IR 1C: How Do We Know It’s Working? Measuring Academic Discourse with South San Francisco Unified School District & Partners in School Innovation

Note: If you attend this session, your lunch will be after this session -- from 12:45-1:45 p.m. -- in the High Tech Elementary Gym ("Round 2 Lunch"). This session focuses on how South San Francisco Unified is working to improve student learning by making academic discourse a consistent practice across schools, with a focus on equitable gains for multilingual learners and other vulnerable students. Building from early success at Parkway Middle School, the district is spreading structured discussion practices while testing different ways to measure their quality and impact. The team is grappling with how to capture the depth of student discourse—not just how often it occurs—and how to link changes in teaching practice to meaningful student learning outcomes in practical, trust-building ways. SESSION FORMAT NOTE: Improvement Reviews are a powerful routine that supports team learning and organizational change. Presenters share an improvement effort in progress, reflect on data and learning, pose a dilemma, and receive expert feedback. Led by Summit facilitators in a fishbowl format, these sessions allow attendees to experience the routine, learn from the presenting team, and gain insights for their own improvement work. Improvement Reviews are a key way we “walk our talk” as a learning community that celebrates and pushes each other’s work. Facilitator: Herumakhi Mutefnout Reviewers: Sola Takahashi, Zachary Jaffe Improvement Review Protocol