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Role Group Strategies
Teachers
Actively participate on school improvement and planning teams. Maximize the efficiency of improvement teams/committees.
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Brevard Elementary School, Transylvania, NC
The Real D.E.A.L. Schools
http://www.governor.state.nc.us/Office/Education/_pdf/RealDeal_Booklet.pdf
Brevard Elementary School is one of eight schools honored by North Carolina Governor Mike Easley as a school that leads the state in both student achievement and teacher working conditions. At this school, all teachers serve on one of the school’s “priority teams” so that leadership is shared and teachers have a voice in school decision-making.
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Sustaining School Improvement: Communication
Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning. (2003).
http://www.mcrel.org/PDF/LeadershipOrganizationDevelopment/
5031TG_commfolio.pdf
Breaking down these communication barriers is critical to identifying best practice within a building and focusing the efforts of an entire school community. This four-page document outlines the key elements of communication within a schoolhouse, offers strategies that school leadership teams can use to promote effective communication, provides a rubric for evaluating communication practices, and shares a ‘success story’ from Singing Hills Elementary School in Elizabeth, Colorado.
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Sustaining School Improvement: Data Driven Decision Making
Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning. (2003).
http://www.mcrel.org/PDF/LeadershipOrganizationDevelopment/5031TG_datafolio.pdf
This document outlines the skills necessary for data-driven decision making, offers strategies that school leadership teams can use to support this process, provides a rubric for evaluating data-driven decision making within a school and shares a ‘success story’ from Jeanette Myhre Elementary School in Bismark, North Dakota.
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Sustaining School Improvement: Professional Development
Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning. (2003).
http://www.mcrel.org/PDF/LeadershipOrganizationDevelopment/5031TG_profdevfolio.pdf
This document outlines the key elements of effective professional development programs, offers strategies that school leadership teams can use when establishing professional development programs, provides a rubric for evaluating professional development within a school and shares a ‘success story’ from Witters/Lucerne Elementary School in Thermopolis, Wyoming.
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Sustaining School Improvement: Resource Allocation
Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning. (2003).
http://www.mcrel.org/PDF/LeadershipOrganizationDevelopment
/5031TG_resourcefolio.pdf
This document outlines the key elements of school budgeting and resource allocation, offers strategies that school leadership teams can use to monitor and support responsible resource allocation within a building, provides a rubric for evaluating resource allocation, and shares a ‘success story’ from Huntington Elementary School in Lincoln, Nebraska.
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A Handbook for School Leadership Teams
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. (2004).
http://www.cms.k12.nc.us/resources/documents/schoolLeadershipTeams.asp
This handbook, developed by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, is a valuable tool for any school attempting to evaluate and define the work of their leadership teams. Sections cover guidelines for the operation of school leadership teams, roles and responsibilities of members of leadership teams (including parents), the process of developing a school improvement plan, and a checklist for tracking school improvement planning.
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Leadership Matters: Building Leadership Capacity
Barkley, S., Bottoms, G., Feagin, C.H., and Clark, S. (2001).
http://www.sreb.org/main/Leadership/pubs/01V18_LeadershipMatters.pdf
This guide outlines practical strategies for building leadership capacity in schools that pertain to administrators, teachers, students, parents, and the community. It also includes a description of the importance of establishing a shared vision and a checklist that can be used to evaluate the supports that a school has in place to encourage risk-taking by teachers and administrators.
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Leading Your School Through a School Improvement Process: Organizing a School Improvement Team
School Improvement in Maryland
http://www.mdk12.org/process/leading/sit.html
The development of school improvement teams allows leadership within a school to be shared. This website provides score sheets to evaluate the effectiveness of their school improvement teams in the following five areas: team building, strategic planning and follow through, leadership, data utilization and analysis, and managing change and measuring progress.
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Reinventing Education Change Toolkit
IBM (2002).
http://www.reinventingeducation.org/RE3Web
This toolkit, provided free of charge to anyone working in K-12 education, is designed to help school and district leaders to guide the school reform process. The toolkit can be used to diagnose an environment for change, collaborate with members of a school change team, read real-life vignettes from education colleagues, plan a change initiative, and connect with educators worldwide.
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The Toolbelt: A Collection of Data-Driven Decision-Making Tools for Educators
North Central Regional Educational Laboratory
http://www.ncrel.org/toolbelt/tutor.htm
This website provides a variety of resources and action tools for improving schools through data-driven decision-making. The site contains a data use primer, a searchable database of resources, a matrix of tools organized around various district needs, and a step-by-step guide to using data in school improvement efforts.
