School improvement, which is about higher test scores, focuses on teachers…. Ensuring that quality teachers (defined by the amount of training they’ve had and then their student’s test scores) are in every classroom.

There hasn’t been one word uttered about quality work environments, quality school and district administration, or quality state policy makers.

It’s logical to think about teachers if you want to improve student test scores… after all they are teaching our students. We should make them accountable for student achievement and if students aren’t achieving then (obviously) teachers need to improve their teaching skills and expand their knowledge of pedagogy, right?

Yes and No.

Yes, teachers should be accountable for their teaching and no, we can’t assume that student achievement and school improvement will be accomplished by arbitrarily deciding that all teachers in contact with students with low tests scores require additional training.

As a teacher, it’s difficult to understand how my attendance at another literacy professional development training (which I felt very strong in) would enhance my student’s ability to read when, in my classroom of twenty students I had:

I know that when I think of school improvement and improving student achievement, I think of attentive students, sitting at their desks, looking at their teachers, pencils poised, paper in front of them, alert and ready.

How about you, is this the picture you envision?

When I have that picture in mind, I also picture school improvement as a linear, cause and effect process that will occur with good planning and researched teaching methodologies.

When was the last time you were in the office of (any) school fifteen minutes before school began?

Yesterday, I was on the campus of a middle school (with about 700 students) to continue discussing school improvement plans for their site. The front office looked like a hospital emergency room sans the blood.

There were students with multiple emergencies; crying students, parents, a grand parent, school security, the school secretary, a few teachers, two school clerks, the head counselor, walkie-talkies (blaring), a partridge and a pear tree.

I want to share this experience with you because the scene that I witnessed yesterday is typical (in fact the school secretary told me, and I quote, “You should see it on a busy day.”) of the types of problems and issues encountered on school-sites when they’re in the throws of enhancing their students’ achievement.

What did I observe in fifteen minutes?

One student left her cell phone on the bus and needed it to call her mom to, let her know how much money she needed to go on a field trip TODAY (the money was due last week). Mom didn’t have any money this morning and was going to try and borrow it from her grandmother (who was sleeping). The student couldn’t remember how much money she needed to have, so as soon as she found out how much money was needed she was going to call her mom, so mom could try and borrow it from her grandma, and if she could, then mom would bring the money to school so she could go on the field trip.

Are you with me?

School Improvement requires a new consciousness. An elderly learned educator told me a few years ago that since all of us have experienced the educational system we think we know and understand it and its and problems… and can solve them. Most of these same people have no real experience in a court room, ER or as a CPA and therefore do not feel that same familiarity with the profession or its problems and do not attempt to solve them collectively on a grand-scale.

What is the new consciousness needed for school improvement?

We need to talk to our teachers and school administration staff. We need to know what their day-to-day needs are to do their job – to serve our students. Each person involved in the day-to-day process of operating our schools, from the school Student Record’s Clerk to the Gym Coach, need to be considered, consulted and consulted on an ongoing basis.

School improvement does not take place in the offices of our state legislators, through university research studies or federal mandates. We need to begin our school improvement process on the campus of each individual school, talking to the staff and forming our improvement plans from their collective needs.

The Link to Teachers' Success...

Dr. Kathleen Salzano, Ed.D.

The new consciousness required for school improvement needs to look at each individual school-site, their staff members’ needs and begin the school improvement process from there. And what site-staff members say needs to be considered important, considered in the process of school improvement (on an ongoing basis), and addressed as it serves the collective. This doesn’t mean that each school-site staff members individual needs will be addressed or addressed to their (complete) satisfaction but, it does mean that they will be heard and if the planned school improvement ends up not meeting their needs they will be able to share that and have their needs re-considered.

When the day-to-day needs of school-site staff are met they then are equipped to address the needs of their students and equipped to launch a school improvement plan that enhances and maximizes student achievement.

Are you having a difficult time thinking of what type of day-to-day school staff needs aren’t being addressed or met that could be addressed with a new consciousness?

I’ll give you an example (there are many!): receiving phone calls in the middle of teaching.

There’s conversation in education about closing the achievement between students from low-income families and students that aren’t. This conversation is admirable and long overdue. It’s a conversation that acknowledges that our educators and school systems aren’t responsible for everything that’s wrong with the diminishing student achievement in public education.

What does this conversation about closing the achievement gap between students of low-income families and those from high-income families have to do with school improvement?

In 2003-04, one-half of the 48,540,000 students enrolled in U.S. public schools attended school daily in only 6% (852) of our 14,205 school districts. This fact blows my mind every time I think about it. I’m sure you realize that these mega-school-districts are located in large urban cities and face daily problems never imagined fifty years ago.

Day-to-day professional support(s) offered to teachers across the U.S. have changed little over the years. School standards have not been established to guarantee that they even receive a minimal amount of site-specific information (support) so that they can focus on their teaching and student learning. We have grown these mega-school-districts and expect both our educators and students to achieve with supports in place and in use when I was in elementary school (we’re talking a long time ago).

School improvement (which translates into enhanced student achievement) needs to focus on the needs of the people who have the calling and responsibility of educating our children - in this century. School standards that support teachers and school-site administrators need to be in place before we’ll see any beginnings of (real) school improvement of any scale.

The Link to Teachers' Success...

Dr. Kathleen Salzano, Ed.D.

The Alliance for Excellent Education reported in August, 2005 that the cost of teachers leaving the profession is $2.2 billion a year. If you add the costs replacing public school teachers that transfer schools, the cost soars to $4.9 billion each year. This is an accounting of the actual dollars spent. The costs to our students (in their achievement as a result of losing the value of an experienced teacher) pushes these figures through the roof.

Researchers and educators alike are coming to the consensus that student performance is determined mainly by the quality of their teachers. If experienced teachers are leaving the profession because of their poor working environments (which 60% quote as the reason they left) then… doesn’t it follow that we need to funnel our (scarce) financial resources into serving their needs?

We have all of the money we need for school improvement. We can enhance student achievement by keeping our teachers in the profession and we can keep them in the profession if we improve their working environment – if we create school standards to serve our dedicated professionals.

The Link to Teachers' Success...

Dr. Kathleen Salzano, Ed.D.

Recently, and regrettably, I’m reading more and more about school principals, their role, and (apparent) inability to ensure that our schools achieve and sustain school improvement.

How are our school principals failing us?

First, there a