about coaching and supporting. We make sure that the teachers always have the essential tools they need to be successful. As a school, be constantly thinking about how do we help teachers grow, reflect and think deeper about their instruction so they can enhance and improve student learning. One way that focus on that is to take the tier support system that we use for students and move it over to the instructional level to teachers. So, 80 percent of our teachers can be highly successful within the idea of just ongoing professional development, ongoing walkthrough support, reflective conversations, just general support About 15 percent of teachers need more support. They, need that same professional development repeated a little bit more, a little bit more time. We need to spend some time modeling inside the classroom for the teacher. We need to do a little bit more extensive support. And then tier three teachers are really those teachers that might be new teachers or just teachers that are really struggling for one reason or another, and they need way more intensive support. As school administrators, 80 percent of our instructional time working with that 5 percent of those teachers. we're going to spend way more intensive time really trying to help this teacher get successful ultimately down to a tier two support and hopefully into a tier one support. They're really helping kids be successful. And so with that, we take the SR three model that you're going to go a little deeper in and it fits right inside that model.

bryan_2_09-26-2024_095549: 2:54

Yeah. Thank you, Mark. well the first step is always going to be support. We also want to make sure as we're doing this, we document every step. Step and what we're trying to do. Make sure that's clear. We have to document. We also get the unions involved. Hey, this is what we're doing. We need your assistance because the 1st thing I want to make sure that we're supporting that new teacher. That teacher is having some difficulty, we want to provide them support. So they don't feel uncomfortable. So we can assist them and trying to reach students in a more positive direction. The second step is going to repeat step. That means maybe they misunderstood what we're asking them to accomplish. So repeat it. It's still a supportive measure. how can we help you? We want to make sure we are clear, you're certain, but what we're saying we want you to do. That's why we call it the repeat phase. The third one is remediate. we cannot continue doing this. But even in that phase there, we're still talking about how we're going to assist them, how we're going to support them. Matter of fact, when you talk about repeating it, it maybe improvement plans. You can talk about that. But in that improvement plan, we give you more than enough time. In some schools, they'll give you six to eight weeks so they can say, Hey, we want to see how you improve one of how we gauge it for you want to make sure that each one of these steps again Mark is going to be, documented. Then the last 1, of course, and unfortunately, we cannot get you to a point. then we got to about ultimate removal from the program. you said something earlier, but when you talk about removing teachers. You said something I thought was so, was so poignant.

mark_2_09-26-2024_095555: 4:23

Yeah, basically there's two, two reasons why a teacher would be removed. One, cognitively they just can't grasp the, concepts of being a teacher. and then the second one is they choose it. They make their own choice to not adopt the system that we're trying to help or to fit into the system of enhancing student learning. And those two choices are why teachers ultimately have to leave our programs.

bryan_2_09-26-2024_095549: 4:50

And make sure either in the multi tier level, evaluation or the SR3 models, they're similar in one way that's important, that we want to talk about supporting teachers or they can become better at their craft so they can assist our students. The ultimate

mark_2_09-26-2024_095555: 5:08

decision

bryan_2_09-26-2024_095549: 5:09

maker, Mark, is how. It affects students in the classroom. That is the ultimate goal. We want success academically, we want success spiritually, but we want success for those students That's why we, we're not talking about evaluating somebody so we can find negatives. We're trying to evaluate people so he can maintain positives that we can maintain them feeling good about what they're doing, how they're doing it. And that kids are the ultimate beneficiaries

bryan_1_09-26-2024_093340: 5:35

mark as we're doing these things What is our ultimate goal with those teachers that who are using these models of

mark_1_09-26-2024_093346: 5:41

You know, we hire teachers under the concept that we want them to be highly successful so they can enhance student learning. So ultimately our goal through this entire model is to help teachers be highly successful.

bryan_1_09-26-2024_093340: 5:54

And in this model you're talking about, is kind of like an inverse pyramid, isn't it?

