No Excuses University–Interventions

 

Compose your journal using first-person language. Follow APA formatting including in-text citations and a reference page covering the discussion points below.  
In Chapter 10 of our text by Lopez, the term intervention is defined as “taking action so as to improve a situation” (2013, p.123). Lopez also discusses the theory of “fixing” versus the provision of “extra” support and proposes that investing and using one’s time “intentionally” is a better investment than money. 

• 1. Describe how your understanding and application of the term “intervention” has changed after considering Lopez’s remarks in Chapter 10.
• 2. Make a list of interventions currently taking place both inside and outside of today’s classroom.
• 3. Make a list of interventions that you would like to see take place inside and outside of today’s classroom.
• 4. Which interventions are the result of money, time,  or volunteers?
• 5. After you had addressed questions 1 through 4, what gaps do you see in interventions? What advice would you give a school in creating an exceptional intervention model that could fill those gaps? 

 

Lopez, D. (2013). 

No excuses university: How six exceptional systems are revolutionizing our schools

(2nd ed.). Turnaround Schools Publications.

• Chapter 10: Interventions (p.120)

  This chapter addresses how to take action in order to improve a situation.  It places value on interventions put into place  for extra support, and not simply using interventions when  something needs to be fixed.

• My Bookshelf
• TOC/Annotation menu

• Downloads
• Print
• Search
• Profile
• Help

Chapter Ten – Interventions

Previous section

Next section

“Those who are in a position of strength
have
a responsibility to
protect the weak.”
– Thomas Cushman

1

True intervention is to take action in order to
improve a situation.

2

Schools should create interventions that
take place both in and out of the classroom
environment.

3

Not all interventions cost money. Most come
as a result of greater collaboration and wiser
use of time.

 

Afew years back, I took my family on a trip to Portland. (Driving from San Diego to the Pacific Northwest with three small children is an adventure that could take up a whole chapter!) As we drove along the Oregon coast, I noticed a series of logging trucks driving in the opposite direction with enormous loads of perfectly cut trees. After seemingly hundreds of trucks passed by, I thought to myself, “How do they cut down those huge trees so perfectly?” During our next stop for gas, I was so intrigued that I went up to an elderly gentleman who was a local resident in the area. I asked him, “How do they cut down those trees so perfectly and make the most of the wood?” As it turns out, he had worked in the industry for a number of years, and by the lengthy answer that I received, I could tell that he loved to talk about the process. He told me, “First we used an ax and a two-man saw. After that, the chainsaw came along and made life a lot easier for us.” He went on. “While they still use a chainsaw, there’s now a machine that makes everything as easy as can be. This ‘tree-tractor’ has a jaw that clamps to the trunk of the tree. As it clamps, it takes a measurement of the circumference of the tree and sends it to a computer inside the tractor where the operator sits. This circumference measurement tells the machine the approximate height of the tree and a chainsaw that is attached to the clamp cuts down the tree and systematically slices it into sections that maximize board length.” I was amazed. “All because of one measurement?” “That’s right,” he said. “All because of one measurement.”

I have found a direct correlation between this method of logging and a school’s desire to provide data-driven interventions. Good schools are able to take interventions and analyze their effectiveness through the use of data. Great schools, however, are able to take data and translate them directly into the creation of appropriate interventions. For example, just as the tree-cutting machine took one measurement and cut the tree in a way that maximized board length, educators can take a fluency score or math assessment and plug students into appropriate interventions.

At Los Pen, if a student received a fluency score of 80, he or she might be directed to work in our Read Naturally Lab. If a math assessment identified a weakness in problem solving for a student, teams might offer support through six clearly identified problem-solving strategies. The best schools will look at data and say, “If these data—then this intervention.” As challenging as this is, and it is, we are living in an educational environment that enables us to make such choices because of our access to exceptional assessments and the interventions that align with them.

WHAT EXACTLY IS AN INTERVENTION?

