STANDARDS ASSESSMENT INVENTORY
Recommendations: Outcomes Standard
This resource brief is designed to support next actions for those educators who are using their
results from the Standards Assessment Inventory 2 to improve professional learning. This brief
includes an overview of the standard, next steps for continuous improvement in three
categories, and tools and readings that support improvement in each of those categories.
With support from
Standards Assessment Inventory Recommendations: Outcomes Standard Outcomes standard overview
Professional learning that increases educator effectiveness and results for all students aligns
its outcomes with educator performance and student curriculum standards.
Standards, whether for student learning or educator and administrator performance, are
established to define a desired level of excellence or competence: They provide, clarify, and
raise a common set of expectations for students and educators. When professional learning
content integrates student learning standards and educator performance standards, an
indelible link is established between educator learning and improvements in student learning.
The Outcomes standard focuses on three essential elements: (1) meeting educator
performance standards, (2) addressing learning outcomes, and (3) building coherence.
Meet performance standards. Educator performance standards typically delineate the
knowledge, skills, practices, and dispositions of highly effective educators. These standards
have multiple purposes, including guiding preparation programs, establishing licensing and
certification requirements, defining components for induction programs, shaping expectations
for classroom practices, and clarifying evaluation indicators.
Educator standards establish a system of preparation and ongoing development to ensure that
every student has an excellent teacher. These standards encompass:
•
The knowledge addressed in student content standards and pedagogy;
•
Pedagogical skills to help each child attain high levels of achievement;
•
The knowledge and use of a variety of assessments;
•
Understanding how students learn and how to address learning for students from
different genders and diverse cultures, languages, socioeconomic backgrounds, and
exceptionalities;
•
The knowledge of how cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development
influences student learning;
•
The knowledge and skills to engage families and the community to reinforce student
learning;
Learning Forward 2 Standards Assessment Inventory Recommendations: Outcomes Standard •
Understanding how to establish a learning environment;
•
The knowledge and disposition to develop throughout a career; and
•
The knowledge and disposition to collaborate with colleagues.
School and system leaders also have defined performance standards that delineate what
effective leaders know and can do to create a school culture that enables each student and
educator to perform at high levels. These standards are used in similar ways for preparation
programs, licensing, certification, practices, and evaluation. Leadership standards include
•
Establishing a vision and strategic plan for student success;
•
Developing a workplace culture that supports and spurs learning;
•
Establishing effective relationships and communication;
•
Promoting and managing change initiatives;
•
Managing facilities, operations, and resources to accomplish goals;
•
Understanding and responding to diverse student needs;
•
Engaging staff and families in decision making; and
•
Sustaining individual, team, school, and whole system accountability for student
success
Address learning outcomes. Student learning outcomes define the content knowledge and
skills that every student should acquire. These standards also hold educators accountable for
knowing the curricular content and using strategies that
support that content. Deciding on the focus of professional
learning begins with an analysis of student learning needs;
with addressing student needs as the goal, educator learning
needs are determined next. The professional learning goal
establishes what educators need to know and be able to do
to support high levels of student learning. The core content
of professional learning is the content knowledge,
instructional strategies, and assessment practices that
support student learning. Research has confirmed that a
Learning Forward Professional Learning Process
1. Analyze and identify what
students need to know and
be able to do.
2. Diagnose what educators
need to know and be able to
do to ensure student success.
3. Identify professional
learning content and
strategies so that educators
acquire the necessary
knowledge and skills.
3 Standards Assessment Inventory Recommendations: Outcomes Standard significant factor in raising academic achievement is the improvement of teachers’ instructional
capacity in the classroom. Best practice has also shown that educators who experience
frequent, rich learning opportunities teach in more ambitious and effective ways.
Build coherence. Many educators’ experiences lead them to consider professional learning as a
series of random, erratic, and fragmented activities. When there is a direct linkage between
what students need to learn and the content and process of professional learning, educators
will see the value of continuous improvement of their practices. This alignment between
educator and student learning is desirable because it builds coherence between the reality of
what happens in a teacher’s classroom and the development of his or her professional
practices. It reinforces the belief that educators’ instructional abilities benefit student learning.
Coherence is also attained when the knowledge and skills first developed in preparation
programs are followed by other learning activities that help educators continue to grow in their
content knowledge and pedagogical practices. Finally, a triangulation between student
learning goals, teacher evaluation standards, and professional learning content and processes
produces a view of professional learning as systematic, predictable, and beneficial.
Next steps for continuous improvement
There are a number of actions to take to improve the school’s student and educator outcomes.
These strategies will be provided in three sections—1) Developing—Ideas for the school to
begin focusing on teacher and student learning outcomes; 2) Strengthening—ideas for the
school to strengthen or enhance current teacher and student learning outcomes; and 3)
Comprehensive—ideas that might be helpful to all schools’ professional learning outcomes.
The tools listed under each strategy follow this narrative of actions and strategies and are included
in this packet.
Learning Forward 4 Standards Assessment Inventory Recommendations: Outcomes Standard Developing
1. School leadership teams integrate school improvement and professional learning work
by using the student learning goal as the foundation for determining the professional
learning goal and content. They may want to read about more powerful strategies for
using student data to determine professional development goals and content.
•
“Aligning student learning needs and professional learning goals.” (2012).
Standards Assessment Inventory 2: Recommendations: The Outcomes standard, by
Learning Forward. Oxford, OH: Author.
•
“Extreme makeover: Needs assessment edition,” by Pat Roy. (2008, February). The
Learning Principal, 3 (5), 3.
•
“Data use: Data-driven decision making takes a big-picture view of the needs of
teachers and students,” by Victoria L. Bernhardt. (2009, Winter). JSD, 30 (1), 24-27.
•
“What are data?” (2008). Team to teach: A facilitator’s guide to professional learning
teams, by Anne Jolly. Oxford, OH: NSDC.
•
“Mix it up: Variety is key to well-rounded data analysis plan,” by Lois Brown Easton.
(2008, Fall). JSD, 29 (4), 21-24.
•
“Data analysis protocol. (2011). Minds in motion: Creating a community of collaborative
learners. Oxford, OH: Learning Forward and Rochester City School District.
•
“Crafting data summary statements.” (2000, October/November). Tools for Schools, 4 (2),
4-5.
•
“Moving from needs to goals.” (2000, October/November). Tools for Schools, 4 (2), 4-5.
2. A diagnosis of educator knowledge and practices should be conducted to determine an
appropriate professional learning goal—in other words, what do educators need to
know and be able to do to help students accomplish their learning goal? School
leadership teams may want to read about strategies that can help a school collect data
about current practices to help determine strengths and needs among faculty members.
•
Tools for Schools. (2006, August/September). The entire issue is devoted to using
walk-throughs as a strategy for collecting data about a school’s success in
achieving its goals.
Learning Forward 5 Standards Assessment Inventory Recommendations: Outcomes Standard •
“Implementation: Learning builds the bridge between research and practice,” by
Gene E. Hall and Shirley M. Hord. (2011, August). JSD, 32(4), 52-57.
•
“What concerns do you have?” by Pat Roy. (2008, October). The Learning Principal,
4(2), 3.
•
“Customize learning for each audience,” by Pat Roy. (2005, December/January).
Results, 3.
Strengthening
1. School leadership teams seek congruence between professional learning and other school
improvement initiatives. This might take a little detective work, but the effort will help staff
members understand the commonalities of the goals and the processes of different
programs. Learning to implement one new strategy might fulfill the requirements of two or
more programs. These strategies might be seen as “power” strategies that help educators
and students in multiple ways.
•
“Seeking congruence.” (2012). Standards Assessment Inventory 2:
Recommendations: The Outcomes standard, by Learning Forward. Oxford, OH:
Author.
2. Effective planning is required to attain the desired professional learning outcomes of
improved educator practice and student learning. The implications for professional learning
mean that more effort is required than simply shifting from a workshop model to using
professional learning teams; many other steps must be thought through and prepared for.
Learn about the Backmapping Model for Planning Results-Based Professional Learning. This
model describes seven steps needed to accomplish outcomes. After reviewing the
components, school leadership teams identify one or two that need to be addressed,
studied, and improved. They decide how to incorporate those components into the school’s
plan.
•
“Chapter 9: Planning effective professional learning.” Becoming a learning school,
by Joellen Killion and Patricia Roy. Oxford, OH: NSDC.
Learning Forward 6 Standards Assessment Inventory Recommendations: Outcomes Standard •
“Self-assessment of current planning for professional learning.” (2011). Minds in motion:
Creating a community of collaborative learners. Oxford, OH: Learning Forward and
Rochester City School District.
•
Tools for Schools. (2007, November/December). This issue is devoted to developing
SMART goals.
Comprehensive
1. School leadership teams explore information about educator performance standards
and identify the KASAB (Knowledge, Attitudes, Skills, Aspirations, and Behaviors)
explained in each set of standards. Have the school leadership team (SLT) or small
faculty groups look across each set and identify commonalities. This same process can
be used within any school. Once a professional learning goal has been established, they
determine whether there are commonalities with state or national teacher performance
standards.
•
“Identifying specific adult learning outcomes.” (2012). Standards Assessment
Inventory 2: Recommendations: The Outcomes standard, by Learning Forward.
Oxford, OH: Author.
•
“Outcomes: Coaching, teaching standards, and feedback mark the teacher’s road
to mastery,” by Jon Saphier. (2011, August). JSD, 32 (4), 58-62.
•
“The elements of effective teaching,” by Joellen Killion and Stephanie Hirsh.
(2011, December). JSD, 32 (6), 10-16.
•
“Vision, plus so much more, promotes effective teaching and learning.” (2011,
December). JSD Professional Learning Guide.
2. To help school staff better understand this standard, school leadership teams examine
the Innovation Configuration maps for Learning Forward’s Standards for Professional
Learning. The IC maps provide desired outcomes for every standard as well as a
continuum of practice related to that outcome. Staff members should read the
continuums and come to consensus about which level best describes the current
practices within the school. This information can assist in building an improvement plan
Learning Forward 7 Standards Assessment Inventory Recommendations: Outcomes Standard by examining the next level of practice. This study and conversation will also help to
clarify, in very practical terms, the roles and responsibilities of teachers and
administrators concerning ways of aligning outcomes between student learning,
performance standards, and professional learning.
•
Order Standards into practice: School-based roles. Innovation Configuration maps
for Standards for Professional Learning from Learning Forward (800-727-7288 or
www.learningforward.org/bookstore).
•
“Using the IC maps as a self-assessment.” (2012). Standards into practice: Schoolbased roles. Innovation Configuration maps for Standards for Professional Learning.
Oxford, OH: Learning Forward.
Learning Forward 8 STANDARDS ASSESSMENT INVENTORY Recommendations: Outcomes Standard
Tools to support DEVELOPING strategies
Aligning Student Learning Needs and Professional Learning Goals
Purpose: To understand strong and weak alignment between student learning needs and professional
learning needs/goals
Materials: Case studies of student learning and professional learning goals (Numbers 1–4)
Reading: “Address Learning Outcomes” section from Learning Forward Outcomes standard (included
below)
Directions:
1. During a school leadership team meeting and/or faculty meeting, ask small groups (4–5 people) to
read the reading from the Outcomes standard (from Standards for Professional Learning, Learning
Forward, 2011).
2. Ask small groups to read at least two case studies—every group should read Number 1 and one
additional case study. They should also identify the student learning need and the professional
learning goal presented in each case.
3. Next, the group should come to consensus about how they would rate the alignment between the
student learning need and the professional learning goal and explain why they gave the rating they
did.
• Alignment means there is a one-to-one correspondence between the student need and the
professional learning goal. One definition of alignment is “the positioning of different
components with respect to each other so that they perform effectively or properly.”
• A rating of 1 would be given if, for example, the student learning need was science inquiry
process and the professional learning goal was to improve writing across the content areas.
There is no connection between the need and the goal.
• A rating of 10 would be given if, for example, the student learning need was improvement
in discrete mathematics and professional learning focused on the knowledge, skills, and
instruction related to discrete mathematics.
• The professional learning designs also need to be considered. If the professional learning
goal addresses gaining knowledge as well as supporting planning and implementation, the
alignment rating would be in a higher range.
• Professional learning designs are the processes, activities, or events used during
professional learning. These include workshops, coaching, learning community time,
learning teams, demonstration lessons, peer coaching, coplanning, action research, and so
on.
4. Ask teams to find another group who read the same case study and share their rating and
explanations. They do not need to come to consensus but rather should try to understand the
other group’s thinking and rationale.
5. Finally, display your school’s student learning needs and schoolwide professional learning goals
and designs and ask faculty to assign an alignment rating and explain why. Discuss how the rating
could be improved if the faculty consider it low.
ADDRESS LEARNING OUTCOMES
Student learning outcomes define equitable expectations for all students to achieve at high
levels and hold educators responsible for implementing appropriate strategies to support student
learning. Learning for educators that focuses on student learning outcomes has a positive effect on
changing educator practice and increasing student achievement. Whether the learning outcomes are
developed locally or nationally and are defined in content standards, courses of study, curriculum, or
curricular programs, these learning outcomes serve as the core content for educator professional
learning to support effective implementation and results. With student learning outcomes as the
focus, professional learning deepens educators’ content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge,
and understanding of how students learn the specific discipline. Using student learning outcomes as
its outcomes, professional learning can model and engage educators in practices they are expected to
implement within their classrooms and workplaces.
Excerpt: Outcomes standard, Learning Forward’s Standards for Professional Learning, p. 49, Learning
Forward, 2011.
This urban middle school set a goal that all students would be reading at grade level in five years.
1
Their literacy focus was based on the belief that reading is the fundamental skill on which all
other academic learning is based.
The professional learning program included working with teachers to ensure they used
instructional strategies that improved student reading skills. It involved a professional development lab in
which a resident teacher worked with a visiting teacher in the classroom for three complete weeks of
observation and supervised practice. A specially trained substitute took over the visiting teacher’s classroom
during this time. Later, the resident teacher came to the visiting teacher’s classroom for consultation and
observation. There were also internal and external consultants who worked one-on-one with eight to 10
teachers on literacy instruction for three to four months. These consultants were available to work with
grade-level teams and larger groups during planning times. Funds were provided so that teachers could visit
other classrooms and schools to observe and debrief what they saw. Finally, there were summer institutes
on literacy for teachers of second-language learners held at an off-site training site and paid for by the
district.
1. What was the student learning need?
2. What was the professional learning goal? What were the professional learning designs?
3. How well are those two goals aligned? On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being high), to what degree would you
expect these professional learning activities to improve the student learning goal?
Alignment Rating: _____
Explain why you gave it that rating.
2
Eight out of 11 schools in this district did not make AYP in part because of a lack of growth in
reading. Data analysis seemed to indicate the following needs:
Grade 3
Grade 4
Grade 5
Grade 6
Grade 7
Grade 8
Grade 9
Comprehending literary and informational text, persuasive texts
Vocabulary
Functional text and comprehension strategies
No particular area of low performance
Elements of literature and comprehension strategies
Vocabulary
Vocabulary and expository text
The district learning goal was for all students to focus on improving comprehension of persuasive and
literary texts by 10%, as measured by the state assessment. The professional learning goal for teachers was
to implement the teaching/learning cycle (assess, evaluate, plan, and teach) during reading instruction. A
six-week course was offered by the district on the teaching/learning cycle. School-based coaching also
focused on classroom demonstrations and coaching sessions on the teaching/learning cycle.
1. What was the student learning need?
2. What was the professional learning goal? What were the professional learning designs?
3. How well are those two goals aligned? On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being high), to what degree would you
expect these professional learning activities to improve the student learning goal?
Alignment Rating: ______
Explain why you gave it that rating.
3
This high school had a diverse student population. A critical student need was to develop
inferential comprehension and vocabulary skills with all students, but especially with ELL and
SPED students. Teachers had analyzed the data and identified that they needed to know more
about inferential comprehension and how to address this need with ELL and SPED students.
They depended on the textbooks to address this need, although in reality there were few
discussion questions, writing activities, or exercises that addressed inferential comprehension. A majority of
teachers considered the lack of appropriate curriculum materials a critical need.
The professional learning goal focused on implementing strategies that supported the development
of inferential reading comprehension. These included the use of decoding, compare/contrast, predict/infer,
cause/effect, summarizing, and questioning. Regularly scheduled 90-minute training sessions and miniworkshops presented information on reading comprehension strategies. Weekly content-area teams
planned common lessons, monitored the use of these strategies, and reviewed student work. These small
teams also focused on strategies helpful to English language learners.
1. What was the student learning need?
2. What was the professional learning goal? What were the professional learning designs?
3. How well are those two goals aligned? On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being high), to what degree would you
expect these professional learning activities to improve the student learning goal?
Alignment Rating: _____
Explain why you gave it that rating.
4
This intermediate school served students from the higher-income area of town. Typically,
students performed at very high levels on standardized assessments, yet they still needed to
improve their mathematics achievement. The state test results and district benchmark results
indicated that in mathematics, students needed to focus on the following areas:
4th grade
Data analysis, probability, discrete math
5th grade
Data analysis, probability, discrete math
6th grade
Structure and logic, data analysis, probability, and discrete math
Teachers were surveyed concerning their comfort level and knowledge of data analysis, probability,
and discrete math. A majority indicated that they needed more work in developing their own knowledge
and understanding of these content areas. Many had had little more than a survey course in mathematics,
and the state math content standards addressed many topics they felt uneasy teaching. They relied heavily
on the text.
The district mathematics consultant provided a series of monthly two-hour sessions to address the
specific underlying concepts within the content standards for each grade level. After each session, during
the three other weeks in the month, grade-level teams met, continued to discuss the content knowledge,
and reviewed textbook lessons to determine whether these content areas were addressed. Later in the year,
the grade-level groups asked the district consultant to provide demonstration lessons for each of these areas
in each grade level.
1. What was the student learning goal?
2. What was the professional learning goal? What were the professional learning designs?
3. How well are those two goals aligned? On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being high), to what degree would you
expect these professional learning activities to improve the student learning goal?
Alignment Rating: _____
Explain why you gave it that rating.
FOCUS ON
NSDC’S
STANDARDS
Extreme makeover: Needs assessment edition
T
he assessment of needs is one of
it as a monitoring tool, what if the results were
the most valuable types of profesused to determine teacher needs for support and
sional development data to collect.
assistance while implementing new curriculum
It can be used to help determine
or strategies?
the initial focus and goals of
Teacher concern surveys, based on the
professional development as well as to idenConcerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM), help
tify ongoing support and assistance required to
principals understand whether teachers need
sustain new classroom practices. The problem
more information about new practices or prois that there seems to be a misunderstanding of
grams, need to visit a demonstration classroom,
the word “needs.” For many years that word has
or need to meet with grade-level colleagues
been synonymous with wants, desires, or wishes
to plan lessons or units (Hall & Hord, 2001).
rather than necessities or requirements. The
CBAM can help principals understand and supubiquitous needs assessment survey, while not
port faculty as they journey through the process
easy to design and administer,
of change. In addition, informal
usually consists of lists of topics,
conversations or interviews with
Data Driven:
programs, or strategies from
faculty members can also yield
Staff development that
which teachers are asked to incritical data to determine next
improves the learning
dicate what they would LIKE to
steps for professional developof all students uses
focus on during their professional
ment. These conversations are
disaggregated student
development time. Not only are
sometimes called one-legged
data to determine
these surveys not clearly connectinterviews —hallway conversaadult learning
ed to student or teacher learning
tions that begin with “How is the
priorities, monitor
needs, most faculty members can
new mathematics (or reading,
progress, and help
complete them in less than a minscience, social studies, or ELL)
sustain continuous
ute and rarely seem to remember
program going?” and end with a
improvement.
them past the moment they hand
clear understanding of some of
them in. Yet, school and district
the barriers that might be blocking
staff development committees
successful implementation of new
faithfully create catalogs and workshop sessions
classroom practices. Another useful tool from
based on the survey results and educators, on the
CBAM is the innovation configuration map that
receiving end, wonder later, “Why are we doing
can be used as a self-assessment tool and pinthis topic today — what were they thinking?”
point educator’s next steps as they move toward
Instead of this dartboard approach, the
high-fidelity implementation of new practices.
principal needs to analyze relevant staff data to
A needs assessment is critical to powerful
design teacher professional development (Roy
professional development but let’s make sure it
& Hord, 2003, p. 75). Let’s remodel the needs
actually assesses educator needs not their wants.
assessment by collecting data focused on classroom practice. A number of tools are available to
complete this task. Many principals are already
Learn more about NSDC’s standards:
familiar with the classroom walk-through
www.nsdc.org/standards/index.cfm
(Richardson, 2006). But rather than thinking of
February 2008 l The Learning Principal
Pat Roy is co-author
of Moving NSDC’s
Staff Development
Standards Into
Practice: Innovation
Configurations
(NSDC, 2003).
References
Hall, G. & Hord,
S. (2001).
Implementing
change: Patterns,
principles, and
potholes. Boston,
MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Roy, P. & Hord,
S. (2003). Moving
NSDC’s staff
development
standards into
practice: Innovation
configurations,
Volume I. Oxford,
OH: NSDC.
