Collective Efficacy through PLC's

When a school staff shares the belief that through their collective actions they can positively influence student outcomes, student achievement increases. Collective teacher efficacy deserves the attention of every educator because it was recently ranked as THE NUMBER ONE FACTOR influencing student achievement (Hattie, 2016).

How are you fostering collective teacher efficacy as a SAIL improvement strategy?

Collective Efficacy by Jenni Donohoo

Do you use a collaborative teacher inquiry process with your PLC's?

A cycle of inquiry process provides a structure for meaningful collaboration, empowers teachers, and includes the interpretation of results as a necessary stage in the process.

I encourage you to look at this process which incorporates a theory of action as well as examining student learning data. Perhaps this is a fresh way to accomplish the work of our PLC's which we know in some spots is limping along.

Moving from Invitation to Expectation

Last week, over 230 educators spent two days working on SAIL planning to impact student achievement. A special thank you to the board members who were able to stop by and engage in the learning and planning with our school teams.

Our theme this school year is "moving from invitation to expectation". As we start year 4 of our SAIL work, we expect that school teams and teachers are collectively responsible for collaborative cultures that show progress in student achievement. Period.

Research indicates that students learn at higher levels in schools where principals and teachers mutually contribute to leadership, as opposed to schools that lack teacher involvement in instructional decision-making (Ingersoll, Sirindes, and Dougherty, 2017). SAIL teams help build coherence for improving student learning. Thank you to everyone for your commitment to our students through your collective action and accountability.

New Math Technology Program for 4th and 5th Grade

With TenMarks going out of business, coaches and teachers engaged in finding a new math technology program for fourth and fifth grade. We started by looking at over 20 different math programs and narrowed the pool down to five. We then analyzed those five programs more closely and found two programs that best met the vision and needs of the School District of Waukesha.   These two programs were then piloted in three elementary buildings in order to get teacher and student feedback. The teachers in the pilot were in agreement that Matific was the best fit due to the flexibility it provided in assigning content, the wide range of rigor, the engagement for students, as well as the reporting options that were easy to read and use.  The students made comments such as "It helped me to do math and have fun doing it" or "It was like DreamBox, but it was for older kids".  In May, the school board approved the purchase of Matific for our fourth and fifth grade students. At Summer Institute this year, there will be a required session for fourth and fifth grade teachers to dig in deeper into this new program!

Inclusion Conference is Coming!

The Inclusion Conference is coming!

Now that spring is here and Game of Thrones has concluded, saying 'Winter is Coming' just doesn’t have the same effect on me.   

iSummit 2019 is the fourth annual opportunity to stretch our thinking around meeting the needs of all learners in the classroom.

Let me offer you two phrases that have some POWER in meeting the needs of all learners in the classroom: 

THE END OF AVERAGE

The End of Average is the title of a best selling book by Todd Rose.  Who is Todd Rose?  Well, he was a high school drop out with a 0.9 GPA.  He was on welfare with 2 children and working 2 jobs when he got his GED.  And then he went to college.  And eventually. . . . he became the director of the Harvard University Mind Brain and Education Program.   He is keenly aware of what a difference it makes if we attend to the variability in humans when we design instruction.  His analysis of brain research provides amazing insight and his review of our errors in designing for the ‘average’ is INTERESTING.   You see, when we design for the ‘average’ we end up designing for no one.  The air force learned this when they measured four thousand pilots to design the perfect cockpit based on the average arm length, leg length, torso height, etc.  The outcome?  None of the pilots were comfortable.  “If you’ve designed a cockpit to fit the average pilot, you’ve actually designed it to fit no one”.

What if we consider our teaching methods and our approach to give a roomful of individuals the same lesson, with the same materials and the same measurements?  There might be a reason why so many are not succeeding under these conditions.

THE 7 - 10 SPLIT

 

If you have watched or played just one game of bowling, you know the 7-10 split is terribly hard to solve.  When you throw the ball down the middle you might connect with many pins, but you are taking a chance on missing 7 and 10 because they are not ‘in the middle’.  Shelly Moore makes a very good point regarding the educational implications of this!

You see the similarities right?  If our instruction is always aiming for the middle or the average, we are ALWAYS missing some students.  Those are the students that we talk about because they are underserved, minorities, have disabilities, etc.  

Why don’t we FLIP our approach to instructional planning and START with the students that are not in the middle?  Plan for the students on the edges and we are sure to see an impact in our student achievement.  Perhaps educators can learn from the mistakes of the air force and the bowling game.