The term “intervention” has many definitions. Addicts encounter interventions when loved ones strategically band together as they seek to help them out of the addictions that hinder their social, emotional, and physical health. Governments intervene during times of global crisis when smaller countries are invaded or natural disasters affect the less fortunate. Health departments show examples of interventions when deploying methods to stop outbreaks of infection and disease. While each example is unique to a very specific situation, they all share a definition of intervention that relates to us as schools. True intervention is to take action in order to improve a situation. Because of this, we can have interventions inside and outside the classroom, interventions that cost tons of money or interventions that are supported by volunteers, interventions that take place during the school day or after school is out. As long as we seek to improve academic success, especially that of our most needy students, these are all worthwhile interventions. That said, if we go about our work the wrong way, the interventions that we employ to help our students can become another unproductive misuse of their time.

TIME IS BETTER THAN MONEY

There’s a perception that the best interventions are ones that can be bought. Sure, if given the chance to solve a problem we would all much rather be able to pay for our success than change our schedules, shift our teams around, or utilize our current resources better. Unfortunately, that’s just not the world that we are living in today, nor should it be. The entire premise of our six exceptional systems is based on the idea that money is not what fixes schools; people do. The time that each of us invests in being creative and displaying an entrepreneurial spirit has more capital than you can possibly imagine. And while it is true that some of our interventions do require financial investments, it is important that we first grasp the fact that our greatest interventions are often the ones that come as a result of the way we utilize our time intentionally.

THE DOUBLE DIP

On far too many campuses, the word intervention means one of two things: First, it means to “fix this kid.” Second, it is code for “take this student out of my class and let someone else fix them.” When classroom teachers send students out of their classrooms to be supported by aides or other specialists as the first and only line of defense for a student’s academic troubles, they shirk their greatest responsibility. Of course, there are always exceptions for this rule when we are working with non-English speakers or students with severe special needs that are best supported by an expert. That aside, it is senseless when our most highly trained educators farm out their most at-risk students for someone else to “fix.” Real interventions occur when we offer extra support, both in and out of the classroom. This applies not just to students who are struggling to meet grade level standards, but to all students who are in need of other approaches in order to reach their next level of success. Some refer to this time as a “double dip.” I like this idea of “double dipping” because it continually sends the message that the first line of intervention is always within the classroom by the classroom teacher.

Before we go any further, take a moment to brainstorm the current interventions that you have at your site. Which ones are a result of money? Which ones take place because of how you’ve shifted the way you use your time? Which ones are the result of resourcing volunteers? Finally, which ones take place in the most important place of all, your classroom, and which ones take place outside of your room?

As you can imagine, an exceptional system in the area of interventions is going to look a lot different from one campus to the next. This chapter is not designed to give you the “perfect fix.” To do so would actually be falling into the trap of seeking programs as your solution instead of focusing on the creation of an exceptional system. What it is designed to do is to jumpstart your thinking about how to create appropriate interventions at your site that address both academic and behavior concerns in a way that helps you to get better results as a school. As you read through these examples, know that they are constantly being refined in a way to use data better to measure their success.

INTERVENTIONS IN THE CLASSROOM

Student Goals: One of the most effective interventions that takes place within the classroom is the creation of student goals. Each goal uses data from a variety of assessments to home in on the greatest need for a student. Every student in many of the schools throughout our network has one student goal that has been created in collaboration between the student and the classroom teacher. As part of the goal, the teacher creates at least three strategies to work on with the student in order to help the student achieve the goal. When the goal has been achieved, a new goal is created. This kind of intervention guarantees differentiation in our instruction, as it gives extra attention that often turns a student’s greatest weakness into his or her greatest strength.

Literacy Support: We have found a variety of ways to make use of the adults on campus in an effort to engage in extra literacy support for our most at-risk students. From utilizing half-day kindergarten teachers who go into the classroom during the second half of their day to work with small groups in first, second, or third grade, to hiring a literacy support teacher with Title I money, extra time means extra learning for students. Often, this extra support comes as a result of grade levels working together to conduct unique rotations that are beneficial for all involved. For example, instead of having every teacher teach every content area subject, a fourth grade team might have one teacher teach science, one teacher social studies, one art, and the last one an extra literacy group. The key to this intervention is to make the science, social studies, and art classes slightly larger, which allows the literacy group to be much smaller and more manageable. Not only is this great for students, but teachers love it as well, as it allows them to focus on their passions and strengths.

