Transforming Sanchez School: Shared Leadership, Equity, and Evidence
Isola Ed.D., Raymond R.,Cummins Ph.D., Jim
ISBN 10: 1934000418 ISBN 13: 9781934000410
Published by Brookes Publishing, 2019
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Synopsis:
This book is the result of a 20-year collaboration between a school principal (Raymond R. Isola) and an educational researcher (Jim Cummins). Together, they document how the Sanchez Elementary School successfully implemented evidence-based instruction to transform the learning experiences of students from a low-income and linguistically diverse community in the Mission District of San Francisco.
The Sanchez School story shows the positive impact of using shared leadership and the results-oriented cycle of inquiry to implement school-based policies designed to activate students’ talents and intellectual power within the classroom. Over the course of 13 years, from 1999 to 2012, test scores improved dramatically. The school’s average annual academic growth was more than 20 points, much more than the 11-point average growth for elementary schools in California.
When Dr. Isola became principal, the school was performing in the lowest quartile of California’s Academic Performance Index. Contrary to top-down formulaic approaches, Principal Isola used a horizontal leadership system that engaged all stakeholders—including teachers, paraprofessionals, administrators, parents, community members, businesses leaders, and students themselves—in the project of improving student learning and school reform.
Key focus areas of the transformation process:
By sharing the experience of the Sanchez School, the authors hope to open dialogue between administrators and staff and encourage reflection on their own school’s improvement strategies. Readers will be inspired to see the possibilities for linguistically and culturally diverse students from low-income communities; current notions will be challenged and guidance offered for important changes that will renew readers’ schools. Core principles of the Sanchez renewal experience:
The Sanchez School story shows the positive impact of using shared leadership and the results-oriented cycle of inquiry to implement school-based policies designed to activate students’ talents and intellectual power within the classroom. Over the course of 13 years, from 1999 to 2012, test scores improved dramatically. The school’s average annual academic growth was more than 20 points, much more than the 11-point average growth for elementary schools in California.
When Dr. Isola became principal, the school was performing in the lowest quartile of California’s Academic Performance Index. Contrary to top-down formulaic approaches, Principal Isola used a horizontal leadership system that engaged all stakeholders—including teachers, paraprofessionals, administrators, parents, community members, businesses leaders, and students themselves—in the project of improving student learning and school reform.
Key focus areas of the transformation process:
- Development of dynamic learning communities that relate empirical research of what works for diverse students, schools, and communities to the concrete challenges faced at Sanchez School
- Shared leadership and results-oriented cycle of inquiry to build capacity for effective learning across generations within the school community
- Multi-dimensional roles of the school principal, including instructional leader, resource manager, social architect of learning, and community organizer/activist
- Evidence collection, including student achievement data, performance-based assessments, teacher leadership development, paraprofessional career ladder, and parent education and activism
By sharing the experience of the Sanchez School, the authors hope to open dialogue between administrators and staff and encourage reflection on their own school’s improvement strategies. Readers will be inspired to see the possibilities for linguistically and culturally diverse students from low-income communities; current notions will be challenged and guidance offered for important changes that will renew readers’ schools. Core principles of the Sanchez renewal experience:
- Build relationships of trust and respect among administrators, teachers, paraprofessionals, students, and parents.
- Develop shared leadership structures and processes that offer opportunities for all staff to grow professionally and share in the responsibility for promoting student achievement.
- Implement instruction that connects to students’ lives, respects their multilingual talents and cultural knowledge, and enables them to use multiple modes of representation (e.g., language, music, visual art) to express and expand their identities.
- Support strong parental and community engagement in the shared enterprise of educating children.
- Focus on students’ physical, emotional, and social well-being in order to remove potential impediments to learning.
- Provide preschool that generates curiosity, habits of inquiry, and literacy engagement.
- Use curriculum-focused assessment that monitors students’ academic growth as a means of informing instruction and, when necessary, intervention.
- Structure the school grounds as educational resources that enhance students’ socioemotional wellness, physical fitness, nutritional awareness, and overall environmental literacy.
About the Authors:
Raymond R. Isola, Ed.D.,has been a bilingual teacher and principal in public schools for 35 years: from preschool to university, and in rural, suburban, and urban settings. He has international education experience in México, Guatemala, Canada, and Italy, and received the Golden Bell Award for Excellence in Education from The California School Board Association. In June 2012, he completed a 13-year tenure as principal of Sanchez Elementary School in the Mission District of San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD). During his tenure with SFUSD, he was an active member of the United Administrators of San Francisco (UASF), serving on the Executive Board as Treasurer and on the Negotiations Team. UASF is the official union organization charged with ensuring the equitable treatment and professional well-being of its members by working to promote employment conditions that enable supervisory administrators to operate effectively. He is currently working as Program Director for Green Schoolyards America Principals’ Institute to support California school administrators in their pivotal role as leaders of their school community and champions of a healthy and dynamic school environment.
Jim Cummins, Ph.D., is a Professor Emeritus at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto. His research focuses on literacy development in educational contexts characterized by linguistic diversity. In numerous articles and books, he has explored the nature of language proficiency and its relationship to literacy development with particular emphasis on the intersections of societal power relations, teacher-student identity negotiation, and literacy attainment. He has been awarded four honorary doctorates from universities in Greece, Norway, and the United States.
Jim Cummins PhD, Professor Emeritus at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto
Raymond R. Isola EdD, former principal of Sanchez School
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Bibliographic Details
Title: Transforming Sanchez School: Shared ...
Publisher: Brookes Publishing
Publication Date: 2019
Binding: paperback
Condition: Very Good