The ClassroomFocused Improvement Process in a Professional Learning Community

1
The Classroom-Focused Improvement Process in a
Professional Learning Community

• Maryland Assessment Group
• Annual Conference
• November 16, 2007
• Dr. Mike Hickey
• Center for Leadership in Education

2
Part 1 What are we trying to do and why?
3
Think about how long you have been engaged in the
school improvement process. Has the school gotten
better each year? Has the performance of each
student improved as a result of each year he/she
spends in the school? If your answer to both
questions is no, what will it take to change it
to yes?
4
Educations Paradigm Shift

• From process to results Schools no longer
  judged by the processes in which educators
  engage, but by the results that students achieve
• From some to all Schools no longer just
  responsible for universal access to education,
  but for universal proficiency in learning

5
Educations Perfect Storm

• Standards-based reform
• No Child Left Behind
• Rigorous state-level reform efforts

6
Data-driven schools and school districts use data
for two major purposes

• Accountability (to prove)
• School Improvement (to improve)

7
The Hierarchy of Data for Accountability Purposes
State National Assessments System
Assessments School Assessments Classroom
Assessments of Student Work
8
The Hierarchy of Data for School Improvement
Purposes
Classroom Assessments of Student Work School
Assessments System Assessments State National
Assessments
9
Your School Improvement Plan

• Is it based on data? Which ones?
• Does it change daily instructional practice by
  enabling teachers to respond in real time to
  student assessment data?
• Does it build capacity at the grade/department
  team level?

10
Think about it . . .
Do you have a school improvement plan?
Or a school accountability plan?
A SIP?
Or a SAP?
11
THE GPS ANALOGY
12
5 Reasons for Improving School Improvement

• SIP results in broad strategies to improve
  student performance on average
• School-wide plan does not consider wide variation
  in needs within and between grade levels and
  subject areas
• Annual planning cycle is too long
• Data used in SIP is out-of-date when used and
  effectiveness of plan in improving performance is
  not known until the next state assessment
• Teachers must be able to identify and respond to
  student needs on a real-time basis, daily if
  necessary

13
The School Improvement Team (SIT) as typically
constituted is designed to do exactly what its
name implies IMPROVE THE SCHOOL. It is not
designed to improve instruction at the classroom
level. That is the focus of the grade-level team
or department.
14
Core Functions of the SIT

• Keep the vision alive
• Develop monitor school-wide plan for meeting
  state accountability standards
• Build a data-driven culture
• Establish priority focus on instruction
• Provide a safe and supportive environment for all
  students
• Connect school with parents stakeholders
• Provide needed resources

15
CFIP is an instructional planning process that is

• Grade-level/Department-level team based
• Reflective
• Collaborative
• Data-driven
• Recursive
• Short-cycle
• Sustainable

16
How the Classroom-focused Improvement Process
(CFIP) Works

• Focus on important learning problem
• Devise strategy to collect data to identify the
  root cause of the problem
• Analyze the data
• Take action based on what is learned
• Collect data to see if action taken has
  influenced the identified problem
• Process is interactive and recursive
• Process occurs at grade level team or subject
  team level

17
(No Transcript)
18
School improvement is most surely and thoroughly
achieved when teachers engage in frequent,
continuous, and increasingly concrete and precise
talk about teaching practice . . . adequate to
the complexities of teaching, capable of
distinguishing one practice and its virtue from
another. --Judith Warren Little
19
Let's take a look . . .
at what . . . increasingly concrete and precise
talk about teaching practice . . . really looks
like
20
IS IT WORTH THE EFFORT?
Take a look at the following results, then you
tell me
21
(No Transcript)
22
(No Transcript)
23
(No Transcript)
24
(No Transcript)
25
Caveats about CFIP

• It is a paradigm shift from traditional lesson
  planning format.
• It is not easy, especially at first.
• Follow the steps faithfully until they become
  second nature.
• The CFIP is a guide until you make the process
  your own.
• Expect mistakes and imprecision in the data.
• The results are worth the effort.

26
Part 2 Creating the Culture for the CFIP Model
to Function
27
The Traditional Way of Working

• Curriculum left up to individual schools or
  even teachers
• Teachers broadcast content and move on-- few
  opportunities to tailor to individual needs
• Some students get it and some dont
• Teachers dont exactly know which students are
  really getting it--and they couldnt do much
  about them anyway
• Assessmentsand grading standardsleft up to
  individual teachers
• External interventions are usually the first
  resort
• I taught the lesson. It is their problem if
  they dont learn it.

