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A Model of: Designing a High-Functioning, Data-Driven PLC CultureDr. TiFFAny TAyLor, PrinCiPAL

BY THE NUMBERS

520 Students

46% White

47% African-American

5% Hispanic

2% Other

12% Students with Disabilities

79% Free/Reduced Lunch

95% Attendance Rate

WHAT is our strategy? At Carver Road Middle School, we have transformed our professional culture, our learning environment, and the student performance outcomes at the school by putting Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) first and making them effective drivers of change. We have intentionally designed them with a sustained focus on three core values:

1. Successful communication between all parties— By using clearly designed surveys that asked for honest feedback from teachers, the goals for school improvement represented many views in the school and became the core rationale for the PLCs.

2. Deep and sustained administrator involvement— Administrators are essential members of PLCs and help address the full span of issues from curriculum to discipline.

3. Data-driven mindset and relevant, immediate responses— Leadership at Carver Road sustains a professional culture. The faculty has regular access to data and they apply their understanding of it to improve instruction. Grade level PLCs meet once a week to look at recent data and design instruction to respond to the data profiles.

HoW did we build this strategy?In the summer of 2014, Principal Tiffany Taylor started at Carver Road Middle School as the school’s third principal in three years. She entered a school that had been challenged to develop a sustained vision; for several years the processes around vision had been in a state of flux. Teachers wanted structure because they felt that things were all over the place. Although everyone was focused on student achievement, Principal Taylor found anxiety and fear around how to actually accomplish change and make progress.

CArver roAD MiDDLe SCHooLGriFFin, GA

By asking teachers for honest feedback and by taking responses into consideration, Principal Taylor automatically signaled that she wanted and cared about teacher input and voice.

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Carver roaD MiDDle SChoolGriffin, Ga

administration at our school is essential to the weekly PlCs. They participate in meetings, know and understand the data, and keep track of progress using a balanced scorecard. each administrator is assigned to a content area and can assist with content strategies, as well as instructional planning and questions, behavior challenges, and other issues.

INCORPORATING TEACHER INPUT FROM THE START

Principal Taylor was able to begin communicating with teachers in the spring of 2014, several months before she officially took over as principal. That spring, she met regularly with teachers and asked them to fill out a survey that asked two simple questions:

•What do you feel should be our top three priorities?•What do you feel we should discontinue?

By asking teachers for honest feedback and by taking responses into consideration, Principal Taylor automatically signaled that she wanted and cared about teacher input and voice. “I didn’t want them to think I was going to come in and throw out everything and start from scratch,” she said. She learned about smaller issues, such as teachers preferring a break in the morning instead of the afternoon, as well as larger issues that needed improvement, such as the discipline process at the school.

She and her leadership team reviewed the survey responses, prioritized the needs that were most urgent, aligned the budget to the resources required to address the priorities, and made a plan to cascade the priorities down to the school schedule and program, including monitoring progress in 4-5 week chunks. Based on the surveys, Principal Taylor established an improvement plan:

• Students need fewer and more meaningful assessments.• Teachers and co-teachers need time to plan together. • Teachers need administrative support with discipline. • literacy and professional learning need to be prioritized.• PlCs need to be organized so they can help drive change.

BUILDING AN INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP TEAM

Principal Taylor knew she needed a leadership team that was focused and unified, and she knew she needed fellow administrators who were deeply experienced and skilled in classroom instruction and curriculum. She made two of the highest performing teachers an assistant principal and an instructional coach. All members of the leadership team are part of PLCs at the school.

PRIORITIZING A CONSTANT FOCUS ON DATA

The Griffin-Spalding School District had established expectations for data-driven instruction, but teachers at our school needed more targeted training on it, particularly on differentiating instruction. Everyone was on board with a vision that asserted that teachers would know students and their needs and continually try to meet them. Principal Taylor had a strong belief that everyone should know how

their students were performing. “If the teacher doesn’t know how they are performing then the student and the teacher can’t work together effectively. Through knowing our data and constantly working on it, we get a culture of improvement in which we can celebrate small wins and small victories along with the bigger ones,” she said.

Paul Bambrick-Santoyo’s book, Driven by Data: A Practical Guide to Improve Instruction, was an important resource for our leadership team as they broke up into data teams. They also drew on the Leadership and Learning Center, now part of the International Center for Leadership in Education, a division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and developed a common assessment for all teachers who collectively taught the same student. For example, there are two English Language Arts teachers for 6th grade. Both teachers now administer the pre-, interim, and post- versions of the common assessment. After each one, they use the data they gathered to collectively plan instruction. Since data is immediate, they can use a data collection application, Mastery Connect, to tie data and instruction. They gather this data once a week by grade level and subject.

