Standard Two
A school administrator is an educational leader who promotes the success of all students by advocating, nurturing, and sustaining a school culture and instructional program conducive to student learning and staff professional growth.
Title: Creating a Community of Learners
Questions:
1.What are some innovative ways that professional development is approached through the use of Professional Learning Communities (PLCs)?
2. How can PLCs meet the needs of a variety of students from grades Pre-K through 12th grade?
3. What are some of the results of implementing PLCs?
Performance Objectives Demonstrated
THE ADMINISTRATOR FACILITATES PROCESS AND ENGAGES IN ACTIVITIES ENSURING THAT
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All individuals are treated with fairness, respect, and dignity.
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Professional development promotes a focus on student learning consistent with the school vision and goals.
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Students and staff feel valued and important.
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The responsibilities and contributions of each individual are acknowledged.
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Barriers to student learning are identified,clarified, and addressed.
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There is a culture of high expectations for self, student, and staff performance.
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Technologies are used in teaching and learning.
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Multiple opportunities to learn are available to all students.
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The school is organized and aligned for success.
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Curriculum decisions are based on research, expertise of teachers, and the recommendations of learned societies.
- A variety of sources of information is used to make decisions.
Description of the case:
The school system that is the focus of the case study is one of the smallest in the state and serves approximately 600 students per year from grades PreK through 12. This school is truly under one roof and has been recognized as a Title I Distinguished District in the past. Previously we have had only one full time administrator at the school level. The school principal has served our school as the administrator for the last seven school years. During her tenure as principal, Mrs. Gogetter has served as the building level administrator for the following grants: REA K-3 (Reading) Grant, Consolidated School Reform (CSRD)K-12, Title II-D Wireless 1:1 Technology (eMath 3-5), Low Incident Grant for Special Needs Individuals, Differentiated Instruction, Using the Team Teaching Method for Inclusion of Special Education, and Using Tiered Interventions. Many of these grants are the driving force behind the staff development of both the teachers and the paraprofessionals.
For the past three years, Small County Consolidated School (SCCS), professional learning communities have been central to the learning for the adults involved in student instruction. Teacher leaders attended staff development during the summer that was centered around the focus of the school's staff development. During the first year, the teachers were grouped with those teaching similar grades. The high school teachers met with other high school teachers; middle school teachers met with other middle school teachers; and elementary teachers met with other elementary teachers. The focus of these groups were to read instructional practices developed by research done by Robert Marzano and compiled in professional literature of What Works In School. They also explored the SREB (Southern Regional Education Board) text Literacy Across the Curriculum. The focus of teacher learning and the common thread between these two pieces of professional literature was the use of graphic organizers, notes, and creating visual images to improve student retention. Teachers were asked to read the literature and implement the practices in their classrooms. Teachers created portfolios on three students, one that was high performing, one that was an average performer, and one that was a low performing student. Teachers shared with their age level group. By providing this professional dialogue among the teachers, teachers expressed their attainment of skills and ideas on ways to implement them in a variety of subject areas. It began a time of teachers discussing what was good about the work and how it met the standard. This professional dialogue was excellent in standards exploration. It also allowed teachers to explore their own leadership capablity without the principal being the sole focus of the group. This is mainly due in part to several groups meeting during the same time. Because a great deal of these meetings took place for one hour after the school day, there was a make-up meeting in the early morning before school for those who missed their scheduled meeting and those that coached and met with their team after school. All of the meetings are run by teacher leaders, with the exception of the make up meeting which is lead by the principal.
During the next couple of years, the principal looked at different ways to incorporate teacher focus groups during the school day. The teachers met on more than one occasion on a day that students were released early principal from school. The principal also arranged for paraprofessionals to cover classes for professional development meetings, as well as using staff development days that were built into the school calendar. The school staff continued using the strategies from the first year and implemented new strategies during years two and three. The second year the focus was on differentiating instruction and the work of Carol Ann Tomlinson. In year, three the teachers' focus was on inclusion. As year four approaches, the direction of professional development will combine several of these same ideas and utilize the "Pyramids of Intervention" strategy to ensure each child's success.
Answers to the Questions
1. What are some innovative ways that professional development is approached through the use of Professional Learning Communities (PLCs)?
I think the thing that is most innovative about a Professional Learning Community is the way teachers and administrators are continually looking at their practice and reflecting upon better ways and fresh ideas to utilize in a variety of settings. With this particular school, the professional groups were organized by the age of their students or within the subjects that they teach. I think that another good point to bring out is that this gets the teachers talking about the work and the focus of the learning at each grade level. This can give teachers ideas of the previous knowledge that a child brings to the table with them or that they might need to provide for future instruction. I think the professional dialogue that comes from this type of learning is so important, especially for new teachers with very little experience. To make them successful, we must put all of the safety nets that we can in place for them.
