Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/515703
PERCEIVED IMPACTS 2006/07 2007/08 PLANNING YEAR 2008/09 YEAR 2 2009/10 YEAR 3 2010/11 YEAR 4 2011/12 YEAR 5 AVERAGE DISTANCE FROM API MEDIAN OF SIMILAR SCHOOLS 0 ELEMENTARY MIDDLE ALTERNATIVE HIGH REGULAR HIGH "We increased our test scores, and I think that behavior as a site is getting better, and the community recognizes that our school's improving. It used to be like nobody wanted to come to our school. Parents would try to keep their kids at a dierent school, but now people want to come [here.]" "Our sta cares about our students to the highest. They really do go above and beyond. If they need things outside of school, we're willing to get it for them. We're willing to spend our own time in order to help them or bring in their parents. We do whatever it takes for our students, and I think that's the biggest key, too, because if you're not willing to go above and beyond, they're only going to make success to a certain degree." 1 SCHOOL PERFORMANCE 1 SCHOOL PERFORMANCE 2 REPUTATION 2 REPUTATION 3 SCHOOL CLIMATE 3 SCHOOL CLIMATE "We've had a lot better parent involvement, especially since they see a lot of the programs and things that we've tried to do to bring the families into the school and make them more involved, and then they become more involved in certain fundraisers and even social things like talent shows and stu like that, that has brought the community together." 4 PARENT INVOLVEMENT 4 PARENT INVOLVEMENT T W O R E C E N T B O O K S by top education experts singled out the acclaimed, CTA-sponsored Quality Education Investment Act of 2006 as cutting-edge reform that inspired and empowered California's educators. Taking nearly $3 billion won in a CTA lawsuit and investing it in hundreds of at-risk schools backed by the QEIA program over eight years instead of spreading the funds statewide for bargaining purposes showed inspiring vision, tenacity and leadership, say the authors of the 2014 book Up- lifting Leadership: How Organizations, Teams, and Communities Raise Performance. The QEIA-mandated collective approach of teach- ers, parents and administrators working together paid off in student growth, the authors note. They found that young California teachers also saw CTA in a new light. The three authors are Alma Harris, a professor at the Institute of Educational Leadership at the Univer- sity of Malaya who is internationally known for her school improvement work; Alan Boyle, who designs and creates professional learning for education leaders in the United Kingdom; and Andy Hargreaves of Boston College, one of the nation's most influen- tial scholars on U.S. public education policy. They enlisted Dennis Shirley, a Boston College professor of education, for their QEIA chapter. Hargreaves and Shirley teamed up for an earlier book praising QEIA, the 2012 The Global Fourth Way: The Quest for Educational Excellence. QEIA is one of six case studies examined in the book about innovative education reforms around the world. The authors consider QEIA to be "inside-out innovation that builds a platform of professional capital where classroom teachers become the dy- namos of change themselves, not in this school or that school, but across hundreds of schools in one of the world's largest systems." By Mike Myslinski QEIA PROGRAM PRAISED BY EDUCATION EXPERTS Read the full story about QEIA praise in these two books at www.cta.org/QEIA Source: Vital Research, LLC 29 V O L U M E 1 9 I S S U E 9