| Students who need a little extra help with math are now getting
it at Hilltop Elementary School in Rice Lake, thanks in part to
the district’s involvement in the KEYS program.
The after-school math instruction was one of the first outcomes
from KEYS, in which school district staff and sometimes community
members complete an online survey about what they perceive to
be the district’s strengths and weaknesses. The math program
was already being looked at, but the results of the KEYS survey
verified the need for it and expedited its implementation, said
Bill Nelson, president of the Rice Lake unit of North-west United
Educators.
KEYS (Keys to Excellence for Your Schools) is an NEA program
that WEAC is helping to institute in school districts in Wisconsin.
So far, the Rice Lake and Green Bay districts are on board, and
superintendents in both those districts say they are very impressed
with the program’s highly professional structure and with
the early results.
 | | Paul Vine | “I have to say the instrument is excellent. It not only
breaks information down but provides a process for addressing
the issues,” said Rice Lake Superintendent Paul Vine.
“Our district looked at a variety of tools that could accommodate
our Strategic Plan. After reviewing them all, we concluded that
KEYS was best aligned to what we were attempting to accomplish,”
said Green Bay Superintendent Dan Nerad.
Under KEYS, schools and school districts ask staff – and
sometimes parents and citizens – to complete an online survey
to identify specific areas that are successful and areas that
need improvement. The program then provides a framework for the
district and staff to analyze that data on a school-by-school
or districtwide basis and decide what changes could improve education
in the community.
Implementing KEYS is a collaborative effort of NEA, WEAC, a local
education association and a school district. NEA provides the
online survey, and WEAC and NEA provide extensive support in the
form of staff assistance, training, materials and follow-through.
Rice Lake surveys community
Rice Lake is the first district in the country to use KEYS to
survey the entire school district and community, Nelson said.
Nelson, an alternate member of the WEAC Board, first heard about
KEYS at a presentation in Madison by South Central Education Association
Director Peter Gust, who is on the state’s KEYS planning
committee.
 | | Bill Nelson | “It intrigued me, so I talked to Pete, looked at the KEYS
Web site and brought the idea to our district Steering Committee,”
Nelson said. After careful review and consideration, the idea
won the approval of the Northwest United Educators and the Rice
Lake School Board.
Vine said it fit well into the district’s strategic planning
efforts, which in the past have included participation in the
Village Partnership and implementation of a somewhat controversial
district climate study.
“As a follow-up to the climate study, the district was seeking
an instrument that provides data and information on how staff
and students, as well as the community, are feeling about the
district,” Vine said.
Working with WEAC and the NEA, the district made the online survey
available to staff and community members from August 30 to September
19 last year. The union and district placed articles in the local
newspaper, ran ads on local radio stations and cable TV shows,
and spread the word through parent meetings, encouraging citizens
to log on to the KEYS Web site and fill out the survey, which
measures 42 indicators of school success. A total of 513 people
completed the survey, including most of the school staff.
“I think a real benefit is it was online and people could
take it 24 hours a day for three weeks,” Vine said. For people
who did not have computers at home, the district opened computer
labs in school buildings at night.
The NEA collected the data and broke it down by building, comparing
the results from citizens and staff. The data is now being analyzed
by Site Councils at each school building.
“The turnaround time was amazing,” Vine said. “Sometimes
we were pleasantly surprised by the results, and in some cases
we were just surprised.”
“We don’t just look at the numbers,” Nelson said.
“We take a more in-depth look at it.”
WEAC and the NEA provided training to the Site Councils and principals
on how to analyze and interpret the results and provided strategies
for developing solutions to problems, Nelson said. Materials include
a 135-page KEYS Action Guide. The key people involved in the training
are WEAC’s Teaching & Learning Director Char Gearing,
NEA staff member Jacques Nacson, and Gust.
Vine said each Site Council was to present its plan to address
selected indicators to the district Steering Committee in late
April. “They are going to identify methods and strategies
to employ to deal with each issue,” he said.
