Problem of Practice Template
For SCEE State Teams Attending
Learning Forward’s Annual Conference 2014
“Meeting-within-a Meeting”
SCEE state teams will have the opportunity to continue their collective
conversations about using professional learning as a lever to increase
principal effectiveness by participating in the leadership strand of the
Learning Forward Annual conference and by attending “meetingwithin-a-meeting” sessions that connect the strand content to principal
learning systems. In order to fully participate in the “meeting-within-ameeting” sessions, each state will post a problem-of-practice (PoP)
pertaining to increasing principal effectiveness related to implementing
the new college- and career-ready standards and supporting and
evaluating teacher effectiveness on the SCEE website prior to arriving at
the conference. [Include link to SCEE site for posting.]
Some Tips for Selecting a PoP*:
1) Think about something that has not yet been resolved. As you
prepare your PoP, think about the caveats offered in the National
School Reform Faculty’s Consultancy Protocol Overview:
We have found that Consultancies don’t go well when people
bring dilemmas that they are well on the way to figuring out
themselves, or when they bring a dilemma that involves only
getting other people to change. To get the most out of this
experience, bring something that is still puzzling you about
your practice. It is riskier to do, but we guarantee that you
will learn more. (Thompson-Grove, 2004)
2) Be specific. The more specific you can be as you describe your
PoP, the better. You should be prepared to give a contextual
description in as much detail as you feel is necessary to help the
consulting group understand your context and your PoP.
3) What have YOU done? You should be prepared to describe how
you fit into the context. Who have you talked to? What have you
done? What have you not done? What is off the table? How does
the challenge relate to your values and beliefs?
4) End with a specific question or statement that your group can
attend to. Once you formulate your question or statement, ask
yourself “why” is this a problem five times. This should help you
to refine or refocus your question or statement. You might also
consider sharing with the group what it is about this particular
challenge that you are unprepared to resolve on your own.
5) Don’t worry about trying to define a perfect PoP. If you pick a
problem you haven’t yet figured out, it may not be eloquent, but
you will get the most out of the session.
Sample PoP Topics*:
1. Training
a. We don’t have enough principals who are highly effective in
conducting observations and providing feedback to teachers/having
difficult conversations.
b. We aren’t sure we are thinking smartly about inter-rater reliability
among evaluators. How critical is it? What can we do to ensure it?
c. We went down a path of the state taking responsibility for training
observers to conduct observations and providing feedback, but we
don’t have the capacity to do it.
a. We want to change the state role, but are afraid of
disappointing everyone
b. We don’t know how to get enough trainers
d. We have not been creative enough in thinking about different ways to
staff the observation components of the system. Who else could be
observers besides principals?
2. Connecting to Common Core Implementation
a. Our principals are not deeply connected to the Common Core work in
their schools, but they are going to be expected to observe new
behaviors on the part of their teachers. However, where principals
have gotten more involved, they have been hyper-involved; they can’t
do that for every subject. We don’t know the balance and we don’t
know how to help our principals find the balance.
b. To be effective evaluators, principals need to know more about the
Common Core as it relates to instructional effectiveness and they need
to be able to articulate to teachers what they have learned about the
teachers’ effectiveness through observation.
3. Workload
a. We all realize our principals have too much to do now that they have
all this responsibility in our evaluation system, but we don’t know
what to recommend they take off their plates.
b. What “must” principals do and what might other district, school, and
teacher leaders do? (assistant principals, coaches, etc.)
4.
Professional Learning
a. Principals need to know how to connect evaluation results to
professional development planning (i.e., what is provided to teachers
as a result of observation and conversation).
State Name:
Name of SCEE Lead:
Your State’s Problem of Practice:
In two paragraphs describe your state’s PoP and provide as much
contextual background information as necessary for the group to
understand your problem, include solutions you have already
considered and rejected or tried. Close by clearly stating the problem or
by posing a question to the group.
Post your PoP on the SCEE website _____________________________________________________
by November 13th, 2014
*Special Thanks to West Wind Education Policy Inc. http://westwinded.com
for “Tips for Selecting a PoP” and “Sample PoP Topics and City, E., Elmore, R.,
Fiarman, S. and Teitel, L. Instructional Rounds in Education: A Network
Approach to Improving Teaching and Learning Harvard Education Press 2009