Puzzle of Practice
In order for teachers to scale up their expertise school-wide, they needed to collaborate efficiently and effectively. Hall District Elementary wanted to refocus existing collaborative structures by putting students back at the center.
Collective Goal
Teacher leaders and school leadership have been partnering with The Core Collaborative for 2 years, participating in job-embedded professional learning with a focus on developing Impact Teams: A Student Centered PLC Model and part of the Core Collaborative’s EmpowerED Learner Series.™ They have also transitioned their curriculum to Common Core using The Core Collaborative’s Student Centered Curriculum Design Model.
Collective Action
The Core Collaborative partnered with district leadership, site leadership and teacher leaders to Unpack Standards for Success, a collaborative process in which teachers get to know standards by understanding cognitive rigor, determining the standard’s relevance in the world we live in, and developing the specific criteria needed for successful mastery of the standards. In addition teacher leaders learned a process for analyzing student work to plan differentiated instruction; this process is called Impact Teams.
Impact
When interviewed about the result on advancing teacher and principal effectiveness in the district, Guillermo Ramos – principal – described the impact of The Core Collaborative professional learning:
At “Hall District Elementary students are experiencing academic growth due in part to the professional learning focus and partnership with Dr. Paul Bloomberg and The Core Collaborative. The role of the teacher has evolved as instruction includes an emphasis on teacher clarity, feedback and student collaboration. Impact Teams meet weekly to plan lessons and activities, analyze student data, and identify most effective strategies for instruction. Students are inspired to take ownership of their learning as they participate in activities where teachers engage students with success criteria that is standards driven; students work closely with their peers. Kids are having fun and learning at the same time! The role of school administration has also evolved as it leads and facilitates professional development, support Impact Team implementation, and provides highly effective instructional feedback to teachers. Our students continue to reap the benefits of our focus and partnership with The Core Collaborative as CELDT AMAO 1 has jumped to 62%! Over 80% of students are meeting the benchmark on primary literacy benchmark assessments. Second through fifth grade students are increasing on the STAR Reading exam.