Richardson,
J. (August/
September, 2006).
Snapshots of
learning: Classroom
walk-throughs offer
picture of learning
in schools. Tools for
Schools, 10(1), 1-8.
National Staff Development Council l 800-727-7288 l www.nsdc.org
3
theme / WHAT WORKS
Data use
DATA-DRIVEN DECISION MAKING TAKES A BIG-PICTURE VIEW
OF THE NEEDS OF TEACHERS AND STUDENTS
BY VICTORIA L. BERNHARDT
I
n July 2006, eight members of
the Marylin Avenue
Elementary School leadership
team from Livermore, Calif.,
arrived at the annual
Education for the Future Summer
Data Institute in Chico, Calif., eager
to learn how to employ data-driven
decision making to change their
school. Data-driven decision making
is the process of using data to inform
decisions to improve teaching and
learning.
Schools typically engage in two
kinds of data-driven decision making
— at the school level and at the classroom level. The first leads to the second.
At the school level, staff members
VICTORIA L. BERNHARDT is executive director of the
Education for the Future Initiative. She writes and speaks
extensively about the effective use of data, including a
chapter in Powerful Designs for Professional Learning,
2nd Edition (NSDC, 2008). You can contact her at
vbernhardt@csuchico.edu.
24
JSD
WINTER 2009
VOL. 30, NO. 1
look at all the data to:
• Understand where the school is;
• Understand how they got to
where they are;
• Know if the school is meeting its
goals and achieving its vision;
• Understand the real reasons gaps
and undesirable results exist;
• Evaluate what is working and
what is not working;
• Predict and prevent failures; and
• Predict and ensure successes.
The Marylin team included six
teachers, the district data analyst, and
Principal Jeff Keller, who had just finished his first year as an administrator.
The team was ready to get to work on
the challenges they faced:
• The school had not made
Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)
since it was first required in 200203 (four years in a row).
• The English as a Second
Language population was on the
rise.
• The free/reduced lunch population was increasing.
• It was perceived that the school
WWW.NSDC.ORG
culture was not ready to change.
The school lacked focus and
instructional coherence.
• Staff members were not using data
to improve.
After a week of intensive work,
the team left with a plan for datadriven activities to improve instruction and student learning. One year
later, three members of the leadership
team returned to Chico to share their
successes at the 2007 Education for
the Future Summer Data Institute.
Just days before the team arrived
in Chico, Marylin Avenue Elementary
School received its spring 2007 student achievement results. Student
achievement improved at every grade
level, in every subject area but one at
one grade level, and with all student
groups. These increases came even as
the Hispanic and free/reduced lunch
populations increased. Here is what
the school did to get results.
•
MARYLIN AVENUE
DEMOGRAPHICS
In 2002-03, 49% of Marylin
NATIONAL STAFF DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL
Student enrollment
2002-03
2006-07
Total
465
Hispanic
229
49.2%
335
66.1%
Caucasian
145
31.2%
91
17.9%
91
19.6%
81
16.0%
211
45.4%
385
75.8%
Other
Free/reduced lunch
Mobility
507
30%
Avenue’s students were of Hispanic
descent. This percentage increased to
66% five years later as the percentage
of Caucasian students
decreased from 31% to
DATA
18%. At the same time, the
percentage of students
receiving free/reduced lunch increased
from more than 45% to almost 76%
of the population. By 2006-07,
Marylin Avenue School had a student
enrollment of 507 in kindergarten
through 5th grade, up from 465 in
2002-03. Of the 507 students
enrolled, 335 (66%) spoke Spanish as
their first language. Almost half of the
parents had only a high school diploma or less. The teaching staff, mostly
Caucasian females, had an average of
14.4 years of teaching experience
(Marylin Avenue School, 2006). (See
chart above.)
Marylin Avenue had not made
AYP for the previous four years. The
school received negative scores on the
California Academic Performance
Index (API) for the previous three
years, which meant that student
achievement results were decreasing.
In 2003-04, the school’s API score
decreased 17 points. Their target for
2006-07 was to increase 7 API points.
Introduced in California in 1999, the
API measures the academic performance and progress of individual
schools and establishes growth targets
for future academic improvement.
The interim statewide API performance target for all schools is 800. A
NATIONAL STAFF DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL
34%
school’s growth is measured by how
well it is moving toward or past that
goal.
The biggest challenge
facing the leadership team
USE
was to get experienced
teachers to realize that
changes in the student population
required changes in their teaching.
theme / WHAT WORKS
MARYLIN AVENUE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BACKGROUND
We realized we had very little school
processes data that measured our
instructional strategies and programs.
Looking at all the data gave us a reality check about where our school was,
not just where we thought it was.
• We used the Education for the
Future Continuous Improvement
Continuums. The Continuous
Improvement Continuums are selfassessment tools that measure where
the school is with respect to its
approach, implementation, and outcomes for seven continuous improvement categories. The tools helped
members of the staff communicate
about specific aspects of improvement
as we moved forward together. (The
Continuous Improvement
WHAT DATA-DRIVEN DECISION
MAKING LOOKS LIKE:
MARYLIN AVENUE, JULY 2007
Fast-forward to the 2007 Summer
Data Institute. Participants heard
Marylin Avenue’s success story: The
school increased 54 API points, and
student achievement increased in
every grade level, every subject area,
and with every student group. Here is
what the leadership team told the
group assembled in Chico:
• We looked at all the school’s
data. Comprehensive demographic
data told us that our current student
population was changing while we
stayed the same. This told us that we
had to change our strategies and services to improve student achievement.
Perceptions data allowed us to hear
from students and parents about how
better to meet their needs. Perceptions
data from staff revealed what it would
take to change teaching strategies and
get all staff working on the same page.
Student learning results, disaggregated
in all ways, told us where we did not
have instructional coherence and
which students we were not reaching.
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VOL. 30, NO. 1
WINTER 2009
JSD
25
theme / WHAT WORKS
Continuums are available at http:/
/eff.csuchico.edu/download_center/.)
• We developed a vision. All the
data and the results of the self-assessments showed us that we needed a
clear vision for the school — one that
everyone could commit to, not just
agree with, and one that we would
monitor to make sure everyone was
implementing. Having a vision that
was shared by everyone made a huge
difference.
• Staff participated in identifying contributing causes of our
undesirable results. Using the
Education for the Future problemsolving cycle activity helped staff
engage in deep discussions and honestly think about an issue before we
solved it. In the past, we would identify a gap and then solve
it in the same half-hour.
Having a vision
The problem-solving
that was shared
cycle made us think
by everyone
through an issue and
made a huge
gather data to understand
difference.
it in greater depth before
solving it. Staff used this
activity for evaluating
programs, strategies, and processes
(Bernhardt, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006).
• We engaged in schoolwide
professional learning in
assessment and instrucDATA
tional strategies. We wanted teachers to work differently, so we had to support their continual learning of new assessment and
instructional strategies.
• We began using common
assessments to clarify where students were at any time during the
year.
• We established collaborative
teams, and meeting times were
enforced. Teams used the time to discuss student assessment results and
student work and how to change
instructional strategies to get
improved results. We kept these times
sacred and modeled how to use the
time and data effectively.
26
JSD
WINTER 2009
VOL. 30, NO. 1
MARYLIN AVENUE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
API growth and targets met, 2002-03 to 2007-08
Year
Number
tested
Base
Target
Actual
Met
target
2002-03
276
681
6
1
No
2003-04
270
665
6
-17
No
2004-05
313
662
7
-5
No
2005-06
303
651
7
-7
No
2006-07
295
705
7
54
Yes
2007-08
286
742
7
37
Yes
• We created a school portfolio
to house our data, vision, and plan.
The school portfolio helps us assess
where we are with respect to our
vision and provides the focus and
sense of urgency to improve.
MARYLIN AVENUE, 2007-08
In 2007-08, Marylin Avenue staff
members continued to implement the
strategies they began using in 200607. In addition, staff mapped many
school processes using flowcharting
tools. Teachers and other staff members gathered data related to the
processes to make sure they
were teaching what they
USE
intended to teach and that
they were getting the results
they wanted and expected for all students. All staff members understand
what they are doing collectively to
ensure that all students become proficient and what they need to do when
students are not learning.
Marylin Avenue’s 2007-08
accountability results were also impressive. The school is achieving instructional coherence and moving all students forward. The results again
showed increases at every grade level,
in every subject area, and with every
student group. Marylin Avenue’s API
results for 2007-08 are 742, a 37-point
increase. The school’s target was 7.
WWW.NSDC.ORG
As the table above shows, Marylin
Avenue has come a long way in
improving student learning for all students.
CONDITIONS FOR SUCCESS
In addition to the work detailed
above, Marylin Avenue staff members
say they continue to get student
achievement increases because they:
• Shifted their culture through
the use of data, committing to and
implementing the vision, consistent
leadership, and professional learning
that helped them get results;
• Adopted common formative
assessments, which helped every
teacher know what students know and
do not know, and therefore how to
target ongoing instruction;
• Examined student data that
allowed teachers to alter their instructional processes throughout the year
to ensure that students continued to
learn;
• Collaborated by grade level to
review formative data, with a focus on
teaching to the standards; and
• Benefited from strong leadership that never let go of the vision —
modeling and supporting its implementation at every step along the way.
MOVING FORWARD WITH DATA
In spite of Marylin Avenue’s chalNATIONAL STAFF DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL
NATIONAL STAFF DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL
For schools to see student achievement increases in every subject, at
every grade level, and with every student group, educators must look at
big-picture data. They must understand what is being implemented to
know what needs to change.
USE
It is not enough for educators to focus on just one
thing they think can change; they
must look at all the data. To move forward, review all the data, understand
the data, and look for commonalities.
Look for leverage points. Listen to
students, staff, and parents. Look
beyond summative student achievement scores. With a big-picture view,
schools have the ability to improve all
of their processes — and students will
be the ultimate beneficiaries.
800-727-7288
theme / WHAT WORKS
lenging population changes, student
achievement improved at every grade
level, in every subject area, and with
every student group two years in a
row. With data and process tools, staff
could see where the school stood.
They used that information
DATA
to get all staff on the same
page to implement a vision
and engage in powerful professional
learning and collaboration strategies.
Marylin Avenue staff will continue to
use data to monitor and measure
processes to ensure that all students
are learning. The data framework that
this school used for continuous
improvement can be used by any
school or learning organization. It is
the use of all the data that makes the
difference.
REFERENCES
Bernhardt, V.L. (2003). Using
data to improve student learning in elementary schools. Larchmont, NY: Eye
on Education.
Bernhardt, V.L. (2004). Using
data to improve student learning in
middle schools. Larchmont, NY: Eye
on Education.
Bernhardt, V.L. (2005). Using
data to improve student learning in
high schools. Larchmont, NY: Eye on
Education.
Bernhardt, V.L. (2006). Using
data to improve student learning in
school districts. Larchmont, NY: Eye
on Education.
Marylin Avenue School. (2006).
Marylin Avenue School data portfolio. I
VOL. 30, NO. 1
WINTER 2009
JSD
27
Tool 5.1: What are data?
Directions: Teams thinking about improving teaching and learning can find a lot more information
than just grades and test results. Data-driven schools in Alabama used these data sources in their
school improvement process. Review the list, then brainstorm what other data may be available.
Determine as a team which sources you want to use.
STATE & NATIONAL TEST RESULTS
• State-mandated subject-area assessments
• Writing assessments
• Graduation exams
• College entrance exams
• Advanced placement exams
• Yearly progress reports
• National Assessment of Educational Progress
scores
COMMERCIAL ASSESSMENTS
• Packaged program assessments
• Individual reading assessments
CLASSROOM ASSESSMENTS
• Daily and unit tests
• Student portfolios
• Checklists
• Running records
• Evaluations of student projects
• Evaluations of student performances
• Examples of student work
SURVEYS
• Student
• Parent
• Community
• Uncertified staff
• Targeted teacher surveys by grade level and
content area (program effectiveness, staff
development needs, technology, library,
paperwork, duties, etc.)
SCHOOL CLIMATE
• Attendance records
• Counseling referrals
• Discipline reports (with trend analysis)
• Student comments to counselors, teachers
SCHOOLWIDE ASSESSMENTS
• School report cards
• School Improvement Plan yearly assessments
• Collective analyses of student work
• Schoolwide writing assessments
• Products of accreditation processes
• Reports from school walk-throughs
OTHER STUDENT DATA
• Course assignments
• College admission data
• Quarterly, interim, and final grades
• Dropout data
• Minutes/records of student support teams
• Special education referrals
OTHER DATA
• Student honors and awards
• Student and parent demographic information
• Results of teacher action research
• Reports from teachers
• Academic lab and library usage
• Faculty turnover rate
• Registration data
Source: Compiled by John Norton for the Alabama Best Practices Center.
National Staff Development Council • www.nsdc.org
Team to Teach: A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams
theme / EXAMINING EVIDENCE
MIX
IT
UP
Variety is key
to a
well-rounded
data-analysis
plan
BY LOIS BROWN EASTON
V
ariety may be the spice
of life, but in terms of
data sources, variety is
more than a spice —
it’s one of the basic
food groups. Alternative data sources,
such as student interviews and walkthroughs, are essential for a well-balanced diet. Data from test scores
alone, whether from norm-referenced
or criterion-referenced tests, state, disNATIONAL STAFF DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL
trict, or school tests, may provide protein, for example, but other data
sources help keep educators, schools,
districts, and states healthy.
Many data-analysis experts advo-
cate for gathering evidence that complements student achievement data.
Victoria Bernhardt (2008) recommends that achievement data be coordinated with demographic, perception
LOIS BROWN EASTON is a consultant, coach, and author. She is the retired director of professional development at Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center, Estes Park, Colo. She is the editor of
Powerful Designs for Professional Learning, 2nd Edition (NSDC, 2008). You can contact her at
leastoners@aol.com.
800-727-7288
VOL. 29, NO. 4
FALL 2008
JSD
21
EXAMINING EVIDENCE
theme /
(survey), and school process data
(what the school does to help students
learn — after-school tutoring and
small classes, for example). In terms
of student achievement data,
Bernhardt and others (Love, Stiles,
Mundry, & DiRanna, 2008) advise
educators to collect a variety of data,
including student work itself. Several
strategies for powerful professional
learning can help schools, districts,
and states access achievement data
from sources other than test scores.
Other strategies can help educators
collect process data.
SOURCES FOR EVIDENCE
OF STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
•
For more strategies
The expanded second edition of
Powerful Designs for Professional
Learning introduces new chapters
on classroom walk-throughs,
differentiated coaching, dialogue,
and video. The book includes a
CD with
more than
270 pages
of
handouts,
including
the tool in
this issue of
JSD on p.
64. Order
the book from the NSDC Online
Bookstore, http://store.nsdc.org.
Item #B380, $64 for members,
$80 for nonmembers.
ACCESSING STUDENT VOICES
Harvetta Robertson and Shirley
Hord make the point that educators
often access last the voices they should
access first (2008). Facilitators of task
forces focused on school improvement
seek systemwide representation, but
don’t often ask students — those in
the system who will be
most affected by the
Facilitators of
results of school improvetask forces
ment efforts — to particifocused on
pate in the work. One
school
way to access student
improvement
voices is through focus
seek systemwide
groups. Another is
representation,
through interviews.
but don’t often
ask students —
those in the
system who will
be most
affected by the
results of school
improvement
efforts — to
participate in
the work.
FOCUS GROUPS
Robertson and Hord
describe a focus group
consisting of 9th-grade
students whose actions
frustrated their teachers.
“Nothing seemed to
help,” said one teacher. “I
found myself questioning
whether my choice to
teach was a good one”
(2008). These teachers
learned during a focus group that the
transition from middle to high school
had challenged these students: “While
22
JSD
FALL 2008
VOL. 29, NO. 4
they [the teachers] had been lamenting the freshmen’s failure to plan,
missing deadlines, and lack of ability
to balance school with work and
extracurricular activities, the students
were trying to assimilate the conditions of expectations of high school
with their limited experiences in middle school” (2008). The 9th-grade
teachers emerged from that focus
group with new ideas on how to help
students with transition from middle
school and beyond.
Egg Harbor City School District
in New Jersey hosted a focus group
for three schools engaged in middle
school mathematics reform. About 20
middle school students joined the
educators in their workshop. Students
were briefed to be honest and sincere
about their experiences in mathematics, and they were. They sat in a circle
outside of which sat the educators.
The facilitator asked students questions the educators had generated:
• What skills would have helped you
be better prepared for Algebra I?
• Why is it OK to say “I can’t do
math” when it’s not OK to say
that about reading?
WWW.NSDC.ORG
Why is math such an important
subject?
• Was there a lesson that stood out
for you?
• What outside influences might
affect your ability to do math?
• What do you do if you don’t
know how to solve a problem?
• Do you see any math application
in your future?
• What do teachers do that embarrass you?
Their answers were surprising,
validating, disconcerting, and sometimes even funny, such as this
response from a young man:
“Actually,” he said, “my gerbil influences me to do my math homework
— it’s the only time I’m sitting in
front of its cage.”
At the end of the focus group,
students turned their chairs around
and chatted in small groups with two
or three educators. The ice had been
broken, and students were completely
candid as educators asked important
follow-up questions. The facilitator
wrote up the results for everybody.
INTERVIEWS
Interviews differ from focus
groups in that they occur between one
interviewer and one student at a time.
Robertson and Hord describe the use
of an interview protocol called “Me,
Myself, and I” from the Northwest
Regional Education Laboratory
(Laboratory Network Program, 2000).
Outside interviewers conducted the
interviews, collecting data from a representative sample of students from
across the student body. The interviewers collated their notes and compiled “some insights for staff to consider about their students’ perceptions.”
In a variation on the interview
process, educators in Lawrence, N.J.,
worked with middle school students
on how they think about mathematics. These students in pairs did
“think-alouds” as they worked
NATIONAL STAFF DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL
TUNING PROTOCOLS
Looking directly at student work
gained credibility in the 1970s and
1980s when the National Writers
Project (NWP) and others developed
processes for assessing writing. These
processes were considered valid —
they measured real writing, not a
proxy, as in multiple-choice items —
and reliable — scorers set and used
anchors, established rubrics, and
scored each paper at least twice to get
interscorer reliability. Tuning protocols in part arose from NWP work on
formal, large-scale writing assessment.
Tuning protocols are as valid as a formal, large-scale assessment process,
though less reliable because they rely
on consensus rather than calibration.
Tuning protocols engage a group
of peer educators in a process to finetune what happens in classrooms
based on student work. Dave, a high
school science teacher, worked with
his peers to tune student science portfolios. He wanted to be sure students
thought deeply about science. His
tuning group pointed out that students mostly wrote about what they
did, not what they learned. The consensus of the tuning group was that
Dave needed to modify what he asked
students to talk about when they
debriefed science activities so that
NATIONAL STAFF DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL
they could, in turn, write more about
what they learned. Dave used their
advice and found that students grew
so accustomed to talking about their
learning orally that they naturally
wrote about their learning in their
portfolios. He was delighted to discover that their learning sometimes
consisted of more questions than
answers.
The result of tuning protocols
becomes more meaningful if there is a
goal, such as looking at how students
demonstrate higher-level thinking
skills. Over time and after tuning several pieces of student work, educators
will have data that can be used to capture students’ levels of thinking.
Looking directly at student work
through a tuning protocol allows educators to know what students actually
know and can do rather than how
they select answers on a multiplechoice test.
SOURCES FOR SCHOOL
PROCESS DATA
CLASSROOM WALK-THROUGHS
Classroom walk-throughs can
yield data about student achievement
but are also useful for collecting
process data. Process data are essential
because they establish what schools
are doing to help students learn. In a
data-driven dialogue, educators look
first at achievement data and then
ask: “What are we doing at our school
to help students succeed on this
skill?”
During the typical classroom
walk-through, educators focus on the
following: student orientation to
work, curriculum moves (content,
objectives, context, cognitive type,
and calibration to district/state curriculum), and instructional moves.
According to Carolyn Downey, educators can also use walk-throughs to
gather information on safety and
health as well as school or district
goals (Downey, 2008).
800-727-7288
Many educators “walk the walls”
during classroom walk-throughs. As
part of their walk-through process,
they look at what is posted on classroom walls. They can look at posted
student work and gauge what students know and can do from what’s
on the walls. Sometimes, those doing
walk-throughs can — as unobtrusively as possible — look at what students
are working on at their desks, again
gaining information about what students know and can do.
Margery Ginsberg suggests that
those who do walk-throughs consolidate their notes over a period of time
to share with an entire
faculty (Ginsberg, 2004).
Classroom walkFor example, they might
throughs can
report that during their
yield data about
visits to classrooms, they
student
observed student work
achievement but
showing a deep underare also useful
standing of a schoolwide
for collecting
focus, such as five-step
process data.
problem solving. They
Process data are
might observe students
essential
engaged in peer-editing
because they
groups and making subestablish what
stantive remarks about
schools are
organization. Or, they
doing to help
might see students workstudents learn.
ing at their desks using
longitude and latitude to
determine world locations. These data are as important as
test score data about mathematics,
writing, and geography.
