(The following article was taken from the Website for The University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning - August 2009.)

The teachers and administrators who take risks—both personal and professional—to promote the widespread use of the Strategic Instruction Model® in their schools or school systems bring our work to life. When they go a step further and collect evidence of SIM’s effect on student achievement, they enrich and strengthen SIM for all of us in the SIM Network and for all of the schools that will follow in their footsteps. To express our gratitude, we give the SIM Impact Award to schools or school systems that have widely adopted many components of SIM and that have carefully gathered data related to their efforts.

This year’s recipient of the SIM® Impact Award, the Connecticut Technical High School System, is unique in its complexity. The system consists of 17 geographically separated high schools, each receiving students from as many as 29 different towns. Students attend academic classes for nine days, then trade classes for nine days, repeating this cycle throughout the school year. In practice, this means students spend only 90 of their 180 school days in academic classes, but the expectation is that all students will complete the same academic requirements as their counterparts in regular public high schools.

The technical schools offer students the opportunity to pursue career skills and, in some cases, licensure in their chosen fields while completing their high school diplomas. They offer career preparation in more than 30 areas, ranging from auto body repair to fashion technology to hotel/hospitality to software development. They also offer the complete range of academic classes and supports available in any other Connecticut public high school.

Despite their differences, all of the schools in the Connecticut Technical High School System are committed to providing a unified curriculum and unified approach to teaching.

“For college, I want to do forensic science. Culinary is something I can fall back on,” says Melissa Figueroa, a sophomore studying culinary arts at Platt Technical High School. The Test-Taking Strategy has helped her achieve better test grades, especially in science, and she applies the Word Identification Strategy to help her figure out words such as “coulis” in her trade technology classes.

Five years ago, the CTHSS superintendent gave students and teachers a present: She carved out a portion of students’ trade schedules to provide extra academic support in language arts and mathematics. This “gift of time,” as education consultant Darleen Foley calls it, served as the catalyst for what has become a district improvement initiative with SIM at its heart.

The district used the time to establish literacy labs in each high school. Taking into account state achievement tests that indicated students needed to improve their reading and writing skills, Darleen worked with SIM Professional Developer Rosemary Tralli and others in the district to select SIM strategies to be offered in each literacy lab.

“We started very slowly,” says Darleen, who is an apprentice SIM Professional Developer in Content Enhancement. “It just mushroomed from there.”

“I used to be a really slow reader, and now that I have that strategy, I have improved on reading faster. Because of DISSECT, I feel that my grades have improved,” says Francine Mitchell, a freshman in manufacturing technology at Platt.

As the literacy labs took shape, the team continued thinking about how to build on this work and make other improvements across the district. They laid the foundation for embedding strategy instruction in content classes. They identified a need to ensure that all teachers used sound instructional methods, and they examined the most efficient use of support roles in each school. They launched an effort to unify outcomes for each course offered across the district based on standards so no matter which of the 17 schools students attended, they received the same focused instruction.

As they worked, they realized they needed guidance in putting all of the pieces together in a way that would be most beneficial to students and staff. Rosemary suggested the Content Literacy Continuum®.

“By using that framework, all the sudden everything was allowed to be merged and connected in a way where prior to this everything was seen as something random,” Rosemary says. “SIM has had a major impact, but it has not been the only model in this framework.”

Using the CLC framework, the district has gone to extraordinary lengths to make connections among SIM, standards, and other initiatives.

Laura Vega, an English language learner education consultant, for example, developed a handbook for use by all teachers in the system. Content Literacy Strategies for English Language Learners explicitly connects SIM and instructional practices that research has shown are necessary for acquisition of English as a second language.

One early district decision was to make a commitment that all teachers— academic and trade—would become familiar with Teaching Content to All: Evidence-Based Inclusive Practices in Middle and Secondary Schools (by Keith Lenz and Don Deshler, with Brenda Kissam). Teaching Content to All, with its emphasis on understanding academic diversity among students and designing instruction to reach all students, underpins the district’s move toward differentiated instruction. New teachers receive a copy of the book and an introduction to differentiated instruction during orientation, and all teachers are expected to bring their copies to every professional development session they attend throughout the year.

“We give them that overview and try to draw those parallels that good teaching and learning techniques are actually the best classroom management techniques,” says Pat Ciccone, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction.

 “Getting the Unit Organizer really lets you know…this is the gist of what’s going on,” says Zach Kemp, a junior in the bioscience and environmental technology program at Grasso Technical High School and future marine biologist.

When all teachers began to learn and use Content Enhancement Routines, some—like Linda Edmonds, science teacher at Ellis Technical High School—were skeptical.

