Leadership magazine Sept/Oct 2014 V 44 No 1 | Page 25

comes that have the most significant impact on closing student achievement gaps.
However, this presents a daunting challenge for school
districts, as research points to the fact that if an organization
focuses on more than three goals at one time, few if any will
be attained (McChesney, 2012). Three questions have proven
instrumental for school districts in defining goals and strategies that build capacity to achieve desired results:
1. What is the compelling vision that defines what our
school district strives to achieve?
2. How does data convey root causes of the constraints
within our district-wide systems?
3. Which priorities are believed to have the greatest impact
on student achievement?

ness and career preparedness and a deep analysis of data that
clarified the constraints of student support systems. However,
there are more than 40 metrics within the eight school district
LCAP priorities. Clarifying the metrics that matter most is an
essential component for building internal capacity of school
districts.
To promote an already existing culture of innovation, Corona-Norco engaged each district and school administrator in
the process of defining goals, actions, success indicators and
the support needed to improve practices of district divisions
and school sites aligned with the strategic plan and LCAP.

Corona-Norco USD: Closing the gap
Corona-Norco USD – selected as a Broad finalist for the
past two years – has developed a shared vision and the strategic leadership essential for closing student achievement gaps.
Beginning in 2011, the vision of Corona-Norco USD was to
ensure all students are ready for college and prepared for a career.
When engaging in the design of the LCAP, a simple yet
powerful document provided clarity of focus: an alignment
of strategic plan goals and school board priorities with LCAP
performance outcomes. As a result, creating the LCAP was
not a compliance-driven process, but rather an intense focus
on how to successfully implement the school district strategic
plan and attain school board priorities.
Even though the seven focus areas of the Corona-Norco
USD strategic plan had been aligned with LCAP priorities,
there was a realization that no leader in the organization
should work toward achieving more than three focus areas at
any one time. Therefore, a thorough analysis of data was essential for defining high-leverage actions.
InnovateEd facilitated a Corona-Norco USD focus group
tasked with defining key elements of a district-wide support
system for college and career readiness. A deep dive into district data by this group, using nationally recognized student
achievement indicators, revealed that Hispanic male students
struggled the most academically, and that based on a longitudinal cohort analysis, the achievement gap of this subgroup
emerged in fourth grade and continued to persist.
Further analysis of the achievement gap discovered that this
student subgroup had the lowest attendance rate, most student study team referrals, highest suspension rate, lowest A-G
completion rate, lowest AP participation and pass rates, lowest
graduation rate as well as similar gaps on other LCAP metrics.
Since Hispanic males accounted for 24 percent of the student
population in Corona-Norco USD, high-leverage metrics had
to be identified to drive improvement of district-wide systems.
Further closing of student achievement gaps by CoronaNorco USD was guided by a common vision of college readi

This allowed leaders at every level to clarify the strategic focus
that mattered most for closing student achievement gaps.
The Corona-Norco LCAP has five high-leverage metrics
that assess progress toward closing student achievement gaps:
graduation rate, dropout rate, CTE completers, chronic absenteeism rate and suspension rate. These metrics serve as
guideposts for the district to monitor improvement of the
three foundational systems that InnovateEd identified as a
common focus for school districts across California. These
overarching systems were a coherent instructional program,
integrated student support and effective communication with
district and community stakeholders.

Desert Sands USD: Systems improvement
As a long-term partner, InnovateEd recognizes that Desert Sands USD has consistently used a centralized approach
for building capacity of systems to close student achievement
gaps. Improvement of school systems takes form through
the process of creating a common vision and development of
common language aimed at establishing common, evidencebased practices.
Agreed-upon outcomes, high-leverage actions and multiple
levels of formative feedback drive continuous improvement of
district-wide systems. Therefore, the first step to improving

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