Beyond Core Expectations

A Schoolwide Framework for Serving the Not-So-Common Learner

Maria G. Dove, Andrea Honigsfeld, Audrey Cohan

• Publisher: Corwin
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781483331928
• eBook ISBN: 9781483331935
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Curricula

Create a schoolwide foundation to ensure academic success for ALL students

This useful guide supports the needs of culturally, linguistically, and academically diverse learners and demonstrates how a shared vision can increase student engagement and ensure that not-so-common learners benefit from academic rigor.

Taking a system-wide approach, the authors offer educators a model arranged in six distinct yet complementary pathways to improve programs, policies, and practices for diverse learners. This innovative framework includes:

• Mapping and aligning an integrated curriculum—making the mainstream curricula accessible for all learners
• Collaborative planning and assessment—pooling intelligence so the whole is greater than the sum of its parts
• Teaching students explicit learning strategies—empowering students by increasing student-led learning
• Promoting disciplinary literacy—providing all students with access to pertinent academic language learning

Featuring helpful tables that outline key concepts and real-life vignettes from schools that have successfully applied the principles, this book unlocks success for all students. 

"Dove, Honigsfeld, and Cohan recognize the urgent need for practices to change on a schoolwide basis so that diverse learners can be positioned to succeed with the Common Core. This book outlines inclusive practices so that all students are included in these important conversations."
—Diane Staehr Fenner, President
DSF Consulting

"In Beyond Core Expectations, the authors present a coherent framework for schoolwide instructional inclusiveness. This book is an essential guide for educators with a vision for true college and career readiness for ALL students, driven by sound curriculum, instruction and assessment practices."                                                                              
 —Cheryl H. Champ, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction          
Sewanhaka Central High School District, Floral Park, NY

1 A Shared and Inclusive Vision and Mission

Our values drive everything we do or say and, in turn, inform our vision.

—Frattura and Capper (2007, p. 41)

There’s nothing revolutionary about setting a clear vision and mission and fostering buy-in from a school community—it is basic School Leadership 101. However, what we are proposing here is an inclusive vision and mission, setting the groundwork for not only establishing equality for all students but equity as well—opportunities to help level the playing field for the not-so-common learner.

What does an inclusive vision for diverse learners look like? How do we design and carry out a mission of inclusion for all students? What do we need to do to improve learning for those who are deemed not-so-common learners? When we have approached school leaders with these and other similar questions, we have found that they held various viewpoints:

• Some administrators maintained a broad-based vision for the successful academic achievement and college readiness for all students.
• Other building leaders held that each teacher must take personal responsibility for the learning of each student, and their role as leaders in the process has been to learn more about and promote the use of differentiated instructional strategies in every class.
• A few principals have expressed their convictions for building a school culture in which teachers understand and embrace the cultural background of every child.
• One administrator in particular shared a more detailed, visionary plan that included the elimination of separate classes—English as a second language (ESL), literacy support services, resource room for students with disabilities (SWD)—that segregate some students in order to create a more inclusive school environment.

What these school leaders have in common are strongly held convictions that all students in their charge can become capable and productive citizens, yet they each may have a different point of view and overall plans for how these aspirations for students might be attainable.

At a Glance

In this chapter, we focus on how to involve all stakeholders to achieve a set of common goals through consensus building and develop a shared vision and mission that is truly inclusive of all learners in light of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) (2010). In order to embrace the high expectations as identified by the CCSS for all students, we maintain that members of the school community engage in the following:

• Understand how teaching may change and how it should remain the same as a result of building inclusive and culturally proficient practices in tandem with the CCSS;
• Determine measurable, achievable goals and how to accomplish them;
• Commit to core professional learning for all stakeholders; and
• Foster belief in and support for collaboration between and among all members of the school community.

Additionally, all stakeholders need to embrace that all of these undertakings will take a great deal of time, patience, and leadership from both administrators and faculty alike.

An Inclusive, Collaboratively Developed Vision and Mission

For decades, many educational leaders have addressed the importance of identifying a shared vision and mission—or an organizational platform (Daresh & Lynch, 2010)—for all learners in their school communities. The results are often a mix of broadly stated yet fairly complex mission statements that have little buy-in or support from the faculty, staff, parents, and broader community. As a consequence, “when school goals are developed from mission statements without shared values and clear vision, then the goals and action plans will be nebulous and the mission will, again, not address the needs of all students in the school” (Frattura & Capper, 2007, p. 41).

With the idea of a collaborative vision and mission in mind, first and foremost, we advocate for an assessment of the school communities’ shared set of values. As the quote we selected at the beginning of the chapter so aptly stated, values inform our vision, and if the members of the school community do not value the same ideas, a vision and mission that truly include all students will rarely take shape.

Remaining Unbiased

Dealing with various groups of learners can be overwhelming, and coming to consensus about a vision and mission for all students can be problematic. For this reason, we must develop to the best of our ability an understanding of multicultural and multiethnic issues as well as the learning needs of struggling students. We must also never equate that students from any one particular ethnic or cultural background will automatically have learning difficulties. However, many school community members remain unaware of their own discomfort or outright biases with certain student populations such as those with extreme poverty, neglect, interrupted formal schooling, homelessness, and so on. They may also be unaware of the faulty basis in which their beliefs have been rooted.

We frequently draw from our own experiences in the field working with both teachers and administrators to illustrate our perspectives. In laying the preliminary groundwork for a vision and mission to be developed, one such instance comes to mind. During a professional development workshop, a group of veteran middle school teachers in a suburb of New York City shared with each other that they used all manner of strategies in teaching their lessons, but the lack of academic progress of their students rested on the shoulders of both students and their families. These teachers expressed the strong belief that most, if not all, of their Latino students lack motivation, and that their parents do not value education; they cited evidence of their students’ frequent absences, lack of class preparation, and incomplete homework assignments. Without a doubt, if you have teachers who truly believe that a certain segment of your student population is unwilling to or cannot learn, any vision and mission that aims particularly to include all learners will most likely fail.