Another innovative piece to PLCs is the fact that teachers are the "leaders" of these meetings. While the principal is the "leader" of the school, the shared governance approach to utilizing the skills and talents of others is pertinent to ensuring the success of the entire school. Currently, I am exploring the idea of utilizing "Focus Walks" where groups of teachers will go into classrooms and make suggestions, as well as express things that are positive within the classroom. I have been a part of such walks in a previous school that I worked in and it was extremely successful. I think that sometimes being reflective means looking at yourself, your classroom, and your students through a different pair of eyes. As educators, we should not feel impaired by having other educators in our room, but empowered by demonstrating our successes and ability to want to learn from the situation. What a lesson that can be for our students, as well!
2. How can PLCs meet the needs of a variety of students from grades Pre-K through 12th grade?
From the research of both Marzano and Tomlinson, it is proven that students learn in a variety of ways. The strategies and lessons learned from these research based authors demonstrate that teachers must change their practice from time to time to keep up with the changes in technology and society as a whole. Children today have an entirely different life than we did 20 years ago. Their needs and learning habits have changed as well. As truly educated people, those in the field of education must realize that change is inevitble. We must change to keep up with our students, appreciate their differences, and teach to the way they learn best, not the way we think we teach the best. The studies that SCCS has worked on is focusing on the diversity of the students they teach, whether that be racial differences, learning differences, or gender differences.
3. What are some of the results of implementing PLCs?
For the faculty of SCCS, the collegial dialogue has increased tremendously. There is feedback in a variety of ways. Some of the feedback is teacher-to-teacher feedback, teacher-to-student feedback, and principal-to-teacher feedback. The teachers have learned to talk to and confide in each other about successes and struggles in the classroom. Teacher leadership and the desire to look for answers within their study group has resulted due to the PLCs. Increased understanding and retention of the subject matter has been demonstrated by the student portfolios kept in the middle and high school grade levels. The high school has has a tremendous amount of success with writing and Georgia High School Graduation Test results in the area of language arts. During the 2004-05 school year, 97% of juniors passed the GHSGT writing portion on their first attempt and 100% passed the Language Arts portion of the GHSGT. During the 2005-06 year, GHSGT writing was at 100%, as was the language arts portion of the GHSGT. During 2006-07 school year, 95% passed the GHSGT writing, and 93% passed the language arts portion of the GHSGT. Incidently, 83% of the students scored pass plus (or above the standard) on the language arts portion during the 2006-07 school year which I feel is directly related to the teaching strategies being practiced by the high school English teachers at SCCS. The middle grades students and the elementary grades students have also found success utilizing the learning strategies suggested by Marzano, Tomlinson, and the SREB.
Evaluation of Leadership Style
The level of performance in this case study is proficient. There are several reasons that I feel that the level of performance demonstrates proficiency. First, the principal is making decisions about staff development that encourages the use of several well known research-based instructional strategies with the professional literature and research to back it up. The professional learning is led by teachers that have had previous staff development. This helps teachers buy into the ideas and utilize them with good results in their own classroom. Teachers work together and discuss the success they find within their classroom. It is also helpful and reinforces ownership by having a support group for those who struggle with any problems that can arise from implementation. It gives all teachers, regardless of their years of experience, a voice in saying what works with the student they teach at SCCS.
Another reason that I feel that the level of leadership for this standard is proficient is the development of strategies that are used to tailor lessons for the diverse backgrounds and challenges facing students. Through differentiated instructional strategies, teachers looked at ways to increase student involvement by creating lessons to engage students with varying learning styles and interests. This allows students to have ownership of their work and for them to internalize their understandings. Also, with the use of strategies to make special education students be successful in an inclusion environment, the teachers have lowered the student teacher ratio for many students, whether they are special education or not. Thus, it is not intended to only help the special education students, but all students in the class.
Finally, there is a great deal of technology that is being incorporated into the curriculum, in all age groups. In the 3rd through 5th grade classrooms, all the teachers have been equipped with ACTIVboards and numerous computers to teach mathematics due to the eMath grant that the school has received. What a blessing that many of these teachers have at their disposal for math, but they can also use them to engage students in other subject areas as well. The school also utilizes computer technology in the middle school and high school level for multimedia projects that develop the skills and understandings of their students. This appeals to many diverse learning styles. The principal encourages the teachers exploration as facilitators of learning rather than having so many teacher focused, notetaking lessons. She visits classrooms on a regular basis, several times each week, to develop her perception of the involvement of these teaching strategies and to lend her support to help teachers find success implementing the teaching strategies that the school studies.
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"You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives." ~Clay P. Bedford
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