School Improvement Initiative

In the fall of 2001, the Center for Language Minority Education and Research (CLMER) at California State University, Long Beach established its "Schools Improvement Initiative." The goal of the initiative is to assist underperforming schools to satisfy policies and regulations according to state and federal mandates. CLMER's experienced professional reform services provide schools with the needed tools to improve student achievement. Participant schools develop shared leaderships, create sustainable accountability, and raise annual student achievement. The initiative offers the following services:

Comprehensive School Review

The CLMER School Improvement Comprehensive Review service allows the CLMER professional staff to work collaboratively with schools, communities and districts. Through this process, strengths and barriers to student achievement are identified. Activities within the review process include: (1) classroom observations, (2) focus meetings with teachers, students, parents, administrators and outside service providers, and (3) participation in an "Action Plan Writing Team" (APWT) process. Our services meet all state and federal mandates including:

• High Priority School Grant (HPSG) or Immediate Intervention Underperforming School Program (IIUSP)
• Title Program Improvement Schools
• No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Mandates as related to Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)

The results of the Comprehensive School Review process include the following:

• A data-driven Report of Findings
• A focused Action Plan for improving student achievement
• Support and guidance on Action Plan implementation
• On-going support and coaching of promising instructional practices for the classroom

CLMER Education Walks

The CLMER Education Walks is an effective practice that facilitates communication and collaboration among teaches, administrators and community members. Together participants identify and validate successful instructional strategies. They also determine instructional areas that need to be modified or strengthened. Participants schools work collaboratively with our CLMER staff to implement Education Walks on a monthly basis.

The CLMER Education Walks process provides schools with key information to sustain academic progress and ensure measures of accountability. Benefits of Education Walks include:

• Developing accurate school data
• Allowing teachers to learn their colleagues
• Assessing program implementation
• Validating and recognizing educational successes
• Teachers visiting other classrooms
• Teachers exchanging ideas and activities
• Teachers participating in leadership events
• Teachers providing feedback to other teachers and administrators.

Coaching Model

The CLMER Coaching Model transforms classroom practices through a non-evaluative relationship between a teacher/participants and a CLMER coach. The Coaching Model provides weekly instructional support to teachers in 2-day segments with specific grade-level or content teacher cohorts.

CLMER professional development specialists provide modeling and coaching to promote teachers’ development of effective and consistent standards-based instruction. The goal is to set higher academic standards and improve student achievement. Benefits of the CLMER Coaching Model include:

• Instructional areas identified and targeted for growth
• Improved instructional pedagogy in the classroom
• Improved student achievement
• Sustained capacity for ongoing progress