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Student Learning

June, 2007

At the core of the educational mission of school districts is improving student learning (definition) resulting in improved student achievement. The recent focus on accountability through State and Federal reform has placed significant emphasis on the outcomes of the educational process. While Alameda Unified School District is committed to excellent and equitable educational outcomes, Superintendent Ardella Dailey's vision also calls for improving teacher practice to improve student learning and critical thinking.

Superintendent Dailey believes that Quality Teaching and Learning, Clear and Collaborative Relationship and Support for Systemwide Improvement with a focus on student learning and dynamic and distributed leadership will lead to sustained improvement over time:

  1. Quality Teaching and Learning
    • High Expectations and Accountability of Adults
    • Coordinated and Aligned Curriculum and Assessment
    • Coordinated & Embedded Professional Development
  2. Clear and Collaborative Relationships
  3. Support for Systemwide Improvement
    • Effective Use of Data
    • Strategic Use of Resources
    • Policy and Program Coherence

During her tenure as Assistant Superintendent, Superintendent Dailey oversaw the implementation a Cycle of Inguiry (COI) process that was implemented through individual Single School Plans. The purpose of the COI process was to use data to examine the relationship between teacher practice and student achievement. One of the primary area of study for school sites was literacy and its impact on student learning. Based on work at the middle and high schools, adolescent literacy has been identified as an area of high leverage that can impact student learning for all students. After implementation at Encinal High School in 2006-07, the Strategic Instruction Model (SIM) was choosen as a major program to address adolescent literacy.

The National School Boards Association prepared a paper The Next Chapter: A School Board Guide to Adolescent Literacy. In the paper there are eight strategies for helping school districts focus on adolescent literacy:

  1. Identifying students’ literacy needs
  2. Making adolescent literacy a district-wide priority
  3. Extending time for literacy
  4. Providing effective professional development to help teachers deliver literacy instruction across the curriculum
  5. Finding and supporting literacy leaders
  6. Aligning the district’s resources to support scientifically proven literacy programs for both high achievers and low achievers
  7. Evaluating programs and assessing performance continuously
  8. Developing community support for literacy from pre-K through 12th grade

Adolescent Literacy

In middle and high school, students encounter academic discourses and disciplinary concepts in such fields as science, mathematics, and the social sciences that require different reading approaches from those used with more familiar forms such as literary and personal narratives. These new forms, purposes, and processing demands require that teachers show, demonstrate, and make visible to students how literacy operates within the academic disciplines.

Adolescents are already reading in multiple ways when they enter secondary classrooms, using literacy as a social and political endeavor in which they engage to make meaning and act upon their worlds. Their texts range from clothing logos to music to specialty magazines to Web sites to popular and classical literature. In the classroom it is important for teachers to recognize and value the multiple literacy resources students bring to the acquisition of school literacy.

A Call to Action: What We Know About Adolescent Literacy and Ways to Support Teachers in Meeting Students’ Needs

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Last modified: June, 2007

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