MNEA advances KEYS initiative in Missouri schools

In an age when Missouri educators are busy evaluating the nuances of their building’s MAP scores, many teacher leaders are left wondering how one measures the impact of school climate and culture on student learning. Although many of us intuitively recognize the effect that a school’s culture has on student achievement, districts are screaming for measurable outcomes that can be pigeon-holed into a Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Result-oriented, and Time Limited (SMART) goal that fits nicely into a School Improvement Plan. Although skilled classroom teachers know in their guts that school climate influences their students’ ability to learn and retain knowledge, they often are at a loss of how to prove their instincts are correct. In the era of No Child Left Behind, such intuitive nuances are not possible; data counts, not intuition. The NEA is currently working on the second version of its KEYS initiative (Keys to Excellence for Your Schools).

KEYS provides quantifiable data to 42 indicators possessed by schools whose students demonstrate high academic progress. First normed in the 1990s, the KEYS initiative has evolved from its original five KEYS to its current six. These 42 factors are divided into six separate KEYS:

KEY 1: Shared Understanding and Commitment to High Goals
KEY 2: Open Communication and Collaborative Problem Solving
KEY 3: Continuous Assessment for Teaching and Learning
KEY 4: Personal and Professional Learning
KEY 5: Resources to Support Teaching and Learning
KEY 6: Curriculum and Instruction

All building stakeholders, including secondary students and parents, take an online, confidential survey. This research-based survey invites participants to rate their opinions of their building’s level on each of the survey’s statements. Each series of statements requires a scaled response format. The respondent is expected to rate each statement in a manner that best reflects his or her feeling toward that statement. To provide a stronger building profile, the assessment ends with a series of demographic questions.

The power in the KEYS initiative lies in the post-survey evaluation. Much like the teacher leaders would evaluate the building’s MAP scores, the same needs to be done with the KEYS data. Each indicator is reported with four statistical measures: the building mean (average), the building standard deviation (66 percent of the building response on either side of the mean), the normed mean, and the normed 90 percentile rank. As the team of educators within the building has the opportunity to evaluate its KEYS data, the team can determine the degree of building consensus as measured by the standard deviation. The team can also discuss the difference between its mean and that of the 90 percentile, or high performing schools. The KEYS facilitator can guide each building team’s discussions of the data toward the identification of attainable goals. Further conversations can develop strategies for which these SMART goals can be improved, initiating a Plan-Do-Study-Act improvement loop.

The Washington Education Association is one of the leading state affiliates in the KEYS initiative. WEA has developed a network of KEYS facilitators who work with specific schools and districts as they analyze school data. The trained facilitators guide building personnel as collaborative teams through the decision-making process as they determine by consensus the areas of need while identifying the specific strengths. The KEYS facilitators in Washington are often retired educators who adopt buildings as they strive to improve student performance through the implementation of plans developed through analysis of student test scores and the KEYS initiative.

In Missouri, we are just getting started. Many Missouri educators have felt the need to include school climate and culture in their building’s school improvement plans, recognizing that available resources lack the measurable, statistical data that we need to make informed decisions. Readiness is critical to the success of the KEYS initiative. Your school must begin this journey with the consensus to commit to continued improvement as opposed to agreeing to participate in a single event. Much like staff development, this initiative must be ongoing and embedded to realize the greatest gains.

Butcher-Greene Elementary School in the Grandview School District is one building that is using the KEYS initiative in a manner that respects the professionalism of all members of the school community. They decided to use the KEYS data as a measure for the success of a Professional Learning Community.

Once the various school stakeholders had decided to commit to the process, work began with the steering committee. They listened and asked questions, finally agreeing to take the concept of KEYS and PLCs to the school as a whole.

In the decision-making process, it was important to the team that the process for the analysis of data and PLCs be job embedded and ongoing. Building and district professional development resources were dedicated to ensuring that teachers’ time was respected throughout the process. District readiness must also be in place in order to sustain building efforts through the use of the KEYS initiative. The Grandview School District supported the KEYS initiative through conversations with the superintendent, Dr. Ralph Teran. Furthermore, the school received district money to provide release time for vertical teams to meet collaboratively about building goals designed to improve student achievement.

The KEYS initiative in Missouri is supported by your NEA dues. District financial support lies in the availability of resources that provide for uninterrupted blocks of time for the evaluation of the KEYS survey.

The final component for the successful implementation of the KEYS initiative in Missouri is the establishment of a support system of regional teams. Other states have modeled teams that support statewide efforts. These teams of educators, mostly retired teachers, have been trained as KEYS facilitators. Each team works with a school or district as they guide the site team through discussions designed to interpret the data and establish SMART goals aimed at closing the achievement gap.

As schools develop a culture that is dedicated to closing the achievement gaps within their building, KEYS becomes a valuable survey, providing sound data to what has been a difficult concept to measure.

MNEA is now in the phase of training teams of educators who are willing to work with buildings in this collaborative process. MNEA would welcome your participation as a trained facilitator. For more information, contact MNEA Teaching and Learning Director Lynnette Calder, Lynnette.Calder@mnea.org.

by Dr. Lynnette Calder
MNEA teaching and learning director