Michigan School Improvement Framework Strands

Strand I: Teaching for Learning

The Teaching for Learning Strand of the Michigan School Improvement Framework captures the heart of No Child Left Behind. The standards and benchmarks within this strand clarify that all students will learn and have equal access to the curriculum. Strand I is composed of three far-reaching standards: Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment.

The characteristics of an effective and aligned curriculum are outlined under the first standard: Curriculum. Having a clearly defined and communicated curriculum is a key theme. Aligning the school’s curriculum with state expectations is imperative for student success. Reviewing, revising, and monitoring the school districts’ curriculum to ensure alignment and implementation are also emphasized throughout the standards and benchmarks.

Effective research-based teaching practices are outlined under the second standard: Instruction. High levels of student learning are reflected in planning practices that are appropriate in content, context, developmental levels, as well as application to the individual needs of each student. Instructional delivery should engage students, reflect best practice, and always align with the curriculum.

The components of effective assessment practices during instruction are outlined in the third standard: Assessment. Although use of a state assessment is essential to measure student growth, solid assessment practices in a school should encompass much more than one big snapshot. Continuous formative assessment that informs instructional practices is an essential component to an effective school improvement process. Schools must align the multiple measures they use with the schools’ curriculum. In order to assist teachers as they instruct students, the measures must be reliable and reflect individual student needs.

The Teaching for Learning Strand is the foundation of school/district improvement efforts. All other strands of the Michigan School Improvement Framework point to and support this strand.

Strand II—Leadership

Leadership is an effective component of successful schools. Effective school leaders create and sustain a school environment where everyone contributes to a cumulative, purposeful, and positive affect on student learning. Research data demonstrate a substantial relationship between leadership and student achievement.

The primary aspects of the relationship between leadership and student achievement are contained in the three standards, six benchmarks, and 30 sample discussion questions that make up Strand II—Leadership—of the Michigan School Improvement Framework.

“Distributed leadership” is a primary emphasis of Strand II. Distributed leadership means shared decision making where teachers are part of the school’s governance and/or assume leadership roles. Distributed leadership can take the form of school improvement teams, learning communities, grade-level teams, content-area teams, strategic-planning teams, work groups, or any other collaboration. Three standards of Strand II include Instructional Leadership, Shared Leadership, and Operational/Resource Management.

Schools across the state can use the information in Strand II to promote inquiry-based dialogue about components of effective leadership. Resources listed in the Framework can then serve as tools for schools to dig deeper as they improve the structure and function of leadership within schools.

Strand III: Personnel & Professional Learning

“Good teachers form the foundation of good schools, and improving teachers’ skills and knowledge is one of the most important investments of time and money that local, state, and national leaders make in education” (American Educational Research Association, Summer 2005). As suggested in the above quote, personnel and professional learning is critical to the school improvement process. School personnel need to be engaged and supported in environments where the focus is on improving one’s practice for the purpose of increasing student achievement. Recent research and promising practice indicate that the most promising strategy for sustained, substantive school improvement is building the capacity of school personnel to function as a professional learning community (Milbrey McLaughlin, Phi Delta Kappan, February 2004).

The Michigan School Improvement Framework’s Strand III: Personnel and Professional Learning expands on this notion to include improving skills and knowledge of ALL school and district staff. The strand includes two standards: Personnel Qualifications and Professional Learning. Schools and districts can use the Strand III standards, along with the subsequent benchmarks, key characteristics, and sample discussion questions, to guide and challenge local practice as personnel work toward creating a results-driven and aligned system based on best practice.

Strand III works interdependently with the other four Strands within the Michigan School Improvement Framework. The shared leadership within a school (Strand II) supports the focus on teaching and learning and continuous improvement (Strand I) and allocates the necessary resources for effective personnel and professional learning to take place. Using data (Strand V) for analysis of student work, along with making data-based decisions about the personnel and professional learning needed and measuring its effectiveness, is at the center of the school improvement process. Engaging families and the community (Strand IV) in understanding the personnel and professional learning focus to support students, as well as encouraging their participation in this effort, provides a critical link to student success.

Strand III: Personnel and Professional Learning promotes life-long learning in support of student achievement. It serves a vital role in a system approach to school improvement.

Benchmarks and sample questions in this strand provide guidelines for how schools can become professional communities of life-long learners.

Strand IV: School/Community Relations

The school/community relationship is a critical component of school improvement. The school and community interaction impacts students in their conversations at home, throughout their daily classroom activities, and during their after-school activities. The strength of the cooperation between schools and their communities builds the foundation and maintains support for quality educational programming. This school and community link is a proven catalyst for continued improvement. The outcome of the single, supportive community approach is a learning environment supported by the curriculum, communication, and culture of the district through the efforts of students, teachers, parents, community members, and peers.

Strand IV: School/Community Relations maintains that schools should have purposeful, active, positive relationships with the families of students and their community to support student learning. Two correlated standards make this strand powerful: Parent and Family Involvement and Community Involvement. Both types of involvement require multi-faceted communication, engagement, and commitment to support the process and participate in decision-making.

Schools are often microcosms of the communities that surround them—educationally, economically, racially, and politically. It is this fact, as well as years of substantive research about the positive impact of family and community support on education, that makes this strand of the school improvement mission so essential.

Strand V: Data & Information Management

Strand V of the Michigan School Improvement Framework outlines key ideas concerning the management of a school’s, district’s, or teacher’s data and information needed to support the other four strands of the Michigan School Improvement Framework. Two standards, Data Management and Information Management, are included under this strand. The long-term storage and organization of data are essential to its value. Data/information resources must be stored and organized in ways that allow others to access them when and where needed and in ways that directly support and enhance their work. It also means continuously examining data systems in order to improve them. This is not an unfamiliar concept to most school districts where systems are in place to collect, store, retrieve, report, and analyze data about finances, personnel, and students.

To learn more about the benchmarks, key characteristics, and sample discussion questions for the standards of Data and Information Management, visit www.michigan.gov/schoolimprovement and download a copy of the Michigan School Improvement Framework.

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