1. District Office and Professional Learning Communities
March 30, 2007
Dr. Dennis King

2. The norms for our school are not like the norms for other schools…we expect our school to do things differently.
Fred Newman

3. Current Reality Vs Our Ideal School

4. Connecting the Strategic Plan to Each Student
District - Strategic Plan
District Mission, Vision, Goals, Targets
School Improvement Plan
Mission, Vision, SMART Goals,
Initiatives, Interventions
Grade Level, Department Collaboration
Team Protocols, Goals and Interventions
Essential Questions of a PLC

5. District School Improvement Model
What are the essential components of a school improvement model in your school district?
How are they implemented?
Are they standardized throughout each school?
How do you guarantee the district curriculum is being taught?

6. “The real voyage of discovery consists, not of seeking new landscapes, but in seeing through new eyes” Marcel Proust

7. Traditional Model of School Improvement
Instruction
Assessment
FOR Learning
QPA Q
NCA
Curriculum
Mapping
Literacy

8. School Improvement/Professional Development & PLC’s
Professional Learning Communities
Student Support
Foundation, Collaboration, Results Orientation
Interventions, SMART Goals
Professional Development Plan
Professional Learning Communities
Grade
Level or
Dept.
Grade Level or Dept.
Grade
Level or
Dept.
Grade
Level or
Dept.
Grade
Level or
Dept.
Grade
Level or
Dept.
Grade
Level or
Dept.
Grade
Level or
Dept.
Unit/CurriculumDesign
Unit/CurriculumDesign
Assessment
Assessment
Literacy
Literacy
Instruction
Instruction

9. Mission, Vision, Values, Goals Process for School Improvement
Foundation for School Improvement
Professional Learning Communities
Foundation, Collaboration, Results Orientation
Interventions, SMART Goals
Professional Learning Communities
Student Support
Foundation, Collaboration, Results Orientation
Interventions, SMART Goals
Mission, Vision, Values, Goals
Process for School Improvement
Collaborative teams throughout the district – grade level and departmental
Developed team protocols to allow teams to function as teams vs. groups
School Improvement Plans – alignment

10. Professional Development Plan Professional Learning Communities
School Professional Development Plans Aligned to District Initiatives and School Improvement Plans
Focused Professional Development Embedded within the Collaborative Team
Professional Development Initiatives
Assessment FOR Learning
Curriculum Mapping
Literacy
Instruction

11. Curriculum Mapping What we want students to learn?
Curriculum Management System
Curriculum
Diary Mapping (content, skills, assessments)
Read Through
Aligned to State Standards/Indicators

12. Assessment Assessment FOR Learning Measures of Academic Progress (MAP)
Five Keys to Highly Effective Assessment
Clear Purpose
Clear Targets – knowledge, skills, reasoning and products
Good Design
Sound Communication
Student Involvement
Assessment Methods
Measures of Academic Progress (MAP)

13. Literacy
Reading Continuum
Essentials
Reading
Writing
Communication

14. Instruction Permeates throughout the initiatives Teacher “tool kit”
Researched Based Strategies

15. INTERVENTION PYRAMID Problem Solving Team District Interventions
Special Education Placement Screening and Evaluation
for Special Education
Problem Solving Team
District Interventions
Systematic School Interventions
How does the school respond when students don’t get it?
Grade Level / Department/Classroom Interventions - SMART Goals
Early Interventions – What do we need to know prior to the start of school?

16. District Interventions
AVID
READ 180
Larsen Math
Personal Plans of Progress
High School Advisory
K-12 Reading Continuum
Language Program
Early Intervention Summer School

17. Implementation of Professional Development
Embedding Professional Development
How do we act as a team?
Establish Team Protocols
What do students need to know?
Curriculum Mapping and Unit Design
How do we know students have learned?
Assessment For Learning
What do we do if they haven’t learned?
Instruction/Interventions
What do we do if they have learned?
Differentiation

18. Aligning the School Improvement Plans to the School Improvement Process
Mission - Why we exist?
Vision - What we want to become?
SMART Goals - Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Results Oriented, Time-bound
Initiatives - What do we need to do to reach the desired results? (District and School)
Interventions
Collaboration

19. Developing a School Improvement Plan
Model Plans
Rubric
How do we begin?

20. Culture What is culture? How do we define culture in a PLC?
How is culture defined in your school?

21. Pyramid of Intervention Strategies
Least Restrictive
Most Restrictive

22. Interventions
As a school – How do you respond when a student doesn’t learn?
As a department – How do you respond when a student doesn’t learn?
As a teacher – How do you respond when a student doesn’t learn?

23. INTERVENTION PYRAMID Problem Solving Team District Interventions
Special Education Placement Screening and Evaluation
for Special Education
Problem Solving Team
District Interventions
Systematic School Interventions
How does the school respond when students don’t get it?
Grade Level / Department/Classroom Interventions - SMART Goals
Early Interventions – What do we need to know prior to the start of school?

