A Model of Excellence Among Learning Communities Professional Development that Empowers Teachers Mandy Kraus Kassidy Rice Susan Sommerfeld

What did we want to accomplish?  Continuous improvement  Narrow achievement gap A Model of Excellence Among Learning Communities

National Urban Alliance Partnership  Joined through WMEP  Cohort-based  Large & small-group training  Added new cohorts for three years A Model of Excellence Among Learning Communities

A Model of Excellence Among Learning Communities Cohort Analysis from Spring 2008 to Spring 2010 Average Percentile Rank Math: to Reading: to MCA II Trend Data by Ethnicity from 2006 – 2010 Increased rate of proficiency listed by NCLB subgroups Math: Reading: Asian – From 83.87% to 96.87% Asian – From 90.32% to 93.75% Hispanic – From 57.14% to 76.19% Hispanic– From 80% to 95.23% Black – From 21.73% to 56.52% Black– From 45.45% to 86.95% White – From 84.03% to 85.35% White – From 89.24% to 94.26%

Self-Sustainability  Developed Professional Development goals  New cohort model  Focus on quality – Garet, Porter, Desimone, Birman, and Yoon (2001) A Model of Excellence Among Learning Communities

Timeframe  Five sessions over the course of the year  3 half days and 2 full days A Model of Excellence Among Learning Communities

A Model of Excellence Among Learning Communities

Coherence  District Initiatives  Common language & experience  Umbrella of “all students can achieve” A Model of Excellence Among Learning Communities

Coherence  Develop Belief Statements  Our role is to know each of our students and the required standards in order to create lessons and an environment which provide opportunities for growth toward and beyond defined standards. This growth could be demonstrated in a variety of ways.  Learning is a collaboration between school, teachers, student, and parents in order to provide maximum growth opportunities for all students. Learning should be engaging, motivating, appropriate, rigorous, and relevant. A Model of Excellence Among Learning Communities

Coherence  Best Practices  Centered on discipline-based PLC’s  Data  Culture & Race  Instructional Strategies A Model of Excellence Among Learning Communities

Content  Discipline-based PLC  Cohorts differentiated based on individual content needs A Model of Excellence Among Learning Communities

Active Learning  Discussion-based  Take-away applications A Model of Excellence Among Learning Communities

Staff Responses A Model of Excellence Among Learning Communities "It was of great benefit to learn and reflect on the idea of a single story in terms of teaching. I think this was helpful because it allowed us as teachers to examine or our own perspective and preconceived or limited views of our students.” "I really found the presentation of different teaching strategies to be beneficial. It is great to learn about new research based strategies that you can infuse into your class to keep it fresh and meaningful.” -- Jason Traynor, 7th Grade Life Science

Staff Responses A Model of Excellence Among Learning Communities “I felt the cohorts were extremely useful in promoting conversations about learning strategies that could be used across grade levels and disciplines. It was valuable to have professional learning time set aside to revisit effective NUA strategies. Focusing on diversity was beneficial in continuing our conversations on creating culturally responsive classrooms.” -- Megan Speers, 7th Grade Social Studies

Staff Responses A Model of Excellence Among Learning Communities “We discussed in our cohorts how priming plays a vital role in the learning process. The homework was designed as an anticipatory guide to give students a chance to work with the video script beforehand and anticipate what they are going to see in the video during a lesson. When students have completed the homework, they are primed-they have a good idea of what they will see and hear in the video and are ready to learn.” -- Megan Budke, Spanish teacher

Questions A Model of Excellence Among Learning Communities