Learning to Improve from Odds-Beating Schools

by Hal A. Lawson, Professor of Educational Policy and Leadership; and Professor of Social Welfare, University at Albany – SUNY

“Beating the odds” has two connotations. Although one is associated with gambling, the more profound meaning adopted by NYKids is grounded in statistics. Schools that beat the odds are ones that perform better than expected given their respective demographic profiles, starting with the number of students who are economically disadvantaged, and they do this consistently. Educators who serve these students have implemented some of what it takes to achieve educational equity.

These odds-beating schools’ commendable performances are illuminated when they are compared with matched, comparison schools with comparable demographic profiles, yet less optimal outcomes. The primary research question also is a practice priority with implications for educational policy. What do educators in odds-beating schools do differently and better in order to achieve their respective outcomes?

This important question cannot be addressed by a single investigator who relies on just one research method and views educators and schools through the lens of a pet theory. It requires a team of researchers who bring to the effort diverse perspectives, theoretical frameworks, and research methods.

In the latest NYKids study (College and Career Readiness) the team developed a design that would derive findings based on surveys of reported practices complemented by a set of data collected on-site at each school. Site visits by team members to all odds-beating and typical schools are a practical necessity and signature feature of NYKids research. These visits include key informant interviews (e.g., superintendents, principals, teacher leaders and instructional coaches); focus groups (e.g., teachers, student support professionals); observations of classes; analyses of school facilities, equipment, and physical plant quality; and opportunities to explore the surrounding community contexts (e.g., school location, surrounding businesses, adjacent community recreation facilities). While only two days, this field work-derived data complemented by surveys allows for rich descriptions of how educators work in these schools.

Each sample school is viewed initially as a somewhat unique case. Research team members rely on a variety of data as they write a case description aimed at providing the big picture for the sample school. Every case study is a portrayal of the research teams’ findings and preliminary conclusions regarding how the school is structured and operates, emphasizing its signature features and including the manifest challenges identified and described by educators. To ensure accuracy and to give something back to sample schools, every case description is shared with the superintendent and the principal. The final case description for each sample school always includes these leaders’ modifications.

Each case description for an odds-beating school is a potential improvement resource because it is structured by the main research question—namely, what do educators in odds-beating schools do differently and better to achieve their respective outcomes? The practical importance of the findings is heightened by attention to the unique features and challenges for rural, suburban, and urban schools. These offer up, what in improvement science parlance, are considered “change ideas”. The use-values of NYKids research are enhanced, for example, when a rural school superintendent in search of better improvement strategies gains access to case studies of odds-beating rural schools because every rural leader knows that rural school systems are unique in important respects.

Finally, the NYKids research team always develops a cross-case report derived from the individual cases. This report summarizes, in an action-oriented narrative, what odds-beating educators prioritize and do to achieve prized outcomes, including future priorities and all-important lessons learned. In other words, this big picture report is a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts. The practical contrasts it provides between odds-beating and typical schools are school and district improvement resources.

Every educator is able to compare what the odds-beaters prioritize and do with what their school prioritizes and achieves. The commonalities, similarities and differences are improvement resources in identifying potential causes for variability in performance, enabling educators in all manner of schools to get better at getting better.

Visit our Research Results for the above-mentioned case studies and the cross-case analysis. Formal research studies published in scientific and scholarly journals also are available for review.