The Classroom-Focused 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 mehickey@towson.edu

2. Part 1: What are we trying to do and why? mehickey@towson.edu

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? mehickey@towson.edu

4. Education’s Paradigm Shift • From processto results: Schools no longer judged by the processes in which educators engage, but by the results that students achieve • From someto all: Schools no longer just responsible for universal access to education, but for universal proficiency in learning mehickey@towson.edu

5. Education’s Perfect Storm • Standards-based reform • No Child Left Behind • Rigorous state-level reform efforts mehickey@towson.edu

6. Data-driven schools and school districts use data for two major purposes: • Accountability (to prove) • School Improvement (to improve) mehickey@towson.edu

7. The Hierarchy of Data for Accountability Purposes State & National Assessments System Assessments School Assessments Classroom Assessments of Student Work mehickey@towson.edu

8. The Hierarchy of Data for School Improvement Purposes Classroom Assessments of Student Work School Assessments System Assessments State & National Assessments mehickey@towson.edu

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? mehickey@towson.edu

10. Think about it . . . Do you have a school improvement plan? Or a school accountability plan? A SIP? Or a SAP? mehickey@towson.edu

11. THE GPS ANALOGY mehickey@towson.edu

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in needs within and between grade levels and subject areas • Annual planning cycle is too long • Data used in SIP is out-of-date when used and effectiveness of plan in improving performance is not known until the next state assessment • Teachers must be able to identify and respond to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 mehickey@towson.edu

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. mehickey@towson.edu

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 mehickey@towson.edu

15. CFIP is an instructional planning process that is: • Grade-level/Department-level team based • Reflective • Collaborative • Data-driven • Recursive • Short-cycle • Sustainable mehickey@towson.edu

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 mehickey@towson.edu

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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 mehickey@towson.edu

19. Let's take a look . . . at what “. . . increasingly concrete and precise talk about teaching practice . . .” really looks like mehickey@towson.edu

20. IS IT WORTH THE EFFORT? Take a look at the following results, then you tell me mehickey@towson.edu

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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. mehickey@towson.edu

26. Part 2: Creating the Culture for the CFIP Model to Function mehickey@towson.edu

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 don’t • Teachers don’t exactly know which students are really getting it--and they couldn’t do much about them anyway • Assessments—and grading standards—left up to individual teachers • External interventions are usually the first resort • “I taught the lesson. It is their problem if they don’t learn it.” Much is left to chance. mehickey@towson.edu

28. Education Before Standards mehickey@towson.edu

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. mehickey@towson.edu

30. Education After Standards mehickey@towson.edu

31. The Classroom-Focused Improvement Process is the work that professional learning communities do. mehickey@towson.edu

32. A professional learning community is not an organizational structure. It is a WAY OF DOING BUSINESS. mehickey@towson.edu

33. 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 “. . . A WAY OF DOING BUSINESS”From To mehickey@towson.edu

34. 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 “. . . A WAY OF DOING BUSINESS”From To mehickey@towson.edu

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 mehickey@towson.edu

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. mehickey@towson.edu

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. mehickey@towson.edu

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. mehickey@towson.edu

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 resources—including time—that support schools in creating conditions that support collaboration. mehickey@towson.edu

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. mehickey@towson.edu

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. mehickey@towson.edu

42. What can I do to nurture a professional learning community? mehickey@towson.edu

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. mehickey@towson.edu

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. mehickey@towson.edu

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 mehickey@towson.edu

46. Create meaningful collaboration • Embedded in daily routine • Guided by vision • Informed by data • Supported by training and professional development mehickey@towson.edu

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) mehickey@towson.edu