professional development that empowers teachers

A Model of Excellence AmongLearning Communities

Professional Development

that Empowers Teachers Mandy Kraus

Kassidy RiceSusan Sommerfeld

What did we want to accomplish?Continuous improvementNarrow achievement gap


National Urban Alliance Partnership

Joined 2007-2008 through WMEPCohort-basedLarge & small-group trainingAdded new cohorts for three

yearsA Model of Excellence AmongLearning Communities


Cohort Analysis from Spring 2008 to Spring 2010Average Percentile Rank

Math: 77.92 to 78.45 Reading: 73.83 to 78.31

MCA II Trend Data by Ethnicity from 2006 – 2010Increased rate of proficiency listed by NCLB subgroups

Math: Reading: Asian – From 83.87% to 96.87% Asian – From 90.32% to 93.75% Hispanic – From 57.14% to 76.19% Hispanic– From 80% to 95.23% Black – From 21.73% to 56.52% Black– From 45.45% to 86.95% White – From 84.03% to 85.35% White – From 89.24% to 94.26%

Reading - MCA II 2010 Math - MCA II 20100.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

70.00%

80.00%

90.00%

100.00%93.78%

84.60%

6.21%

15.39%

West Middle School 2010 MCA II - Proficiency at a Glance

Proficient Not Proficient

Math MCA-II Partially Meets/Does Not Meet Reading MCA-II Partially Meets/Does Not Meet0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

80.0%

90.0%

100.0%

Asian, 2.7%

Asian, 8.8%

Hispanic, 27.3%

Hispanic, 4.5%

Black, 34.4%

Black, 12.5%White,

11.5%White, 3.7%

Total Population,

12.7%

Total Population,

4.8%

West Middle School 2010 MCA II Reading and Math

Students Not Proficient by Ethnicity

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Self-SustainabilityDeveloped Professional Development goalsNew cohort modelFocus on quality – Garet, Porter, Desimone, Birman, and Yoon (2001)A Model of Excellence AmongLearning Communities

TimeframeFive sessions over the course of the year3 half days and 2 full days


CoherenceDistrict InitiativesCommon language & experienceUmbrella of “all students can achieve”


CoherenceDevelop Belief Statements Our role is to know each of our students and the

required standards in order to create lessons and an environment which provide opportunities for growth toward and beyond defined standards. This growth could be demonstrated in a variety of ways.

Learning is a collaboration between school, teachers,

student, and parents in order to provide maximum growth opportunities for all students. Learning should be engaging, motivating, appropriate, rigorous, and relevant.


CoherenceBest Practices

Centered on discipline-based PLC’sDataCulture & RaceInstructional Strategies


ContentDiscipline-based PLCCohorts differentiated based on individual content needs


Active LearningDiscussion-basedTake-away applications


Staff Responses


"It was of great benefit to learn and reflect on the idea of a single story in terms of teaching. I think this was helpful because it allowed us as teachers to examine or our own perspective and preconceived or limited views of our students.”

"I really found the presentation of different teaching strategies to be beneficial. It is great to learn about new research based strategies that you can infuse into your class to keep it fresh and meaningful.”

-- Jason Traynor, 7th Grade Life Science

Staff Responses


“I felt the cohorts were extremely useful in promoting conversations about learning strategies that could be used across grade levels and disciplines. It was valuable to have professional learning time set aside to revisit effective NUA strategies. Focusing on diversity was beneficial in continuing our conversations on creating culturally responsive classrooms.”

-- Megan Speers, 7th Grade Social Studies

Staff Responses


“We discussed in our cohorts how priming plays a vital role in the learning process. The homework was designed as an anticipatory guide to give students a chance to work with the video script beforehand and anticipate what they are going to see in the video during a lesson. When students have completed the homework, they are primed-they have a good idea of what they will see and hear in the video and are ready to learn.”

-- Megan Budke, Spanish teacher

Questions


professional development that empowers teachers

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