About Us

The Purpose

Leading Student Achievement (LSA) is a project developed by Association des directions et directions adjointes des écoles franco-ontariennes (ADFO), Catholic Principals Council of Ontario (CPCO), and the Ontario Principals' Council (OPC), in partnership with the Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat (LNS) and supported by Curriculum Services Canada (CSC).

The LNS has a mandate from the Government of Ontario to ensure that "75% of students reach the provincial standard on province-wide testing." This project is designed to help principals as they support their teachers to 'raise the bar and narrow the gap' between high and low achieving students. A second purpose is to develop research on effective schools from an Ontario-based context.

The project is based on an innovative tri-level approach to provide support to school leaders as they:

• improve literacy and numeracy achievement for students in the primary grades;
• work in principal learning teams to improve instructional leadership;
• build professional learning communities within and across their schools and boards;
• use evidence-based inquiry to inform instructional practice;
• share successful strategies that can be implemented across the province;
• develop teaching-learning networks at local, board and provincial levels;
• contribute to educational research rooted in the Ontario context.

LSA Framework: Tri-Level Collaborative Leadership

SCHOOL

Professional Learning Communities Teachers and principals collaborate in teams to improve instructional practice through evidence-based inquiry.

BOARD/DISTRICT

Principal Learning Teams Principals work in teams to increase their capacity as instructional leaders, impacting on instructional practice that leads to improved student learning.

PROVINCE/SYSTEM

LSA Steering Team The LSA Steering Team provides system leadership to the project by providing a variety of professional learning opportunities to principals.

The LSA framework in the figure above represents the capacity building role of principals as they implement professional learning communities in the context of their own schools, collaborate on principal learning teams, and access the support of their districts, principal associations and the LNS in order to improve classroom instruction. The three circles overlap, acknowledging the collaborative roles of principals, teachers, district leaders and system leaders at the provincial level as they work to increase their capacity to meet the provincial student achievement target.

Objectives to Guide LSA

• Focus the content of the conversations within board principal learning teams (PLT) and school professional learning communities (PLC) on the key school conditions which robust evidence tells us have the most powerful direct effects on students learning.
• Deepen participants' understanding of effective collaborative learning team processes and refine their skills in managing such processes in their own PLCs/PLTs.
• Significantly extend principal and teacher capacities for effective literacy and numeracy instruction.

Priorities for LSA

School Conditions with Powerful Direct Effects on Student Learning:

• Academic Press:
  This is the degree to which there is a school-wide focus on student achievement. In schools with academic press, staff set high but achievable academic goals and standards, and believe their students are able to achieve those standards. Students value these goals, respond positively, and work hard to meet the challenge.
• School Disciplinary Climate:
  There is a collective belief on the part of the staff and students about the importance of minimizing indiscipline, violence or other disruptive behavior. A sense of collective responsibility exists across the school for preventing distractions to the academic priorities of the school.
• Collective Teacher Efficacy
  Teachers across the school perceive that their efforts, as a whole, will have positive effects on student achievement. Teachers organize and implement whatever educational initiatives are required for students to achieve high standards of achievement.
• Teacher Trust in Colleagues, Parents and Students
  A belief or expectation on the part of teachers that their colleagues, students and parents support the school's goals for student learning and will work toward achieving those goals.
• Time for Learning/Opportunity to Learn
  School schedules, timetables, structures, administrative behaviours, and instructional practices are all designed to ensure that students are engaged in meaningful learning as much of their time as possible. Distractions from meaningful learning are minimized.
• Focused Instruction
  This condition speaks to the explicitly goal-directed nature of what a teacher is intending to accomplish, the constant monitoring by the teacher of what students are doing and interventions by the teacher to help ensure that students are actively engaged in meaningful learning.

