A combination of teacher resignations, lack of newly certified teachers entering the workforce, and uniformed public policies to staff America’s schools, which lower the requirement to enter the teacher profession, serve as big threats to the improvement and longevity of the public school system. The teacher shortage is real and serves as an immediate threat to school quality (Muhammad, p 53).
Our school was faced with some real challenges in the spring of 2020 when COVID-19 hit the United States. In 2021/2022, we had half of our students in school and half of our students at home on their computers. The following school year, 2022/2023, we could not find qualified staff to fill core teaching positions. We averaged 0-1 candidates for each open position that we had for our school. The problem was compounded when we moved our school to a new building 20 miles from the previous location. A few staff members were not able to continue working at that location. The other challenge we were facing was the number of staff members sick on a daily basis and unable to work.
What is the High Reliability Schools (HRS) framework and how does it help school leaders?
To address the challenges of teacher retention, including classroom coverage by substitutes, staff absences, and limited hiring options, we turned to the High Reliability Schools (HRS) framework to better support all students. The HRS framework is intended to serve as a guide for school leaders as they engage in short and long term school improvement planning. The model is focused clearly on school improvement through research-based practices. In order to know what to work on and to measure their success at each level, school leaders need ways to assess their school’s current status, gauge their progress through each level, and confirm successful achievement of each level.
Leading indicators versus lagging indicators and why it matters
Leading and lagging indicators are useful tools to support the school improvement process. Leading indicators are important conditions that are known to be associated with school improvement. Lagging indicators are the data and/or artifacts of practice that leaders should use to continually monitor leading indicators in their schools.
Our school is currently an HRS Level 4 school. We planned to revise our school improvement plan by using the HRS leading indicators, more specifically, the leading indicators below:
Level 1: Safe, Supportive, and Collaborative Culture
- 1.4- Teacher teams and collaborative groups regularly interact to address common issues regarding curriculum, assessment, instruction, and the achievement of all students.
- 1.8 The school manages its fiscal, operational, and technological resources in a way that directly supports teachers.
Level 2: Effective Teaching in Every Classroom
- 2.1 The school communicates a clear vision as to how teachers should address instruction.
Level 3: Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum
- 3.6- The school establishes appropriate school and classroom level programs and practices to help students meet individual achievement goals when data indicate interventions are needed.
Level 4: Standards-Referenced Reporting
- 4.2 The school analyzes, interprets, and uses data to regularly monitor progress toward achievement goals for individual students.
Our school focuses on student learning using the Professional Learning Communities at Work® (PLC at Work®) process. Our teachers collaborate in teams in order to focus on planning, various types of assessment in education, data actions, and improving classroom instruction. Before the pandemic, we were fortunate that we were able to use our resources to support multiple associate instructor positions. An associate instructor is an educator with a college degree who can support the teacher, students, and classes. Additionally, we utilized ESSR funds to create a college leadership program, allowing college students to work in our school and support classroom management plans. Lastly, we were able to hire additional building subs to support in classrooms. All of our support staff received training by me, utilizing the practice of the New Art and Science of Teaching.
Staff Shortages: How to tackle learning challenges with 2 action steps
Our two action steps that we used to help all students learn with the staff shortage, staff retention challenges, and staff absences that align with the HRS Leading Indicators were the following:
- Learning Blocks: Learning blocks are cycles of planning, teaching, and assessing, and using the results to take action. They are blocks of time in which teachers collaborate to discuss and select priority standards, unwrap the priority standards into learning targets, create learning scales, discuss and create success criteria, create and administer common formative assessments (pre, mid, and post block), and analyze the data to take action. We are not waiting to provide evidence to see if students are or are not learning. We are assessing, collaborating, and taking action to support students. The steps in the learning block process ensure all students are learning at high levels and result in a guaranteed and viable curriculum that promotes an equitable environment by ensuring all students have access to the core curriculum.
- College Prep: College Prep is a 45 minute time block during the day that is created to give students more time and support, foundational support, enrichment, extension, behavioral support, and time for special education and other services. The teachers create individual plans for all students for every day of the week based on their data. Students who need SPED support should not be pulled from core instruction. Students who do not have access to core, grade-level instruction will never reach grade level standards. The focus of the time during college prep is extra support to help students master the grade level priority standards discussed and selected by teams. All students, in an equitable environment, must have access to Tier I instruction focused on the priority standards. Our students come from various towns and have different learning levels. We must find ways to help them reach grade-level priority standards without pulling them from core instruction. At the same time, we need to enrich and extend the learning for those who have already mastered these standards.
In the face of staff shortages and retention challenges, implementing structured learning blocks and dedicated college prep time has been crucial for supporting diverse learners in the classroom. Leveraging the HRS Leading Indicators has strengthened our school improvement efforts, keeping focused collaboration and strategic instruction at the heart of our approach. This commitment to using the HRS framework has overall empowered student success, no matter the learning challenges we face.
Resources:
Marzano, R. Warrick, P. Acosta, M. (2024). 5 big ideas for leading a high reliability school. Bloomington, IN. Solution Tree Press.
Muhammad, A. (2024). The way forward: PLC at work and the bright future of education. Bloomington, IN. Solution Tree Press.
Bo Ryan
Bo Ryan is principal of the Ana Grace Academy of the Arts Elementary Magnet School in Bloomfield, Connecticut. He is passionate about building and sustaining professional learning communities (PLCs) and has led two different schools to Model PLC at Work® certification.