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Teachers
Advocate for the creation of Professional Learning Communities
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Creating a Professional Learning Community: Cottonwood Creek School
Hoard, S.M. and Rutherford, W.L. (2001). Issues about Change, 6(2).
http://www.sedl.org/change/issues/issues62/welcome.html
Cottonwood Creek Elementary School is a K-5 building located in the Southwest. In the late 1990’s, Cottonwood Creek began to move towards establishing itself as a professional learning community. Their intent was to partner with a local university in creating a community of learners with a shared vision. This case study, based on interviews with teachers, administrators, school leaders and community members, documents Cottonwood’s efforts and provides valuable insight into the process of creating a professional learning community.
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Launching Professional Learning Communities: Beginning Actions
Southwest Educational Development Laboratory. (2000).
http://www.sedl.org/change/issues/issues81/welcome.html
This tool provided by SEDL outlines the efforts and steps taken by several schools in the Southwest to establish professional learning communities. It focuses on the initial steps necessary for ensuring that the implementation of the PLC model will result in fundamental change.
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Multiple Mirrors: Reflections on the Creation of Professional Learning Communities
Hoard, S.M. (2000). Southwest Educational Development Laboratory.
http://www.sedl.org/pubs/cha97/
This website shares seven “stories” from administrators and teacher leaders related to the creation of professional learning communities in schools across the Southwest.
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Sustaining School Improvement: Professional Learning Communities
Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning. (2003).
http://www.mcrel.org/PDF/LeadershipOrganization
Development/5031TG_proflrncommfolio.pdf
This article describes the shared vision, shared leadership, and collaborative activity of professional learning communities. The authors rate the relative effectiveness of different strategies and highlight the efforts of Lewis and Clark Middle School, in Jefferson, Missouri, to increase the level of active teaching and learning at their school.
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Building a Professional Learning Community Toolkit
Eisenhower National Clearinghouse and the National Staff Development Council
http://www.enc.org/professional/guide/foundation/community/
This site provides provides an outline of the process involved in establishing a Professional Learning Community and links to articles written by leading advocates of the model, which are accompanied by a discussion and reflection tool.
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Teachers
Develop trusting relationships with building administrators based on open communication.
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Sustaining School Improvement: Communication
Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning. (2003).
http://www.mcrel.org/PDF/LeadershipOrganizationDevelopment/
5031TG_commfolio.pdf
Breaking down these communication barriers is critical to identifying best practice within a building and focusing the efforts of an entire school community. This four-page document outlines the key elements of communication within a schoolhouse, offers strategies that school leadership teams can use to promote effective communication, provides a rubric for evaluating communication practices, and shares a ‘success story’ from Singing Hills Elementary School in Elizabeth, Colorado.
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Building Trusting Relationships for School Improvement: Implications for Principals and Teachers
Brewster, C. and Railsback, J. (2003, September). By Request. Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory
http://www.nwrel.org/request/2003sept/index.html
This booklet addresses issues of trust between principals and teachers and among teachers themselves as an element of school improvement. The authors draw on recent research and highlight several schools working on trust building, including a “critical friends group” established at Southridge High School in Beaverton, Oregon.
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Consensus: Arrive at Agreement…Agreeably
Richardson, J. (2004, April/May). Tools for Schools.
http://www.nsdc.org/library/publications/tools/tools4-04rich.cfm
This document outlines a plan for developing consensus and for tackling school reform initiatives agreeably. The process is broken into four well-defined sections: The Preparation Phase, in which the group decides how they will work together, The Possibilities Phase, in which the group proposes as many options as possible, the Probing Phase, in which the group discusses and eliminates options, and the Declaring Phase, in which the group ensures everyone is heard and agrees to move on to implementation.
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Taking the High Road
Bond, S. (2004, April). Principal Leadership, 4(8).
http://www.principals.org/publications/pl/pl_high_road_0404.cfm
One step that schools can take to improve communication is to establish a set of “operating principles” that guide how people work with one another and provide standards by which actions can be judged. This article, by Suzanne Bond, a former high school teacher and principal and current professor at Seattle Pacific University, outlines a four-step process for the shared development of school operating principles as well as the recommended content for such plans. Suggestions for implementation are also included.
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Listen Carefully: Good communication skills build relationships that foster school improvement.
Richardson, J. (2002, October/November). Tools for Schools.
http://www.nsdc.org/library/publications/tools/tools10-02rich.cfm
This article, from the October 2002 issue of Tools for Schools, provides strategies for successful communication within a school. Without effort in this area, the author contends, school culture cannot change because it is based on relationships built through communication.
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A Measure of Concern: Research Based Program Aids Innovation by Addressing Teacher Concerns
Holloway, K. (2003, February). Tools for Schools.
http://www.nsdc.org/library/publications/tools/tools2-03holl.cfm
It is critical to any reform effort that administrators understand the concerns of their faculty before pushing forward. Outlining a Concerns-Based Adoption Model, the article describes the seven stages of concern that educators go through when confronted with change. The article goes on to describe ways in which administrators or staff developers can determine someone’s stage of concern as well as what can be done to address this.
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