How differentiated instruction helps struggling students: this school's reorganization to support differentiated instruction has resulted in a remarkable improvement in student performance levels.

Given dismal achievement results, Holland Elementary School in the Fresno Unified School District was determined to improve. Six years ago, in the statewide and similar schools listing, the school ranked 1 and 1. This is not where this experienced, dedicated staff wanted to be. Undaunted by a poverty rate of almost 90 percent, with 25 percent English learners, and armed with the core value that their students could and would learn the content standards, school staff set to work.

Under the instructional leadership of their newly assigned principal and through their schoolwide and grade-level professional learning teams, they decided to address their students' diverse learning needs through differentiated instruction. They were confident that this best practice would lead students to success.

They were right to choose differentiated instruction to meet the learning needs of struggling students. Current achievement results show the school's rankings have moved to 6 and 10. Holland's API scores have increased steadily. AYP targets have been met for all students and all numerically significant subgroups for the past three years in language arts and math.

There has been a significant decline in student discipline referrals, teacher morale is higher, and remarkable improvement has been made in students' reading, writing and math performance levels.

Holland's structural change

In April 2006 Holland received the California Distinguished Schools Award. In addition to the progress that has been made relative to state indicators, Holland is now eligible for the federal Title 1 Achievement Award.

What is Holland doing to accelerate learning? Essentially, positive outcomes were accomplished through examination and alignment of three major systems in the school to support differentiation and a consistent focus on improved student learning. Methodically, staff reviewed these three systems--the school's academic delivery structure, professional development and human/financial resource allocation.

For students to learn grade-level content standards and for the school to provide the necessary additional instruction, support and time, "out of the box" grouping solutions were needed. Hence, Holland clearly defined a K-6 continuum of interventions for its students based on what the data was telling them. In this process, they used:

1. School and disaggregated subgroup data;

2. The California Standards Test and California English Language Development Test results and proficiency level descriptions; and

3. Grouping descriptions identified in the reading/language arts framework (intensive, strategic, benchmark and advanced). This definition also clarified the appropriateness of whole-group and small-group instruction, with an emphasis on flexibility.

Thus, a new system of instructional delivery evolved.

Next, they decided that differentiated interventions through deployment would be provided within core instruction and within the school day by grade level, across grade levels and by curricular area. Deployment is the practice of students moving in small, flexible, short-term progress groups to a teacher who provides specific instruction to meet their learning needs. This has been implemented by grade-level teacher teams over time.

Now, observation reveals a combination of fluid and flexible groupings at all grades through requisite assessment and continuous progress monitoring. These assessments identify students who need added support and continually inform teacher practice.

Holland staff recognized that good first teaching is vital and direct instruction should be provided by expert teachers. Thus, they launched an "intervention-prevention team" of extra support teachers to work alongside regular classroom teachers to target instruction with precise strategies. Accordingly, this cohesive team teaches small groups of children in various instructional configurations depending on student need, curricular area and grade level. These highly qualified personnel include two literacy coaches, a resource specialist and certificated tutors.

Deployment of students within a grade and curricular area

Students are grouped to provide explicit, direct instruction based on proficiency for access to grade level, core instruction and focus standards. Groups include struggling readers, mathematicians, writers, English learners and kindergartners who need more time for systematic, phonemic awareness instruction.

After an individual growth assessment at the end of the first trimester, identified kindergartners are placed in an extended day early intervention program. Program effectiveness is continually monitored, which meant that "Reading Recovery," a specialized, one-on-one tutoring program, was replaced with the "Early Success" small-group intervention program in order to serve a larger number of students in grades 1-2.

The intervention program, "Soar to Success," which is based on the reciprocal teaching strategies of predict, infer, clarify, summarize and evaluate, was instituted to address the reading concerns of students in grades 3-6. Finally, K-2 English learners were clustered to receive targeted instruction.

Another configuration of this deployment strategy is used for whole- and small-group instruction. In this departmentalized fashion, grade-level teams of teachers are responsible for the learning needs of all students at their grade. Students deploy from teacher to teacher within the grade in different instructional and curricular student groups.

For example, third graders Salina, Carlos and Cha might form a group and move to another third grade teacher's class for explicit vocabulary instruction on prefixes and suffixes, or join later with 16 other students for a whole-class lesson with the math teacher on addition of simple fractions. Consideration is also given to other placement criteria, such as behavioral concerns and gender.

