LM Sept. 2018

Framework ... cont’d.

Dr. Lori James-Gross, superintendent of Unity Point CCSD #140, co-authored this article with Schmidt. But first, here’s some background on the Quality Framework.

in order to gather all of the evidence needed to determine the first steps. We believed it would be very difficult for a team comprised only of school-based people to deeply and accurately self-assess particular indicators, let alone determine current levels of performance. For example, indicators in Standard IV, Governance, Management and Operations, frequently refer to work that the superintendent and board of education do together or collaborate on. An exemplary level of performance on Indicator C of Standard IV states that “evidence suggests that the school board and superintendent frequently work together and communicate frequently to monitor the implementation of a systematic continuous improvement process.” Artifacts and evidence gathered to help determine current reality were items that building level leaders and participants may, or more likely may not, be aware of or have access to depending on the culture and size of the school district. Some examples of artifacts provided in this particular process included a Board of Education Benchmarking presentation, a student growth report, the district goal setting and monitoring process from the Board to teacher teams and students, and the annual State of the District Report. District-level input and participation was critical in order to access, understand and provide these items. Participants were identified for each Standard before moving on to the next step. Step2: CreateaMeetingSchedule The next step was to prepare a meeting schedule by Standard, including inviting to each meeting those who were pertinent to the Standard being examined. For example, the Assistant Superintendent for Business Services may need to be present when examining Standard IV (Governance, Management, and Operations) but not when focusing on Standard I (Continuous Improvement). Two meetings were scheduled for each standard and standards were combined for some meetings if the participants were the same. The two rounds of meetings were scheduled four weeks apart given the timeframe of the pilot. One final meeting that included the entire group was then scheduled in order to finalize and summarize our work. Step3: IdentifyEvidence The Quality Framework was downloaded into Google Docs and a column was added to the document at the far-right hand side. This column was titled “Evidence/Data.” (see Figure 1) The first meeting focused on two standards that included the same participants. Participants first examined the “Purpose Setting Questions” to gain clarity on what the standard was

Also, check out this resource from ISBE . What is theQualityFramework?

The Framework, along with its associated rubric, was developed by the Illinois Balanced Accountability Model committee, who recognized that the most critical purpose of educational systems is to continuously drive and create improvement so that ALL learners can succeed. The Framework provides schools across Illinois with a common language for school improvement. The components and associated rubric allow school leaders to focus on best practices that will have a positive impact on their school environments. It includes seven standards, along with purpose-setting questions and indicators, to determine if schools are meeting benchmarks. The indicators are: I Continuous Improvement

II Culture and Climate III Shared Leadership IV Governance, Management and Operations V Educator and Employee Quality VI Family and Community Engagement VII Student and Learning Development

Simply put, the Quality Framework is a student-improvement plan that school districts can use to effectively develop a systems approach to monitoring, measuring and improving the changing conditions that impact student performance.

By Julie Schmidt Superintendent, Kildeer Countryside CCSD #96 and Dr. Lori James-Gross Superintendent of Unity Point CCSD #140 During the 2017–18 school year, Kildeer Countryside CCSD #96 implemented the Quality Framework. Here’s a step-by- step account look at how Kildeer launched this initiative. Step1: IdentifyParticipants We began our process by examining each Standard and Indicator to determine who needed to be around the table

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