Tool #1: The Developing Core Values Checklist in the Essential Toolkit (Appendix) will help to evaluate and reflect on possible biases that may interfere with developing an equitable vision and mission.

Inclusive Practices for All Students

A major part of developing an inclusive, shared vision and mission involves forging a school culture that genuinely values all learners and fosters integrated learning opportunities for all students to thrive. Yet sometimes, teachers as well as administrators with the best of intentions believe that placing youngsters in separate classes or programs that might better suit their needs is beneficial to them. For example, long-established self-contained special education classes or stand-alone, pull-out ESL programs are perceived as a benefit for diverse learners although they remove students from their average-to-above-average achieving, English-speaking peers.

What are the dangers of keeping these students in ongoing remediation programs? For one, it will undoubtedly prevent them having access to necessary preparation and learning that is provided by content-area experts—the regular classroom and core-subject teachers. The more you segregate students, the less likely it is for all learners to be exposed to or taught the same curriculum. Thus, segregation places youngsters with special needs at a further disadvantage.

Tool #2: The CCSS for Academically and Linguistically Diverse Learners: Equity Audit in the Essential Toolkit (Appendix) will support the examination of equitable beliefs and practices in relation to the CCSS and diverse student populations.

The Importance of School Culture

Moving beyond the sole focus of expectations specified by the Standards, we make a case for building a school culture that embraces diversity and fostering the development of a vision and mission that includes all learners. As a part of that culture, the whole school community must uphold the importance of not segregating students who are more capable of independently meeting grade-level requirements from those who need a wider variety of assistance to make the grade. In this way, all stakeholders “understand the importance of developing a mission that can set the stage for meeting the needs of each and every learner without segregation” (Frattura & Capper, 2007, p. 42).

The Rationale

Although it might come as a surprise to some, to make an even stronger case for an inclusive shared vision and mission, we look to the CCSS documents and the broader intentions expressed there. In order to further the goal of all students being college and career ready, “the Standards also lay out a vision of what it means to be a literate person in the twenty-first century” (CCSS ELA, 2010, p. 3).

It is clear that literacy is a common and essential theme that is addressed throughout the Standards. Therefore, we recommend any shared vision include that all learners need to develop literacy skills in the disciplines, and these skills are best afforded when all students have access to mainstream classes. In addition, as part of the school mission, the planning for and instruction of diverse learners in disciplinary literacy must incorporate teachers from curriculum areas of study as well as language, literacy, and special education experts working together to ensure student success.

Guiding the Way

But why do we promote a shared vision and mission? We strongly believe that to truly obtain stakeholder buy in, all members of the school community must have a voice in shaping its vision and mission, particularly when diverse learners are at stake. Moreover, the role of school leaders is to guide the way to provide clarity and support as well as promote balance and commitment (Fullan, 2007). Most crucial is to maintain an active and ongoing collaboration among school leadership, faculty, staff, students, and the greater community so that the school’s mission—the plan of action to carry out its overall vision—can be regularly reviewed and revised when necessary (Frattura & Capper, 2007).

Supporting Individual Learners

In light of the rigor that the Common Core contributes to instruction, all members of the school community must not lose sight that “it is the purpose of schools to bring all students to their full potential and to a level of education that was once reserved for the very few” (DuFour & Eaker, 1998, p. 61). It is without question that all stakeholders have a vested interest in providing instruction that meets the needs of individual learners, and any shared vision or mission to instruct diverse learners either stated or otherwise assures “curriculum, instruction, and assessment techniques that acknowledge their individual differences while supporting their need to belong” (Frattura & Capper, 2007, p. 44). The idea of tailoring instruction to meet the needs of individual learners is further supported by the CCSS for English language arts that states

The Standards do not mandate such things as a particular writing process or the full range of metacognitive strategies that students may need to monitor and direct their thinking and learning. Teachers are thus free to provide students with whatever tools and knowledge their professional judgment and experience identify as most helpful for meeting the goals set out in the Standards. (p. 7)

In other words, we must be diligent in forming a vision and mission for the not-so-common learner that recognizes both the intentions and limitations of the Standards in that they identify expectations for what students should know and do but “not how teachers should teach” (p. 4).

The Evidence

Researchers have identified the importance of a clear vision and mission that are the basis for specific goals, expectations, and plans for how to bring about school improvement (Bolman & Deal, 2003; Cotton, 2000; Levine & Lezotte, 1990). DuFour and Eaker (1998) investigated the value of a shared vision and noted “the lack of a compelling vision for public schools continues to be a major obstacle in any effort to improve schools” (p. 64). More specifically, the clarity and direction provided by a collaborative vision and mission are the basic building blocks for school reform.

A Collaboratively Developed Vision

In an investigation by the Southern Regional Education Board (2010) as to the building leaders’ role in turning around failing high schools, the findings revealed that it is vital for building leaders together with faculty to develop a vision that focuses students for career goals in the 21st century. With a clear vision, so...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Acknowledgements
• Half Title
• Acknowledgements
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• About the Authors
• 1 A Shared and Inclusive Vision and Mission
• 2 Schoolwide Disciplinary Literacy
• 3 The Mapping and Alignment of an Integrated Curriculum
• 4 Collaborative Planning, Instruction, and Assessment
• 5 Teaching Students Explicit Learning Strategies
• 6 Student Engagement
• Final Thoughts
• Appendix Essential Toolkit
• References
• Index
• Publisher Note