In terms of school process data,
walk-throughs can yield information
about student grouping, older students tutoring younger students, class
sizes, celebrations of student work,
consistent classroom management
strategies, whether teachers share
rubrics in advance of student work,
and how teacher aides work with special needs students in the classroom.
theme / EXAMINING EVIDENCE
through increasingly more difficult
mathematics problems while the
teachers listened in. The teachers
summarized their notes in answer to
these questions:
• What surprised you about students’ thinking?
• What errors did you encounter
that may have been based on erroneous expectations or assumptions?
• What novel/unique ways of thinking did you encounter?
• What does this experience tell us
about what students know and do
not know and what they can and
cannot do?
SHADOWING STUDENTS
Shadowing students is an important way to gain process data about a
VOL. 29, NO. 4
FALL 2008
JSD
23
theme / EXAMINING EVIDENCE
school. Educators who shadow in
their own schools are often amazed at
what students endure. For the first
time, perhaps, they notice the disconnect among the classes or the variety
of classroom expectations that challenge students as they move from class
to class. Educators who shadow in
other schools can do so for particular
purposes, such as to see how a school
achieves an interdisciplinary curriculum, but their experience will also
help them think about the processes
of their own school in comparison to
the host school’s processes.
The school hosting educators who
shadow students needs those adults to
report what they see and hear. By
doing so, the school benefits from a
mirror held up to its own processes.
The questions and comments that the
adults make to students and staff in a
host school are an important source of
information about how the school is
engaging its learners.
CRITICAL ASPECTS
These professional learning strategies yield little in terms of
data collection unless
Educators
those engaged in them
who engage
use what they have
purposefully in
learned. Participating
these types of
educators need to note
professional
the results of these activilearning
ties and look for themes,
activities
trends, and anomalies to
diversify their
report to the entire school
sources of data
faculty. Mary Dietz sugand develop a
gests that groups keep a
more precise
portfolio of artifacts relatunderstanding
ed to professional learnof where
ing — notes from meetstudents
ings, agendas, student
struggle.
work, summaries of learning, and how educators
are applying and implementing what they have learned
(Dietz, 2008).
In addition, educators should seek
ways to make data they are gathering
accessible to others, perhaps through a
24
JSD
FALL 2008
VOL. 29, NO. 4
web site or blog. Principals might
want to set aside part of each faculty
meeting for groups to report to each
other what they have learned. In fact,
student achievement or process data
from these professional learning experiences can lead a faculty to the
process of inquiry that Carolyn
Downey and others suggest. An
inquiry question based on data from a
classroom walk-through, for example,
might sound like this: “When planning units through which we want
students to help each other learn, how
do we decide on strategies for group
work that engage all students?”
(Downey, 2008). Faculty engaged in
an inquiry question can extend learning beyond the professional learning
activity that stimulated it.
Ongoing professional learning
activities can naturally generate data
that complement data from tests and
process data. Educators who engage
purposefully in these types of professional learning activities diversify their
sources of data and develop a more
precise understanding of where students struggle. For example, educators
distressed about reading scores in an
elementary school can design and
engage in an action research project to
determine if a particular intervention
helps students read better. Teachers
can also interview students about
reading. The data collected as part of
the action research project coupled
with interview results can be used
with scores on reading tests to make
sense of and remedy the situation.
Test scores can launch this key
question: “What other data —
beyond test scores — do we need?
How can we obtain these data without more testing?” The answer leads
to professional learning activities that
aren’t as intrusive as testing. The
answer leads to professional learning
activities that engage educators in
examining real work and understanding real students rather than depending solely on the proxy results that
WWW.NSDC.ORG
tests provide. The answer leads to professional learning that improves learning for all students.
CONCLUSION
Nutritionists and dieticians argue
for well-balanced diets — a little of
each food group. Educators need to
argue for the same — a little from
each type of data source rather than
reliance on one data source. Just as
fruits and vegetables are considered
necessities in the diet, data from real
students and real student work
accessed through professional learning
strategies should become a staple in
the data diet.
REFERENCES
Bernhardt, V.L. (2008).
Portfolios for educators. In L.B.
Easton (Ed.), Powerful designs for professional learning (2nd ed.). Oxford,
OH: NSDC.
Dietz, M. (2008). Portfolios for
educators. In L.B. Easton (Ed.),
Powerful designs for professional learning (2nd ed.). Oxford, OH: NSDC.
Downey, C. (2008). Classroom
walk-throughs. In L.B. Easton (Ed.),
Powerful designs for professional learning (2nd ed.). Oxford, OH: NSDC.
Ginsberg, M. (2004). Classroom
walk-throughs. In L.B. Easton (Ed.),
Powerful designs for professional learning. Oxford, OH: NSDC.
Laboratory Network Program.
(2000). Listening to student voices:
Self-study toolkit. Portland, OR:
Northwest Regional Educational
Laboratory.
Love, N., Stiles, K.E., Mundry,
S., & DiRanna, K. (2008). The data
coach’s guide to improving learning for
all students: Unleashing the power of
collaborative inquiry. Thousand Oaks,
CA: Corwin Press.
Robertson, H. & Hord, S.
(2008). Accessing student voices. In
L.B. Easton (Ed.), Powerful designs for
professional learning (2nd ed.).
Oxford, OH: NSDC. I
NATIONAL STAFF DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL
tool 10.5
TOOL 3.6
CHapTer 10: USing DaTa
Module 3 • HOW DO WE USE DATA TO PLAN COLLABORATIVE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT?
Data analysis protocol (formal)
What are we looking at here?
What is being measured in each assessment?
Which students are assessed?
What areas of student performance are meeting or exceeding expectations?
What areas of student performance are below expectations?
Do patterns exist in the data?
how did various populations of students perform? (Consider factors such as gender, race, and
socioeconomic status.)
What are other data telling us about student performance?
how are the data similar or different in various grade levels, content areas, and individual classes?
What surprises us?
What confirms what we already know?
BeComing a Learning SCHooL
MINDS IN MOTION: CREATING A COMMUNITY OF COLLABORATIVE LEARNERS
national Staff Development Council l www.nsdc.org
Rochester City School District
tool 10.4
TOOL 3.6
CHapTer 10: USing DaTa
Module 3 • HOW DO WE USE DATA TO PLAN COLLABORATIVE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT?
Data analysis protocol (informal)
What is being measured in these data?
Who is represented in the data pool?
What jumps out in the data on first glance?
Surprises
expected
What conclusions can we draw at this point?
What other data have we looked at recently that have suggested similar findings?
What other data might we consider to confirm or disprove these conclusions?
BeComing a Learning SCHooL
MINDS IN MOTION: CREATING A COMMUNITY OF COLLABORATIVE LEARNERS
national Staff Development Council l www.nsdc.org
Rochester City School District
NATIONAL STAFF DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL
Tools For Schools
EXAMPLE
Data summary statement:
Fourth-grade Vietnamese immigrant
boys are underachieving in science.
Evidence:
Achievement scores, teacher
observation, and chapter (textbook)
tests.
Why questions:
Q: Why do 4th grade Vietnamese
immigrant boys underachieve in
science?
A: They have difficulty with English
language. (Supporting data or
facts: language assessment.)
Q: Why does the fact that Vietnamese boys have difficulty with
English contribute to low performance in science?
A: They have difficulty understanding
the concepts and applying them in
practice. (Supporting data or facts:
observation and student input.)
Q: Why do 4th grade Vietnamese
immigrant boys underachieve in
science?
A: Curriculum does not match
assessment. (Supporting data or
facts: Curriculum is based on
1985 framework, assessment is
based on 1995 framework.)
Q: Why does the mismatch
between curriculum and
assessment contribute to the
low performance in boys?
A: There is mis-alignment between
what is taught and what is being
assessed. (Supporting data or
facts: comparison of 1985 and
1995 frameworks.) Upon further
examination, all students are
having some difficulty in science.
October/November 2000
Crafting data summary statements
Comments to facilitator: This activity will assist the team in focusing on what it
has learned from the data it has collected about the school. As the team compares
this data to its vision for the school, it should be able to identify the steps the school
needs to take to reach identified goals.
Materials: Several copies of the data summary sheet, various data sources, chart
paper, markers, pens.
Directions
1. Complete the Data Summary Sheet (see Page 5) for each of your data sources. Be
as complete as possible. Think about other possible summary tables that might
also be created. For example, after completing the sample data summary sheet,
you may notice that girls in 4th through 6th grades are underachieving in
mathematics. You could create another data summary table in which you break
out the girls by ethnicity to see if a pattern emerges.
2. Summarize the data by writing a statement based on the data. As you review the
data, consider:
• Which student sub-groups appear to need priority assistance, as determined by
test scores, grades, or other assessments? Consider sub-groups by grade level,
ethnicity, gender, language background (proficiency and/or home language),
categorical programs (e.g., migrant, special education), economic status,
classroom assignment, years at our school, attendance.
• In which subject areas do students appear to need the most improvement? Also,
consider English language development.
• In which subject areas do the “below proficient” student sub-groups need the
most assistance?
• What evidence supports your findings?
3. For each data summary statement, brainstorm all the possible reasons why the
data show what they do. For each reason, identify data or facts that support that
assertion. If no data exist, determine how to locate data that would support the
assertion. Continue asking “why” until the root cause of the problem or need has
been identified.
Source: Comprehensive School Reform Research-Based Strategies to Achieve High Standards
by Sylvie Hale (San Francisco: WestEd, 2000). See Page 7 for ordering information.
PAGE 4
NATIONAL STAFF DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL
Tools For Schools
Data summaries
Data type: ____________________________________________________________________________________________
(e.g., enrollment, student achievement, total, attendance, student achievement reading)
Data source/measure: __________________________________________________________________________________
(e.g., SAT9, school records, staff survey)
What the numbers represent: __________________________________________________________________________
(e.g., percentage of students below grade-level; number of students higher than 4 on district math assessment; percentage of students who say they like to read)
STUDENT
CHARACTERISTIC
Grade Level
Total
ETHNICITY
African-American
Asian/Pacific Islander
Caucasian
Hispanic
Native American
Other
GENDER
Male
Female
INCOME
Low-income
Not low-income
LANGUAGE ABILITY
Fully proficient
Limited proficient
Non-proficient
English only
SPECIAL POPULATIONS
Migrant
Title 1 Target Assist
Special education
Preschool
After-school
Other
Other
Write a statement summarizing the data collected above. A data summary statement or need statement does not offer a
solution nor does it describe a cause or lay blame.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Source: Comprehensive School Reform Research-Based Strategies to Achieve High Standards
by Sylvie Hale (San Francisco: WestEd, 2000). See Page 7 for ordering information.
PAGE 5
October/November 2000
NATIONAL STAFF DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL
Tools For Schools
Moving from needs to goals
Comments to the facilitator: This activity will aid you in developing goals based on your identified needs.
Materials: Poster paper, sentence strips, masking tape, markers. The list of data summary statements developed using the
Crafting Data Summary Statements tool on Page 4 or other method.
Preparation: Prepare a sheet of poster paper with your vision and post that in the room where you are working. Write each data
summary statement on a separate sentence strip and post on the wall. Write the model statements listed below on chart paper
and be prepared to post those on the wall as you begin your work.
Directions
1. Depending on the size of the group and the number of data summary statements, the facilitator may want to break a larger
group into several smaller groups of three or four persons.
2. Each group should transform one statement into a student/program goal. The group should include an objective, outcome
indicator, baseline, timeframe, target standard or performance, and target instructional practice. Refer to your vision often as
you write these goals.
STUDENT GOAL MODEL
PROGRAM GOAL MODEL
Students in grades 2 through 5 will OBJECTIVE as measured by
OUTCOME INDICATOR. Current results indicate that
BASELINE. At the end of TIME FRAME, students in these grades
will perform at TARGET STANDARD OR PERFORMANCE, and
at the end of two years, they will perform at TARGET
STANDARD OR PERFORMANCE.
Current records show that BASELINE teachers participated in
professional development activities offered by our school this
year. By TIMEFRAME, our school will OBJECTIVE as measured
by OUTCOME INDICATOR. As a result, teachers will offer
TARGET INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICE to these students. At
the end of the second year, staff will OBJECTIVE as measured by
OUTCOME INDICATOR. As a result, students will perform at
TARGET STANDARD OR PERFORMANCE.
EXAMPLE
Data summary statement: Most of our upper-elementary
students are under-performing in language arts.
EXAMPLE
Student goal: Our upper-elementary students will improve
their language arts skills (OBJECTIVE) as measured by the district
assessment and standardized test (OUTCOME INDICATOR).
Current results indicate that 67% of students in grades 4-6 are
“below proficient” (BASELINE). By spring 2001 (TIMEFRAME),
25% of students currently under-achieving in language arts —
particularly those in upper elementary — will improve their
literacy skills by moving from “below proficient” to “proficient”
(TARGET STANDARD OR PERFORMANCE).
October/November 2000
Data summary statement: Our lowest-performing students
in language arts are African-American, particularly males.
Program goal: By the end of the 2000-2001 school year
(TIMEFRAME), all staff will have learned about effective
instructional practices that accelerate the academic achievement
of African-American males (OBJECTIVE). Currently, only 5% of
staff have these skills (BASELINE). The following year
(TIMEFRAME), all staff will have implemented new strategies
(TARGET INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICE) as measured by peer
coaching and classroom observations (OUTCOME
INDICATOR).
Source: Comprehensive School Reform Research-Based Strategies to Achieve High Standards
by Sylvie Hale (San Francisco: WestEd, 2000). See Page 7 for ordering information.
PAGE 6
NSDC TOOL
W h a t a d i s t r i c t l e a d e r n e e ds t o k n o w a b o u t . . .
Probing for Causes
Example:
What is the
issue that we’re
concerned about?
Below average 4thgrade achievement
on statewide math
assessment.
1st why: Why do
the 4th graders in
our school score
below average on
statewide math
exams? Because they
are doing poorly on
the story problems.
2nd why: Why are
they doing poorly
on story problems?
Because they’re
confused by the
questions.
3rd why: Why are
they confused by
the questions?
Because they have
difficulty reading
and understanding
the text in the story
problems.
4th why: Why do
they have difficulty
reading and
understanding the
text in the story
problems? Because
the story problems
are written at a 4thgrade reading level
and our students are
not reading at a 4thgrade reading level.
5th why: Why don’t
our students read at
a 4th-grade reading
level?
4
Comments to facilitator: Use this to help teams uncover the cause or roots of a problem or issue. The
process pushes participants to go deeper in their understanding and often challenges some of their
underlying beliefs and attitudes about student learning.
Time: One hour or more
Supplies: Chart paper, markers, and sticky notes
Preparation: Create handouts from Page 5 so participants can make notes during the discussion. If you
are following Option II, make enough handouts so that every participant has at least two copies.
Directions
Identify the issue that your team or your school wants to explore. For example, why do 4th graders
have below average achievement on statewide math exams?
Option I
1. Invite participants to announce their responses aloud for the entire group to hear. Record every
answer on chart paper posted on the wall.
2. Repeat the process of asking “why” for every statement recorded on the wall. Continue that pattern until you have asked “Why” five times for each response.
3. After an hour, debrief the responses to determine if the group has identified one or two solutions
for addressing the problem. If the situation is controversial, the facilitator may choose to adjourn
and reconvene the participants at a later time.
Option II
1. Make enough handouts for participants.
2. Write the initial question on chart paper and post in a location visible to all participants.
3. Invite participants to reflect privately on their responses to the question. Ask them to write down
at least three responses to the question.
4. Then ask every participant to continue asking “why” about two of their responses and write down
those responses. Repeat the process of asking “why” for every response that the participants
record. Have them continue that pattern until they have asked “why” five times for each response.
5. After 30 minutes, organize the participants into small discussion groups. Invite them to share
their responses to the initial question. During the discussion, you are likely to find that the answers are converging. This will lead the group to one or two solutions for addressing the problem.
6. If you are doing this process with an entire school staff, be prepared to pull responses from each
small group so that the entire group participates in the final recommended solution.
Source: Adapted from The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook, by Peter Senge, Charlotte Roberts, Richard
Ross, & Bryan Smith (New York: Currency/Doubleday, 1994), pages 108-111.
National Staff Development Council l 800-727-7288 l www.nsdc.org
February 2008 l The Learning System
5 Whys
NSDC TOOL
Problem or issue: __________________________________________________________________
Ask your first “why” about the initial problem statement
1st “Why” _______________________________________________________________________
1.
2.
Convert the first
response under
each “Why” into
the next “Why.”
Repeat that
process for every
response until
you have asked
“Why” about the
response to every
question.
3.
2nd “Why” _______________________________________________________________________
1.
2.
3.
3rd “Why” _______________________________________________________________________
1.
2.
“If you don’t ask
the right questions,
you don’t get the
right answers. A
question asked in
the right way often
points to its own
answer. Asking
questions is the ABC
of diagnosis. Only
the inquiring mind
solves problems.”
— Edward Hodnett
3.
4th “Why” _______________________________________________________________________
1.
“The art and science
of asking questions
is the source of all
knowledge.”
— Thomas Berger
2.
3.
5th “Why” _______________________________________________________________________
1.
2.
3.
“He who asks is a
fool for five minutes,
but he who does
not ask remains a
fool forever.”
— Chinese proverb
“The fool wonders,
the wise man asks.”
— Benjamin Disraeli
February 2008 l The Learning System
National Staff Development Council l 800-727-7288 l www.nsdc.org
5
theme STANDARDS FOR PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
IMPLEMENTATION
Learning builds the bridge
between research and practice
By Gene E. Hall and Shirley M. Hord
O
ne indisputable finding from our
years of research on what it takes to
conduct successful change in schools
and colleges is this: Introducing
new practices alone seldom results
in new practices being incorporated
into ongoing classroom practices.
For example, we were dismayed at the recent release
of two substantive studies of professional development (to
support school improvement in mathematics and reading)
that concluded that the professional development in each
case was ineffective (Drummond et al., 2011; Randel et al.,
2011). However, in both studies, the researchers did not assess implementation. It is hard to imagine how professional
development can be judged if its implementation has not
been documented. Such work, it would seem, is “the appraisal of a nonevent” (Charters & Jones, 1973).
52 JSD | www.learningforward.org
We are happy to join with Learning Forward in recognizing the imperative of implementation. The Implementation standard states: Professional learning that increases
educator effectiveness and results for all students applies
research on change and sustains support for implementation of professional learning for long-term change.
ASSURING PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
It has only been in the last decade that we have come
to understand the reality that change is based on learning.
The profession, the press, and the public cry for school
improvement, in order that all students learn to high levels.
For school improvement to be realized, the first task is to
identify and delete those programs and practices that are
not supporting students in learning well. The next step is to
find the best solution having the potential to promote quality teaching and successful student learning. After specify-
August 2011
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Vol. 32 No. 4
Professional learning that increases
educator effectiveness and results
for all students applies research
on change and sustains support
for implementation of professional
learning for long-term change.
ing the new practice(s), teachers and administrators must
learn what the new practices are and how to use them, and
transfer the new way into classroom practice. See diagram
on p. 55.
“Change is learning. It’s as simple and complex as that.”
This is the first principle in our beliefs and assumptions
about change (Hall & Hord, 2011, p. 6). Change cannot occur without professional learning. When educators
adopt new and more effective practices, the next step is to
develop new understandings and acquire new skills. These
new practices, in turn, enable students to reach high levels
of successful learning. The seven Standards for Professional
Learning are intended make high-quality professional learning a reality.
APPLYING CHANGE PROCESS RESEARCH
Within the Implementation standard is the explicit
acknowledgement that findings from change research,
including its constructs and measures, can inform efforts
to implement the standards. The explicit purpose of the
Implementation standard is to ensure that educators address implementation and apply evidence-based strategies.
Change research constructs and measures can be used to
develop implementation strategies and assess progress.
In many ways, today’s innovations and initiatives represent major change. These changes are complex, subtle, and
more sophisticated than we think. Symbolically, it is as if
implementers were expected to back up, get a running start,
and leap across the Grand Canyon. What is needed is an
August 2011
|
Vol. 32 No. 4
Implementation Bridge (Hall,1999; Hall & Hord, 2011).
See diagram on p. 57.
As with real bridges, different change efforts require
varying lengths, degrees of stability, and combinations of
supports. It takes time to move across a bridge. By assessing how far across the bridge each participant, group, and
school has progressed, formative evaluations can inform
change leaders of participants’ needs. Formative evaluations are important for assessing progress. Summative
evaluations, which assess the effectiveness of the innovation,
should only include those participants who have made it all
the way across the bridge.
When change is assumed to be an event, there is no
bridge. Implicitly, adopters of the new approach are expected to make a giant leap across a chasm. With today’s
complex innovations, the chasms are likely to be deep and
wide. Attempting to jump across these chasms is most likely
to result in injury and failure. This is true for individuals,
schools, school districts, and larger systems.