For example, Nelson said the Site Council at his school, Hilltop
Elementary, identified a need and desire to raise achievement
levels specifically in language arts and math. That led to support
for the after-school math tutoring program, which was implemented
largely through other grant money.
Vine said the district will follow through on test results and
other indicators to measure the success of the strategies that
evolve from the KEYS process.
All involved see KEYS as a long-term school improvement initiative
that will improve school achievement and the school climate.
“We view this as an opportunity to develop a collaborative
effort and work together,” Vine said.
The relationship between the union and the Rice Lake district
is sometimes good, sometimes not, Nelson and Vine said. Negotiations
are just beginning on a 2005-07 contract.
“KEYS seems to be an instrument that could help build our
relationship again,” Vine said.
KEYS a perfect fit in Green Bay
Once he examined it, Green Bay Superintendent Dan Nerad had no
qualms about adopting KEYS as a central instrument in his school
district’s long-term Strategic Plan.
“KEYS goes beyond providing a snapshot and provides a myriad
of resources to guide the conversations that have to take place
after you have the snapshots,” he said.
 | | Dan Nerad |  | | Keith Patt |  | | Dave Harswick | It also focuses on the Strategic Plan’s goals of identifying
“best practices,” employing team learning and shared
assessment, and creating a positive school climate, he said.
“It’s about adults acting on the data to make a difference,”
he said.
“It’s one thing to say it’s important for adults
in a school to work well together; it’s another to have resources
to make that happen,” he said, praising the detailed training
and materials provided by KEYS at every step in the process.
Because the Green Bay School District is so large, the district
and the Green Bay Education Association decided only to survey
staff, at least for now, said Nerad and GBEA Executive Director
Keith Patt.
The district completed its survey of staff in February. As in
Rice Lake, Learning Councils at each school site are now analyzing
the data.
“We’re engaging with staff at the schools to look at
their strengths and areas to improve,” Nerad said. “Each
school is engaged in conversations to move the school to a better
place.”
“Right now, we’re mainly involved in goal-setting,”
Patt said. “Most of the concrete work will be done next year.”
Nerad, Patt and GBEA President Dave Harswick agreed the school
district and GBEA have a positive relationship, which isn’t
required, but is helpful, for KEYS to succeed.
“What exists here are respectful ways to deal with differences
and ways to maintain relationships,” Nerad said.
“The logistics of implementing this requires collaboration,”
Patt said.
To ensure a fair analysis of data, for example, Patt and Harswick
said faculty committees are also involved in the KEYS process
because school Learning Councils are appointed by building principals.
Also, the process is guided by a districtwide Steering Committee
made up of union representatives. “I feel good about where
we are,” Harswick said.
“This is a great collaborative effort between the district
and teachers’ association and all other union groups in the
district,” Nerad said.
“This is about adults working together in a collaborative
way to improve schools. We’re going to have a lot of solutions
that come out of this.”
KEYS is based on 42 indicators The KEYS initiative analyzes a school or school district based
on a research-based checklist of 42 indicators of what makes an
excellent school. School staff – and sometimes parents and
citizens – are asked to complete an online survey in which
they rate schools based on these variables.
For example, participants are given four options for responding
to this statement: “My school has high standards for teaching.”
They can select True, More True Than False, More False Than True,
or False.
KEYS provides training and materials for school staff and administrators
to analyze results and formulate recommendations for improving
school quality based on survey responses. It is a diagnostic tool
to aid in the evaluation of an individual school’s strengths
and weaknesses so that informed educational decisions can be made
on issues that relate to school improvement.
KEYS focuses conversation about educational reform around six
conditions that have been found to be associated with exceptionally
effective schools, namely:
- Shared understanding and commitment to high goals.
- Open communication and collaborative problem-solving.
- Continuous assessment for teaching and learning.
- Personal and professional learning.
- Resources to support teaching and learning.
- Curriculum and instruction.
For more information, go to: www.keysonline.org.
If you are interested in bringing KEYS to your school district,
e-mail Char Gearing at gearingc@weac.org. Posted May 6, 2005 |