As many of you know one of the driving forces in my life is the “learning for all mission”. Our adaptation is “All means All”.
Informing the learning for all mission are the correlates of effective schools. These correlates or factors emerged from the school effects research.
What will soon be four decades of research, the correlates continue to be validated for import and utility in classrooms, schools, and school systems in America as well as internationally.
In a recent conversation with Dr. Larry Lezotte, an original researcher of the school effects findings, we discussed how the learning for all mission dominated or drove much of the effort to improve schools in the beginning. The correlates were secondary to the mindset, belief, and commitment to learning for all.
As we discussed, I shared that I believed the correlates are presently the driver. It has become almost pithy or trite to use learning for all as the impetus for improvement. My thinking is not that the learning for all mission is not important. Rather, the correlates bring to life or complete the picture of what a classroom, school, or school system looks like that lives the learning for all mission.
More often or not, the correlates are condensed or abbreviated to a term intended to describe or characterize the construct. However, when you read the actual description, you get the sense of something much deeper, enduring, powerful – a picture of possibilities – a vision.
Consider the following excerpt from Dr. Lezotte’s Correlates of Effective Schools: The First and Second Generation (1991)
“In the effective school there is a climate of expectation in which the staff believe and demonstrate that all students can attain mastery of the essential school skills, and the staff also believe that they have the capability to help all students achieve that mastery.”
“In the effective school there is an orderly, purposeful, businesslike atmosphere which is free from the threat of physical harm. The school climate is not oppressive and is conducive to teaching and learning.”
“In the effective school the principal acts as an instructional leader and effectively and persistently communicates that mission to the staff, parents, and students. The principal understands and applies the characteristics of instructional effectiveness in the management of the instructional program.”
“In the effective school there is a clearly articulated school mission through which the staff shares an understanding of and commitment to the instructional goals, priorities, assessment procedures and accountability. Staff accept responsibility for students’ learning of the school’s essential curricular goals.”
“In the effective school teachers allocate a significant amount of classroom time to instruction in the essential skills. For a high percentage of this time students are engaged in whole class or large group, teacher-directed, planned learning activities.”
“In the effective school student academic progress is measured frequently through a variety of assessment procedures. The results of these assessments are used to improve individual student performance and also to improve the instructional program.”
“In the effective school parents understand and support the school’s basic mission and are given the opportunity to play an important role in helping the school to achieve this mission.”
Can you see it?
Moreover can you commit to it?
What remains amazing to me is that this picture was and continues to be made real in schools throughout the world. So, why not here?
The correlates were not a fad, not something you did, or a movement from the past. No – the correlates are real, important, and necessary to our work today just as they were to those who were committed to ensuring that each learner met or exceeded the standards of that era.
Let me be clear, I am not dismissing the importance of the learning for all mission. In fact, the only way to achieve the learning for all mission is to embrace, employ relentlessly those beliefs, behaviors, and practices that result in the correlates consistently and constantly present and practiced.
Yes, the learning for all mission is a driving force in the work to transform our system. The correlates provide the picture, the vision of what the “all means all” mission looks like, feels like and sounds like.
Our students, staff, parents, and community deserve effective schools – our work, our commitment is to make that happen.