Class Lessons by Counselors: In Fran Hjalmarson’s book Differentiated Parent Support, she discusses our need to be proactive in our approach to behavior. Instead of administrators spending 90 percent of their time disciplining 10 percent of the students in their office, they should spend 90 percent of their time supporting 90 percent of the students proactively in classrooms.

One of the best interventions that supports appropriate behavior is conducting class lessons. These lessons can be led by a counselor or teacher, teaching explicit ways to address issues from bullying to cheating. When class lessons are conducted on a regular basis beginning in kindergarten, the long-term results are nothing short of miraculous.

NEU Prep: Not to be confused with the class lessons that are taught by counselors, NEU Prep are the class meetings that take place during the first fifteen minutes of school in every single classroom. Instead of students rambunctiously entering the classroom, sifting through their backpacks to grab their homework, and shuffling through their desks to start the day, they simply take a seat on the carpet (primary grades) or at their desks and begin their class meeting. NEU Prep is designed to do a few things. First, we want to begin with clarity and structure as we share our agenda for the day. Second, we want to offer a mini-lesson that reinforces appropriate behaviors both in and out of the classroom through a “topic for the day.” Finally, we want to allow time for our students to communicate with one another about the day’s topic to reinforce their understanding while at the same time developing their relationship skills. Like everything that we have already discussed, the key to the success of an NEU Prep meeting is that they are conducted in very explicit ways. For example, they are always done in the morning so as to set the tone for the day ahead. Topics are decided on by teams and done according to a schedule in an effort to ensure that every student at the grade level is getting the same message. In fact, during the first 20 days of school, every single classroom throughout the school has the same exact topic. Finally, because we know how important consistency is, NEU Prep takes place every day in every grade. To do otherwise would assume that one lesson at one grade will make a lasting difference. Quite the contrary; we need to continually reinforce the message over time.

Unified Management Plans: Before becoming No Excuses Universities, many of our schools had a ton of rules and management plans. They had different rules for the hallway, gym, classroom, office, playground, and lunch area. With so many rules, our students realized that they had a million different ways to get in trouble! Knowing it is important to simplify our work in order to foster success, No Excuses Universities select six or fewer character traits we believe build a Bridge to College. While every school values positive behavior and character in students, the traits that are most important to a school community may differ from one site to the next. The No Excuses University’s Bridge to College™ Plan for Character Development is composed of twenty traits. Some, such as kindness, are beginning traits that should be taught at a very young age, while others such as candor may be more suited for secondary students honing their skills for a future in the workforce. Our intent is not to overwhelm schools with too many character traits. Instead, we want to provide our schools with a menu of traits to choose from and a variety of strategies and ideas to support the implementation of each one they select from our Bridge to College. Schools that join our network are expected to:

Select six or fewer character traits for their campus from the Bridge to College™ Plan for Character Development that can both act as the rules of their school and also foster positive character in students.

Find ways to bring their character traits to life in a way that is worthy of sharing with other NEU schools across the nation.

The No Excuses University provides a framework of Six Exceptional Systems. Each NEU School is responsible for developing their systems as unique solutions to important challenges on their campus. The same is true for each school’s Bridge to College™ plan. The No Excuses University provides the schools in the NEU Network with its Bridge to College™ plan utilizing twenty character traits. These are the building blocks each NEU School utilizes to build their own personalized Bridge to College™ plan based on the unique needs of their school community. Featuring the character traits a school selects, each school is empowered to create a personalized character education program and Unified Management Plan. Each school’s Bridge to College™ plan is based on a system of behavior management that teaches instead of a discipline policy that punishes.