Much is left to chance.
28
Education Before Standards
29
High-Performing Schools

• Agree about goals for student learning
• Monitor student learning more frequently
• Pay attention to data on individual students and
  teachers in order to identify problems
• Provide extra help to students who need it
• Line up resources to support good instruction
• Acknowledge that teaching only happens when
  learning takes place

Little is left to chance.
30
Education After Standards
31
The Classroom-Focused Improvement Process is the
work that professional learning communities do.
32
A professional learning community is not an
organizational structure. It is a WAY OF DOING
BUSINESS.
33
. . . A WAY OF DOING BUSINESS
From To

• Focus on teaching
• Emphasis on what was taught
• Coverage of content
• Curriculum planned in isolation
• Infrequent summative assessments
• Focus on average scores

• Focus on learning
• Fixation on what students learned
• Demonstration of proficiency
• Shared knowledge of essential curriculum
• Frequent common formative assessments
• Monitoring individual proficiency on every
  essential skill

34
. . . A WAY OF DOING BUSINESSFrom To

• Remediation
• One opportunity to demonstrate learning
• Isolation
• Each teacher assigning priority to different
  learning standards
• Privatization of practice
• Focus on inputs

• Intervention
• Multiple opportunities
• Collaboration
• Teams determining priority of learning standards
• Sharing of practice
• Focus on results

35
Attributes of a Professional Learning Community

• Shared and Supportive Leadership
• Shared Values and Vision
• Collective Learning and Application of Learning
• Supportive Conditions
• Shared Personal Practice
• 
  --Shirley Hord, 1997

36
Supportive and Shared Leadership

• Principals support a collegial relationship with
  teachers, share power and decision-making, and
  promote and nurture leadership development among
  staff.
• Central Office sustains and supports collegial
  relationship with schools by balancing
  accountability with autonomy and providing
  resources schools require to meet their needs.

37
Shared Values and Vision

• An unwavering focus on student learning guides
  decisions about teaching and learning, and
  promotes accountability for actions.
• District vision clearly acknowledges that the
  mission of the school system is accomplished in
  the schools and that the vision is unequivocally
  teaching and learning of the highest quality.

38
Collective Learning and Application of Learning

• People at all levels work collaboratively to
  solve problems and improve learning
  opportunities. Together they seek new knowledge
  and skills, as well as applying the new learning
  to their work.
• Central Office models collaborative problem
  solving in working both collectively and
  individually with schools.

39
Supportive Conditions

• Within the school, physical/structural
  conditions, as well as personal and professional
  interactions, support the collaborative work of
  school staff.
• Central Office provides resourcesincluding
  timethat support schools in creating conditions
  that support collaboration.

40
Shared Personal Practice

• Teacher interaction occurs within a formalized
  structure to provide encouragement and feedback
  on instructional practices in an atmosphere of
  mutual respect and trust.
• Central Office supervision and evaluation is
  based on a developmental model that emphasizes
  feedback to support continuous improvement and
  provides resources necessary for that purpose.

41
4 Big Ideas about PLCs

• A professional learning community is not a thing
  rather, it is a way of doing business.
• Change requires learning, and learning motivates
  change.
• When staff work and learn within professional
  learning communities, continuous improvement
  becomes an embedded value.
• Professional learning communities exist when each
  of the five dimensions are in place and working
  interdependently together.

42
What can I do to nurture a professional learning
community?
43
Understand the complexity of the change process

• Change is often accompanied by uncertainty,
  anxiety and problems, which are conditions that
  are certain to lead to conflict.
• Conflict is essential, and indicates that
  substantial change is occurring, not just
  superficial change.

44
Develop and communicate a sense of urgency

• Not just a crisis, but an urgency to make
  changes identify the need
• Urgency includes a sense of purpose, a shared
  vision, a collective commitment and an absence of
  complacency.

45
Creating a common vision

• Include all stakeholders
• Co-create the vision through a collaborative
  process
• Be informed by data identify the urgency
• People will support what they help to create

46
Create meaningful collaboration

• Embedded in daily routine
• Guided by vision
• Informed by data
• Supported by training and professional development

47
The Learning Organization
Learning organizations are organizations where
people continually expand their capacity to
create the results they truly desire, where new
and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured,
where collective aspiration is set free, and
where people are continually learning to see the
whole together. --Peter Senge The
Fifth Discipline (1990)