24. Using the Data Protocol to Identify Student Learning Problems
Triangulate Student Learning Data 1 2 3
Aggregate / Summary Reports
Disaggregated results
Strand / Indicator
Item Analysis
/Curriculum maps
Student Work
/Classroom Assessments
(12) Describe how the process “drills down” into data to identify student problems.
The Data Protocol is most effective when used within a PLC to develop Grade-level or Departmental interventions.
Student
Learning
Problem

25. Strategic Plan Mission, Vision, Goals Initiatives Instruction
Data Driven Decisions
Professional Learning Communities
Pyramid of
Interventions

26. District Data School Data Grade/Department Data Teacher
SPED
Strategic Plan
Personalized Learning & Academic Growth
District Data
District Interventions
(Read 180, Advisories)
School Improvement Plan
School Goals
School Data
KSA, MAP
School Interventions
(Structured Study Hall, etc.)
Professional Learning Communities
Department/Grade Level Goals
Grade/Department Data
Common Assessments, Curriculum Maps
Dept./Grade level Interventions
(13) Explain how data on each level is used to develop interventions to promote student learning and show how the pyramid of interventions is supported by the process. Show how teachers support their PLC goals, which support the school improvement plan, which in turn supports the district strategic plan.
Teacher
Data
Formative Assessments, Student work, etc.
Instruction, Literacy, Unit Design, Interventions, etc.

27. Team Protocol Timeline
Week 2 – Team Norms / Consensus
Week 4 – Team Vision
Week 6 – SMART Goal
Week 8 – Team Interventions
Week 9 –

28. Leading and Following Through Change

29. Leading and Following through Change
What are the implications for leaders? What should we be doing?
What are the implications for followers? What should they be doing?
What are the implications for the system? What gets in the way of moving forward?

30. Myth vs. Realities of Change
Myth – Everyone wants to embrace change because the organization wants to change
Realities
Most people act first in their own self interest, not in the interest of the organization
Most people do not want to understand the What and Why of organizational change
Most people engage in organizational change because of their own pain, not because of the merits of change
Jerry Patterson, Coming Even Clearer About Organizational Change

31. Leading through Change
All my life, I assumed that somebody, somewhere knew the answer to the problem. I thought politicians knew but refused to do it … but now I realize that nobody knows the answer. (Senge, 1990)

32. How has the concept of our leadership practice changed?

33. How has the leadership model changed?
From hierarchical leadership-decisions are best made at the top to
distributive leadership-enlisting more of the professional staff to assume leadership roles
servant leadership-a sincere desire to work in service to the needs of others
stewardship-holding in trust the authority and responsibilities we have been given

34. What did Jim Collins find in their five year research project on great organizations?
Any system is designed to produce exactly what it produces.
To change performance, we must change the system, and this requires new approaches to leadership.
Good is the enemy of great!

35. What did Jim Collins find in their five year research project on great organizations?
The good to great organizations did not focus principally on what to do; they focused equally on what not to do and what to stop doing.
They created a culture of discipline where disciplined people meant less hierarchy, bureaucracy, control.

36. What did Jim Collins find in their five year research project on great organizations?
They had leadership that was a blend of humility and professional will.
They believed that you first had to get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats and then figure out where to drive.
They realized that the concept of “good is the enemy of great” is not just an organizational problem – it is a human problem.

37. What did Jim Collins find in their five year research project on great organizations?
They put their best people on their biggest opportunities, not their biggest problems.
They created a climate where truth was heard through questions, dialogue, autopsies not blame, and red flags.
They created from complexity a single organizing idea that unified and guided everything.

38. Michael Fullan’s lessons for leading complex change?
Give up the idea that the pace of change will slow down
Coherence making is a never-ending proposition and is everyone’s responsibility
Changing context is the focus
Premature clarity is a dangerous thing

39. Michael Fullan’s - lessons for leading complex change?
The public’s thirst for transparency is irreversible
You can’t get large-scale reform through bottom-up strategies – but beware of the trap
Mobilize the social attractors – moral purpose, quality relationships, quality knowledge
Charismatic leadership is negatively associated with sustainability

40. What is the overriding theme present in all research on improving student and teacher success and in reforming our schools to help all students learn?
Leadership!!!

41. Having thought about these attributes of great leaders and understood that leaders are made “more by themselves than any external means”, what is the evolution of your professional practice at this point in your career? How would you characterize your current practice?

42. Change is Complex!
Any significant innovation, if it is to result in true change, requires individual implementers to work out their own meaning.
Michael Fullan

43. PLC School Improvement
Knowing
Doing
Being

44. not make yesterday wrong,
What we know today does
not make yesterday wrong,
it makes tomorrow
better.
Carol Commodore