Are there times for punishment and consequences? Absolutely! But only when they are a part of a broader plan to teach appropriate behavior that results in better choices being made by students in the future. President John Adams said, “There are two educations. One should teach us how to make a living, and the other should teach us how to live.” The work we do with our Six Exceptional Systems and Bridge to College™ Plan for Character Development is consistent with President Adams’ vision. We prepare our students to make a living and to live. In the end it is our hope that through such teaching we are able to foster the growth of the next greatest generation of Americans who make our communities a better place to live.
Volunteer Interventions: Sometimes the best intervention is to have more hands on deck. From retired adults who want to give back to the community by mentoring students at all levels, to high school students who have electives designed to assist younger students in classes, volunteering can be a huge support. In the end, volunteering does one very important thing. It raises the adult to student ratio. When working with volunteers, remember that their purpose is never to take your place as the teacher; it is to free you up so that you can find more time to work with your neediest students individually or in small groups.

INTERVENTIONS OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM

Booster Clubs: Our schools used to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for generic interventions that extended the school day for students. All of this spending only to find that we were not getting the results that we had hoped for. The reason wasn’t that our spending didn’t make a difference; it was because we had no exceptional plan for our work. To accumulate your most at-risk students in a subject like math and give them more of the same math instruction is not likely to promote gains. What we discovered was that any extra time that we gave to students needed to be accompanied by a detailed prescription based on their needs. Booster clubs take place before or after school and are specific to the needs of our students. Instead of sending failing math students to an afterschool “Tutoring Club,” we sent our students with needs in problem solving to a four-week booster club. Instead of extending the day for more reading, we send our students who are struggling with literal comprehension to a three-week booster club. Far too often, we assume that students who are failing in any particular subject are failing at every aspect of that subject. When we dig deep, we realize that this is rarely the case. Students who are failing in math may still be excelling in fractions or geometry. I encourage you to fine-tune your extended day intervention efforts in a way that prescribes a specific strategy for a specific weakness.
Community Supports: During tough economic times, schools are scrambling to find extra support wherever they can. Many elementary schools, in particular, lack specialists in art, music, P.E., and science, leaving all of the responsibilities to the classroom teacher. Most teachers without such “specials” have grown accustomed to this way of teaching and in doing so have become oblivious to the fact that there just has got to be a better way. That better way is sometimes right outside our own front door. I have found that many businesses, both large and small, are consistently looking to be a part of adding value to our school system. From high-tech organizations that send employees to do weekly lessons in science, to fitness centers that offer trainers to do the same in physical education, the expertise of these professionals can be a tremendous support. Schools must sell partnerships like these as an avenue for these businesses to help the school while at the same time creating clients or employees for their companies in the future. I have found one thing for sure: Businesses will never help if you never ask.
Grade Level Rotations: Why is it that teachers feel this responsibility to be an expert in every component of the curriculum? I would contend that it’s because we have fostered a system that hinders efforts to change schedules, share students, and move from one classroom to the next. The typical elementary school teacher feels a responsibility to teach reading, writing, math, social studies, science, art, music, P.E., listening, and speaking. (Depending on the state that you are in, I’m sure I forgot one or two subjects.) While I am a strong proponent of every teacher at every level being highly skilled in teaching and being responsible for student success in all components of literacy, I am also a believer in working smarter. Many NEU schools participate in rotations that capitalize on the strengths of the team members at each grade level, as was shared in the “literacy support” section. Other rotations involve creatively grouping students at a grade for one subject, like spelling. This allows a teacher to focus on one or two specific levels of spelling rather than eight or nine. This kind of thinking can turn an amateur into a specialist.
Learning Labs: Creativity and engagement comes in many forms. Sometimes the best way to engage our struggling students is to create learning labs that focus on one area of the curriculum in a structured and exceptional manner. Labs that allow students to use technology or other academic programs with the guidance of a skilled professional can establish tremendous results. There is currently an abundance of resources that can be found throughout the web. A great source for ideas is the Institution of Education Sciences website. This “What Works Clearinghouse” may be the flint to spark ideas for you and your staff the same way it has for many NEU Schools. Visit www.ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc.

Mentoring: Half of our students come from broken homes. The absence of a father or mother can be tragic for both young children in need of attention as well as adolescents in need of guidance. The best schools in our NEU Network recognize this fact and have created a coalition of community members, business leaders, and parents to offer the kind of mentoring support that has the ability to affect a student’s life well beyond his or her K-12 years. And while every mentoring model is different from school to school, there are two standards that must be upheld no matter your location. The first is to screen every potential mentor and ensure that mentoring takes place on campus and under the supervision of other staff members. This both guarantees the safety of your students and protects the integrity of your mentors. Second, every mentor is matched up with a student in such a way that capitalizes on his or her own personal gifts as a person and in turn develops a positive connection with the student. As many mentors will tell you, their time with students has changed not only the life of the students, but theirs as well.