mark_1_09-26-2024_093346: 5:58

the same thing. I mean, it's the model looks exactly the same. So we have students over here, teachers here, and we can do the same thing, that same coaching and support for our support staff. That's the coaches and school administrators. We can put them in that same model of support, but it's really about that, that support. But the, the reverse triangle. Is really how much time we spend as school administrators and coaches. So, 5% of the teachers will take 80% of our time about 15% will take about 15% of our time. And then 5% of our time is spent with 80% of the teachers because it's a general model that we just have developed for every teacher.

bryan_1_09-26-2024_093340: 6:42

Mark, one of my ultimate goals when we talk about this. We're trying to maintain and keep teachers in our profession. what I've seen recently, Last couple of years that we got a lot of young teachers who come into our profession that leave within the first five years. So the whole goal is to keep these teachers, A, involved in our profession, but also enhance what they're doing. So eventually our kids will be the beneficiaries of their knowledge and

mark_1_09-26-2024_093346: 7:05

Yeah, and I've read some recent articles that still talks about the number one reason teachers leave the profession is they don't feel like they're supported by their administration, where they don't feel like they're having the impact that they should have inside that school. part of that plays with climate and culture that we've already talked about having the type of curriculum support. But it really comes down to Whether they're getting the coaching and support, they feel like they can be successful.

bryan_1_09-26-2024_093340: 7:33

Mark. I know teachers come into education today. and I know we've seen too many movies in the past or our kids are being saved by these teachers. And I tell people all the time our students don't need savers. They need educators. we have to make sure we are teaching these, new staff members become leaders of people. Yes, but also become educators. if you become better in your craft as a teacher leader, you're going to be doing a lot of saving with those kids eventually. But at the same time, we got to make sure we give them the support they need Have you ever had a teacher or two, Mark, that felt uncomfortable or basically unsteady as that they're performing their craft?

mark_1_09-26-2024_093346: 8:13

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I love coaching and supporting teachers. I love bringing the teachers to the new level. You know, the biggest thing is, teachers sometimes don't know what they're really doing. And that's where we come in and we reflect a lot with them, get them think deeper about what they're doing and then, taking them along. For an example, I had a teacher who was a continuing ed teacher, came into the profession when they were 35 years old and they knew their content extremely well, but they had a hard connection with kids. They were they were nailing the rigor with the kids, but they weren't making the relevance and they weren't creating the relationships. They weren't making the connection, why kids should learn that. So in coaching that teacher, I was able to generate more content with that teacher to think about the relevance and the relationships with the kids and how he related with the kids. As a result, he generated results. Kids started learning. And his formative assessment results started to rise and he could see the success once he saw the success that he wanted to gravitate towards it. It's like, oh, now I got kids interested in coming to my class. Now the climate changed in the classroom, the culture of how things were done and felt inside the classroom drastically changed. And, he became a pretty powerful teacher.

bryan_1_09-26-2024_093340: 9:36

Mark. I also want to add when young teachers come into our profession, they don't understand the meaning of having a code. Having something to put their belief system in belief systems that we're going to change the world. That's fine. But you also got to have a belief system that when those hard times hit and those difficulties arise. You say, Hey, I'm going to get through these difficult times because I have this belief system that I can make these changes what's going on and we're not talking about saviors we're talking about having a code that you can live by an education philosophy of things that you can accomplish and things that you can do. And this evaluation system we're talking about will assist them. In reaching that code, reaching those kids in a way where they're benefiting from

mark_1_09-26-2024_093346: 10:19

Yeah.

bryan_1_09-26-2024_093340: 10:20

instruction.

mark_1_09-26-2024_093346: 10:20

I had, a special ed teacher and my assistant football coach at my very first job I had. And one night we were out for pizza and he said, Mark, you need to understand that not everybody's going to be a football coach. As I'm working with all these players, he's like, you know, not everybody's going to be a football coach cause they don't, they're not all going to love it, but they want to be successful. You got to push them to the success level of where they're at and where they want to be.