“I picked one or two classes to try it with so I could compare what happened in those classes versus what happened in classes where I didn’t use them,” she says. “I found that across the board, all of my students benefited.”

By using the routines, Linda also learned more about her students, who struggled with some of the skills needed to complete the graphic devices. As she helped them develop those skills, she became better acquainted with their learning styles and how they could best communicate their learning to her.

Linda was so impressed by her results that she’s now a certified SIM Professional Developer in Content Enhancement.

Content Enhancement and differentiated instruction have become the norm throughout the district, with many teachers echoing Linda’s enthusiastic endorsement of the series.

“Over the last three years, using Content Enhancement Routines totally changed the way we did business in the classroom,” says 20-year veteran teacher John Murphy, education consultant and SIM Professional Developer apprentice in Content Enhancement. “We developed that learning community that we talk about with students. Students were much more engaged. I didn’t have to work that hard.”

What’s more, teachers believe the routines help them as much as they help the students.

“Because I took the time to dissect my curriculum and put it into Unit Organizers, a lot less falls through the cracks,” says David Miguel, culinary arts department head at Grasso.

“I wasn’t doing good on some tests. After I used the [Test-Taking] strategy…I noticed a big improvement,” says John Richard, a senior in the electrical program at Platt.

As the district initiative progressed, every aspect of the business of teaching and learning came under scrutiny.

“One of the things that became evident is in order to make the SIM process work, we needed to have a unified approach to ensure that all students were able to learn to the fullest degree,” says Karen Zimmerman, district education consultant.

Even such details as the physical arrangement of the literacy labs and supplies needed at each school to teach strategies effectively and to teach with routines effectively came under review.

By the second year, the team began thinking long-term, crafting a five- to ten-year plan for professional development, instructional opportunities, and resources. Everyone in the district, at every level from superintendent to consultant, receives some sort of professional development to keep the initiative on track.

“I have been professionally rejuvenated, truly,” says Jill Dymczyk, education consultant and SIM Professional Developer in Learning Strategies.

The long-term, comprehensive professional development plan is key to the district’s model for sustainability, as is nurturing their own SIM Professional Developers, or “adding spokes to the wheel,” as Pat Ciccone describes it. The district now has nine SIM Professional Developers and school-based coaching for many SIM components in all 17 schools.

“Teachers in this system now see themselves as more than content teachers,” says Rosemary.

They see themselves as helping students develop skills and knowledge, a huge shift. And with that shift comes sustainability.

“We talk all the time about what we’re doing, what’s good for students,” says Sharon Stockel, special education teacher at Platt and SIM Professional Developer in Learning Strategies.

“I feel that the Unit Organizer has helped me in class. I use it when studying and preparing for tests. I find that’s very beneficial, and it helps me remember everything that I need to,” says Victoria Herdman,

 a junior in the bioscience and environmental technology program at Grasso. After high school, Victoria plans to be a zoologist working with big animals.

If the initiative has meant huge changes for teachers, results for students have been outstanding. Teachers see more at-risk students going on to college or going further in their trades than in the past. Students’ skills and knowledge give them confidence to succeed in new ways.

“People have this misconception of our tech school students, thinking that it’s just low achievers that go on to tech school, which isn’t the case,” says Alex Pesarik, bioscience and environmental technology department head at Grasso. “We see students that were maybe low achieving in middle school come to tech school and shine.”

Four of Penny Finlayson’s seniors performed in the top 25 percent of their class this year. The special education department head at Platt links their success directly to strategies: The students’ organization skills, ability to read and understand textbooks, and strategic approach to taking tests give them an academic edge.

Penny, a SIM Professional Developer in Learning Strategies, can’t contain her enthusiasm for SIM.

“I am a big cheerleader for it, I know I am, but I think it’s so important to this school and it has made a big difference in this building,” she says.

Educators in the district see long- term value for students. Application of the strategies they’ve learned doesn’t stop at the schoolhouse door.

“These are things that they’re going to be able to use outside of a high school experience and well into the future,” says Gene LaPorta, principal at Platt.

“They have in the beginning of the chapter vocabulary words that you need to learn. A lot of them are really big words,” says freshman Karissa Fraulo, who uses the LINCS Vocabulary Strategy to master vocabulary in the hairdressing program at Platt Technical High School.

This year, the focus of the district’s efforts turned to a structured approach to improving school climate, a process made easier by the improvements already in place for teaching and learning.

With each successful step, the district has won over skeptics and challenged the belief that most school initiatives are destined to be short lived.

“This hasn’t gone away,” says Darleen Foley. “We are very excited about it. We have seen tremendous results with our students.”