The diagram on p. 57 presents the Implementation
Bridge, a metaphor for moving from the earlier or less advanced stages to the later or more advanced stages of the
three diagnostic dimensions of the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM): Stages of Concern, Levels of Use, and
Innovation Configurations. Each of these CBAM elements
is an evidence-based construct with related measuring tools
that can be used to assess how far across the bridge each
individual, school and/or district has progressed. Each can
be used alone or in various combinations to measure imple-
www.learningforward.org
|
JSD 53
theme STANDARDS FOR PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
The key to progress is to stay focused
By Raymond Aguilera and Olivia Zepeda
As told to Valerie von Frank
O
ur district is committed to supporting teachers
with ongoing professional development
to enable them to become more effective
in the classroom. We provide early release time on
Wednesdays to enable teachers to meet in learning
teams, but the power is in the classroom in jobembedded learning because the classroom is where
we can identify teachers’ needs and give teachers
assistance during instruction.
We monitor instruction closely and analyze
data. We give districtwide benchmark assessments
four times a year, along with weekly formative
assessments. As we monitor
data, we have immediate
Gadsden Elementary School
intervention if we do not
District #32
see student growth. Every
San Luis, Ariz.
year, we get better. With
Number of schools: 9
assistance from SEDL, we use
Enrollment: 5,000
Staff: 260
the Concerns-Based Adoption
Racial/ethnic mix:
Model to determine how well
White:
0%
teachers are implementing
Black:
0%
new practices in teaching
Hispanic:
99%
reading and writing.
Asian/Pacific Islander: 0%
Consultants and
Native American:
0%
Other:
1%
administrators meet monthly
Limited English proficient: 50%
to discuss teachers’ levels
Free/reduced lunch: 97%
of use of the new practices.
Contact: Raymond Aguilera,
This approach helps us to
superintendent
differentiate professional
Email: agui2400@yahoo.com
development. After they
determine teachers’ levels
of use, we create individualized plans for teachers’
learning. Consultants and coaches work with teachers
in their classrooms, providing feedback, coaching, and
modeling lessons.
At our annual data summit, about 100 teachers
and administrators reviewed and analyzed student
achievement data and developed formal plans for
54 JSD | www.learningforward.org
achieving
academic
goals. We
provide
three days
before the
beginning of
the school
year for
Aguilera
Zepeda
teachers
to attend district professional development based
on individualized plans. The professional learning is
supported in a variety of ways, from having a master
teacher go into a classroom to help the teacher with
materials to having master teachers model lessons.
The National Association for the Education of
Young Children has accredited San Luis Preschool and
created a video showing the school as a model for the
nation. The district has worked hard to demonstrate
how preschool teachers can incorporate a researchbased curriculum into a play-based philosophy while
taking into account factors such as English language
learners and children with special needs.
One of our primary areas of focus has been
English language learning. We are proud that, over
the last two years, more than 1,800 students learning
English were reclassified as English-fluent. Over the
last 10 years, the percentage of ELL students has
decreased in the district from 99% to 50% of our
student body. The keys to our progress are jobembedded professional development and our focus.
It’s critical to stay focused on a few initiatives. The
district administration’s role is to provide stability.
•
Raymond Aguilera (agui2400@yahoo.com)
is superintendent and Olivia Zepeda (ozepeda@
gesd32.org) is assistant superintendent of Gadsden
Elementary School District #32 in San Luis, Ariz.
Valerie von Frank (valerievonfrank@aol.com) is an
education writer and editor of Learning Forward’s
books.
August 2011
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Vol. 32 No. 4
Implementation
THE PATH TO IMPROVEMENT
School Improvement
Change
Learning
mentation progress and as diagnostic information for planning
next action steps to facilitate moving further across the bridge.
Each also is important in summative evaluations. These three
tools, individually and collectively, can be applied to implementation of the Standards for Professional Learning.
The following are brief descriptions of each of these diagnostic dimensions. More can be learned through the study of
key texts (Hall & Hord, 2011), various technical documents,
and related training resources.
Stages of Concern addresses the personal/affective aspects
of change. There is an array of feelings, perceptions, worries,
preoccupations and moments of satisfaction for those engaged
with implementing new approaches. This personal side of
change is important to understand because failing to address
concerns can lead to resistance and even rejection of the new
way. A set of categories, or “stages,” of concern has been identified. As a change process unfolds, these different Stages of
Concern can increase and decrease in intensity.
At the very beginning of a change, most participants will be
unconcerned. Their attention will be on getting through the
school year and planning for summer. These participants are not
on the bridge. They may be aware that they are approaching a
bridge — “I heard something about some sort of new standards,
but I am really concerned about …” — but it is not something
that needs to be thought about currently. However, the change
process leaders should be doing things to address this concerns
stage — for example, providing general information about what
will be happening.
As participants begin to step out on to the Implementation
Bridge, self concerns become more intense. “What do these
new standards mean for me?” This, too, is a time when more
August 2011
|
Vol. 32 No. 4
information should be provided. It also is important to be reassuring: “You can do this. We are here to support you.”
As implementers move fully onto the bridge, task concerns
become most intense: “I am spending all my time organizing
materials and trying to schedule everything.” These concerns
should be anticipated and addressed in the
implementation plan. How-to supports, including coaching and timeline projections,
When
should reflect the understanding that these
implementers
concerns can last several years.
make it across
When implementers make it across
the bridge, self
the bridge, self and task concerns should
and task concerns
decrease while impact concerns should inshould decrease
crease. “I am seeing how my use of the these
while impact
standards is making a big difference in the
concerns should
knowledge and skills of teachers and school
increase.
leaders. You can now see the results in what
students are doing.” How leaders address
the potential arousal of impact concerns can
make all the difference in ultimate implementation success and
effectiveness.
There are two other CBAM constructs and measures that
can be applied with the Implementation Bridge metaphor.
Innovation Configurations (IC) address the well-documented fact that each implementer does not necessarily use
the same operational form of the change. Those involved may
say they are using “it,” but what is in operation within each
classroom and school can be significantly different. In our first
study of this phenomenon, teachers in different states claimed
that they were team teaching. But the configurations of teaming
were quite different. The number of teachers (two to six), the
www.learningforward.org
|
JSD 55
theme STANDARDS FOR PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
grouping of students (fixed, heterogeneous, homogenous), and
what teachers taught (all subjects, one subject) were components that varied. Each combination of these variations results
in a different Innovation Configuration — what the innovation
looks like in practice — with different teachers and in different
schools.
In recent years researchers have become very interested in
fidelity of implementation. Innovation Configurations is a way
to describe and contrast different implemented forms of an innovation. With the Implementation Bridge metaphor, there
should be increasing fidelity in terms of Innovation Configurations as implementers move further across.
Levels of Use is the third construct from change research to
consider. Traditional research and program evaluation designs
assume a dichotomous population: treatment group and control group, or users
and nonusers. Levels of Use describes a set
We know a lot
of behavioral profiles that distinguish difthrough research,
ferent approaches to using an innovation.
practice, and
Three different nonuser profiles have been
theory about
described and five different user profiles.
how to launch a
Each of these has been defined in terms
change process,
of behaviors and each has implications for
facilitate
how to facilitate change and for evaluating
movement
change success and effectiveness.
across an
For example, educators at Level 0 NonImplementation
use are not doing anything related to the
Bridge,
change, in this case the new professional
and assess
learning standards. They don’t talk about
implementation
it, they don’t check it out on the web, and
progress
they do not attend an introductory meetand evaluate
ing. This behavioral profile is different from
innovations.
the person at Level I Orientation, who asks
What we know
questions, attends the introductory meeting,
less about are
and considers use of the innovation. Both
the essential
of these levels represent people who are not
elements and
using the change. However, in terms of faprocesses that
cilitating a change process, the interventions
are necessary
that should be emphasized for each are quite
to sustain longdifferent.
term use of an
Among the Levels of Use, one that is
innovation.
particularly important is Level III Mechanical Use. This is an approach where the
implementer is disjointed in what he or she is doing. Implementers at this level continually check back to the user manual,
their scheduling is inefficient, they can’t plan beyond tomorrow, or anticipate what will happen next week. We know from
research that most first-time implementers will be at Level III
Mechanical Use. We also know that many will continue to be
at this level through the first two or three years of implementation. If the inefficiencies of Level III use are not addressed, then
the Implementation Bridge can become very long, and some
56 JSD | www.learningforward.org
Providing feedback about how the change process is
unfolding is important. Each of the CBAM diagnostic
dimensions described here can be used to measure
how far across the Implementation Bridge each
teacher, school, or district has progressed. The same
constructs and data should be used as feedback to
leaders and implementers. These data can be used to
plan next steps.
implementers will jump off.
There are many implications of Level III Mechanical Use.
One that will be particularly important with the new standards
is deciding when and with whom summative evaluation studies
should be conducted. Change research has clearly documented
that most first-time users will be at Level III Mechanical Use.
These are not the implementers who should be included in a
summative evaluation study. They are inefficient and have not
reached full understanding of how to use the new way. Summative evaluation samples should be comprised of implementers who have made it across the bridge. They have established
routines and can predict what will happen next. This behavioral
profile is Level IV-A Routine. When summative evaluations
include many first-time users, it is not surprising that there are
no significant differences in outputs.
PROVIDING FEEDBACK
Another key theme in the Implementation standard is providing constructive feedback. Providing feedback about how the
change process is unfolding is important. Each of the CBAM
diagnostic dimensions described here can be used to measure
how far across the Implementation Bridge each teacher, school,
or district has progressed. The same constructs and data should
be used as feedback to leaders and implementers. These data can
be used to plan next steps for making further implementation
progress. These data also can be used in reports about implementation progress. In addition, these same data can be used in
summative evaluations that relate the extent of implementation
to outcomes.
Assessing implementation at regular intervals and providing
feedback to all participants are important keys to implementation success.
SUSTAINING CHANGE BEYOND IMPLEMENTATION
We know a lot through research, practice, and theory about
how to launch a change process, facilitate movement across an
Implementation Bridge, and assess implementation progress
and evaluate innovations. What we know less about are the
essential elements and processes that are necessary to sustain
long-term use of an innovation. Getting across the bridge is
necessary, but what are the processes and structures that assure
August 2011
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Vol. 32 No. 4
Implementation
IMPLEMENTATION BRIDGE
Stages of Concern
Levels of Use
Innovation Configurations
Low levels of
High levels of
implementationimplementation
CURRENT
PRACTICES
The Implementation Bridge represents moving from
the earlier or less advanced stages to the later or more
advanced stages of the three diagnostic dimensions
of the Concerns-Based Adoption Model: Stages of
Concern, Levels of Use, and Innovation Configurations.
continuing use of high-fidelity configurations, in this case, of
the standards? How do we prevent abandonment? Addressing
the sustainability challenges of the latest standards will need
special attention.
One indicator of sustainability will be when the implemented Standards for Professional Learning have a line item in
the school or district budget. Another will be when it becomes
regular practice for new staff to have access to learning and
development. Still another important indicator will be that the
process and criteria for succession of principals and relevant staff
at the district office includes evidence of their understanding
and interest in supporting professional learning through the
standards. Above all, school and district leadership will provide
continuous attention and direct the attention of others to the
standards’ value. These leaders become the internal and external
champions for sustaining the standards and a continued focus
on professional learning.
Supporting and celebrating the standards and their practices
are keys to the standards’ robust sustainability and the capacity
to contribute richly to the ultimate goal — student learning
success.
We see this standard as uniquely significant in that the standards revision architects explicitly identified the importance of
addressing implementation. A strength of the Implementation
standard is its reference to change process research that can be
applied to assessing and guiding the implementation of professional learning. Understanding that change begins with the
learning of educational professionals is crucial. Only through
increasing adult learning will we increase student learning.
REFERENCES
Charters, W.W., Jr. & Jones, J.E. (1973, November).
On the risk of appraising non-events in program evaluation.
August 2011
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Vol. 32 No. 4
NEW
PRACTICES
Educational Researcher, 2(11), 5-7.
Drummond, K., Chinen, M., Duncan, T.G., Miller,
H.R., Fryer, L., Zmach, C., & Culp, K. (2011). Impact
of the Thinking Reader® software program on grade 6 reading
vocabulary, comprehension, strategies, and motivation (NCEE
2010-4035). Washington, DC: National Center for
Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of
Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.
Hall, G.E. (1999, Summer). Using constructs
and techniques from research to facilitate and assess
implementation of an innovative mathematics curriculum.
Journal of Classroom Interaction, 34(1), 1-8.
Hall, G.E. & Hord, S.M. (2011). Implementing change:
Patterns, principles, and potholes (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Pearson.
Randel, B., Beesley, A.D., Apthorp, H., Clark, T.F.,
Wang, X., Cicchinelli, L.F., & Williams, J.M. (2011).
Classroom assessment for student learning: The impact on
elementary school mathematics in the central region (NCEE
2011-4005). Washington, DC: National Center for
Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of
Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.
•
Gene Hall (gene.hall@unlv.edu) is a professor of
educational leadership at the University of Nevada, Las
Vegas. His research focuses on understanding, evaluating,
and facilitating change processes in organizations.
Shirley Hord (shirley.hord@learningforward.org)
is scholar laureate of Learning Forward and former
scholar emerita at Southwest Educational Development
Laboratory, Austin, Texas. She writes about school-based
professional development, leadership, school change and
improvement, and professional learning communities. ■
www.learningforward.org
|
JSD 57
FOCUS ON
NSDC’S
STANDARDS
What concerns do you have?
M
any of the school administrators
that yields data to identify the primary concerns
I work with acknowledge that
of individuals or the total staff.
changes in classroom practice
Principals and leadership teams collect and
take time. Such changes never
classify the data, then use the information to
happen overnight. Yet many leaders don’t know
identify any major concerns which could be barwhat to do to create change beyond providing
riers to implementing new practices.
a workshop. They often are unfamiliar with the
CBAM also offers interventions leaders
Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM), decan use to resolve concerns so that teachers can
veloped by Gene Hall and Shirley Hord (2001),
continue to develop their skills with new stratethat helps principals and leadergies and not stall at any particular
ship teams consider staff feelings
stage. For example, when asked
Learning: Staff
and concerns when designing
about concerns related to a curricudevelopment that
staff learning experiences at the
lum mapping project, one teacher
improves the learning
school (Roy & Hord, 2003, p. 91).
commented, “I’m concerned I won’t
of all students applies
CBAM resulted from an exbe able to keep up.” This concern
knowledge about
ploration of how teachers respond
is an example of the personal
human learning and
when innovative practices are
stage. Personal concern focuses
change.
introduced. CBAM answers the
on the “uncertainties related to the
question for many principals about
demands of the innovation” (Hall &
how to help educators as they move through
Hord, 2001, p. 63). People wonder whether they
the change process. One CBAM tool, Stages of
are capable of using the new practices, whether
Concern, provides a way for leaders to support
they themselves are adequate, or what financial or
change. The tool describes seven patterns of conpersonal costs are required. Interventions approcerns teachers have expressed as they adopted
priate to the personal stage of concern include:
new practices.
• Personal notes and conversations to encour
Leaders can assess where teachers are in
age and reinforce their personal adequacy.
these stages in three ways:
• Connecting teachers with supportive others.
1. Using one-legged interviews.
• Showing how the innovation can be imple2. Through open-ended concerns statements.
mented sequentially. It is important to estab3. With the Stages of Concern questionnaire.
lish expectations that are attainable.
One-legged interviews are short hallway or
• Not pushing the use of an innovation,
workroom conversations that probe issues relatbut encouraging and supporting it while
ed to using a new practice. They are called “onemaintaining expectations (Hord, Rutherford,
legged” because the conversations should last as
Huling, & Hall, 1987, pp. 44-45).
long as you can stand on one leg. Open-ended
Using CBAM, principals and leadership
concerns statements could be a few short senteam members can confidently assess staff feelings and concerns, then use that information to
tences staff write on an index card in response
to a prompt such as, “When you think about
design powerful professional learning that will
differentiated instruction, what concerns do you
support
teachers in implementing new practices.
have?” The final option to gauge teachers’ stage
See the tools, pp. 4-5, for help in using
of concern is using a formal 35-question survey
CBAM in your school.
October 2008 l The Learning Principal
Pat Roy is co-author
of Moving NSDC’s
Staff Development
Standards Into
Practice: Innovation
Configurations
(NSDC, 2003).
References
Hall, G. & Hord,
S. (2001).
Implementing
change: Patterns,
principles, and
potholes. Boston:
Allyn & Bacon.
Hord, S.,
Rutherford, W.,
Huling, L., & Hall,
G. (1987). Taking
charge of change.
Alexandria, VA:
ASCD.
Roy, P. & Hord,
S. (2003). Moving
NSDC’s staff
development
standards into
practice: Innovation
configurations.
Oxford, OH:
National Staff
Development
Council.
National Staff Development Council l 800-727-7288 l www.nsdc.org
3
FOCUS ON THE STANDARDS
Customize learning
for each audience
D
will be available or whether students might react
ifferentiation of instruction is a
negatively to new forms of instruction and disrupt
focus for many districts and
classroom routines and discipline. If these concerns
schools as educators try to find
are not addressed, the teacher may get “stuck” at
ways to assist all students to learn
this stage and never move on. Interventions/supat high levels. Differentiation
port appropriate for the personal concern stage ingrows out of the knowledge that no single model
clude acknowledging that these concerns are legitiof instruction will meet the needs of all students.
mate and appropriate, explaining plans for distribIn the same way, differentiation is necessary
uting classroom materials, arranging visits with othfor the staff who work with students. This is one
ers who have already implemented the innovation,
of the messages of the Learning Standard, one of
and demonstrating how to implement the innovathe 12 NSDC Standards for Staff Development.
tion in small steps.
If one-size-does-not-fit-all for stuStages of Concern can also be
dents, how can we continue one-sizeapplied to groups of educators who are
fits-all professional development?
Learning:
learning to use the same innovation. InThe Concerns-Based Adoption
formal procedures to determine the stage
Model (CBAM) is a framework about
Staff development
of concern include hallway conversahuman learning and change that staff
tions (one-legged interviews) and formal
developers need to know, understand,
that improves the
procedures such as a 35-question survey.
and apply to their work (Hall & Hord,
learning
of
all
These diagnostic tools can be used to
2001). CBAM is based on the princreate a profile for the group. Not everyciple that change is a process and not
students applies
one will express the same concerns at the
an event. This means everyone consame time, but major areas can be idennected with assisting educators to
knowledge about
tified and addressed for the group.
learn new instructional practices or
human learning
CBAM provides a framework
improving principal leadership needs
for understanding concerns and designto think about change as a series of
and change.
ing interventions that resolve issues exactions and processes spread over a
pressed in each stage. Using this framelong period of time. Most people do
work, professional development benot transform their behaviors and praccomes a dialogue between staff developer and partices as a result of a single event — no matter how
ticipants — not a monologue in which profespowerful. Developing a new classroom or leadersional development is delivered in a preordained
ship habit takes time, support, and determination.
CBAM identifies a variety of concerns that
sequence with no regard to participant concerns.
The staff developer continuously probes and dieducators may express as they implement new pracagnoses participants’ needs. The staff developer
tices. Each of those stages requires a different form
can then use what’s learned to design next steps
of support/intervention to resolve those concerns.
in the process to support and sustain change.
For example, personal concerns are one of the iniImplementing new practices requires inditial stages of concern. At this stage, a teacher is
vidualized support. CBAM can provide a frameconcerned about how the innovation will affect him
work for determining the kinds of support that lead
or her personally. Educators might wonder what
to high-quality implementation of new practices
new skills and knowledge will be required of them
and sustained use of those practices. This frameand whether they will be able to learn those new
work can bring the Learning Standard to life.
skills. They wonder whether the materials they need
NATIONAL STAFF DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL
Pat Roy is co-author
of Moving NSDC’s
Staff Development
Standards Into
Practice: Innovation
Configurations
(NSDC, 2003).
REFERENCES
Hall, G. & Hord, S.
(2001). Implementing
change: Patterns,
principles, and
potholes. Boston, MA:
Allyn & Bacon.
RESULTS, DECEMBER/JANUARY 2005 N PAGE 3
STANDARDS ASSESSMENT INVENTORY Recommendations: Outcomes Standard
Tools to support STRENGTHENING strategies
SEEKING CONGRUENCE
Purpose: To identify commonalities between professional learning and other improvement initiatives.
Materials:
•
•
Descriptions of knowledge, instructional strategies, and attitudes/dispositions for your current professional learning plan
Descriptions of knowledge, instructional strategies, and attitudes/dispositions for a school improvement initiative
Directions: Use a Venn diagram to illustrate the similarities and differences between professional learning and school improvement initiatives.
Post these results in the teachers’ work area. Point out the commonality when these topics are addressed during team or staff meetings. Ensure that any
outside consultants know about the commonalities and highlight the importance of the strategies in both areas. Ask faculty to brainstorm ways the
commonalities can be highlighted during their professional learning.
