• Cultural Shifts in a Professional Learning Community

     

    A Shift in Fundamental Purpose

     

    From  a focus  on teaching- to a focus  on learning

     

    From  emphasis on what was  taught-to a fixation on what students learned

     

    From  coverage of content - to demonstration of proficiency

     

    From  providing individual teachers  with curriculum documents such  as  state standards and  curriculum guides - to engaging collaborative teams in building shared knowledge regarding essential curriculum

     

    A Shift in Use  of Assessments

     

    From  infrequent summative assessments - to frequent common formative assessment

     

    From  assessments to determine which students failed to learn by the deadline - to assessments to identify students who need additional time and  support

     

    From  assessments used to reward and punish students - to assessments used to inform  and  motivate students

     

    From  assessing many  things infrequently - to assessing a few things frequently

     

    From  individual teacher assessments - to assessments developed jointly by 

    collaborative teams

     

    From  each  teacher determining the criteria to be  used in assessing student work - 

    to collaborative teams clarifying  the criteria and  ensuring consistency among team members when  

    assessing student work

     

    From  an  over-reliance on one  kind  of assessment -to balanced assessments

    From  focusing  on average scores-  to monitoring each  student’s proficiency in every  essential skill

     

    A Shift  in the  Response When  Students Don’t  Learn

     

    From  individual teachers  determining the appropriate response - to a systematic response that ensures support for every  student

     

    From  fixed  time and  support for learning- to time and  support for learning as variables

     

    From  remediation-  to intervention

     

    From  invitational support outside of the school  day - to directed (that is, required) support occurring during the school  day

     

    From  one  opportunity to demonstrate learning -to multiple opportunities to demonstrate learning

     

    Cultural Shifts in a Professional Learning  Community

     

    A Shift  in the  Work of Teachers

     

    From  isolation . . .  to collaboration

     

    From  each  teacher clarifying  what students must learn . . .

    to collaborative teams building shared knowledge and  understanding about essential learning

     

    From  each  teacher assigning priority to different learning standards . . .

    .to collaborative teams establishing the priority of respective learning standards

     

    From  each  teacher determining the pacing of the curriculum . .

    to collaborative teams of teachers agreeing on common pacing

     

    From  individual teachers  attempting to discover ways  to improve results . . .

    to collaborative teams of teachers helping each  other improve

     

    From  privatization of practice . . .    to open sharing of practice

     

    From  decisions made on the basis of individual preferences . . .

    to decisions made collectively by building shared knowledge of best practice

     

    From  “collaboration lite” on matters unrelated to student achievement . . .to collaboration explicitly focused on issues and  questions that most impact student achievement

     

    From  an  assumption that these are  “my kids,  those are  your  kids”. . .to an  assumption that these are  “our kids”

     

    A Shift  in Focus

     

    From  an  external focus  on issues outside of the school  . . .to an  internal focus  on steps the staff can take to improve the school

     

    From  a focus  on inputs . . .  to a focus  on results

     

    From  goals  related to completion of project and  activities . . .to SMART goals  demanding evidence of student learning

     

     

    From  teachers gathering data from  their individually constructed  tests  in order to assign 

    grades . . .to collaborative teams acquiring information from  common assessments in order to

    (1) inform  their individual and  collective practice and  (2) respond to students who need 

    additional time and  support

     

    A Shift  in School  Culture

     

    From  independence ... to interdependence

     

    From  a language of complaint ...  to a language of commitment

     

    From  long-term strategic planning...to planning for short-term wins

     

    From  infrequent generic recognition...to frequent specific  recognition and  a culture of celebration that creates many  winners

     

    A Shift  in Professional Development

     

    From  external training (workshops and courses)...to job-embedded learning

     

    From  the expectation that learning occurs infrequently (on the few days  devoted to professional 

    development...to an  expectation that learning is ongoing and  occurs as  part of routine work  practice

     

    From  presentations to entire faculties... to team-based action research

     

    From  learning by listening... to learning by doing

     

    From  learning individually through courses and  workshops...to learning collectively by working  together

     

    From  assessing impact on the basis of teacher satisfaction (“did you like it?”)...to assessing impact on the basis of evidence of improved student learning

     

    From  short-term exposure to multiple concepts and  practices...to sustained commitment to limited focused initiatives