formerly national educational service district office and professional learning communities march...

formerly National Educational Service www.solution-tree.com

District Office and Professional Learning

Communities

March 30, 2007

Dr. Dennis King

[email protected]


The norms for our school are not like the norms for other schools…we expect

our school to do things differently.

»Fred Newman


Current Reality Vs Our Ideal School


Connecting the Strategic Plan to Each Student

District - Strategic Plan District Mission, Vision, Goals, Targets

School Improvement PlanMission, Vision, SMART Goals,

Initiatives, Interventions

Grade Level, Department CollaborationTeam Protocols, Goals and Interventions

Essential Questions of a PLC


District School Improvement Model

• What are the essential components of a school improvement model in your school district?

• How are they implemented?• Are they standardized throughout

each school?• How do you guarantee the district

curriculum is being taught?


“The real voyage of discovery consists, not of seeking new landscapes, but in seeing through new eyes”

Marcel Proust


Curriculum Mapping

Assessment FOR Learning

Instruction

Literacy

Traditional Model of School Improvement

Q


LiteracyAssessment

Instruction

Unit/CurriculumDesi

gn

Professional Learning CommunitiesStudent Support

Foundation, Collaboration, Results OrientationInterventions, SMART Goals

Grade Level or

Dept.

Grade Level or

Dept.

GradeLevel or

Dept.

Grade Level or

Dept.

Grade Level or

Dept.

GradeLevel or

Dept.

Grade Level or

Dept.

Grade Level or

Dept.

Professional Development PlanProfessional Learning Communities

Assessment LiteracyUnit/CurriculumDesi

gn

School Improvement/Professional Development & PLC’s

Instruction


Professional Learning CommunitiesStudent Support


Foundation for School ImprovementProfessional Learning Communities


• Mission, Vision, Values, Goals• Process for School Improvement

– Collaborative teams throughout the district – grade level and departmental

– Developed team protocols to allow teams to function as teams vs. groups

• School Improvement Plans – alignment


• School Professional Development Plans Aligned to District Initiatives and School Improvement Plans

• Focused Professional Development Embedded within the Collaborative Team

• Professional Development Initiatives

Professional Development PlanProfessional Learning Communities

Curriculum Mapping

Assessment FOR

LearningInstruction Literacy


Curriculum Mapping

• What we want students to learn?– Curriculum Management

System – Curriculum– Diary Mapping (content, skills,

assessments)– Read Through– Aligned to State

Standards/Indicators


Assessment

• Assessment FOR Learning– Five Keys to Highly Effective Assessment

• Clear Purpose• Clear Targets – knowledge, skills,

reasoning and products• Good Design• Sound Communication• Student Involvement

– Assessment Methods

• Measures of Academic Progress (MAP)


Literacy

• Reading Continuum• Essentials

– Reading– Writing– Communication


Instruction

• Permeates throughout the initiatives

• Teacher “tool kit”• Researched Based

Strategies


Special Education Placement

Screening and Evaluation

for Special Education

Problem Solving Team

Systematic School Interventions How does the school respond when students don’t get it?

Grade Level / Department/Classroom Interventions - SMART Goals

Early Interventions – What do we need to know prior to the start of school?

INTERVENTION PYRAMID

• District Interventions


District Interventions

• District Interventions– AVID– READ 180– Larsen Math– Personal Plans of Progress– High School Advisory– K-12 Reading Continuum

• Language Program– Early Intervention Summer School


Implementation of Professional Development

Embedding Professional DevelopmentHow do we act as a team?

Establish Team ProtocolsWhat do students need to know?

Curriculum Mapping and Unit DesignHow do we know students have learned?

Assessment For Learning What do we do if they haven’t learned?

Instruction/InterventionsWhat do we do if they have learned?

Differentiation


Aligning the School Improvement Plans to the School Improvement

Process

Mission - Why we exist?

Vision - What we want to become?

SMART Goals - Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Results Oriented, Time-

bound

Initiatives - What do we need to do to reach the desired results? (District and School)

InterventionsCollaboration


Developing a School Improvement Plan

• Model Plans• Rubric• How do we begin?


Culture

• What is culture?• How do we define culture in a PLC?• How is culture defined in your

school?


Pyramid of Intervention Strategies

Least Restrictive

Most Restrictive


Interventions

As a school – How do you respond when a student doesn’t learn?

As a department – How do you respond when a student doesn’t learn?

As a teacher – How do you respond when a student doesn’t learn?


Special Education Placement

Screening and Evaluation

for Special Education

Problem Solving Team

Systematic School Interventions How does the school respond when students don’t get it?