Sample:
ELL Program
Vocabulary and language development Guided instruction Explore specific academic terms Student engagement Professional Learning Plan
Metacognition Authentic assessment Explicit instruction of reading comprehension Instructional rigor contained in state content standards Knowledge of content Meaning-­‐based context and universal themes Use in the inquiry
process Modeling, graphic organizers, & visuals Displays effective
and efficient
classroom
management
chapter 9
PlaNNiNg
effective professional
learning
Where are We noW?
We identify the focus of our professional development by analyzing a variety of student achievement
data.
STRoNgly agRee
agRee
No oPiNioN
DiSagRee
STRoNgly DiSagRee
the focus of our professional development aligns with our school improvement goals.
STRoNgly agRee
agRee
No oPiNioN
DiSagRee
STRoNgly DiSagRee
our professional development goals are written in a smart goal format and stipulate what
improvements we want in teachers’ knowledge, skills, and practices.
STRoNgly agRee
agRee
No oPiNioN
DiSagRee
STRoNgly DiSagRee
We selected new instructional strategies based on evidence of improved student learning.
STRoNgly agRee
agRee
No oPiNioN
DiSagRee
STRoNgly DiSagRee
our professional development plan includes long-term support strategies that help teachers implement
new classroom practices.
STRoNgly agRee
BeComiNg a leaRNiNg SChool
agRee
No oPiNioN
DiSagRee
STRoNgly DiSagRee
National Staff Development Council • www.nsdc.org
97
chapter 9 • PlaNNiNg eFFeCTiVe PRoFeSSioNal leaRNiNg
o paraphrase American psychologist
T
ing needs will lead to very different forms of profes-
Abraham Maslow, if all you have is a
sional learning. For example, if teachers analyze student
hammer, everything starts to look like a
learning data and find students are not performing well
nail. In the field of education, workshops
in reading comprehension of expository text, they next
remain the hammer in the professional
need to determine whether expository reading material
development tool kit. Despite 25 years of research that
is available in classrooms and what teaching strategies
has identified the limitations of this training model,
best help students comprehend this kind of text. A
most schools answer every adult learning need by find-
workshop might be appropriate if teachers do not know
School
ing a presenter and planning a work-
how to help students develop strategies to comprehend
shop.
expository text. If teachers have already been exposed to
improvement
Creating and sustaining effective
plans and
classroom practices that improve stu-
menting them, then professional learning could take
professional
dent learning require a different set
place in grade-level learning teams that support teachers
development
of tools. However, merely replacing
in developing common lesson plans, reviewing student
should
workshops with another form of pro-
work, and observing each other’s classroom instruction.
complement and
fessional development, such as learn-
The Backmapping Model for Planning Results-
be aligned with
each other.
appropriate instructional strategies but are not imple-
ing teams or action research, is not
Based Professional Learning in figure 9.1 describes a
enough. Change the hammer and
seven-step process for planning professional learning
change the nail — take time to de-
(Killion, 1999).
termine student learning needs and
Districts, schools, departments, or grade-level
what educators need to know and be able to do before
teams can use this process, but adult learning is likely to
planning professional development.
more closely align with student needs when school or
Analyzing and diagnosing student and adult learn-
98
National Staff Development Council • www.nsdc.org
department or grade-level staff are responsible for ana-
BeComiNg a leaRNiNg SChool
PlaNNiNg eFFeCTiVe PRoFeSSioNal leaRNiNg • chapter 9
figure 9.1 BaCKmaPPiNg moDel FoR PlaNNiNg ReSUlTS-BaSeD PRoFeSSioNal leaRNiNg
Step 7
Implement,
sustain, and
evaluate the
professional
development
intervention.
Step 1
Analyze student
learning needs.
Step 2
Identify
characteristics
of community,
district, school,
department,
and staff.
Improved
student
learning
Step 6
Plan
intervention,
implementation,
and evaluation.
Step 5
Study the research
for specific
professional
learning programs,
strategies, or
interventions.
lyzing the data and planning professional learning.
Some of these steps may seem familiar. They are, in
Step 3
Develop
improvement
goals and specific
student
outcomes.
Step 4
Identify
educator
learning
needs.
student learning and achievement. In Step 1, educators
identify student learning needs. Step 2 involves analyz-
fact, similar to most school improvement planning
ing the department, school, and district context. In
models. School improvement plans and professional
Step 3, planners develop an improvement goal that
learning should complement and be aligned with each
specifies improved student achievement as the end re-
other. School improvement plans identify student learn-
sult and educator learning as a step in accomplishing
ing goals, while professional learning helps educators
the goals.
acquire the knowledge and skills to help students meet
Step 4 has educators identify adult learning needs
those goals. Depending on the district or school’s cur-
and replaces the traditional needs assessment survey
rent improvement process, this planning model may
process. Step 5 involves reviewing research about possi-
provide a few steps to add to established processes.
ble strategies to ensure any program planned has evi-
The backmapping model guides educators in planning results-based professional learning that improves
BeComiNg a leaRNiNg SChool
dence of its impact on student learning. In Step 6, the
planning group selects the intervention and plans for its
National Staff Development Council • www.nsdc.org
99
chapter 9 • PlaNNiNg eFFeCTiVe PRoFeSSioNal leaRNiNg
implementation and evaluation. Step 7 involves imple-
These scores by themselves are insufficient to use for
menting, sustaining, and evaluating the professional de-
planning professional learning. Suppose the mathemat-
velopment intervention.
ics department faculty next analyze subtest and student
group scores. They find a particular group of students is
step 1: aNalyze STUDeNT leaRNiNg NeeDS.
To produce results, professional learning must be
performing poorly in the area of probability and statistics. They then may review the curriculum to determine
directly tied to student learning needs. Before selecting
which standards or learning objectives are most essential
or designing professional development, carefully and
for students to achieve and what fundamental knowl-
thoroughly analyze student achievement data to iden-
edge and skills students may be lacking that serve as the
tify specific areas of student achievement and areas of
prerequisites to these standards. Faculty then use this
need. This analysis will help guide decisions about the
information to establish schoolwide and/or department
format of professional learning.
improvement goals, identify specific actions necessary
Key questions to answer during this step include:
to achieve those goals, and guide the selection and/or
•
What assessment data are available?
design of a professional development intervention to
•
What is being measured in each assessment?
address the need to increase the probability and statis-
•
What areas of student performance are meeting or
tics skills of the identified group of students.
exceeding expectations?
•
•
•
What areas of student performance are below ex-
a focus doesn’t provide enough information for staff to
pectations?
design professional learning to address the problem.
What patterns exist within the data? How are the
The more detailed skills and identified student groups
data similar or different in various grade levels,
provide actionable information that is specific enough
content areas, and individual classes?
for planners to identify what teachers need to know and
How did various groups of students perform?
be able to do in order to improve student performance
(Consider gender, race, special needs, English lan-
in probability and statistics.
guage learners, socioeconomic status.)
•
In this example, simply identifying mathematics as
While state assessment data is important, any
What do other data reveal about student perform-
analysis should include other data. Consider district or
ance?
school interim assessments, grades, attendance, disci-
•
What surprises us?
pline issues, graduation rates, demographics, and other
•
What confirms what we already know?
student data. School and district staff also need strate-
The data analysis process results in staff knowing
gies for analyzing student achievement data, identifying
or identifying:
student learning needs, and translating student data
1.
Specific areas of student need;
into improvement goals.
2.
Specific knowledge and skills that students need in
order to improve achievement; and
3.
Specific students or groups of students for whom
the need is most prevalent or pronounced.
For example, a school’s scores on a state assessment
are below the expected or desired level in mathematics.
100
National Staff Development Council • www.nsdc.org
step 2: iDeNTiFy ChaRaCTeRiSTiCS oF CommUNiTy,
DiSTRiCT, SChool, DePaRTmeNT, aND STaFF.
School leaders and teachers use what they know
about students’ characteristics to decide what instruction and programs are appropriate for them. The same
BeComiNg a leaRNiNg SChool
PlaNNiNg eFFeCTiVe PRoFeSSioNal leaRNiNg • chapter 9
is true for professional development leaders. Knowing
•
Performance/ability
the characteristics of the adults who will participate in
•
Attitude
professional learning influences the design of the learn-
•
Sense of efficacy
ing experience and the nature of the follow-up support.
•
Response to change
For example, professional learning for experienced
•
Collegiality
teachers may be different than professional learning for
•
Extent to which teachers’ preparation aligns with
novices. A program for teachers working to meet the
needs of urban, disadvantaged students may be differ-
teaching assignments
•
Level of education
ent than one for teachers in rural schools. A program in
a district or school with limited resources and/or time
What are some characteristics of formal and
for professional learning will be different than in set-
informal leadership for both teachers and
tings where time and resources are available. Detailing
administrators?
the context helps professional development leaders
•
Leadership style
make informed decisions about appropriate professional
•
Roles of formal and informal leaders
learning.
•
Level of participation in leadership activities
•
Opportunities to be involved in leadership
Develop a profile of the school environment and
conditions by considering these questions:
roles/activities
•
Trust in leadership
What are the characteristics of the students?
•
Support by leadership
•
Ethnicity/race
•
Support for leadership
•
Gender
•
Level of communication
•
Socioeconomic status
•
Mobility
What are some characteristics of the community?
•
Family support
•
Support for education
•
Motivation
•
Support for the school
•
Attitude toward school
•
Involvement in school activities
•
Experience in school
•
Support for students
•
Academic performance
•
Support for professional development
•
Retention rates
•
Parents’ education level
What resources are available to support professional
•
Sibling data
development?
•
Budget
What are the characteristics of the staff?
•
Time
•
Years of experience
•
Support personnel in the building
•
Years at grade level
•
Support personnel outside the building
•
Years in the school
•
Union contract
•
Past experience with professional development
•
Incentives
•
Motivation
BeComiNg a leaRNiNg SChool
Once the analysis is complete, use this information
National Staff Development Council • www.nsdc.org
101
chapter 9 • PlaNNiNg eFFeCTiVe PRoFeSSioNal leaRNiNg
to consider which interventions are most appropriate
tainable, results-oriented, time-bound) goal format.
for the school or team.
(See tool 9.3 on the CD.)
step 3: DeVeloP imPRoVemeNT goalS aND
step 4: iDeNTiFy eDUCaToR (TeaCheR aND
SPeCiFiC STUDeNT oUTComeS.
Educators need to be clear about what students
aDmiNiSTRaToR) leaRNiNg NeeDS.
Professional learning frequently begins with a
and teachers are to accomplish as a result of teachers’
needs assessment survey that asks adult learners to iden-
professional learning. Missing the mark is easy without
tify what they want to learn. This common practice
a goal and specific target.
often leaves a gap between what educators want to learn
Key questions about outcomes include:
and what they may need to learn to address the identi-
•
What results do we seek for students?
fied student learning goals. tool 9.5 on the CD pro-
•
What new practices do we expect from staff?
vides a rationale for eliminating the traditional needs
The intended results of the professional learning
assessment survey in favor of analyzing student learning
should be stated in terms of student achievement.
needs. For example, teachers are often eager to learn
Teachers’ and principals’ actions or
about educational innovations, and principals may
changes are the means to achieve the
want to learn how to shortcut nagging managerial tasks.
be clear about
goal of increasing student achieve-
However, if the goal is to increase student reading per-
what students
ment. For example, “100% of the
formance, and students’ greatest deficits are compre-
and teachers are
staff will participate in training in
hending and interpreting informational text, teachers
to accomplish as a
brain-based learning” is not a goal
and principals need to develop their skills and knowl-
result of teachers’
because it does not describe the
edge about how to help students read nonfiction text.
training’s impact on student learn-
Professional learning on other topics takes time and re-
ing. Professional development goals
sources away from the established school improvement
too often state the activities that will
and team learning goals.
Educators need to
professional
learning.
be conducted rather than results to
be accomplished.
A preferable goal or objective would be: “In three
Classroom walk-throughs are useful in determining
what teachers need to learn. Walk-throughs help administrators and teams of teachers gather information
years, 90% of students will read on grade level as result
about instructional strengths and needs and provide a
of teachers learning and implementing new brain-based
framework for using that information to discuss in-
instructional strategies.” This statement focuses on the
struction, monitor how professional development is im-
end result of professional learning rather than on what
plemented, and measure professional development’s
occurs in the process. These objectives might state that
effect on classroom practices.
a majority of teachers will use new practices routinely
Classroom walk-throughs can give administrators
and with high quality or high fidelity. Student learning
clear information about teachers’ current practices and
will only be affected when teachers implement new
help leaders identify trends and patterns of practice
strategies well — not just know them.
within a school or district. Administration and faculty
Write clear and specific goals and objectives using
the components of a SMART (specific, measurable, at-
102
National Staff Development Council • www.nsdc.org
can use the information to discuss effective classroom
practices and determine what learning is needed to ac-
BeComiNg a leaRNiNg SChool
PlaNNiNg eFFeCTiVe PRoFeSSioNal leaRNiNg • chapter 9
complish their student learning and professional learn-
consider these questions to narrow the choices:
ing goals.
•
After identifying educators’ learning needs, con-
and knowledge we have identified as educator
sider what actions to take to meet these needs. The
scope and content of the professional learning required
learning needs?
•
will be clearer when student learning needs, the school
or district’s context and characteristics, the specific goal,
Which professional learning addresses the skills
What professional development are schools with
similar student demographics using?
•
and educator learning needs all are clear.
If our school’s characteristics do not match the
schools in which the professional learning was successful, what are the key differences? How likely are
those differences to interfere with the program’s
step 5: STUDy The ReSeaRCh FoR SPeCiFiC
PRoFeSSioNal leaRNiNg PRogRamS,
success? What changes might increase the likeli-
STRaTegieS, oR iNTeRVeNTioNS.
hood of success?
After establishing educator learning goals, examine
•
What aspects of the professional learning (if any)
the research for specific professional development prac-
might need to be modified to accommodate the
tices that are supported by evidence of their impact on
unique features of our school or students?
student learning. In their urgency and enthusiasm to
•
improve student performance, school staff may pass
over this critical step and select or adapt unfamiliar pro-
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the professional learning?
•
What school, district, and community support was
grams. They often fail to critically review available pro-
required to make the professional learning success-
grams and practices to determine whether the new
ful?
practices have proven successful. Sometimes, teachers
Next, consider the school’s context by asking:
within a school have conducted action research studies
•
that can provide findings to consider when selecting interventions. Their findings can be reviewed at this step
mate?
•
along with other research-based options.
Even well-designed, formal professional develop-
What are the characteristics of the culture and cliWhat do teachers already know and what do they
need to know next?
•
What practices are teachers currently using in the
ment initiatives need to be reviewed for their effect on
classroom? How different are current practices
student learning. NSDC has published a series of What
from desired practices?
Works books (Killion, 1999; Killion, 2002a; Killion,
•
2002b) that reviewed professional development programs in various content areas for elementary, middle,
resist changes?
•
and high school levels. These books provide each program’s evidence of impact on student learning.
For other programs, the professional development
program review form (tool 9.7 on the CD) identifies
Does the school culture embrace new practices or
What are teachers’ current levels of understanding
of content related to state standards?
•
What support do teachers need in order to implement new strategies?
After examining research-based evidence and
essential questions important in collecting research-
weighing the options, the context factors identified in
based evidence of results.
Step 2 become criteria for selecting an intervention ap-
Once research-based options have been identified,
BeComiNg a leaRNiNg SChool
propriate for the school, the staff, and the student pop-
National Staff Development Council • www.nsdc.org
103
chapter 9 • PlaNNiNg eFFeCTiVe PRoFeSSioNal leaRNiNg
ulation. Members decide to adopt or adapt an existing
strategies are most useful for:
professional development program or to create one to
•
Gathering and using information from within the
align with their unique school characteristics, their
school or district about learning: Accessing Student
goals, and current research.
Voices, Action Research, Classroom Walk-
This is a significant decision that needs to be made
Throughs, Data Analysis, Portfolios for Educators,
with careful thought and thorough discussion. When
making this decision, members are determining where
Shadowing Students, and Visual Dialogue.
•
Creating professional learning communities: Criti-
they will place their energy and resources for the long
cal Friends Groups, Mentoring, Peer Coaching,
run.
Tuning Protocols, and Visual Dialogue.
•
Focusing on standards, curriculum, and assessment: Action Research, Assessment as Professional
step 6: PlaN iNTeRVeNTioN, imPlemeNTaTioN, aND
Learning, Case Discussions, Curriculum Design,
eValUaTioN.
Initiating new professional learning takes time and
Immersing Teachers in Practice, Lesson Study,
energy. To implement new professional development
Standards in Practice, Study Groups, and Visual
strategies requires that leaders or faculty plan follow-up
Dialogue.
or long-term support beyond the immediate school
•
Focusing on instructional practices or pedagogy:
year. A professional development intervention needs to
Action Research, Case Discussions, Critical Friends
be carefully selected to match teacher learning needs.
Groups, Immersing Teachers in Practice, Journal-
Many questions need to be answered to get the best fit
ing, Lesson Study, Mentoring, Peer Coaching,
between educator needs and appropriate professional
Portfolios, and Tuning Protocols.
development design. Many of the job-embedded pro-
More detailed information about how to select ap-
fessional development strategies can be used in combi-
propriate professional learning designs to match the
nation to help educators learn about new practices,
learning needs of teachers and administrators can be
begin implementing new practices, and consistently use
found in Chapter 11. Chapter 11 describes a variety of
new practices. Each of these three aspects of learning
job-embedded professional learning strategies to use to
new classroom strategies requires different kinds of pro-
develop awareness of new instructional strategies or
fessional learning. The ultimate goal is to enhance the
programs, build knowledge, translate new knowledge
instructional practices used in the classroom so that stu-
into practice, practice using new strategies, and reflect
dent learning is improved.
on new practice.
Powerful Designs for Professional Learning (Easton,
After selecting, adapting, or designing a profes-
2008) includes 21 job-embedded professional develop-
sional development program/intervention and before
ment practices. Each strategy has information to help
implementation, consider:
administrators and teachers decide when and why to
•
use these strategies. This information helps school fac-
What kind of support does the program need to be
successful?
ulty determine which strategies might work best, fit a
•
How will we support the individuals involved?
particular context, and lead to teachers learning specific
•
What are we equipped to do to support and imple-
content.
ment the professional learning, and what external
For example, some professional development
104
National Staff Development Council • www.nsdc.org
resources will we need?
BeComiNg a leaRNiNg SChool
PlaNNiNg eFFeCTiVe PRoFeSSioNal leaRNiNg • chapter 9
refLectIons
1.
Consider the components of the backmapping model. Which of these steps are you currently using?
How can you refine these activities to bring them into line with the model?
2.
Where can you find research to support the adoption of new professional learning?
3.
Who plans or designs professional learning for the district or school? How well-prepared are they to
plan professional learning as described in this chapter? If they do not feel ready, who can help increase
their capacity?
4.
How many sources of student data do you have available for analysis? How comfortable are staff in
conducting their own analysis of student data? What could be done to help them become more
comfortable?
5.
Step 6 of the backmapping process requires thoughtful planning and is typically the school’s or district’s
first step. What are the advantages of completing Steps 1-5 before Step 6?
•
•
What resources are we dedicating to the profes-
identify what important baseline data to collect, data
sional learning?
which may be necessary for demonstrating the profes-
What is our timeline for full implementation by all
sional learning’s impact.
faculty members?
•
•
•
•
•
When planning to evaluate a professional develop-
What benchmarks along the way will help us know
ment program, leaders:
if we are successful?
1.
Assess the design to determine if the staff develop-
Are we willing to commit time, energy, and finan-
ment program is thorough, well-conceived, and
cial resources to this effort for the long term?
able to be implemented;
How will we align this new initiative with existing
2.
Identify key questions they hope to answer; and
efforts? What might we need to eliminate to make
3.
Design the evaluation framework — the plan for
resources available for this program?
conducting the evaluation.
How closely do the goals of the professional learn-
An evaluation framework includes identifying what
ing align with our school’s improvement goals and
data will be collected, sources of that data, who will
the district’s strategic goals?
conduct the evaluation, and a timeline (Killion, 2007).
How will we assess how the program is initiated,
Plans should include both formative and summative
implemented, and sustained?
evaluations.
Planning evaluation at the same time as planning
A formative assessment allows professional devel-
implementation of the professional learning leads to a
opment leaders to know how well the program is being
higher-quality evaluation. Considering both the pro-
implemented, provides opportunities to take corrective
gram and evaluation at the same time allows planners to
actions, and answers questions including:
BeComiNg a leaRNiNg SChool
National Staff Development Council • www.nsdc.org
105
chapter 9 • PlaNNiNg eFFeCTiVe PRoFeSSioNal leaRNiNg
•
•
•
Are the program activities being implemented as
on an acceptable level of implementation is an Innova-
planned?
tion Configuration (IC) map. IC maps describe and de-
Are resources adequate to implement the program
fine the essential features of new practice (Hall & Hord,
as planned?
2001). tool 9.8 on the CD describes the components
To what degree are differences occurring in imple-
of an Innovation Configuration map as well as strate-
mentation that may influence the program’s re-
gies for designing your own.
sults?
