EVALUATION OF THE IMPACT OF COLLABORATIVE PLANNING Carol Mizelle Northeast Leadership Academy Cohort 1 Spring 2012, NCSU

PROBLEM OF PRACTICE Goals  Develop an effective eighth grade English/Language Arts Professional Learning Team, at Bertie Middle School  Provide the opportunity to meet with other grade level English/Language Arts Professional Learning Teams.  Create a collaborative culture among teachers, which would result in an increase of student achievement.  Develop a schedule for the team to meet at least bi-weekly so that effective lesson strategies would be generated to improve student’s learning.  Meetings will articulate lesson outcomes, review all data sources, alignment of the goals and objectives being taught in the classroom.

Collaborative Planning Logic Model

EVALUATION QUESTIONS/DATA SOURCES Questions  How well do teachers’ lessons adhere to curriculum?  How often do ELA teachers collaboratively meet?  How effectively do teachers work with other teachers?  How well are PLCs implemented to increase collaboration?  Did the team use the collaborative planning time to develop common lessons and assessments?  How often are teachers making adjustments to instruction to better meet students’ needs?  How effective were PLC meetings? Data Sources  AgendasExamples of new strategies used in lesson  Recorded MinutesReflections  Survey Observations  Benchmark Data Common Lessons & Common Assessments

TEACHER SURVEY RESULTS QuestionsResponses 1. How effective do you feel the collaborative process has been for you? T1 (3) Total = T2 (4) T3 (4) 2. How effective do you feel the collaborative process has been to the ELA team? T1 (4) Total = T2 (4) T3 (4) 3. How important is the ELA / PLC planning time?T1 (3) Total = T2 (4) T3 (3) 4. To what extent do you feel the analysis of data has proven effective for your ELA / PLC team? T1 (3) Total = T2 (3) T3 (2) 5. How effective did the use of common assessments help to improve student achievement? T1 (2) Total = T2 (4) T3 (3) 6. How effective did the sharing of student test data help to improve student achievement? T1 (2) Total = T2 (3) T3 (4)

TEACHER SURVEY RESULTS 1 = Strongly Disagree Survey Key2 = Disagree 3 = Neither 4 = Agree 5 = Strongly Agree Total Results with the highest effective responses were found in Collaborative Process: 8 -- Agree Total Results with the lowest effective responses were found in Data Sharing: Neither Disagree *Result findings include: Developing a PLC and Collaborating with team was effective meeting process; however, the team did not feel that Data Sharing was an effective process.

EVALUATION RESULTS  Professional Learning Team for ELA was developed  8 th Grade ELA / PLC met collaboratively with other grade level ELA teams  Minutes from meetings were recorded  Lesson plans were developed using “goggle doc” to input data  New strategies were used to develop parts of the lesson  Some resources were common (at least 2 poetry, 2 informational text, and 1 narrative per unit of study)  New strategies were developed for Vocabulary (common vocabulary)  Common Assessments were developed  8 th Grade ELA participated in a school visit to Chowan Middle School

EVALUATION RESULTS OctoberNovemberDecemberJanuaryFebruaryMarchTotal PLC Meetings Classroom Observations Unit Plans& Lessons Developed New Common Strategies Changed Common Assessments And Benchmarks

EVALUATION RESULTS

COMMON BENCHMARK EVALUATION RESULTS Common Benchmark Assessments depict an increase in the following objectives 1.02, 2.01, 3.02, 4.02, 5.01, and =Analyze expressive materials that are read, heard, and/or viewed 2.01 =Analyze and evaluate informational materials that are read, heard, and/or viewed 3.01 =Explore and evaluate argumentative works that are read, heard and/or viewed 3.02 =Continue to explore and analyze the use of the problem-solution process 4.01 =Analyze the purpose of the author or creator and the impact of that purpose 4.02 =Analyze and develop (with limited assistance) and apply appropriate criteria to evaluate the quality of the communication 5.01 =Increase fluency, comprehension, and insight through a meaningful and comprehensive literacy program 5.02 =Study the characteristics of literary genres (fiction, nonfiction, drama, and poetry) 6.01 =Model an understanding of conventional written and spoken expression

TEACHER REFLECTIONS The “collaboration” that occurred in the 8 th grade ELA team this year was not actually full collaboration, but a (somewhat unequal) division of labor. This was not the fault of the facilitator, but rather that of teaching team members who did not have a full understanding of the meaning of collaboration and / or a desire to partake in it. The 8 th grade ELA team has somewhat improve in collaboration; however, we still have a long way to go. We finally achieved being organized and keeping records of our organization, and that really helped me. I felt like I least knew what was going on in the 8 th grade ELA. We became good at looking and resources, but not necessarily sharing everything. The collaboration that I liked was that the 8 th grade team finally made some common assessments. The part I didn’t like was meeting, and I wish we could do what we needed to do without meeting so much.

RECOMMENDATIONS  Train & develop PLC members in true “collaboration.”  All PLC teams should be required to keep a log of the minutes and meeting times.  The principal or assistant principal should periodically meet with the team as a collaborative team member.  The PLC members should set clear goals at the beginning.  The team should take time to develop relationships, and this will help the team be stronger.  At the beginning of the school year, have a requirement for the team to meet at least once a week.  Allow more training for teachers to understand and analyze the data effectively.  Focus on what each team member does well, and use the resources (don’t just talk about). Come to each meeting prepared to input.  Develop more lessons together which are centered around stronger strategies for student improvement.  Focus on the student, and put students first.

FINAL REFLECTIONS  Developing Professional Learning Teams must be a “team” effort, and the team must own the planning in order to have better results. In the beginning of the project I was responsible for the agenda, minutes and facilitating the meeting; therefore, in retrospect, teachers felt that it was “my” meeting and not “their” meeting until they planned the agenda, kept the minutes, and facilitated their own meeting. When they believed we were a team then progress was made to plan collaboratively. Relationships had to be built as the team was built, and I remembered this more accurately as I saw a team transform from not wanting to meet move into building a team that would try to meet more than twice a week. Reflecting on the beginning stages I believe I was trying to force them into developing a collaborative team, and this would not bring about the results needed for improvement in instruction.  The Professional Learning Team meeting emerged into a meeting where everyone brought ideas, strategies, plans, and resources. The team transitioned slowly, and at times one teacher would try to dictate over the others. Once I had presented strategies for effective collaboration, and facilitated some meetings, the eighth grade team took the initiative to develop their own strategies that worked to make a difference for a fairly effective team. Working through the beginning process was the most difficult part because often classroom teachers tend to find themselves in isolation rather that collaboration.