An interview with Craig Chalifoux, Principal of the B.F. Brown Middle School in Fitchburg.

What has it been like to develop an academic focus at B.F. Brown Middle School?
The work we are doing to develop an academic and instructional focus is the most important work I’ve embarked on as a principal. It is complementary to the work done by the B.F. Brown school community for the past several years. We’ve been able to use work from previous years and take it to the next level – really align and create a coherent focus. Now we have the time and resources to really narrow down to core strategies across all areas.

To home in on our academic focus we used Venn diagrams during the data collection process. There were four independently operating groups working on this exercise and they produced almost identical topics: reading with a particular purpose in mind and the importance of being able to express in the written form what was read and explain the purpose. We’ve worked those principles into our instructional focus. Teachers are excited about it.

How has developing a specific academic focus helped teachers and staff?
It has given us a much more specific direction. New teachers adapt more easily and use the new strategies we’ve put in place. It’s making the transition much smoother for new teachers and allowing veteran teachers to narrow their focus and make assessments specifically targeted at measuring these instructional strategies.

Our academic focus is also bringing staff together. We had a professional development day where we spent a lot of time debriefing and working on clarifying our instructional focus. As we started to debrief the teachers were really listening to each other and it was a “that’s exactly what I was thinking” kind of experience. It was very powerful. Our teachers walked away knowing that the work they’d been doing for years hadn’t been set aside – it’s being used more efficiently. We didn’t switch gears, we recycled.

My hat goes off to our staff. They’ve worked so hard, they’re professional and they love to collaborate. This work will help with our peer coaching and provides a great example to other teachers and classes.

What have you been able to do in terms of data and SMARTe goals?
There’s so much we can do, we’re scratching the surface right now. We’ve examined data and posted it for parents and kids. We want to build the accountability and assessment piece. Now we need to take that data and make it deeper. We’ve instituted a conferencing method where each teacher has a group of students that they regularly meet with. Teachers take individual data and look at it with the student. Student and teacher then work together to set goals in math and English based on the benchmarks of where they were last year and where they have the potential to be. They’re aiming for the next level of proficiency and aiming to gain X number of points. Students are building up their toolbox of strategies to do a better job next time.

People are feeling more comfortable about being open with data. How did you get over that hump?
The biggest piece for staff was around the students and how posted data would make students feel. It was less about AYP, more about students. The data doesn’t identify particular students. It’s broken down by grade level, then by individual class. We’re breaking it down slowly, in layers.

And with students setting their own goals the data really becomes real. The numbers are now a part of their life, not just something they hear about. They’re enthusiastic about improving their scores. We have definitely seen a cultural shift and the students feel it, too. Students now talk with teachers about what the scores mean, why they’re important.

We’re also doing the same thing with parents. We’re trying to take the mystery out of MCAS. We meet with parents at school and at our local neighborhood center to educate them about the test, what the scores mean, and how they can help their child improve. We even had the session translated to Spanish so that more of our parents can become involved.

I knew that we hit on something because the parents were asking great questions about MCAS and how they can gain access to the information. Involved parents are asking good questions.

You mentioned some of the work around focus and data and how it effects other parts of teachers’ work. Have you seen a shift in team meetings, teacher conversations?
Yes, we’re in a much more comfortable position now. Summer leadership meeting used to feature a data junkie handing out a thick packet of numbers. Teachers are understandably overwhelmed. But we’re working with tiny snapshots and coming back from that fear of data.

We’ve broken down a big MCAS number into a smaller one, but they are important numbers that we can monitor on a weekly or monthly basis. This is the most important work and a way for us to celebrate the good work of our students that might not be reflected in MCAS. We’ve become more granular, working with things you can see monthly or weekly.

What are you paying attention to on a more local basis?
We are currently using a product called AIMSweb. It contains different assessment tools that are grade appropriate and allow us to monitor student performance. We are using a variety of their standardized assessment to measure reading fluency, writing and vocabulary. There are month to month benchmarks that allow us to assess improvement and areas of weakness. We also have the ability to print parent reports containing explanations of the data which has proven very useful.

Where do you go from here? What are you excited about?
I’m excited about taking our instructional focus, for which we’ve identified numerous strategies, and narrowing it down to three, four, or five core strategies to be used as exemplars. We want to create coherence. We will identify success, know what it looks like and hold it up as a model.

B.F. Brown has a great team of teachers. They are doing great work, and I feel fortunate to work with them.