These examples represent thinking from staff members who have sought to be creative in the way they address the needs of their students. None of these interventions would be successful if they did not build on the previous exceptional systems on the staircase. When you operate with a culture that assumes responsibility, collaborate in a way that embraces that charge together, align your work to standards, assess those standards, and measure your success by discussing real data, then and only then will true interventions be created. To take a less systematic approach in creating interventions may create some results in the short term, but it will never develop the kind of sustainable success that will help to get our students on the path to college from an early age.

 

ITEMS FOR ARTICULATION

What is your school’s definition of the word
“intervention”?

Make a list of interventions currently taking place
both inside and outside of the classroom.

Which interventions are the result of money, time,
and volunteers?

ITEMS FOR ACTION

After brainstorming about the interventions that are
taking place on your campus, where do you find
gaps? Work as a school to create an intervention
model that is exceptional by filling in those gaps.

 

Discussions

Your avatar

350 
of 350
characters left

Previous section Chapter Ten – Interventions Next section

Notebook

Chapters

Notations

toggle
Cover and Front Matter

Copyright

Dedication

About the Author

About This Book

Chapter One – Five Whispere…

Chapter Two – Let’s Be the R…

Chapter Three – Finding Poss…

Chapter Four – No Excuses U…

Chapter Five – Culture of Uni…

Chapter Six – Collaboration

Chapter Seven – Standards A…

Chapter Eight – Assessment

Chapter Nine – Data Manage…

Chapter Ten – Interventions

Chapter Eleven – What’s the…

Chapter Twelve – A Rationale…

Chapter Thirteen – Time for A…

Chapter Fourteen – Marketing…

Chapter Fifteen – No Excuses…

Chapter Sixteen – High Expe…

Chapter Seventeen – Partneri…

Chapter Eighteen – The NEU…

Chapter Nineteen – Joining th…

Chapter Twenty – Extraordina…

Appendix

Bibliography

Updating list…

Notes 1
Notes 3
Notes 2
Highlights 1
Highlights 2
Highlights 3

Loading annotations…

Loading Downloads

Check the box for each section you wish to print. Then select if you want the content, your annotations or both and hit print!
(Note: Printing restrictions may apply. Visit

help

for tips on printing.)

Select Content to Print

+Cover and Front Matter Copyright
Dedication
About the Author
About This Book

Chapter One – Five Whispered Words
Chapter Two – Let’s Be the Research
Chapter Three – Finding Possible in the Impossible
Chapter Four – No Excuses University
Chapter Five – Culture of Universal Achievement
Chapter Six – Collaboration
Chapter Seven – Standards Alignment
Chapter Eight – Assessment
Chapter Nine – Data Management
Chapter Ten – Interventions
Chapter Eleven – What’s the Alternative?
Chapter Twelve – A Rationale for Readiness
Chapter Thirteen – Time for Action
Chapter Fourteen – Marketing the Message
Chapter Fifteen – No Excuses Begins with the Staff
Chapter Sixteen – High Expectations for Every Student
Chapter Seventeen – Partnering with Parents
Chapter Eighteen – The NEU Endorsement: A Staff’s Promise
Chapter Nineteen – Joining the No Excuses University
Network of Schools
Chapter Twenty – Extraordinary
Appendix
Bibliography

Print Details

Only course material content

Only my highlights and notes

Course material content, my highlights and my notes

Go

[ResourceKey]

arrow

Clear Search Results

Profile

Logout

FAQ

Support

News & Alerts

Tutorials

Feedback

Terms & Conditions

Learning Plan
x

Build your learning plan by taking a pre test within a chapter.

x

Notebook

Notes 1
Notes 2
Notes 3
Highlights 1
Highlights 2
Highlights 3

Show:

Build your Notebook by creating notes and highlights in your text.