Setting expectations and standards for acceptable
A summative evaluation allows professional devel-
implementation will make a significant difference in the
opment leaders to know what impact the program has
quality of implementation. Then use both formative
had and answers questions including:
and summative evaluation processes to provide the best
•
Has the learning achieved the intended results?
data to continually improve professional learning and
•
What changes for teachers have resulted from the
increase the likelihood that it will achieve the results it
professional learning?
was designed to achieve. Formative assessments provide
What changes for students have resulted from the
data that can be used to continually adjust and refine
professional learning?
the program to strengthen results. Summative evalua-
What changes in the organization have resulted
tion provides information about the impact of profes-
from the professional learning?
sional learning and offers valuable data to improve its
Planning the program and evaluation simultane-
results. More information about evaluating professional
•
•
ously gives professional development leaders and the
learning is provided in Chapter 14.
evaluator greater clarity about how the professional
learning is intended to work, increasing the likelihood
that professional learning will be implemented as designed and that the intended results will be realized.
references
Easton, L.B. (Ed.) (2008). Powerful designs for
professional learning (2nd ed.). Oxford, OH: NSDC.
Hall, G. & Hord, S. (2001). Implementing
step 7: imPlemeNT, SUSTaiN, aND eValUaTe The
PRoFeSSioNal DeVeloPmeNT
iNTeRVeNTioN.
Any new professional development intervention requires constant nurturing and support for it to be im-
change: Patterns, principles, and potholes. Boston: Allyn
& Bacon.
Killion, J. (1999). What works in the middle: Results-based staff development. Oxford, OH: NSDC.
Killion, J. (2002a). What works in the elementary
plemented at a high level. Staff development leaders,
school: Results-based staff development. Oxford, OH:
including the principal and teacher leaders, are prima-
NSDC & NEA.
rily responsible for monitoring and making adjustments
to ensure the initiative’s success.
Those responsible for implementation first need a
clear understanding of what high-quality performance
means and looks like. One tool for reaching agreement
106
National Staff Development Council • www.nsdc.org
Killion, J. (2002b). What works in the high school:
Results-based staff development. Oxford, OH: NSDC &
NEA.
Killion, J. (2007). Assessing impact: Evaluating
staff development. Oxford, OH: NSDC.
BeComiNg a leaRNiNg SChool
Module 2 • HOW DO WE PLAN FOR SCHOOLWIDE AND TEAM-BASED COLLABORATIVE LEARNING?
SELF-ASSESSMENT OF CURRENT PLANNING FOR PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
1. Our school utilizes both team-based and schoolwide collaborative learning to improve our
professional knowledge and skills.
Strongly agree
Agree
No opinion
Disagree
Strongly disagree
2. Teachers identify their professional development focus based on the needs of their students.
Strongly agree
Agree
No opinion
Disagree
Strongly disagree
3. Teachers learn within teams several times a week.
Strongly agree
Agree
No opinion
Disagree
Strongly disagree
4. One component of our professional learning plan includes team support for implementing
new instructional strategies.
Strongly agree
Agree
No opinion
Disagree
Strongly disagree
5. One way we evaluate the results of our professional learning is by examining student work.
Strongly agree
Agree
No opinion
Disagree
Strongly disagree
2-2
Rochester City School District
MINDS IN MOTION: CREATING A COMMUNITY OF COLLABORATIVE LEARNERS
Vol. 11, No. 2
November/December 2007
Tools
WHAT’S
INSIDE
Tree Diagram
Page 4
Tree Diagram
for SMART
Climate Goals
Page 5
FOR SCHOOLS
FOR A DYNAMIC COMMUNITY OF LEARNERS AND LEADERS
Tree Diagram
for SMART
Writing Goals
for Middle
School
Students
Page 6
WORK SMARTER,
NOT HARDER
SMART goals keep key
objectives in focus
T
B Y
J O A N
he teacher was
skeptical about
SMART goals.
She had been
through planning
and goal-setting before. She
expected SMART goals to be
another addition to her workload that would offer little
or nothing to improve what
she cared about most, her
instruction and her students’
learning.
Her middle school set a
schoolwide SMART goal of
reaching 85% proficiency on
the statewide math assessment by 2008. Then, the 7thgrade math teachers set their own grade-level
SMART goal. She respected her colleagues and
she honestly evaluated her teaching to determine
5 Meetings for
Developing
SMART Goals
Page 7
R I C H A R D S O N
what she could do to help the
team achieve its goal.
To be faithful to the
SMART goals process, the
team had agreed to do several
benchmark assessments before the statewide assessment.
She knew that if too few of
her students were proficient
on those assessments, she
would need to reteach.
And that’s when it all began to make sense to her. She
discovered that her focus on
a few key objectives meant
that her students understood
concepts more quickly. So,
instead of dwelling on some
concepts for days or even
weeks, she could move on. That meant her students were learning more efficiently and she was
National Staff
Development
Council
800-727-7288
www.nsdc.org
Continued on p. 2
NSDC’s purpose: Every educator engages in effective professional learning every day so every student achieves.
COVER STORY
“The reason most
people never reach
their goals is that
they don’t define
them, or ever
seriously consider
them as believable
or achievable.
Winners can tell
you where they are
going, what they
plan to do along
the way, and who
will be sharing the
adventure with
them.”
— Denis Watley
ATTEND
CONFERENCE
SESSION
Jan O’Neill is
presenting a
concurrent session
on “A SMART
Approach to
Improving
Student Learning
Districtwide” at
NSDC’s Annual
Conference in
Dallas. Look for
Session J11.
2
Work smarter, not harder, with SMART goals
Continued from p. 1
able to move more quickly through the curriculum.
Although she had been worried that SMART
goals would consume more of her time, she
discovered that using the SMART goals actually
created more time for her.
This teacher’s discovery should not be
surprising. Businesses have long used SMART
goals as a way to cut through the morass of
conflicting priorities and focus their energies
on goals that would make a difference to their
work. Although SMART goals did not seep into
the education lexicon until the 1990s, the power
that they bring to school improvement work is
the same. SMART goals can focus a school’s or
district’s work and determine whether the work
is making a difference.
Anne Conzemius, who has been working for
more than 10 years with schools and districts to
set SMART goals, said goals that schools set for
themselves are more empowering for administrators and teachers than goals that are set for
schools by external forces. “Mandates just don’t
carry the same life with them. When teachers
engage with their grade-level colleagues or other
teachers in their buildings to create meaningful
goals, that makes a difference,’’ said Conzemius, who with co-author Jan O’Neill wrote The
Power of SMART Goals (Solution Tree, 2006).
They are founders of Quality Leadership by Design, an educational consulting firm in Madison,
Wis.
“One reason a lot of goals were never useful
is because they didn’t saturate into the classroom. For goals to make a difference to teachers, teachers have to be engaged in the process
of developing the goal so they own the goal.
That means teachers have to look at the data and
design a goal that makes sense to them. The goal
becomes powerful when teachers use it to inform
their practice,” she said.
CHALLENGES OF SETTING SMART GOALS
For a long time, Conzemius and O’Neill had
to work to sell schools and districts on the idea
that setting goals was an essential part of the
improvement process. That’s no longer neces-
National Staff Development Council I 800-727-7288 I www.nsdc.org
sary, they said. Schools and districts get that part
of the message.
The problem now is not that districts lack
goals. “It’s that they want a goal for everything,”
Conzemius said.
O’Neill agrees. “We walked into one district
where there were literally hundreds of goals.
One school might have several dozen goals.
When you have that many goals, nothing is guiding your improvement work,’’ she said.
“In a lot of places, the strategic part gets lost
but the true power of SMART goals is in that
first criteria. It’s the strategic nature of SMART
goals that results in breakthrough improvement.
When goals are strategic, they’re focused on one
or two academic breakthrough areas,’’ O’Neill
said.
“It’s almost impossible to make significant
improvement if you’re trying to focus on multiple goals,” O’Neill said. “You will be doing a
lot of data gathering on key measures, studying
new instructional strategies, assessing student
progress, and evaluating where to go next. It’s
hard to do all that and focus on more than one
goal at a time. Plus, you’ll actually make greater
progress on closing gaps in all areas if you focus
on deeply improving just one area.”
The pair also have learned that goal setting
needs to start at the top of the organization. That
means that superintendents and their cabinets
should be involved in the process. “If there is
little coherence in the system overall, it’s almost
impossible for a school to be successful because
they need the support of curriculum, technology,
and professional development to achieve their
goals. At the system level, the superintendent
and others need to model and communicate the
importance of strategic goals and priorities,’’
Conzemius said.
Once district goals are in place, schools can
write goals to complement those district goals.
Then grade-level or content-area teams can
align their goals to support the school goals.
The classroom teacher can write his or her
SMART goals to blend with the grade-level or
content-area goals. When that happens, Conzemius and O’Neill said systems start to make
real progress.N
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2007 I Tools For Schools
COVER STORY
What are SMART goals?
The acronym SMART comes from the five
components of SMART goals.
Strategic and Specific
•
Measurable
•
Attainable
•
Results-based
•
Time-bound
•
Patricia Roy (2007) describes SMART goals
this way:
Strategic goals focus on high-priority issues that are part of a comprehensive school or
district plan. Specific goals focus on the precise
needs of students for whom the goal is aimed.
For example, strategic goals are determined,
in part, from analyzing student achievement and
behavioral data. When this data is disaggregated,
commonalities and differences among student
groups become more apparent.
Measurable goals contain information
about how a change will be calculated. The goal
identifies the tool or instrument that will be used
to measure whether the school or team has attained the desired results. Measurement is best
accomplished by using a number of different
tools and strategies. If a consistent pattern of
change is seen through multiple measures, then
the school will have greater confidence that its
actions made the difference. For example, teams
would use results from state assessment data,
national standardized assessments, district or
school performance measures, discipline referrals, or other instruments that measure performance, outcomes, or results.
Attainable goals include actions that the
school can control or influence and that can be accomplished with existing resources. The team set-
Strategic and specific
ting the goal identifies a baseline or starting point
when determining whether a goal is attainable.
The team also needs to know how much time and
what other resources are available to accomplish
the goal. There is a delicate balance between setting a goal that is compelling and energizing to
staff while not becoming so unrealistic that educators are discouraged from accepting the goal
because they believe it’s not possible to reach.
Results-based goals identify specific outcomes that are measurable or observable. Results
could be expressed as attaining a certain level
of student achievement in a content area, an
increase in the number of students who improve
in a certain area, or as improved performance as
defined and measured by a performance rubric
or clear criteria.
Many school people confuse “activity” with
“results.” They place into their school improvement goals the “means” they will use to accomplish the goal, such as implementing a new
mathematics program or using cooperative
learning strategies, rather than describing the
outcome they expect for students. Results-based
means a clear and specific description of the
results of the school’s activities.
Time-bound goals identify the amount of
time required to accomplish it. Goals are sometimes more compelling when there is a sense of
urgency attached to them. A pre-determined
timeframe can create a sense of urgency and
make the goal a priority to staff and students.
In short, SMART goals help us determine
which of our efforts is making a difference, encourage us to set benchmarks to monitor progress, and identify specific evaluation measures.
Measurable
Results-driven
All district students will perform at the “meets or exceeds” expectations level
on the state writing assessment by the 2010-11 school year.
Attainable: The school has three years
to improve from 70% to 100%.
Time-bound
Source: Roy, P. (2007). A tool kit for quality professional development in Arkansas. Oxford, OH: NSDC.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2007 I Tools For Schools
“Set priorities for
your goals. A major
part of successful
living lies in the
ability to put first
things first. Indeed,
the reason most
major goals are
not achieved is
that we spend our
time doing second
things first.”
— Robert J. McKain
S Jan O’Neill
and Anne
Conzemius
recommend
a series of
structured
meetings to
help schools
and districts
write SMART
goals. See Page
7 for their plan.
National Staff Development Council I 800-727-7288 I www.nsdc.org
3
4
National Staff Development Council I 800-727-7288 I www.nsdc.org
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2007 I Tools For Schools
INDICATORS
Standards and objectives
(weak areas for students).
MEASURES
Tools we’ll use to determine
where students are now and
whether they are improving.
Source: Used with permission of Quality Leadership by Design, qldlearning.com.
Ultimate improvement we
want to see in student skills,
competencies, performance.
RESULTS GOAL
Tree diagram
TARGETS
The attainable level we’d like
to see.
Strategic/specific, measurable,
attainable, results-based, and
time-bound.
SMART GOALS
NSDC TOOL
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2007 I Tools For Schools
National Staff Development Council I 800-727-7288 I www.nsdc.org
5
Agenda review
Transfer request forms
Involvement in staff
meetings
Staff retention
Request forms for new
projects
Collaboration on
projects
No staff requests to
transfer (currently,
transfers have averaged
five per year for past
three years)
Principal responsible
for only 50% of agenda
items (currently,
principal is responsible
for 100%)
Four out of five new
projects requested
will be collaborative
(currently, four out of
five projects requested
are individual in nature)
50% fewer days absent
(currently, average is
seven days)
Substitute teacher logs
and payroll reporting
sheets
Staff absenteeism
TARGETS
The attainable level we’d like
to see.
MEASURES
Tools we’ll use to determine
where students are now and
whether they are improving.
INDICATORS
Standards and objectives
(weak areas for students).
Source: Used with permission of Quality Leadership by Design, qldlearning.com.
Improve school climate
and teacher morale
Ultimate improvement we
want to see in student skills,
competencies, performance.
RESULTS GOAL
Tree diagram for SMART climate goals
Over the next three
years, the number of
staff requests to transfer
will be reduced from an
average of five per year
to zero.
By spring of next year, the
staff and the principal will
share 50/50 responsibility
for developing and
leading faculty meetings.
Within two years, four
out of five of the new
projects requested will be
collaborative in nature.
By this time next year,
we will have reduced our
absenteeism by 50% to an
average of 3.5 days.
Strategic/specific, measurable,
attainable, results-based, and
time-bound.
SMART GOALS
NSDC TOOL
6
National Staff Development Council I 800-727-7288 I www.nsdc.org
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2007 I Tools For Schools
INDICATORS
MEASURES
TARGETS
80% of readers are
persuaded (current is
40% persuaded)
Performance task as
measured by qualified
outside experts
Writing is persuasive and
compelling
By the third quarter, 80%
of readers will report
they were persuaded
by the students’ written
arguments.
By the end of this
semester, all students
will show at least 75%
mastery on the 8th-grade
vocabulary test.
Increase from fall
baseline of 50% average
accuracy to 75% average
accuracy
By the end of the school
year, at least 80% of our
students will score either
proficient or advanced,
and none will score
minimal on the state
writing exam.
By the end of the school
year, the 8th-grade
class will achieve a class
average of at least 4.5 on
the district-developed
writing rubric.
Strategic/specific, measurable,
attainable, results-based, and
time-bound.
SMART GOALS
NSDC TOOL
80% score proficient
or advanced on logic
portion (current is
65% score proficient
or advanced). None at
minimal (current is 10%)
Class average of 4.5
or higher on six-point
rubric (current average
is 3.0)
The attainable level we’d like
to see.
8th-grade vocabulary
list, first semester
State writing exam
District rubric
Tools we’ll use to determine
where students are now and
whether they are improving.
Vocabulary use is
developmentally
appropriate and
accurate for the context
Logic and organization
of writing is clear
Standards and objectives
(weak areas for students).
Source: Used with permission of Quality Leadership by Design, qldlearning.com.
Improve writing skills for
8th graders
Ultimate improvement we
want to see in student skills,
competencies, performance.
RESULTS GOAL
Tree diagram for SMART writing goals for middle school students
5 meetings for developing SMART goals
Meeting #1: Identify the need by isolating
the opportunity or gap between the current
situation and what is wanted.
5 min. Ask the presenting question: What student learning issues are we struggling
with the most?
10 min. Brainstorm responses.
5 min. Identify top three priorities by multivoting.
10 min. Ask: What more do we need to know?
How can we find out?
Meeting #3: Correlate best practices to
current practices.
Between meetings, gather student data and information on priority areas.
Between meetings, research ways to develop
professional knowledge to learn best practices.
Meeting #2: Identify SMART goals for
priority areas.
10 min. Present graphs of student performance
in area of concern. (Focus on skill areas
or proficiency/performance level.)
10 min. Brainstorm result-oriented goal(s) for
priority area(s).
5 min. Select one results-oriented goal for each
priority area(s).
10 min. Make the results-oriented goal SMART.
Individuals write indicators, measures,
and targets for one goal.
Meeting #4: Identify staff development
methods we want to use.
10 min. Share information about various staff
development methods.
10 min. Use matrix. Individuals select preferred
strategy for learning about best practices, identifying areas in which they
are willing to coach/teach others.
15 min. Discuss implementation. How will we
implement staff development for best
practices? What support do we need?
How will we measure progress on the
SMART goal?
Consider indicators by skill/competence/performance expectations aligned
to standards. Consider both standardized and classroom-based measures.
Consider student data when writing
targets.
5 min. Share SMART goals round robin one at
a time.
15 min. Have group select “best of” indicators,
measures, and targets to write group
SMART goal.
10 min. Ask: What do we need to know to affect
student learning for this SMART goal?
Between meetings, do literature research or best
practice review.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2007 I Tools For Schools
NSDC TOOL
10 min. Share information gathered between
meetings.
10 min. Develop matrix. What are we already
doing that supports best practice in this
area? What else would we like to learn
about?
10 min. Identify instructional strategies we want
to do, do more often, or stop doing.
Between meetings, implement staff development
and integration of best practices. Gather data to
measure against the baseline.
Meeting #5: Analyze results and refocus
efforts.
10 min. Present graphs of new data.
15 min. Discuss what worked, what did not
work, and why.
15 min. If the instructional strategy worked
well, discuss how to hold the gains. If
the strategy did not work well, decide
next steps: Start doing the strategy
differently, stop doing the strategy altogether, or start a new strategy.
Source: Used
with permission of
Quality Leadership
by Design,
qldlearning.com.
Start the cycle over again.
National Staff Development Council I 800-727-7288 I www.nsdc.org
7
ISSN 0276-928X
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© Copyright, National Staff Development Council, 2007. All
rights reserved.
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Stephanie Hirsh
Deputy executive director
Joellen Killion
Director of business services
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Emeritus executive director
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President
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Past president
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Countdown to Dallas!
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As you think ahead to the conference, remember to talk with colleagues about the sessions they’re planning to attend so you can coordinate
your learning.
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Proposals to present at NSDC’s Annual Conference in the Washington,
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STANDARDS ASSESSMENT INVENTORY Recommendations: Outcomes Standard
Tools to support COMPREHENSIVE strategies
Identifying Specific Adult Learning Outcomes: KASAB
Evaluation of professional learning can be made more concrete by identifying the specific
learning outcomes you expect of educators. Adult learning outcomes can be organized into five
different categories. The first letters of the names of these categories spell K A S A B.
Knowledge:
Conceptual understanding of information, theories, principles, and research
Attitude:
Beliefs about the value of particular information or strategies
Skills:
Strategies and processes to apply knowledge
Aspirations:
Desires or internal motivation to engage in a particular practice
Behavior:
Consistent application of knowledge and skills
From Killion, J. (2008). Assessing impact: Evaluating staff development (2nd ed.). Thousand
Oaks, CA: Corwin Press and NSDC.
An evaluation plan involves determining these learning outcomes as well as the evidence to
collect to determine whether these results have been accomplished. A school team project focused on
learning how to plan, conduct, and evaluate professional learning might have the following KASAB.
Sample KASAB: School Team-based Professional Learning Project
Knowledge
Knows…
Attitude
Believes that…
Skills
Can…
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Learning Forward’s professional learning standards
Data analysis protocols to determine student learning needs
Data analysis protocols to determine adult learning needs
A variety of job-embedded professional learning models
The components of the professional learning evaluation plan
Professional learning should impact adult learners’ knowledge and skills
Professional learning should improve student learning outcomes
Job-embedded, collaborative designs are a more powerful form of
professional learning
Plan long-term, sustained professional learning
Facilitate faculty discussions to plan schoolwide professional learning
Plan the appropriate use of job-embedded professional learning designs
Evaluate professional learning in terms of teacher classroom behaviors
and student outcomes
Aspirations
Desires to…
Behaviors
Consistently uses…
•
•
•
•
•
•
Change professional learning practices because this will be more
beneficial to staff, students, and self
Build a collaborative culture in the school to support adult learning and
productivity
Job-embedded, collaborative learning activities within a team setting
Data to plan professional learning
Data to monitor interim progress toward the ultimate goal
Evaluations of professional learning to determine how adult learning
impacts student learning
A second KASAB example delineates the learning outcomes for educators within the special
education arena based on IDEA legislation.