Responsibilities of the Participants

Board Leaders:

• Participate in the provincial symposia
• Work with their principal team leaders to support and facilitate the project
• Promote LSA within their board

Principal Team Leaders:

• Participate in the provincial symposia
• Submit an annual Learning Plan on behalf of their principal learning teams
• Collaborate with their principal learning team to share ideas, knowledge and strategies to mobilize and sustain professional learning communities in participating schools
• Cooperate with the research team to gather, analyze and respond to project data
• Communicate with LSA project partners
• Submit a year end report

Principal Learning Team Members:

• Attend all team meetings
• Collaborate with their principal learning team to share ideas, knowledge and strategies
• Work with their school communities to communicate the goals of the project
• Develop specific goals related to improving student achievement in literacy and numeracy
• Embed professional learning at the school level
• Cooperate with the research team to gather, analyze and respond to project data
• Complete the principal surveys
• Encourage teachers to complete the teacher surveys

Research into Practice

The role of research under the auspices of Dr. Kenneth Leithwood encompasses the following:

• To assess the effectiveness of the LSA project in meeting its mandate
• To determine professional learning needs
• To acquire data about successful instructional strategies in literacy and numeracy

Surveys of principals and teachers take place in the fall and spring of each school year. Teacher surveys are conducted through Curriculum Services Canada. In addition, Dr. Leithwood's research team conducts telephone interviews of a random sampling of principals.

Surveys are developed with input from:

• LSA steering team
• Representatives of the provincial principals' associations
• Representatives from the provincial teachers' unions
• Dr. Kenneth Leithwood, OISE/UT

Dr. Leithwood's analysis and report on the survey data provide an assessment of the value of the LSA project, not of individual principals, teachers, schools or boards. All responses are anonymous and confidential.

Support for Principal Learning Teams

• Professional learning based on the "research-led practice and practice into research" model.
• Provincial symposia for principal team leaders and superintendents/board coordinators.
• Face-to-face workshops for principals/vice-principals.
• Web conferences on the alignment of Ontario Ministry of Education initiatives, the key school conditions with direct effects on student learning, and the Networks for Learning strand of LSA with a focus on the Teaching-Learning Critical Pathway (TLCP).
• Communication of successful practices: website, brochures, research reports, symposia reports, DVDs and facilitator's guides.
• Opportunities for involvement in regional TLCP sessions for lead principals and teachers within LSA: Networks for Learning.

LSA Steering Team:

The role of the steering team is to work in collaboration with the various project partners to plan, implement and support the goals of the LSA project.

ADFO Gisele Neil Normand Delparte CPCO Barb McMorrow Mary Cordeiro Patty Orecchio OPC Linda Massey Bev Miller Bob Jackson Joanne Robinson

LNS Judi Kokis Judy Speirs CSC Hélène Fournier Carrie McLaren Jennifer Coens Leadership Development Branch, Ontario Ministry of Education Laura Somerville

Participants

ADFO: 8 Districts

• Conseil scolaire public du Grand Nord de l'Ontario
• Le Conseil des écoles catholiques de langue française du Centre-Est
• Conseil scolaire de district des écoles catholiques du Grand Nord
• Conseil des écoles publiques de l'Est de l'Ontario Conseil scolaire de district catholique de l'Est Ontarien
• Le Conseil scolaire de district catholique Centre-Sud
• Conseil scolaire catholique Franco-Nord
• Conseil scolaire public du Nord-Est de l'Ontario

CPCO: 19 Districts

• Dufferin- Peel
• Eastern Ontario
• Halton
• Huron Perth
• Huron Superior
• Kenora
• London
• Niagara
• Nippissing Parry Sound
• Northeastern
• Northwest
• Peterborough Victoria Northumberland Clarington
• Renfrew
• Simcoe- Muskoka
• Sudbury
• Superior North
• Thunder Bay
• Toronto
• Waterloo

OPC: 15 Districts

• Bluewater
• Durham
• Grand Erie
• Greater Essex
• Hastings & Prince Edward
• Halton
• Keewatin-Patricia
• Lakehead
• Near North
• Rainbow
• Renfrew County
• Thames Valley
• Toronto
• Upper Grand
• Waterloo