bryan_1_09-26-2024_093340: 10:45

Now I'm in the land of Lombardi in Wisconsin, you know, the one thing that everyone talks about when you mentioned Vince Lombardi, is that the fact that he built successful men. Now, many of them stayed in the coaching profession. Bart Star being one, for example, with the head coaches, the Green Bay Packers, but several others were successful in many different fields. So what he was trying to build was success, not just with players who's going to stay in that profession, but success in life. And I think a lot of successful teachers do that. But in order to do that, they also need to have that game plan. So they can say, this is how we're going to do it. This is ways we're going to become successful eventually. I think that's a great thing, but glad you said that. Cause you're right. When we talk about that, not every kid, you're going to have different successes with each kid. Some be successful as teachers, some be successful as business leaders, but the point being made is building them, giving them some, some ideas that you can share with them so they can become

mark_1_09-26-2024_093346: 11:43

Sure.

bryan_1_09-26-2024_093340: 11:43

long run. Let me, let me shift gears mark. I know we're talking about SR3 and we're talking about evaluations. I do want to close out the turnaround 4C plan, but talk about how we affect the community. We talked about that previously. And I want to ask you about some ideas that you did as far as helping with community leaders, but also getting parents involved in what we're trying to accomplish.

mark_1_09-26-2024_093346: 12:04

You know I would say you're really the master at engaging community. But the things that I really tried to get was highlighting teacher success, what they did well. I tried to present it all the time. I would brag about what teachers are doing, but it was bragging about teachers success academically, how they were academically enhancing student learning. That's the things that, and, how they were mastering their crafts. That's what I love to share with the community and let them know. That it's an artwork, you know, for a teacher to be highly successful, it's, it's like a piece of art and, and I wanted them to see what goes into that piece of art. It's not just a drawing when you're done. It's, it's a whole process and teaching the community about the process. I spent a lot of time doing that and I think that was powerful. And, very worthwhile to get community to see the value of a teacher.

bryan_1_09-26-2024_093340: 13:04

For a guy who says I'm going to be the master, that sounds Target.

mark_1_09-26-2024_093346: 13:07

you're the, you engage the community so much more than I ever did. I'm in awe of what you do. How do you do?

bryan_1_09-26-2024_093340: 13:15

Well, we talked about that because if you're talking about a turnaround 4C plan, one of the goals we have and one of the parts of our game plan is building leadership density and leadership capacity. And the best way to do that is to get the community involved. And making sure they understand that it's a we thing, not the me thing. It's a we go, not an ego. And so the whole point being is getting everybody involved in the same page as we continuing. And, but also, and we talked about evaluative tools the community evaluates us. regular basis, and we invite that because we want to be evaluated because we want to make sure the successes are going to be shared for everyone, not just in the school, students, the teachers, the administrators. And the community and we all are a part of the success of what goes on in that program. So that's why it's so important. I was going to mention the five by five parent contract. as you know that we've used that before Mark and the five by five is something where it aligns what's happening, but we also ask parents to get involved in their student's education. we want to evaluate what we're doing and our teachers are doing. We also want to make sure we get the parents involved in that educational process as well. that gives five different ideas that we want to share with with parents, how we want to continue getting them involved and eventually, achieving student success. I will include that this program at the end We'll have that ready to give out Mark I'm gonna ask you one last thing regarding the turnaround 4c plan that we've discussed the last several weeks And what do you think? Did we do a pretty good job in trying to explain? How we think schools can become successful and talk about

mark_1_09-26-2024_093346: 14:55

Yeah, I think we did. I think we did a good job. The key here is we're just giving overview pieces. people need to understand that that there's way more intensity to each of those steps. But if you adopt those concepts, climate and culture and curriculum and connections Everything else will build around it.

bryan_1_09-26-2024_093340: 15:16

Well, I appreciate that and then four c's again the turnaround 4c program is Climate Culture, Curriculum and Connections. And we talked about doing this in the reasonable amount of time to create a school and student change. And yes, we do have a bunch of C's, but at the same time, but they know C's are so many different programs that we want to do and we want to make a school be successful for all our students. I want to say, thank you, man. That's a great time talking to you. we'll say thank you, Mark, for joining me. But we're going to have many other programs. We're going to continue as far as educational relevance. idea to bring about for we can get measure and gain student successes. And this point in time, everybody, take care. Bye bye.