Administration at our school is essential to the weekly PLCs. They participate in meetings, know and understand the data, and keep track of progress using a balanced scorecard. Each administrator is assigned to a content area and can assist with content strategies, as well as instructional planning and questions, behavior challenges, and other issues.

PLCs that address grade-level data, our vertical PLCs, meet once a month after school to discuss what is happening at each grade level and collaborate on strategies for improvement.

CREATING AN EFFECTIVE IMPROVEMENT PLAN AROUND DISCIPLINE

When Principal Taylor arrived at Carver Road, discipline was a major issue at the school. Although Carver had implemented PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports) in 2008, discipline was still in need of improvement. She implemented a schoolwide discipline plan. Her objective was to put more power and respect back into the hands of teachers by allowing them to give some kind of consequence for problem behavior and leave the bigger issues for the main office. At every level of behavior infractions there is now a parent contact; the assistant principals closely and frequently monitor the schoolwide discipline plan. In the weekly PLCs that

one of the big changes at our school that has helped improve the culture has been the celebrating of accomplishments and the telling stories of success. Using a Twitter account (@carverroadms) and a consistent hashtag (#2185pride), the school can constantly celebrate its growth.


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@CarverRoadMS

meet for academics, grade level teams started to also work on behavior. Since the 2013-14 school year, referrals have been reduced by 150.

“WE OWN WHO WE ARE”

One of the big changes at our school that has helped improve the culture has been the celebrating of accomplishments and the telling stories of success. Using a Twitter account (@carverroadms) and a consistent hashtag (#2185pride), the school can constantly celebrate its growth. For instance, if a teacher has a great lesson or a successful lab, they can share it digitally with the community.

Our extended community has also grown more enthusiastic and positive about the school. Principal Taylor gets emails from feeder elementary schools with inquiries from incoming 6th grade students. Fifth grade teachers at the elementary schools have expressed that they can feel the improved climate at Carver Road. Parents shared that they hadn’t felt welcomed for many years; now the transformation has been felt widespread and parents are proud to follow on Twitter and Facebook. Even putting a sofa in the front office of the school has been a small change with a significant impact. We receive fewer requests for transfers out of the school. This is due to improved confidence in Carver Road students. “I tell them we are the best,” said Principal Taylor.

“WE WANT OUR KIDS TO GO WAY BEYOND THIS COUNTY”

In the spirit of creating and inspiring broad horizons for her students, Principal Taylor has raised their levels of achievement, and has structured a way to help them learn about the wider world. This year, in support of a social studies teacher at Carver Road, she organized the 2nd Annual International Bazaar that brought our community together to celebrate Hispanic, Indian, and African-American cultures, among others. With each student choosing a country or county in the state of Georgia, students learned how rich they were as a community. Five hundred people attended.

LOOKING AHEAD

Attendance and blended learning are the areas of improvement Principal Taylor is focused on next. Carver Road’s goal is to be a 1:1 school; next year is the focus year for blended learning with the goal to ultimately be a strong program in personalized learning.


1587 Route 146, Rexford, NY 12148 | (518) 399-2776 | www.leadered.com | [email protected]

Following up on this StrategyRELEVANT RESOURCES:

Driven by Data: A Practical Guide to Improve Instructionby Paul Bambrick-SantoyoTips and guidelines about data-based methods and the difficulties surrounding the implementation of data-driven instruction. Includes an implementation rubric, meeting agendas, calendars, assessment templates, and other tools and resources.

Leverage Leadership: A Practical Guide to Building Exceptional Schoolsby Paul Bambrick-SantoyoAimed at all levels of school leadership; offers seven principles, or “levers,” that allow for consistent, transformational, and replicable growth. The book includes 30 video clips of top-tier leaders in action, as well as rubrics, professional development tools, calendars, and templates.

Grading Smarter, Not Harder: Assessment Strategies That Motivate Kids and Help Them Learnby Myron DueckPractical strategies for ensuring that grades measure what students know without punishing them for factors outside their control; critically examines the fairness and effectiveness of grading homework assignments, designing unit plans that make assessment criteria crystal-clear to students, and creating a flexible retesting system so that students can improve their scores on individual sections of important tests.

Rethinking Grading: Meaningful Assessment for Standards-Based Learningby Cathy VatterottA new paradigm for standards-based grading that focuses on student mastery of content and gives concrete examples from elementary, middle, and high schools. Shows how standards-based grading can authentically reflect student progress and learning and improve both teaching and learning.


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