Sample KASAB: IDEA Legislation
Knowledge
Has knowledge
of…
Attitudes
Believes that…
Skills
Knows how to…
Aspirations
Is motivated to…
Behaviors
Consistently
applies, uses…
• Requirements and constraints of IDEA legislation
• Special education needs and range of severity
• Best practices for intervention and instruction of special education students
• The correct intervention and instruction leads to gains in student
achievement
• Instruction can make a difference for special education students’ learning
• Apply best practices to any given special education situation
• Implement and interpret IEPs
• Work with parents, counselors, and administrators to produce an
appropriate IEP for each student
• Consult and collaborate with regular education teachers
• Help each special education student achieve at the highest possible level
• Make the learning environment and experience positive, encouraging, and
productive
• Knowledge and skills to meet the needs of each student so as to have him
or her achieve at the highest possible level
• Monitoring of the IEP against student progress to maximize the experience
and achievement of each student
• Partnerships with regular education teachers to mainstream special needs
students
• Collaboration with parents to create partnerships focused on student
learning and advancement
Use these examples to build your own KASAB for schoolwide, team-based, or individual
professional learning plans. Begin with a clear learning outcome and delineate knowledge, attitudes,
skills, aspirations, and behaviors for that outcome.
theme STANDARDS FOR PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
OUTCOMES
Coaching, teaching standards, and feedback
mark the teacher’s road to mastery
By Jon Saphier
W
hat would happen if we found
agreement around the world on
what constitutes high-expertise
teaching? For one thing, there
would be a set of standards universally embraced that clearly defines core agreements about good teaching and learning. It
would be obvious that proficiency in the knowledge, skills,
and practices that comprise good teaching would be the
highest-leverage path to increasing student achievement.
Teacher preparation and subsequent professional development for all teachers everywhere would be based on the
standards. Every effort would be made to assure that expert practices show up consistently
TEACHER
in every classroom — from widely available
classroom coaching on these practices to policies that reflect
our public will to focus on expertise. Consider this: That
58 JSD | www.learningforward.org
scenario is not a distant fantasy; it is fast approaching if we
look around the globe.
THE UNIVERSALS OF SUCCESSFUL TEACHING
True professions are grounded in a common knowledge
base that all practitioners must study and in which they
must show a certain level of proficiency to be licensed. This
is true in architecture, law, and engineering. Visit the university libraries of schools for these professions, and you will
see common organization of topics; common courses populate the curriculum. In the various state licensing boards
are similar assessments. On the other hand, visit teacher
preparation programs around the country and professional
development academies in large districts and in regional
collaboratives, and you will see vast variety and little consistency. It’s time for a change, and the coalescing international
teaching standards can provide it. There is nothing wrong
August 2011
|
Vol. 32 No. 4
Professional learning that increases
educator effectiveness and results
for all students aligns its outcomes
with educator performance and student
curriculum standards.
with focusing on local needs, but the common ground for
professional development should be the universal building
blocks ­— those high-leverage essentials — that we know
impact student learning. This is the path to creating a true
profession and elevating the instruction children receive.
Feedback, properly understood, is one of these building blocks, its potent impact on student learning well-documented (Hattie, 2009; Saphier, Haley-Speca, & Gower,
2008; Stiggins, Arter, Chappuis, & Chappuis, 2009). The
significance of this standard becomes apparent when one
examines the actual teacher behavior associated with effective feedback. In order to give students feedback that meets
the careful standards defined by Wiggins (2010) and others,
the criteria for success need to be crystal clear to both the
teacher and the students. Thus “feedback,” properly done,
includes a cluster of other important and necessary teacher
skills: formulating clear and rigorous objectives; defining and
communicating criteria for success; and providing frequent
feedback that is value-neutral, helpful, and useful for students to act upon. Feedback becomes the center of a group
of skills that balance and complement one another.
Making students’ thinking visible is another group of
skills that produces a high degree of student talk both with
the teacher and one’s fellow students, about the content,
and at a high level of thinking (Collins, Holum, & Brown,
1991; Perkins, 2006; Saphier et al., 2008). Proceeding
from Vygotsky’s insights about the social nature of learning
(Vygotsky,1986), these skills make students active thinkers about the content; the teacher gets a constant reading
August 2011
|
Vol. 32 No. 4
on who understands and who doesn’t. In turn, students
are required to become good listeners to one another and
be active processors of information. In addition, the successful implementation of
these skills has a direct positive effect on
TEACHER
the climate of risk taking and mutual supSTUDENT
port among students.
LEADER
It is no wonder that the last two
Because the Outcomes
decades of research of these skills have
standard refers to
elevated their status. For example, 21stnumerous aspects of
century research on successful instruction
performance standards
for educators and content
in mathematics (Lampert, 2001; Chapin,
standards for students,
O’Connor, & Anderson, 2003; Fuson,
we explore multiple
Kaichman, & Bransford, 2005) and in
perspectives in the
literacy (Allington, 2011) supports the
following pages.
potency of making thinking visible. In the
1990s, New York City’s District 2 became
the highest-performing district in the city
by emphasizing these skills for all teachers in all subjects.
Making students’ thinking visible and feedback are two
examples of high-leverage universals that occur in teaching standards around the world. Like the other building
blocks that are emerging as worldwide standards, these skill
sets comes to life when we share images of what they look
and sound like in action. See specific looks and sounds
for making students’ thinking visible at www.learning
forward.org/news/jsd. Unfortunately, important professional development topics such as these rank low on professional development agenda.
www.learningforward.org
|
JSD 59
theme STANDARDS FOR PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
Framework provides a road map for teachers
By DeNelle West
As told to Valerie von Frank
study. This approach blends
content and pedagogy, and
challenges teachers to think
about how students learn and
winnett County is helping new teachers learn
how they can improve their
what it means to be professional educators.
teaching.
We use Charlotte Danielson’s framework for
We also help experienced
teaching to be able to define outcomes for new
teachers become mentors. To
teachers and to link together the district’s mentoring,
prepare mentors to work with
coaching, and professional development processes
West
beginning teachers, we provide
in a way that helps teachers, especially new teachers,
a higher level of the same content to allow
become more thoughtful practitioners.
veterans to reflect on their own practices
We begin with an orientation, where
TEACHER
and identify areas from the framework
we discuss culture, our formal evaluation
where they, too, may need additional support. We
process, and the content curriculum. To address
then show them how to mentor a teacher, what good
specific teachers’ learning needs, we do a needs
mentoring would look like in the classroom, and how
assessment. We ask what
to identify what support a new teacher might need.
they
want
—
lesson
study,
Gwinnett County Public Schools
The district has four staff development coaches
courses, a mentor. We also do
Gwinnett County, Ga.
Number of schools: 132
and numerous curriculum area coaches. To prepare
an anonymous survey to find
Enrollment: 162,459
coaches to work with beginning teachers, we have a
out where they feel they need
Staff: 20,433
program built on Learning Forward’s standards and
more support. We then design
Racial/ethnic mix:
Innovation Configurations.
professional development
White:
31.6%
We align all staff development to make sure
around
the
framework.
Black:
28.9%
we have consistency in expectations for teacher
The components of the
Hispanic:
25.0%
Asian/Pacific Islander:10.4%
performance. By aligning everything we do with the
framework are classroom
Native American:
0.4%
framework, our school system clearly communicates
environment, planning and
Other:
3.8%
how staff development can help teachers to
preparation, instruction, and
Limited English proficient: 7%
continually grow as professionals.
professional
responsibilities.
Free/reduced lunch: 52.4%
When we think of teacher outcomes in terms
New
teachers
have
Contact: DeNelle West,
coordinator of teacher
of professional development, we think of what
opportunities for 50 hours
development
change we want to achieve — a change in teacher
of courses to explore these
Email: DeNelle_West@Gwinnett.
knowledge, change in teacher practice, a change or
areas. Each area includes four
k12.ga.us
impact on student achievement. Having a framework
to five components that help
guides our work. It gives us a road map for where
teachers understand best
we’re heading.
practice.
•
We model for teachers the application of the
DeNelle West is coordinator of teacher
content in these areas so they can plan how to use
development for Gwinnett County (Ga.) Public
a strategy in the classroom. We then offer classroom
Schools. Valerie von Frank (valerievonfrank@aol.
coaching support for follow-up.
com) is an education writer and editor of Learning
Beginning teachers ready for deeper exploration,
Forward’s books.
for inquiry and to work collaboratively, work in lesson
G
60 JSD | www.learningforward.org
August 2011
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Vol. 32 No. 4
Outcomes
TEACHING AND LEARNING ACADEMIES
To realize the promise of a commonly agreed-upon set of
standards for successful teaching, professional development
must maintain a relentless and ongoing focus on the highestleverage teaching skills. These skills need to be properly expanded into clear exemplars that educators can understand at
the concrete level and tied to performance assessments, just as
we do for students in the curriculum standards movement. The
foundation of professional development, then, will move away
from being reactive to individual teacher evaluation prescriptions or exclusively driven by local needs assessments and move
toward a unifying vision of high-expertise practice. This shift is
essential to making teaching a true profession.
The knowledge and skills for high-level professional practice
in teaching needs to be available for all practitioners throughout their careers with appropriate components offered at timely
junctures in one’s path. Ideally, this would mean a teaching and
learning academy with permanent offerings and in-class followup for the essential categories of professional knowledge and
skills. See the box at right for potential categories.
Only large districts could hope to create such academies,
but regional collaboratives could also do so, especially with federal and state support.
High-leverage essentials of good teaching and learning,
however, are professional development topics that should be
alive in every district every year, and not just offered periodically or at local initiative. See those essentials at www.learning
forward.org/news/jsd.
COACHING AND PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT
FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Bruce Joyce and Beverly Showers (2002) proved three decades ago that workshop-based professional development, no
matter how well designed and delivered, had little effect on
classroom practice. They also found that this outcome could be
changed dramatically if participants actively practiced new skills
in the workshops and then were given feedback and coaching
on-site in their classrooms on the application of the skills. My
argument for performance assessment of professional development is really a call to translate that powerful finding into the
design of all professional development. If we are giving our
teachers learning experiences in what are now emerging as universal standards for successful teaching, we must make sure the
practices show up in action.
More at www.learningforward.org/news/jsd
•
•
Specific looks and sounds for making students’ thinking
visible.
High-leverage essentials of good teaching and learning.
August 2011
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Vol. 32 No. 4
The emerging consensus of teaching standards creates
a case too powerful to ignore: We must not only enable all
teachers to receive professional development in the building
blocks of successful teaching and learning, we must support
them with coaching and assess their individual capacity to use
the skills properly after the training. The implications for us
as professional developers of adults is the same as for teachers
of children: Develop performance tasks for teachers on skills
we are teaching; identify benchmarks of progress toward final
proficiency; and give ongoing feedback to participants on their
progress to mastery.
The formula above has been difficult to implement in traditional professional development of the
past. Two 21st-century approaches,
At the teaching and
however, now make it feasible to ask
learning academy
participants learning new skills to
practice them and get feedback: emHere are potential
bedded coaching structures and techcategories of knowledge
nology.
and skills for a
In districts such as Montgomery
comprehensive teaching
County, Md., my consulting group
and learning academy:
Research for Better Teaching works
• Content
through building-based instructional
• Content analysis
coaches. These carefully chosen profes• Content specific
sionals teach frequent building-based
pedagogy
modules and study group sessions on
• Classroom
core teaching skills. They are then
management
available to give in-class feedback to
• Cultural proficiency.
teachers. Having a common agree• Motivation
ment across the county for what
• Instruction
their teaching standards look like and
• Planning and
sound like in action has enabled them
curriculum
to give objective feedback in building•
Data analysis
based settings. The county’s Center for
• Relations with parents
Skillful Teaching functions like an inand community
house academy that offers professional
development every year in these core
standards and provides continuity of
focus (continuously since 2000) on the building blocks in their
standards. The payoffs in student achievement have been significant, as documented by Childress, Doyle, & Thomas (2009).
Video technology, ever more portable and accessible, makes
it possible for teachers to video their experiments with new instructional strategies without another person in the room. This
technology is applied in a number of districts for self-analysis
and self-reflection. It also can enhance face-to-face professional
development sessions when professional developers or coaches
review classroom video and provide feedback to teachers online. With central district video servers, this feedback can be
provided remotely and securely.
None of these changes is without its challenges. Principals
and coaches must develop solid partnerships to strengthen the
www.learningforward.org
|
JSD 61
theme STANDARDS FOR PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
adult professional culture of nondefensive examination of practice (Saphier & West, 2009). School boards must be convinced
to support coaching positions with long-term commitments.
Districts have to invest in equipment and professional development for their principals, professional developers, and coaches, so
they become expert analysts of instruction in addition to learning
coaching skills. But this we can do now, especially if we can surmount the final and most significant obstacle: the political will.
THE REST OF THE JOB
On the whole, American policymakers do not understand
that the knowledge and skills required for successful teaching,
especially for children of poverty, is as large and complex as that
for high-level practice in law, architecture or engineering. Our
populace, our voters, our legislators, and even our most influential policymakers believe anyone can teach successfully if they
are smart, literate, and know content. And if they are idealistic
and motivated, then they will be more than competent; they
will be stars. By all means, let’s get smart, motivated people
who know their content into teaching. But
let’s finish the job as our competitors do
Missing from
so thoroughly in Singapore, Finland, and
the table is the
South Korea by giving them the expertise
understanding that
they need to use their intelligence and actuteacher evaluation
alize their commitment.
alone does not
develop highRecently, policymakers’ attention has
expertise teachers.
been focused on teacher evaluation as a
result of several recent reports, such as The
Widget Effect (Weisberg, Sexton, Mulhern,
& Keeling, 2009, which show that school district evaluation
systems, with notable exceptions, are woefully inadequate. Missing from the table, however, is the understanding that teacher
evaluation alone does not develop high-expertise teachers. Such
development comes from embedding the standards in the other
processes that impact teaching expertise: preparation and licensing; hiring; induction for new teachers; contact with peers during properly structured collaborative work; adult professional
culture in the workplace; and access to high-quality sustained
professional development, including coaching, in the highestleverage teaching skills.
This country is committed to student learning standards.
We are committed to assessing student progress in relation to
those standards. We are committed to accountability. But until
we become committed to developing high-expertise teaching
and are fully mindful of its complexity, we will continue to fall
short of the promise of democracy. That is the promise to provide all children, regardless of the circumstances of their birth,
with a fair chance at a good life.
Generating that commitment requires organizations such as
Learning Forward to educate the public and legislators about
the complexity of good teaching. High-expertise teaching is not
easily won.
62 JSD | www.learningforward.org
REFERENCES
Allington, R. (2011). What really matters for struggling
readers: Designing research-based programs (3rd ed.). New
York: Pearson.
Chapin, S., O’Connor, C., & Anderson, N. (2003).
Classroom discussions: Using math talk to help students learn,
grades 1-6. Sausalito, CA: Math Solutions Publications.
Childress, S., Doyle, D.P., & Thomas, D.A. (2009).
Leading for equity: The pursuit of excellence in the Montgomery
County Public Schools. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press.
Collins, A., Holum, A., Brown, J.S. (1991). Cognitive
apprenticeship: Making thinking visible. Available at
www.21learn.org/site/archive/cognitive-apprenticeshipmaking-thinking-visible.
Fuson, K.C., Kaichman, M., & Bransford, J. (2005).
Mathematical understanding: An introduction. In S.M.
Donovan & J.D. Bransford (Eds.), How students learn.
Washington, DC: National Academies Press.
Hattie, J. (2009). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800
meta-analyses relating to achievement. London: Routledge.
Joyce, B.R. & Showers, B. (2002). Student achievement
through staff development (3rd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Lampert, M. (2001). Teaching problems and the problems
of teaching. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Perkins, D. (2003). Making thinking visible. Baltimore,
MD: New Horizons for Learning Online Journal. Available
at http://home.avvanta.com/~building/strategies/thinking/
perkins.htm.
Saphier, J., Haley-Speca, M., & Gower, R. (2008). The
skillful teacher. Acton, MA: Research for Better Teaching.
Saphier, J. & West, L. (2009, December). How coaches
can maximize student learning. Phi Delta Kappan, 91(4), 46-50.
Stiggins, R.J., Arter, J.A., Chappuis, J., & Chappuis,
S.J. (2009). Classroom assessment for student learning: Doing it
right, using it well. New York: Pearson.
Vygotsky, L.S. (1986). Thought and language (revised).
Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Weisberg, D., Sexton, S., Mulhern, J., & Keeling,
D. (2009). The widget effect. New York: The New Teacher
Project.
Wiggins, G. (2010, May 22). Feedback: How learning
occurs. Big Ideas. Available at www.authenticeducation.org/
ae_bigideas/article.lasso?artId=61.
•
Jon Saphier (jonsaphier@comcast.net) is founder
and president of Research for Better Teaching Inc., an
educational consulting organization in Acton, Mass.,
dedicated to the professionalization of teaching and
leadership. Saphier has authored and contributed to eight
books, including The Skillful Teacher, now in its sixth
edition. ■
August 2011
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Vol. 32 No. 4
theme STANDARDS FOR PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
Making students’ thinking
visible
Here are some of the specific looks
and sounds for making students’
thinking visible:
Teacher starts by asking an
open-ended question that gets
students thinking. Then …
•
•
From the article
•
outcomes
Coaching, teaching standards, and feedback
mark the teacher’s road to mastery
By Jon Saphier
The Universals
of Successful Teaching
T
rue professions are grounded in
a common knowledge base that
all practitioners must study and
in which they must show a certain level of proficiency to be licensed. This
is true in architecture, law, and engineering. Visit the university libraries of schools
for these professions, and you will see
common organization of topics; common
courses populate the curriculum. In the
various state licensing boards are similar assessments. On the other hand, visit teacher
preparation programs around the country
and professional development academies
in large districts and in regional collaboraJSD online feature
|
www.learningforward.org
•
•
•
•
tives, and you will see vast variety and little
consistency. It’s time for a change, and the
coalescing international teaching standards
can provide it. There is nothing wrong
with focusing on local needs, but the common ground for professional development
should be the universal building blocks
­— those high-leverage essentials — that
we know impact student learning. This is
the path to creating a true profession and
elevating the instruction children receive.
Feedback, properly understood, is one
of these building blocks, its potent impact
on student learning well-documented
(Hattie, 2009; Saphier, Haley-Speca, &
Gower, 2008; Stiggins, Arter, Chappuis,
& Chappuis, 2009). The significance of
this standard becomes apparent when one
examines the actual teacher behavior as-
•
•
•
Asks students to explain the
thinking behind their answers
whether they’re right or wrong.
Asks students if they agree or
disagree with a student answer.
Asks students to comment or add
on to a student’s response or idea.
Creates and then facilitates
dialogue between students about
their ideas.
Asks follow-up questions that are
similar to ones just discussed to see
if student really understands.
Asks students to make connections
to something another student said
or something else they know.
Credits meaning to student
comments, even obscure ones, and
probes for the student’s thinking.
Does the same with incorrect
answers.
Uses wait time. Allows students
to struggle and dwells with the
student’s thinking, sticking with
them.
Comes back to a student he/she
moved away from to check and
clarify what the student’s thinking
is, given the comments of other
students.
Asks questions to surface
discrepancies between what a
student says and the information in
front of him or her: “How can that
be? What’s going on there?”
August 2011
|
Vol. 32 No. 4
Outcomes
sociated with effective feedback. In order to
give students feedback that meets the careful standards defined by Wiggins (2010)
and others, the criteria for success need to
be crystal clear to both the teacher and the
students. Thus “feedback,” properly done,
includes a cluster of other important and
necessary teacher skills: formulating clear
and rigorous objectives; defining and communicating criteria for success; and providing frequent feedback that is value-neutral
and helpful and useful for students to understand and act upon. Feedback becomes
the center of a group of skills that balance
and complement one another.
Making students’ thinking visible is
another group of skills that produces a
high degree of student talk both with the
teacher and one’s fellow students, about
the content, and at a high level of thinking
(Collins, Holum, & Brown, 1991; Per-
JSD online feature
|
www.learningforward.org
kins, 2006; Saphier et al., 2008). Proceeding from Vygotsky’s insights about the
social nature of learning (Vygotsky,1986),
these skills make students active thinkers about the content; the teacher gets
a constant reading on who understands
and who doesn’t. In turn, students are
required to become good listeners to
one another and be active processors of
information. In addition, the successful
implementation of these skills has a direct
positive effect on the climate of risk taking
and mutual support among students.
It is no wonder that the last two
decades of research of these skills have
elevated their status. For example, 21stcentury research on successful instruction
in mathematics (Lampert, 2001; Chapin,
O’Connor, & Anderson, 2003; Fuson,
Kaichman, & Bransford, 2005) and in
literacy (Allington, 2011) supports the
potency of making thinking visible. In the
1990s, New York City’s District 2 became
the highest-performing district in the city
by emphasizing these skills for all teachers
in all subjects.
Making students’ thinking visible
and feedback are two examples of highleverage universals that occur in teaching
standards around the world. Like the
other building blocks that are emerging as
worldwide standards, these skill sets comes
to life when we share images of what they
look and sound like in action.
See specific looks and sounds for
making students’ thinking visible on p.
1 of this PDF.
Unfortunately, important professional
development topics such as these rank low
on professional development agenda.
August 2011
|
Vol. 32 No. 4
Outcomes
From the article
outcomes
Coaching, teaching standards, and feedback mark the teacher’s road to mastery
By Jon Saphier
Teaching and Learning Academies
HIGH-EXPERTISE TEACHING
T
o realize the promise of a commonly agreed-upon set of standards for successful teaching,
professional development must
maintain a relentless and ongoing focus
on the highest-leverage teaching skills.
