A Work in Progress February 13, 2007 Whole Faculty Study Groups:

FCS Vision  Franklin County Schools’ faculty, staff, and parents are responsible for teaching all children knowledge, skills, and values necessary to be productive citizens.

FCS Beliefs  Effort is as important as intellectual ability. (Schlechty)  Every student will learn more than they learn now if they are provided engaging schoolwork. (Schlechty)  If you believe you can and if you work hard enough, you get smart. (Howard)

FCS Framework for Learning  Phil Schlechty’s book: Working on the Work challenges school leaders to examine student work rather than teachers and students themselves. (What?)  Carlene Murphy’s research and implementation of Whole Faculty Study Groups serves as the platform to examine student work. (How?)

Working on Work (WOW) The teacher’s primary task is to provide engaging work for students that students choose to engage in. - Phil Schlechty

WFSGs “The goal of WFSGs is to focus the entire school faculty on creating, implementing, and integrating effective teaching and learning practices into school programs that will result in an increase in student learning and a decrease in negative student behavior.” --Carlene Murphy

Change is Hard!  Michael Fullan reports that “change consists of great rapidity and nonlinearity on the one hand and equally great potential for creative breakthroughs on the other. The paradox is that transformation would not be possible without accompanying messiness”

What We Experienced At First  Resistance (Passive and Active)  Resentment  Sabotage  Chaos  Lack of understanding (focus on things other than student work)

What’s Gotten Better  More focus  Several schools/groups have experienced the “Eureka” phenomenon.  There have been examples of documented improvement in student achievement.  Leadership is taking an active role in WFSGs and there are plans to expand.  Schools report significant learning in IC meetings.

Elementary Initiatives  Guided Reading  Math Investigations  Empowering Writers  Writing Conventions and Word Study  Reading First (Three Schools)

Middle School Initiatives  Reading Apprenticeship  Compacting Math Curriculum  Algebra Project  Empowering Writers

High School Initiatives  Freshman Academy  Every Freshman takes a locally developed seminar course  Emphasis on: Vocabulary, Summarizing and Cornell Note taking  Distance Learning  Bell-to-Bell Instruction  Course Recovery (NovaNet©)  College Board Project

EVAAS  Provide projection reports to assist high school course registration  Provide projection reports to identify middle school Algebra 1 students  Provide projection reports for elementary schools to help teachers plan instructional differentiation

FCS Utilizes Technology to:  Increase Student Achievement  Increase Course Offerings  Increase Relevance and Rigor  Improve Communication Between Parents and Teachers  Provide Teachers with Engaging Teaching Tools

Technology (Hardware/Software)  Video Conferencing Rooms and Carts Archiving Gateway  3 Laptop Carts with 16 Computers  PhoneMaster© for the Web  Blackboard ©  QTL©Training  Interactive Classrooms

Communication  PhoneMaster for Web Provides quick, efficient contact by phone and to parents about attendance, academics, athletics and other upcoming events Blackboard Establishes a powerful e-learning community for FCS Informs parents, posts assignments, and course materials through online presence of high school classrooms Enables collaboration among schools, teachers and community Integrates ExamView and Blackboard with Turning Point Response Cards

Components installed by are:  Mounted LCD Projector  Microphone for the teacher  LightSpeed Sound system  InterWrite SchoolPad  TurningPoint response cards  Lumen Document Camera Interactive Classrooms

Integration of QTL™ Training and Whole-Faculty Study Groups®.  QTL™ training guides small, collaborative teams of educators through five days of staff development in a classroom environment.  QTL™ staff facilitates the acquisition of research driven pedagogical skills.  QTL™ staff support teachers during the implementation of their newly acquired skills.  These skills address student needs as identified by their Whole Faculty Study Groups®  The study groups then continue a “plan-act-reflect cycle” throughout the school year  The process creates a culture of continuous improvement

We might not be where we want to be but----