The San Joaquin County Office of Education - Regional System of District and School Support

Regional System of District and School Support

The Regional System of District and School Support (RSDSS)

Region 6 Counties

Resources and Best Practices

Collaborative Peer Coach Network™

Collaborative Administrators’ Online Network

News and Announcements

Calendar of Events

Regional System of District and School Support, Region 6

Resources and Best Practices

Recommended Reading

The Art and Science of Teaching: A Comprehensive Framework for Effective Instruction (Marzano, 2007)

Building a Professional Learning Community at Work: A Guide to The First Year (Graham & Ferriter, 2010)

Building Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement (Marzano, 2004)

Building Teachers’ Capacity for Success: A Collaborative Approach for Coaches and School Leaders (Hall & Simeral, 2008)

Checking for Understanding: Formative Assessment Techniques for Your Classroom (Fisher & Frey, 2007)

Empty The Cup…Before You Fill It Up: Relationship-Building Activities to Promote Effective Learning Environments (Mendes, 2003)

Focus: Elevating the Essentials to Radically Improve Student Learning (Schmoker, 2011)

The Highly Engaged Classroom (Marzano & Pickering, 2011)

Leading Through Quality Questioning: Creating Capacity, Commitment, and Community (Walsh & Sattes, 2010)

Quality Questioning: Research-Based Practice to Engage Every Learner (Walsh & Sattes, 2005)

The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything (Covey, 2006)

The Strategic Teacher: Selecting the Right Research-Based Strategy for Every Lesson (Silver, Strong, & Perini, 2007)

Transforming School Culture: How to Overcome Staff Division (Muhammad, 2009)

Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement (Hattie, 2009)

The Will to Lead, the Skill to Teach: Transforming Schools at Every Level (Muhammad & Hollie, 2012)

Quotes From the Research

"Ultimately, there are two kinds of schools: learning-enriched schools and learning- impoverished schools. I've yet to see a school where the learning curves of the youngsters are off the chart upward while the learning curves of the adults are off the chart downward, or a school where the learning curves of the adults were steep upward and those of the students were not. Teachers and students go hand in hand as learners - or they don't go at all." ~ Roland Barth, 2001

“The key to school success is to be found in identifying or creating engaging schoolwork for students. Getting students engaged in ways that produce profound understandings takes more time and is more difficult than is the case if one is willing to settle for superficial coverage." ~ Phil Schlechty, 2002

“Groups that are too busy to reflect and plan are too busy to learn and improve.” ~ Laura Lipton, 2011

“If you study to remember, you will forget, but if you study to understand, you will remember.” ~ Unknown

“Students are academically stimulated in instructional units that are authentic, choice-driven, and demand skills. When these structural characteristics are absent, students are bored and emotionally depressed.” ~ Gad Yair, 2000

“Concept-based teaching and learning creates structures in the brain to assist in patterning and relationship building, which leads to greater retention, retrieval, and understanding of information.” ~ Dr. Lynn Erickson, 2010

“Common assessments are the gold standard in educational accountability because these assessments are used to improve teaching and learning, not merely to evaluate students and schools." ~ Doug Reeves, 2001

“In the hectic day-to-day life of a school…one must periodically draw the staff’s attention back to the big picture – the ‘why’ question. And, the ‘why’ question almost always puts kids and their learning at the heart of the school. The goal is not to become a professional learning community, but rather to make a difference in the lives of our students.” ~ Robert Eaker, 2011