These skills need to be properly expanded
into clear exemplars that educators can
understand at the concrete level and tied
to performance assessments, just as we do
for students in the curriculum standards
movement. The foundation of professional
development, then, will move away from
being reactive to individual teacher evaluation prescriptions or exclusively driven by
local needs assessments and move toward a
unifying vision of high-expertise practice.
This shift is essential to making teaching a
true profession.
The knowledge and skills for highlevel professional practice in teaching
needs to be available for all practitioners
throughout their careers with appropriate
components offered at timely junctures
in one’s path. Ideally, this would mean a
teaching and learning academy with permanent offerings and in-class follow-up
for the essential categories of professional
knowledge and skills. See the box at right
for potential categories.
Only large districts could hope to
create such academies, but regional collaboratives could also do so, especially with
federal and state support.
High-leverage essentials of good
teaching and learning, however, are
professional development topics that
should be alive in every district every
year, and not just offered periodically
or at local initiative. See those essentials
at right.
JSD online feature
|
www.learningforward.org
Skills pertaining to planning
•
•
•
High-expertise teachers dig deeply into their content as they are planning
lessons. They identify the most worthwhile learning targets in the materials
and make sure students know what they are. They also make sure student
learning experiences are logically aligned with learning objectives and that the
assessment will give good data about student mastery. Student misconceptions
and points of difficulty are anticipated and provided for in the lesson because
the teacher did the student tasks himself or herself.
High-expertise teachers know how to study student work, from standardized
tests to work samples from yesterday’s class. They can analyze student errors
and identify gaps in student learning. Skillful error analysis leads directly to
reteaching for those students who didn’t get it the first time.
High-expertise teachers arrange for a constant flow of feedback to students
on their performance. The feedback is nonjudgmental and keyed to specific
criteria students are clear about. Students can self-evaluate and use techniques
they have been taught to set effective goals and plans of action to improve.
Skills pertaining to instruction
•
•
High-expertise teachers make students’ thinking visible during class interaction
by using a group of interactive skills. There is a high degree of student talk
both with the teacher and with one another about the content at a high level
of thinking. Students are active thinkers with the content, and the teacher gets
a constant reading on who understands and who doesn’t. In turn, the students
are required to become good listeners to one another and be active processors
of information.
High-expertise teachers have a repertoire of research-based cognitive strategies
such as visual imagery and modeling thinking aloud. These strategies, chosen
to match students, curriculum, and content, make concepts and ideas clear and
accessible to students. When content needs reteaching for students who didn’t
get it the first time, the teacher has alternative approaches to use.
Continued on next page
August 2011
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Vol. 32 No. 4
Outcomes
Continued from previous page
HIGH-EXPERTISE TEACHING
Skills pertaining to motivation
•
•
•
High-expertise teachers convince students to believe in effort-based ability.
They consistently send theses messages: “What we’re doing is important.
You can do it. I won’t give up on you.” These messages are sent through daily
interactive teacher behavior, class structures and routines, and policies and
procedures. These teachers take it upon themselves to teach the students
explicitly how to exert effective effort.
High-expertise teachers make students feel known and valued. They know
about students’ life and culture and show an interest in their activities and
success. The unrelenting tenacity and high expectations of teachers with lowperforming students also becomes evidence that the teacher thinks they are
worthwhile.
High-expertise teachers create a climate of community, risk taking, and
ownership among all their students. Students know each other as people and
have been taught the skills to cooperate. Students feel safe to make mistakes
and view errors as feedback, not judgments. They take academic risks and
challenge themselves to do hard work. And students have voice and ownership
in constructing the rules of the classroom.
Skills pertaining to literacy
•
•
JSD online feature
|
High-expertise teachers make literacy an embedded priority. Regardless of their
subject or academic discipline, they ensure a high volume of quality reading
and writing about their content, and they scaffold students’ entry into text. Of
particular importance, they are assiduous at facilitating “literate conversations”
(Allington, 2011) about the text.
High-expertise teachers become committed and proficient in vocabulary
instruction. Regardless of their academic discipline, they understand that words
and the concepts they represent are intimately related and indispensible to
student learning.
www.learningforward.org
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theme EFFECTIVE TEACHING
THE
ELEMENTS
EFFECTIVE
EFFECTIVE
TEACHING
of
Professional learning moves vision, framework, and performance standards into action
S
By Joellen Killion and Stephanie Hirsh
tudent success depends on effective teaching
— not just occasionally, but every day in every classroom and school. Effective teaching
impacts students’ academic, physical, socialemotional, and behavioral well-being. Effective teaching occurs best when all education
stakeholders, including parents, policymakers, community members, and educators, share responsibility for continuous improvement and student achievement.
For teachers in classrooms, effective professional learning is
the single most powerful pathway to promote continuous
improvement in teaching.
Consistently great teaching — every day, in every
classroom, and in every school — emerges from a clear
vision for teaching and learning. This vision is then translated into an instructional framework that details rigorous outcomes for student and educator performance. The
framework and outcomes form the basis for the system for
professional learning that makes them possible.
A vision for teaching and learning describes how
students experience learning and the role of teaching in
achieving that vision. Such a vision is grounded in learning theories and models selected to explain how learning
happens, who the learners are, and the context in which
students learn. The vision emerges from communitywide
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conversations among stakeholders who come together to
describe the learning experience they want for students to
prepare them for the future.
The following sample vision, based on the work of a
national task force, describes teaching and learning based
on the possibilities available through technology. Once a
district establishes a vision, an instructional framework
moves the vision from a dream to reality by describing
how to achieve it.
“Imagine a high school student in the year 2015. She
has grown up in a world where learning is as accessible
through technologies at home as it is in the classroom,
and digital content is as real to her as paper, lab equipment, or textbooks. At school, she and her classmates engage in creative problem-solving activities by manipulating
simulations in a virtual laboratory or by downloading and
analyzing visualizations of real-time data from remote sensors. Away from the classroom, she has seamless access to
school materials and homework assignments using inexpensive mobile technologies. She continues to collaborate
with her classmates in virtual environments that allow not
only social interaction but also rich connections with a
wealth of supplementary content. Her teacher can track
her progress over the course of a lesson plan and compare
her performance across a lifelong ‘digital portfolio,’ making note of areas that need additional attention through
personalized assignments and alerting parents to specific
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RNING OUTCOMES
LEA
T
N
DE
U
ST
TEACHE
The rigorous
learning
outcomes expected for
all students.
LF
RA
NA
INSTRUCTIO
STANDARDS
The
curriculum,
pedagogical processes,
assessment for learning, classroom
environment, and the school-and
classroom-based support and
collaboration for continuous educator
improvement.
CE
O
W
RK
P
What educators
should know and
be able to do to be
effective in their
roles.
AN
RM
FO
ER
M
E
E DU
CA
TO
R
Vision
for teaching
and learning
H
ow students will experience learning, the role
of teachers and other educators in the learning
process, and the learning context designed to meet the
unique needs of the community’s students.
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theme EFFECTIVE TEACHING
concerns” (National Science Foundation Task Force on Cyberlearning, 2008, p. 5).
Whether an instructional framework is detailed or simple,
it guides instructional decisions and builds accountability and
consistency into learning experiences to improve results for students. See the sidebar below for examples of what such frameworks might include.
Visions for teaching and learning and instructional frameworks must be coupled with rigorous outcomes for student
learning that specify what students are expected to know and
be able to do as well as performance standards for educators.
The Common Core State Standards in English language arts
and mathematics become an essential component of effective teaching because they specify the expectations for student
learning. Without clearly articulated outcomes, teaching may
be fragmented or unfocused. These standards have been fully
adopted in 44 states and the District of Columbia and partially
adopted in one additional state; variations of these standards
exist in other states or in individual school systems.
VISIONS REQUIRE FRAMEWORKS
L
earn about three frameworks and the kinds
of elements they encompass as school
systems strive to fulfill visions for teaching
and learning.
• District of Columbia Public Schools
provides a teaching and learning framework
that incorporates three fundamental components — plan, teach,
and increase effectiveness. The framework’s purpose is to outline
clear expectations, align professional learning, and support educator
assessment.
www.dc.gov/DCPS/About+DCPS/Strategic+Documents/
Teaching+and+Learning+Framework
• West Metro Education Program in Minneapolis, Minn., has a
three-part instructional framework that incorporates relationships and
respect, meaningful and relevant learning, and high expectations and
excellence.
https://sites.google.com/a/wmep.k12.mn.us/wmep-k12-mn-us/
instructional-framework
• The University of Washington’s Center for Educational Leadership
5D framework — purpose, student engagement, curriculum
and pedagogy, assessment for student learning, and classroom
environment and culture — provides critical questions for school and
district leaders to consider as they observe the teaching and learning
process.
http://tpep-wa.org/resources/instructional-frameworks/
uwcel-5d
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ASSESSMENT MATTERS
Generating a vision, developing an instructional framework,
and delineating student learning outcomes by themselves are
insufficient to produce effective teaching. Effective teaching
requires not only explicit performance standards for educators
but also processes for improving and assessing effective practice.
Performance standards for teachers define instructional expectations and inform the individual improvement and criteria for
measuring effectiveness. The Interstate Teacher Assessment and
Support Consortium (InTASC), a collaborative of more than
30 states, provides model teacher standards for individual states
and districts to use in developing their own performance standards (Council of Chief State School Officers, 2011). Others
have contributed standards for effective teaching that are used
as the basis for developing performance criteria such as those
defined in Enhancing Professional Practice: A Framework for
Teaching (Danielson, 2007) and Classroom Assessment Scoring
System (Pianta, La Paro, & Hamre, 2008). For school leaders,
the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium provides
model standards for school leaders (Council of Chief State
School Officers, 2008). These standards contribute to a rich vision for leadership, teaching, and learning to establish a process
of continuous improvement. See the diagram that demonstrates
this relationship on p. 11.
Effective teaching emerges from a vision for teaching and
learning, an instructional framework, standards for student
learning, and performance expectations for educators coupled
with a convergence of policy, planning, and goals at the state,
school system, and school levels. Educators, policymakers, community members, and decision makers work collaboratively to
develop and implement these components that serve as the
backbone of effective teaching. Yet without professional learning to support implementation, these components are relegated
to words on pages rather than actions in classrooms.
Effective teaching is possible in every classroom by ensuring every educator experiences substantive professional learning
within a culture of collaboration and shared accountability. Effectiveness in teaching is a journey, rather than a destination.
Each year, teachers experience new challenges to refine and
expand their teaching practices. Each year, teachers face new
students with different learning needs. They strive to implement new technologies in their classrooms to accelerate learning. Benchmarks for student learning continue to change. New
research on effective instruction is released. New colleagues and
leaders join the faculty to support teaching practice and student
learning. Systems of professional learning are the only way to
ensure these challenges become opportunities to improve student and educator performance.
Absent professional learning, teachers lack access to the information and support they need to refine and enrich teaching
throughout their career. At each stage along the career continuum, effective teaching broadens from the core elements
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theme EFFECTIVE TEACHING
of teaching to include expanded responsibilities of a master or
mentor teacher whose work includes supporting peers and assuming leadership roles within their schools and beyond that
focus on improving student learning. Professional learning is
the only strategy in school systems that moves the vision, instructional framework, standards for students, and standards for
educators into action.
COMMON ATTRIBUTES
Effective professional learning for effective teaching has
seven core attributes, which Learning Forward has defined as
Standards for Professional Learning . Professional learning that
doesn’t include these attributes is unlikely to produce the same
high level of results for educators and their students that effective professional learning will. (See the full list of the Standards
for Professional Learning below.)
A common attribute of effective schools is collaboration
among educators. Engagement in one or more learning communities provides teachers opportunities to moderate their practice
and expectations with their peers, to examine and reflect on
their work together, to learn from one another, to challenge one
another professionally, and to solve complex problems within
the context of their unique work environment. Learning communities generate collective responsibility and accountability
for effective teaching and student learning and engage teachers in school-based, ongoing learning focused on strengthening teachers’ day-to-day practice and reducing variation in the
effectiveness of teaching from classroom to classroom within a
school so that every student, regardless of his or her classroom,
experiences the same high level of teaching each day.
Students benefit when teachers learn from peers. C. Ki-
STANDARDS FOR
PROFESSIONAL
LEARNING
Learning Communities:
Professional learning
that increases educator
effectiveness and results for all
students occurs within learning
communities committed to
continuous improvement,
collective responsibility, and
goal alignment.
Leadership: Professional
learning that increases educator
effectiveness and results for
all students requires skillful
leaders who develop capacity,
advocate, and create support
systems for professional
learning.
Resources: Professional
learning that increases educator
effectiveness and results for all
students requires prioritizing,
monitoring, and coordinating
resources for educator learning.
Data: Professional learning
that increases educator
effectiveness and results for
all students uses a variety of
sources and types of student,
educator, and system data
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rabo Jackson & Elias Bruegmann (2009) report that when the
quality of a teacher’s colleagues improve, the students of that
teacher benefit. These results occur most likely because teachers organize the focus of learning within their communities on
challenges relevant to their students’ success. Effective teaching
and student learning are the benefits that spread from classroom
to classroom and even from school to school.
Effective teaching requires skillful leadership to build capacity and structures to support learning. Leaders, both administrators and teachers, advocate professional learning as a key lever
for continuous improvement of teaching and student results.
While individual teachers may engage in professional learning aligned to their professional goals, universal effectiveness
in teaching depends on making it a priority within a school or
school system, creating a culture and systems to support it, and
developing teacher leaders to skillfully facilitate collaborative
learning.
In addition to leadership, successful schools and school
systems invest resources to support effective teaching. Some of
these resources include time for professional learning and collaboration, classroom- and school-based support in the form of
coaching, technology to seek information, models, networks,
and research, and access to external experts who provide specialized knowledge and skill development when the needed expertise is unavailable within the school or district. The effects of
these resource investments can be measured in increased student
achievement.
Measures of increased effectiveness in teaching and student
achievement depend on the use of formative and summative
assessments that provide data about teaching performance
and student achievement. These data plus data gleaned from
to plan, assess, and evaluate
professional learning.
Learning Designs: Professional
learning that increases educator
effectiveness and results for all
students integrates theories,
research, and models of human
learning to achieve its intended
outcomes.
Implementation: Professional
learning that increases educator
effectiveness and results for
all students applies research
on change and sustains
support for implementation of
professional learning for longterm change.
Outcomes: Professional
learning that increases educator
effectiveness and results for all
students aligns its outcomes
with educator performance and
student curriculum standards.
Learn more about the
standards at
www.learningforward.org/
standards.
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theme EFFECTIVE TEACHING
examining student work and engagement, individual and collaborative teacher reflection, coaching, and other forms of peer
interactions provide both informal and formal data that inform
decisions related to improving teaching. These data also provide
information to link results for students with changes in teaching
practices. Without a regular stream of data about multiple variables related to effective teaching and student learning, teachers,
their peers, and supervisors lack valid, reliable, and tangible
evidence about effective teaching. These data provide a continuous stream of information against which teachers benchmark
their progress and continuous improvement. Because of the
significance of data in teaching and professional learning, effective teaching requires extensive assessment literacy and skill in
using data to identify, plan, and measure the effects of ongoing
professional learning.
Data allow teachers to identify the focus for their professional learning. The effectiveness of the learning experience is
measured not only by the content, but also
by the design of the learning experience.
Data allow
When professional learning for teachers
teachers to
models effective teaching practices, particuidentify the
larly those that are aligned with the vision of
focus for their
teaching and learning and the instructional
professional
framework, those engaged in the learning
learning.
have an added advantage of learning both
the content and processes about learning.
Effective designs integrate learning theories
and research and foster active engagement and collaboration
with colleagues. Learning designs vary to accommodate the expected outcomes, learners’ preferences, experience levels, school
culture, and other factors. Teaching practices are enhanced
through mentoring, coaching, and team learning that focus on
clearly defined outcomes for teachers and their students.
Learning transfers to practice when mentors, coaches, and
team members provide school- and classroom-based support
sustained over time that draws on research about individual
and organization change. Frequently, efforts to refine or extend
teaching practices fail because the improved practices are not
fully implemented with fidelity to the design. The use of constructive feedback based on predetermined criteria that describe
effective teaching is also essential to continuous improvement
of teaching.
CONTINUOUS LEARNING
Performance standards such as those described by Charlotte
Danielson, Robert C. Pianta, Karen M. La Paro, and Bridget
K. Hamre, InTASC’s model core teaching teaching standards,
or state or district performance standards become an integral
part of efforts to increase teaching effectiveness. Standards such
as these align closely with the vision for teaching and learning and the instructional framework and define excellence in
teaching. Coupling performance standards with student learn-
16 JSD | www.learningforward.org
ing outcomes such as those defined in the Common Core State
Standards creates a coherent set of criteria for both practice and
results of effective teaching.
Effectiveness in teaching is a process of continuous learning
that occurs over time without a termination point. As described
in the InTASC standard 9, Professional Learning and Ethical
Practice — “The teacher engages in ongoing professional learning and uses evidence to continually evaluate his or her practice,
particularly the effects of his or her choices and actions on others (learners, families, other professionals, and the community),
and adapts practice to meet the needs of each learner” (Council
of Chief State School Officers, p. 18) — effective teaching includes reflection using data, engaging in professional learning,
and adapting practice to meet the learning needs of students.
School systems have responsibilities to develop and embrace a vision for teaching and learning, adopt an instructional
framework that guides how the vision moves into action, and
establish standards that serve as the criteria for measuring effectiveness. Effective teaching results from comprehensive efforts
of the entire community who come together to create the core
components of a state and local system for teaching effectiveness. This system is fundamental to guarantee that every student, not just some, experiences effective teaching every day,
and every educator, not just some, understands his or her role
in increasing student achievement.
REFERENCES
Council of Chief State School Officers. (2008, April).
Educational leadership policy standards: ISLLC 2008 as adopted
by the National Policy Board for Educational Administration.
Washington, DC: Author.
Council of Chief State School Officers. (2011, April).
InTASC model core teaching standards: A resource for state
dialogue. Washington, DC: Author.
Danielson, C. (2007). Enhancing professional practice: A
framework for teaching. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Jackson, C.K. & Bruegmann, E. (2009). Teaching
students and teaching each other: The importance of peer
learning for teachers. American Economic Journal: Applied
Economics, 1(4), 85-108.
National Science Foundation Task Force on
Cyberlearning. (2008). Fostering learning in the networked
world: The cyberlearning opportunity and challenge.
Washington, DC: National Science Foundation.
Pianta, R.C., La Paro, K.M., & Hamre, B.K. (2008).
Classroom assessment scoring system. Baltimore: Brookes
Publishing.
•
Joellen Killion (joellen.killion@learningforward.org)
is senior advisor and Stephanie Hirsh (stephanie.hirsh@
learningforward.org) is executive director at Learning
Forward. ■
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JSD Professional Learning Guide
A companion to December 2011 JSD
THEME: EFFECTIVE TEACHING
Vision, plus so much more, promotes effective teaching and learning
M
ost school reform efforts recognize the need for a clear and concise vision for teaching and learning. Use “The
elements of effective teaching: Professional learning moves vision, framework, and performance standards into
action,” by Joellen Killion and Stephanie Hirsh (p. 10), to inform your initial round of conversations around the
variables often overlooked when considering teacher effectiveness. Follow the process below as a guide to focus your
reading and team conversations.
1. In the first row, independently record the key ideas described in the article for each of the elements of effective
teaching.
2. In the second row, independently record your personal reflections based on your current experience with each of the
elements described.
3. In the third and fourth row, with your teammates or partner, identify specific gaps and then possible solutions for
growth and learning in each of the elements.
Elements
of effective
teaching
Vision for
teaching and
learning
Instructional
framework
Student
learning
outcomes
Performance
expectations
for educators
Policy,
planning,
and goals
Professional
learning
Elements
Current
experience
Gaps
Areas for
growth and
learning
Learning Forward
www.learningforward.org
800-727-7288
4
learning forward
TOOL 3:
Using the IC Maps as
a Self-Assessment
IC maps can be used as a self-assessment tool. Similar to the process described in Tool 2, Checking
Progress, an individual (or even a team) can use the same process to conduct a self-assessment.
Purpose: Conduct a self-assessment to check implementation progress of one or more standards and
compare current behaviors to the descriptions in the IC maps.
Group Size: 1 (or more, if conducting team assessments)
Time: 10 minutes (longer if more than one person is involved)
Materials: IC map for one standard for the appropriate role group.
DIRECTIONS
1.The individual identifies one or more standards to self-assess. If the school or a team has a goal for
improvement in one standard area, everyone might use the same standard with the appropriate role group IC map to conduct periodic self-assessments.
2.The individual reads the desired outcomes and all the variations and determines the level that best matches his or her current practice. He or she should record those levels on a separate sheet and include the date.
3.The individual can use this information to identify next steps or assistance necessary for improvement. More information on next steps is included in Tool 4.
276
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800-727-7288