In April of last school year, I wrote a Principal’s Pen on the findings of a 10-year study of teachers who moved their classes up one or more levels. I then compared the common characteristics found in those teachers (strictness, strong relationships, instructional intensity, movement, and traditional instruction) with my teachers. The current study I wish to compare with Furman can be found in the November, 2011, Phi Delta Kappan. Characteristics of schools that housed large numbers of children of poverty yet succeeded in the academic testing realm were looked at over an 8-year time span. I will list the favored characteristic followed by my comments.
Collaboration – Educators in “beating the odds” schools use their scheduled time to plan interdisciplinary units with their colleagues. All teachers are assigned common grade level planning times and are expected to meet at least twice weekly to plan together. When I observe, I can go to all three grade level math teachers (for example) and compare teaching styles and lesson plans. Teachers share ideas, PowerPoint slides, and teaching ideas at the meetings. At the end of last year when teachers were asked what they liked most, it was this common planning time which led the list.
Evidenced based decision making – Teachers and administrators have embraced data as helping them address problems. Examples of embraced data are the Winter Map test results. Teachers use the information to produce an individualized goal sheet for each of their students. Then they will have a conference with each student showing him/her how the Winter MAP compared to the Fall MAP. Almost all the children improve and they get excited at how much they have improved. The teachers then show the student his/her score on the NWEA Alignment tool and all students come away from that meeting with a clear picture of what they have to do to be successful on the PASS test. This individualized goal setting is a large part of why we went up to “Average” on the state report card.
Vision – Schools refused to accept the limitations of poverty and believe that every student can be successful in school and life. Every student at Furman is expected to excel. We look at grades and assign students to Academic labs to boost their grades. The Academic Lab provides an all encompassing environment in the core subject(s) in which they have poor grades, thus giving them 3 to 4 hours per week of additional instruction. An additional lab was built to house those students who do not respond well in an open environment.
A warning – the ONLY way to be sure your teachers are planning, using data and are student centered in their classrooms is to observe, observe, observe. As the instructional leader in my school, it is my responsibility to spend no less than 50% of my time in the classrooms observing what is going on. Every teacher at Furman is used to seeing someone in their classroom observing them. What gets observed gets done.