Deployment of students across grade levels for specific instruction

This approach is used in the primary grades for language arts and the intermediate grades for math. Since instruction is differentiated according to need and not by grade, flexibility and monitoring of progress are vital for the success of these students.

For instance, kindergartners who are promoted to first grade but who still require substantial support and additional time to learn essential standards are placed in first grade for their morning instructional block, then in the afternoon they deploy to kindergarten for added strategically designed academic support.

First and second graders are clustered by ability levels to receive small-group intervention from one of two literacy coaches. Fourth- and fifth-grade students who need assistance are sent to math intervention, which is staffed by two certificated tutors. As soon as they master their math facts they exit the intervention.

After-school and summer programs

Other programs offer extended learning opportunities to Holland students. After-school tutorials staffed by California State University, Fresno, tutors provide extra help with reading and math skills. The "Knowing Mathematics" intervention program was initiated as another safety net to support students with learning gaps in the math focus standards. A specially trained teacher provides this gap-closing instruction.

A Homework Club for students to practice and reinforce classroom instruction was instituted. Further, two summer school programs provide extensive reinforcement to retainees and English learners at CELDT levels 3 and 4. Finally, the Hoover High School Mentoring Program places skillfully trained adults at Holland who develop a caring relationship and provide another supportive school connection to identified students.

Professional development: Continuous learning for adults tied to student goals

To respond to professional development needs, Holland staff posed the question: What do teachers and the principal need to know, understand and be able to do to differentiate instruction and support students' learning of the grade-level content standards?

The professional development planning process was led by the principal and Holland's schoolwide leadership team. The team wanted to ensure a continuation of meaningful processes already in place and build from there. Those processes included reflection and planning time for improving practice, standards-based designed training, and job-embedded learning opportunities.

Staff also indicated a need to know more about how to use and act on data through the district's new Assessment Information System (AiS). This six-year experience has required revisiting the plan frequently, with revisions made to refine and sustain the restructuring, evolution of differentiated instruction, and other support pieces.

Activities and strategies

During this time frame, major professional development activities and strategies have included:

* modeling and coaching of instructional strategies and the best practice of differentiation provided by the literacy coaches;

* district-sponsored teacher cadre training on differentiated instruction by content, process and product;

* collaborative, grade-level learning teams with a constant focus on analyzing assessment data and student work to drive team goals, planning, implementation and monitoring;

* district-supported grade-level API/AYP Alliance training to interpret benchmark data (using AiS), connect focus standards, curriculum, instruction/ interventions, time, teamwork, and target students to achieve higher proficiency levels;

* professional book study groups;

* lesson planning to embed Marzano's most effective instructional strategies for all students at all grade levels and across curricular areas;

* specific training for implementation of all intervention programs, such as "Early Success," "Soar to Success" and "Knowing Mathematics";

* K-3 Reading First/AB 466 training and AB 75 Principal's Leadership training; and

* horizontal articulation by grade and vertical articulation across grades to ensure understanding of the content standards.

This professional development model has unified staff, providing direction and a common language to sustain the focus.

Resource allocation: Support for changes

Holland's guiding question for making decisions about resources was: Is this activity, service or personnel strategy improving student achievement? Thus, to support the new direction differentiated instruction would take them, personnel and funding resources were redirected and positioned to reinforce the newly devised "intervention-prevention team."

New hires included another literacy coach and three more certificated tutors. Funds were allocated to purchase intervention curricula and other small instructional group support materials. Funds were also earmarked for professional development costs.

Implementing best practices together

Holland Elementary is a school of dedicated educators who pursue best practices relentlessly and believe in providing explicit, equitable learning opportunities for all their students. Due to focused, consistent effort over time, staff members have found that the growth of their "community of learners" is a process of continually reflecting in a systematic way on their work.

Through courageous restructuring, alignment, collaborative professional growth, monitoring, reflection on results and a continuous spirit of renewal, they have made higher student achievement a reality. They have taken action, differentiated instruction and delivered the results to meet student learning goals.

Celeste Cusumano is an educational consultant. Jonel Mueller, former principal of Holland Elementary School, is director of Secondary Instructional Support Services for the Fresno Unified School District.