EVALUATION OF THE IMPACT OF COLLABORATIVE PLANNING

Carol Mizelle Northeast Leadership Academy Cohort 1 Spring 2012, NCSU

PROBLEM OF PRACTICE
Goals

Develop an effective eighth grade English/Language Arts Professional Learning Team, at Bertie Middle School Provide the opportunity to meet with other grade level English/Language Arts Professional Learning Teams. Create a collaborative culture among teachers, which would result in an increase of student achievement. Develop a schedule for the team to meet at least bi-weekly so that effective lesson strategies would be generated to improve students learning. Meetings will articulate lesson outcomes, review all data sources, alignment of the goals and objectives being taught in the classroom.

Collaborative Planning Logic Model

EVALUATION QUESTIONS/DATA SOURCES

Questions

How well do teachers lessons adhere to curriculum? How often do ELA teachers collaboratively meet? How effectively do teachers work with other teachers? How well are PLCs implemented to increase collaboration?

Did the team use the collaborative planning time to develop common lessons and assessments?
How often are teachers making adjustments to instruction to better meet students needs? How effective were PLC meetings?

Data Sources

Agendas
Recorded Minutes Survey Benchmark Data

Examples of new strategies used in lesson

Reflections Observations Common Lessons & Common Assessments

TEACHER SURVEY RESULTS

Questions
1. How effective do you feel the collaborative process has been for you? 2. How effective do you feel the collaborative process has been to the ELA team? 3. How important is the ELA / PLC planning time?

Responses
T1 (3) T2 (4) T3 (4) T1 (4) T2 (4) T3 (4) T1 (3) T2 (4) T3 (3) T1 (3) T2 (3) T3 (2) T1 (2) T2 (4) T3 (3) T1 (2) T2 (3) T3 (4) Total = 2 @4 1 @3 Total = 3 @4

Total = 1 @4 2 @3 Total = 2 @3 1 @2 Total = 1@4 1 @3 1 @2 Total = 1 @4 1 @3 1 @2

4. To what extent do you feel the analysis of data has proven effective for your ELA / PLC team? 5. How effective did the use of common assessments help to improve student achievement? 6. How effective did the sharing of student test data help to improve student achievement?

TEACHER SURVEY RESULTS

1 = Strongly Disagree Survey Key 2 = Disagree 3 = Neither 4 = Agree

5 = Strongly Agree
Total Results with the highest effective responses were found in Collaborative Process: 8 -- Agree

Total Results with the lowest effective responses were found in Data Sharing: 7 ---- Neither
3 ---- Disagree *Result findings include: Developing a PLC and Collaborating with team was effective meeting process; however, the team did not feel that Data Sharing was an effective process.

EVALUATION RESULTS
Professional Learning Team for ELA was developed 8th Grade ELA / PLC met collaboratively with other grade level ELA teams Minutes from meetings were recorded

Lesson plans were developed using goggle doc to input data

New strategies were used to develop parts of the lesson Some resources were common (at least 2 poetry, 2 informational text, and 1

narrative per unit of study) New strategies were developed for Vocabulary (common vocabulary) Common Assessments were developed 8th Grade ELA participated in a school visit to Chowan Middle School

EVALUATION RESULTS
October
PLC Meetings
Classroom Observations Unit Plans& Lessons Developed New Common Strategies Changed

November
4
6

December
3
3

January
5
6

February
4
3

March
5
3

Total
24
27

3
6

10

Common Assessment s And Benchmarks

15

EVALUATION RESULTS
7 6 5 4 PLC Classroom Observations

3
2 1 0

Plans Developed Common Strategies Common Assessments

COMMON BENCHMARK EVALUATION RESULTS

80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Obj. Obj. Obj. Obj. Obj. Obj. Obj. Obj. Obj. 1.02 2.01 3.01 3.02 4.01 4.02 5.01 5.02 6.01 Benchmark 1 Benchmark 2 Benchmark3

Common Benchmark Assessments depict an increase in the following objectives 1.02, 2.01, 3.02, 4.02, 5.01, and 6.01.
1.02 =Analyze expressive materials that are read, heard, and/or viewed 2.01 =Analyze and evaluate informational materials that are read, heard, and/or viewed 3.01 =Explore and evaluate argumentative works that are read, heard and/or viewed 3.02 =Continue to explore and analyze the use of the problem-solution process 4.01 =Analyze the purpose of the author or creator and the impact of that purpose 4.02 =Analyze and develop (with limited assistance) and apply appropriate criteria to evaluate the quality of the communication 5.01 =Increase fluency, comprehension, and insight through a meaningful and comprehensive literacy program 5.02 =Study the characteristics of literary genres (fiction, nonfiction, drama, and poetry) 6.01 =Model an understanding of conventional written and spoken expression

TEACHER REFLECTIONS
(AS PER TEACHER INPUT)
The collaboration that occurred in the 8th grade ELA team this year was not actually full collaboration, but a (somewhat unequal) division of labor. This was not the fault of the facilitator, but rather that of teaching team members who did not have a full understanding of the meaning of collaboration and / or a desire to partake in it.

The 8th grade ELA team has somewhat improve in collaboration; however, we still have a long way to go. We finally achieved being organized and keeping records of our organization, and that really helped me. I felt like I least knew what was going on in the 8th grade ELA. We became good at looking at the various resources, but not necessarily sharing everything.

The collaboration that I liked was that the 8th grade team finally made some common assessments. The part I didnt like was meeting, and I wish we could do what we needed to do without meeting so much.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Train & develop PLC members in true collaboration.

All PLC teams should be required to keep a log of the minutes and meeting times. The principal or assistant principal should periodically meet with the team as a collaborative team member.

The PLC members should set clear goals at the beginning.

The team should take time to develop relationships, and this will help the team be stronger.

At the beginning of the school year, develop a built-in schedule time for the team to meet at least weekly. Allow more training for teachers to understand and analyze the data effectively.

Focus on what each team member does well, and use the resources (dont just talk about). Come to each meeting prepared to input. Develop more lessons together which are centered around stronger strategies for student improvement. Focus on the student, and put students first.

FINAL REFLECTIONS

Developing Professional Learning Teams must be a team effort, and the team must own the planning in order to have better results. In the beginning of the project responsibilities were challenged, minutes and facilitating the meeting were challenged; therefore, teachers felt that it was not their meeting until they planned the agenda, kept the minutes, and facilitated their own meeting. When they believed we were a team then progress was made to plan collaboratively. Relationships had to be built as the team was built, and the team transform from not wanting to meet into building a team that would try to meet more than twice a week. Reflecting on the beginning stages revels too many forced meetings instead of them developing a collaborative team, and this would not bring about the results needed for the improvement in instruction. The Professional Learning Team meeting emerged into a meeting where everyone brought ideas, strategies, plans, and resources. The team transitioned slowly, and at times one teacher would try to dictate over the others. Once strategies were developed for effective collaboration, and meetings were based on the data, the eighth grade team took the initiative to develop their own strategies that would work to make a difference for a fairly effective team. Working through the beginning process was the most difficult part because often classroom teachers tend to find themselves in isolation rather that collaboration. Team building and relationships are the key to success in collaborative planning.