Grade Level / Department/Classroom Interventions - SMART Goals

Early Interventions – What do we need to know prior to the start of school?

INTERVENTION PYRAMID

• District Interventions


StudentStudentLearningLearningProblemProblem

Using the Data Protocol to Identify Student Learning Problems

Aggregate / Summary Reports

Disaggregated resultsStrand / Indicator

Item Analysis

Student Work

Triangulate Student Learning Data

1 2 3

/Curriculum maps

/Classroom Assessments

The Data Protocol is most effective when used within a PLC to develop Grade-level or Departmental interventions.


Initiatives

Instruction

Data Driven Decisions

Pyramid

of

Interventions

Professional Professional Learning Learning CommunitiesCommunities

Strategic Plan

Mission, Vision, Goals


Professional Professional Learning Learning CommunitiesCommunities

SPED

Strategic PlanPersonalized Learning & Academic Growth

District Data

District Interventions

(Read 180, Advisories)

School Improvement

Plan

School Goals

School Data

KSA, MAP

School Interventions

(Structured Study Hall, etc.)

Department/Grade Level Goals

Grade/Department

Data

Common Assessments, Curriculum Maps

Dept./Grade level Interventions

Teacher

Data

Formative Assessments, Student work, etc.

Instruction, Literacy, Unit Design, Interventions, etc.


Team Protocol Timeline

• Week 2 – Team Norms / Consensus• Week 4 – Team Vision• Week 6 – SMART Goal• Week 8 – Team Interventions• Week 9 –


Leading and Following Through Change


Leading and Following through Change

• What are the implications for leaders? What should we be doing?

• What are the implications for followers? What should they be doing?

• What are the implications for the system? What gets in the way of moving forward?


Myth vs. Realities of Change

• Myth – Everyone wants to embrace change because the organization wants to change

• Realities– Most people act first in their own self interest, not in the

interest of the organization– Most people do not want to understand the What and

Why of organizational change– Most people engage in organizational change because of

their own pain, not because of the merits of change» Jerry Patterson, Coming Even Clearer About Organizational Change


Leading through Change

All my life, I assumed that somebody, somewhere knew the answer to the problem. I thought politicians knew but refused to do it … but now I

realize that nobody knows the answer. (Senge, 1990)


How has the concept of our leadership practice

changed?


How has the leadership model changed?

• From hierarchical leadership-decisions are best made at the top

to • distributive leadership-enlisting more

of the professional staff to assume leadership roles

• servant leadership-a sincere desire to work in service to the needs of others

• stewardship-holding in trust the authority and responsibilities we have been given


What did Jim Collins find in their five year research project on great

organizations?

• Any system is designed to produce exactly what it produces.

• To change performance, we must change the system, and this requires new approaches to leadership.

• Good is the enemy of great!



organizations?

• The good to great organizations did not focus principally on what to do; they focused equally on what not to do and what to stop doing.

• They created a culture of discipline where disciplined people meant less hierarchy, bureaucracy, control.



organizations?

• They had leadership that was a blend of humility and professional will.

• They believed that you first had to get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats and then figure out where to drive.

• They realized that the concept of “good is the enemy of great” is not just an organizational problem – it is a human problem.



organizations?

• They put their best people on their biggest opportunities, not their biggest problems.

• They created a climate where truth was heard through questions, dialogue, autopsies not blame, and red flags.

• They created from complexity a single organizing idea that unified and guided everything.


Michael Fullan’s lessons for leading complex change?

• Give up the idea that the pace of change will slow down

• Coherence making is a never-ending proposition and is everyone’s responsibility

• Changing context is the focus• Premature clarity is a dangerous thing


Michael Fullan’s - lessons for leading complex change?

• The public’s thirst for transparency is irreversible

• You can’t get large-scale reform through bottom-up strategies – but beware of the trap

• Mobilize the social attractors – moral purpose, quality relationships, quality knowledge

• Charismatic leadership is negatively associated with sustainability


What is the overriding theme present in all

research on improving student and teacher success and in reforming our schools

to help all students learn?Leadership!!!


Having thought about these attributes of great leaders and

understood that leaders are made “more by themselves than

any external means”, what is the evolution of your

professional practice at this point in your career? How would

you characterize your current practice?


Change is Complex!

• Any significant innovation, if it is to result in true change, requires individual implementers to work out their own meaning.

Michael Fullan


PLC School Improvement

Knowing

Doing

Being


What we know today does

not make yesterday wrong,

it makes tomorrow

better. Carol Commodore

formerly national educational service district office and professional learning communities march...

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