Participating States and Regional Centers Alaska Alaska Comprehensive

Participating States and Regional Centers Alaska, Alaska Comprehensive Center Arkansas, Mid-Continent Comprehensive Center Idaho, Northwest Comprehensive Center Illinois, Great Lakes West Comprehensive Center Louisiana, Southeast Comprehensive Center Michigan, Great Lakes East Comprehensive Center Montana, Northwest Comprehensive Center Oklahoma, Mid-Continent Comprehensive Center Virginia, Appalachia Regional Comprehensive

Pacesetter Code A pacesetter traces every action to its impact on a student in a classroom, acts with courage, proceeds with urgency, focuses on essentials, accepts no excuses, embraces candor, builds webs of trust, and holds adults to high standards of performance.

Core Principles of the Academy of Pacesetting States 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Student learning* is the beginning point in designing and providing a statewide system of support. The instructional core of teacher, student, and content is the Golden Grail of student learning and school improvement. The school culture of candor, quality, collegiality, and productivity supports the instructional core. The principal is the key to advancing a school culture of candor, quality, collegiality, and productivity. The district provides a framework of support and expectation for continuous school improvement.

Core Principles of the Academy of Pacesetting States (cont. ) 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Incentives, opportunity, and capacity building are the levers of change applied by a statewide system of support. Leadership, change agency, and instructional expertise are coherently utilized in a statewide system of support. Change requires courage, leadership, and relentless pursuit of high levels of performance by adults. Indicators of effective practice, candidly assessed, planned, and monitored, provide guideposts for continuous improvement. Human capital, trust, and mutual respect form the necessary foundation for school improvement.

* A student’s learning is influenced most by proximal variables, including: The student’s – 1. prior learning, which teachers have provided; 2. metacognitive skills, which can be taught; 3. motivation to learn and sense of self-efficacy, which a teacher nurtures; 4. effort and time on task, which a teacher expects; 5. interaction—academic and social—with teachers and other students; 6. family’s engagement and support for learning, which a teacher curries. The teacher’s 1. instructional planning and classroom culture; 2. instructional delivery through a variety of modes; 3. personalization of instruction for each student; 4. taught and aligned curriculum, designed by teacher teams.

Objectives of the Academy of Pacesetting States The objectives of the faculty and partners of the Academy of Pacesetting States are to provide: 1. A learning community for state teams from states intent upon leading the way to rapid improvement of districts and schools. 2. Training, consultation, and support to enable states to reach their goals for high quality Statewide Systems of Support that build local capacity to initiate and sustain rapid improvement that brings all classrooms to an optimal level of performance. 3. Training, consultation, and support for state teams to develop skilled experts in three critical areas: System Leaders who administer the Statewide System of Support and coordinate its components (including the people who carry it out); Change Agents who understand not only effective operational practices, but also the dynamics of change in an educational setting; and Instructional Specialists who understand effective classroom instruction and how it can be cultivated in districts and school systems to reach a critical mass of instructional excellence.

Objectives of the Academy of Pacesetting States The objectives of the member states of the Academy of Pacesetting States are to: 1. Take full advantage of the opportunities to share talents and experiences with other states, the Academy faculty and partners. 2. Develop and achieve bold plans of action to: Elevate the effectiveness of the Statewide System of Support; Build local capacity to initiate and sustain rapid improvement that brings all classrooms to an optimal level of performance; Create strong programs of Change Agents and Instructional Specialists to serve as Catalytic Teams to rapidly improve districts and schools in ways that show substantial effects in classroom instruction and student learning.

To Meet the Objectives Member states: 1. Send teams of five for the full week of the summer session; 2. Participate in monthly days of distance learning; 3. Hold monthly conference calls with Academy faculty and their regional centers; and 4. Return for a meeting and advanced training the following summer.

Measures of Success 1. Improvement of Statewide System of Support as indicated by rubrics-based evaluation; 2. Achievement of Plan of Action as approved by the Chief State School Officer; 3. Evidence of impact on classroom instruction, local capacity to initiate and sustain rapid improvement.

Central Themes

Spheres of Influence on the Instructional Core

Theory of Action (Change) 12

The ultimate goal in school improvement is for the people attached to the school to drive its continuous improvement for the sake of their own children and students.

Building Local Capacity Culture of Candor Leadership Effective Teams Collegial Coaching/Learning Open scrutiny of data from both sides of equation What students learn What adults do that affects what students learn Indicators of Effective Practice Guideposts for effective practice Plain language, behavioral indicators Aligned with research base Drivers of planning and improvement Necessary in a Culture of Candor

Catalytic Teams Change Agents and Instructional Specialists serve as Catalytic Teams in a wellcoordinated system of support to rapidly improve districts and schools in ways that show substantial effects in classroom instruction and student learning.

Greeting from Secretary Arne Duncan I am pleased to send greetings to the participants in the Academy of Pacesetting States. President Barack Obama and I believe that preparing young people for success in life is both a moral obligation of society and an economic imperative for our country. Children have only one chance for an education, and the youth who are in school now need a better education today if they are to thrive and succeed tomorrow. That’s why we must continue to emphasize the importance of education to the future of our young people and to our nation’s standing in the world. You will face challenges ahead as States focus on the difficult task of turning around chronically low-performing schools. This academy brings together a dynamic mix of State education leaders, instructional leaders, and change agents to learn what works best in meeting these challenges and how to move forward in implementing crucial changes in the nation’s education system. As we take on these challenges, your efforts can help States meet the educational reform assurances in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The President has written about the unfinished work of perfecting our country that falls to each of us. “It’s a charge we pass on to our children, coming closer with each new generation to what we know America should be. ” The participants in this academy have important work to do. Best wishes for a productive and memorable gathering.