What are the district expectations?

As you read this quote, what do you think about? Have you ever said, "if I had known then, what I know now?"  After 26 years in education, I find myself thinking this all the time. At the Teacher Leader Coalition meeting this week, Dr. Dexter asked members to think about the first year of teaching and what has been learned with experience.  There were some common themes, "confidence", "student's talk more than the teacher", "collaboration", "focus on standards", "willing to take on more".   As educators and in life, we learn from experience, however, experience doesn't always result in effectiveness or success.  What I noticed about the comments from these teacher leaders, is it isn't just about the experience that has made a difference, it is the desire and actions they have taken to be better that has impacted their self-efficacy and success. 

As a learning organization, this quote is quite relevant.  When GIPS adopted the Marzano Focused Teacher Evaluation Model, it wasn't just about the evaluation tool, it was about the intentional focus on a growth model around strategies and actions that have been widely researched to impact student achievement. To learn it and be "applying" in all strategies seems overwhelming and to be honest, the impact on student achievement is not yet visible.  

So what we have learned from working with Learning Sciences and what they have modeled through the Demonstration Schools for Rigor work is to target key elements that will more likely move the needle faster, provide professional development around those elements, offer on-going intentional coaching support with feedback, and monitor for effectiveness. Take a look at the Marzano Teaching Map below:

Although you will notice that in the new Focused Teacher Evaluation Model, which you can see in iObservation, some of the elements have shifted and/or been combined, however, I wanted to remind you of this as it visually shows the connection to our district priorities to engage in standards-based planning through the professional learning communities framework and use data to design instruction/make decisions. With our current professional learning plan for the district, we are not doing something in addition, we are going deeper to ensure teachers have the opportunity to practice and implement so that it becomes just part of what we do.  

One clarification might be around performance scales and success criteria.  Performance scales are a monitoring tool to gauge where students are in the learning progression toward the standard.  Our task force members are adding scales as they update and revise our curriculum maps for our core content areas.  ELA is the most complete and are located in the Leading for Learning Curriculum folder in team drive.

Success criteria are the knowledge, skills, and actions that students must be able to demonstrate to reach the daily target. Both are important and provide the means for students to own the learning throughout the unit.  

We are focusing on standards-based targets and success criteria because this is what most clearly articulates what students need to know and be able to do.  Teaming, or organizing students into groups to process content, is also in our plan because we know when students collaborate and learn from each other, they own the learning. 

Professional learning is now embedded.  District days with PLC time built in, C4I days (for those that participate, it's coaching for implementation), coaching from principals and instructional coaches, L4L support team trend walks, PLCs, and instructional rounds are all opportunities to take action and improve practice. You may notice a shift as principals focus on being instructional leaders.  They are protecting time to be in your classrooms, provide coaching feedback and of course still need to observe for evaluation.  The emphasis is, however, on coaching for implementation.  It's important to note that there are many teachers in our buildings that are being successful and impacting students as a result of their transformation...if this is you...I challenge you to reach out and support your colleagues! We are "better together"!  If you are wanting specific feedback from your principals, please reach out! They want to support you in professional growth.  

So what's different than what the Demonstration Schools are getting for professional learning? They are receiving professional learning through a Learning Sciences expert consultant with a prescribed plan for implementation.  The consultant coaches the principal and coaches, reflects and monitors progress with the leadership team throughout the journey. This intense support is designed to ensure they are successful in achieving Demonstration School Status.  Once they reach that status they do become learning laboratories for others.  This means they are NOT a "trainer of trainer" but a place to observe rigorous student-centered instruction in action.  Jefferson, Starr, and Walnut will begin to offer opportunities for instructional rounds to GIPS staff beginning in November.  Your principals have access to the schedule and can sign up for visits now. Thank you to our DSR schools for engaging in this transformation! 

In addition to the DSR training, our district team has also received professional learning through LSI to scale the work for our other schools.  This is how our plan for this year evolved. They continue to provide us feedback and support in our efforts to move to a student-centered with rigor district.  
If you are interested in learning more about the process of the Demonstration Schools for Rigor, you can check out the link: https://www.learningsciences.com/  Michael Toth will outline the steps LSI models to develop teachers and leaders at all levels.

Transformation is not easy, but the end result directly impacts our students and how we are preparing them to THRIVE! We are already seeing the impact of your efforts-it's exciting and inspiring to be on this journey together!  Thank you for being GRAND!

What can I expect from the Executive Cabinet Thursday Walks?

How will we as a district accomplish our vision: "Students prepared to make positive contributions and thrive in an ever-changing world?"  What does it even mean to "be prepared"?  One year ago, we embarked on a partnership with Learning Sciences International.  Michael Toth, CEO of LSI, spoke at our welcome back event and articulated why we need to shift our mental model of instruction where the work is student/team centered, students are working on challenging group tasks and there is a high level of cognitive engagement. The world that we are preparing our students for is much different than the world we grew up in.  To ensure our students have the skills, tools, and competencies to be successful will require us to change our habits.  The end result is definitely about generating better learning outcomes and preparing our students, however, I will also reinforce Michael Toth's words that it is also about bringing the joy back into teaching.

The components of our district's Strategic Plan outline the "how" to achieve the vision.  By empowering educators to be instructional leaders, personalizing learning for all students, designing our decisions based on data, and partnering with our stakeholders, we will prepare our students to thrive! We believe our biggest levers initially for continuous school improvement centers around our district priorities: implementation of "Professional Learning Communities, Standards-based Planning, and using Data to Design Decisions".

Thursday Walks provide the opportunity for the executive cabinet to observe the outcomes of the implementation of our priorities and the shifts in our model of instruction as a system.  In addition to observing the shifts, we are also becoming more familiar with all campuses, making connections with staff, students, and principals, celebrating achievements, and identifying possible supports for continuous school improvement.
 

We do collect data on what we observe in classrooms, however, the observations and data are not evaluative.  The data provides information around progress towards systematic implementation and needs for possible supports.

For example, this first round of observations, we are looking for target-task alignment and if students can articulate the target.  We are currently not collecting any data as an executive team on success criteria as we know this is new and we want to you feel comfortable practicing and using it with students. Every Friday I update principals on the collective data overall and I will also periodically update you in future newsletters.

During the visits, you can also expect cabinet members to ask you questions, provide a summary of what was observed to your principals, and posts pictures on twitter to celebrate you and the students. We may periodically leave you a note, but this may not occur at every visit. Please know that where we are is ok, we just can't stay there!

We are on our journey to be "GRAND"-ER than ever before!  The transformation is to benefit all of our students so they can THRIVE in an ever-changing world! Thank you for leading the way!