Research and Resources

Illinois Academic Improvement Research Project Mission Possible: Achieving and Maintaining Academic Improvement

by Dr. Penny Billman, Northern Illinois University

Northern Illinois University surveyed principals at schools that won Academic Improvement and Spotlight Schools awards in 2003-4 to determine key factors in their exemplary improvement. Information about strategies for raising academic achievement, as collected in the survey, are reported in this document.

The following questions were asked of principals:

1. What changes in curricula did you make, if any, to improve learning?
2. What changes in instructional methods did you make, if any?
3. How have you supported teachers; i.e. helped them learn what they needed to know in order to improve achievement?
4. What strategies did you use to improve achievement by student subgroups?
5. What specific steps did you take to involve parents and the community in improving your school?
6. Did you partner with agencies or groups outside of the school to take care of non-educational needs (clothing, glasses, dental care, health care, etc.)?
7. How did you prioritize the steps to take? How did you make those decisions?
8. If you were giving advice to another principal trying to significantly improve student performance, what’s the one thing you would recommend most highly?
9. If you were starting over in trying to raise student achievement, what would you do differently?
10. What leadership skills have been needed to bring success at your school?
11. Which of these potential resources for assistance were important to you: State Board of Education, Regional Office of Education, colleges or universities, professional groups?
12. Did any specific programs or funds provide flexibility to help support change? Conversely, did an increase in student achievement cause your school to lose special funds for low-performing schools?

Closing Illinois'Achievement Gap:Lessons from the 'Golden Spike' High Poverty High Performing Schools, Glenn W. McGee, Senior Rresearch Fellow at Northern Illinois University Center for Governmental Studies.

The Achievement Gap

The Illinois Interactive Report Card at http://iirc.niu.edu contains tables showing disaggregated scores for all groups required by NCLB (plus gender) in all Illinois schools.

Closing Illinois'Achievement Gap:Lessons from the 'Golden Spike' High Poverty High Performing Schools, Glenn W. McGee, Senior Rresearch Fellow at Northern Illinois University Center for Governmental Studies.

The Achievement Gap

The Illinois Interactive Report Card at http://iirc.niu.edu contains tables showing disaggregated scores for all groups required by NCLB (plus gender) in all Illinois schools.

The August 2003 presentation by Illinois State Superintendent Robert E. Schiller summarizes academic performance and the achievement gap on pages 6-9. http://www.isbe.net/board/meetings/aug03meeting/082003_
isbe_board_packet.pdf

Tables displaying the 2003 Illinois achievement gaps in all subject areas at all grades tested
http://www.isbe.net/news/2003/isat_charts.pdf

News releases on the Illinois achievement gap http://www.isbe.net/news/2003/jul23-03.htm

Paul Ruiz, Education Trust, “P-20 101” includes excellent slides about the achievement gap.

“What New ‘AYP’ Data Tells Us About Schools States and Public Education.” See also the “Zap the Gap” tables.
http://www.edtrust.org

The Education Watch State Summary contains comprehensive, state-by-state Achievement Gap tables.
http://www2.edtrust.org/EdTrust/states.html

Education Commission of the States provides information about what various states are doing to close the achievement gap and links to extensive resources on the topic. Go to Education Issues, “Closing the Achievement Gap.”
http://www.ecs.org

The National Governors’ Association Center for Best Practices offers a policy paper on closing the achievement gap at http://www.subnet.nga.org/educlear/achievement/index.html