Watch these brief videos on THE END OF AVERAGE and THE 7 - 10 SPLIT.  They are engaging! 

DPI SEL Competencies

The School District of Waukesha, along with public schools across the country, continue to focus efforts and hone practices surrounding the need to support the social and emotional needs of all students. To this end, the WI Department of Public Instruction teamed with professionals across the state to research and develop the SEL Competencies for the state of Wisconsin, which were released in May of 2018. These competencies span pre-K through adulthood and are rooted in three primary categories: emotional development, self-concept, and social competence. Skills are further broken down within each of these areas to further articulate and understand what comprises healthy SEL at all ages and developmental levels. Research has been very clear that providing a strong universal level of SEL braided throughout a student's day and throughout cross-curricular areas pays large dividends when it comes to increasing academic achievement, reducing office referrals, and increasing the overall mental wellness and functioning of our students. This is why so many districts across the county, and the state of Wisconsin in particular, have increasingly focused on SEL and mental health despite any federal mandates or statutory obligations to do so. We simply know it is the right thing to do for our students and the future of our society! I encourage you to take a look at these competencies for the grade levels you work with and start thinking about how you infuse these within your own content area and interactions with your students on a day-to-day basis.

Enjoy the last three weeks of school and have a great weekend. You've earned it!

Equity and Excellence for School Improvement

I haven't heard Doug Reeves speak in a while and so I dedicated 30 minutes today to listen in on a webinar that he was having. He is a researcher who writes and talks about sustained reform and success over time in documented schools and systems across the country. I was so glad to hear him reiterate the impact of long term enduring practices and internal ownership to impact student achievement.

As we approach SAIL 4.0 in June, I am even more certain that our alignment to this school improvement framework is helping our school successes. We have 5 schools in our system who have seen significant student achievement gains over the past 4 years and many more who have set the stage to achieve key results with their focused hard work!

Collective efficacy continues to lead the race as the number one predictor and number one effect size correlating with student achievement. Collective teacher efficacy is the collective belief of teachers in their ability to positively affect students.

So if you asked everyone in your school, what causes student achievement? What would everyone say in making this huge list?
What can we control? What can we influence? And what do we have no control over?

Believe in yourself. Believe in one another. Own the work. Own the rewards.

Celebrating SDW Teachers at the Wisconsin Math Conference

This past Thursday and Friday math educators from around the state and the nation met in Green Lake, Wisconsin for the 51st Annual Wisconsin Mathematics Conference.  In October, teachers and teacher leaders submitted proposals to speak at the conference.  This year 11 teachers and 9 coaches were chosen to present at the conference and represent our work in mathematics in SDW!

Take a look at what math practices our teachers highlighted to the state!

Powerful and Purposeful Conferring in the Math Classroom

Presented by: Angie Blessington, Randi Lesli, Kimberly Loppnow, and Rachel Boario from Randall STEM

Catapulting Divers Learners’ Math Achievement Through Team Teaching

Presented by: Maria Klassy and Madison Corey from Prairie Elementary

Using Small Guided Groups to be Responsive to Learners and Providing Accessible Opportunities for All

Presented by: Adam Dalpra, Kevin Shockley, and Michelle Tranchita from Hadfield Elementary

Conferring: Working Toward Goals, Individual Learning Strategies, and Keeping it Real

Presented by: Kelly Horton, Jessica Bartmann, and Susan Aleson from Meadowbrook Elementary School

Real World Math Connections: How to Make Math Culturally Relevant

Presented by: Melissa Tempel from Heyer Elementary School

Additionally our math coaches presented on the following topics!

Leveraging Math Models to Promote Discourse

Presented by: Dan Pochinski

Where Do I Begin with Implementing a Math Workshop?

Presented by: Rose Palmer

Supporting the Language of Mathematics for ALL

Presented by: Leslie Waltz and Rachel Boario

Making Counting Count

Presented by: Rachel Kozicke

Numeracy Routines Grades K-5

Presented by: Terri Froiland

After presenting, many of these SDW educators commented on the strength of the SDW math program and professional development opportunities, noting that many teachers in attendance were unfamiliar with topics we have been living and breathing in Waukesha.  Educators from other districts were excited and eager to learn from the experiences of our classroom teachers.

Congratulations to all of the teachers who represented our district math department so well last week!  Thank you for your willingness to share and grow in this capacity.

If you are interested in presenting at next year’s Wisconsin Math Conference, look out for the call for presenters in early fall next year.  Consider submitting a proposal to present with another teacher colleague or coach to continue to share our learning with others.