Professional Development that Empowers Teachers

1. Professional Development that Empowers Teachers Mandy Kraus Kassidy Rice Susan Sommerfeld A Model of Excellence Among Learning Communities

2. What did we want to accomplish? • Continuous improvement • Narrow achievement gap A Model of Excellence Among Learning Communities

3. National Urban Alliance Partnership • Joined 2007-2008 through WMEP • Cohort-based • Large & small-group training • Added new cohorts for three years A Model of Excellence Among Learning Communities

4. Cohort Analysis from Spring 2008 to Spring 2010 Average Percentile Rank Math: 77.92 to 78.45 Reading: 73.83 to 78.31 MCA II Trend Data by Ethnicity from 2006 – 2010 Increased 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% A Model of Excellence Among Learning Communities

7. Self-Sustainability • Developed Professional Development goals • New cohort model • Focus on quality – Garet, Porter, Desimone, Birman, and Yoon (2001) A Model of Excellence Among Learning Communities

8. Timeframe • Five sessions over the course of the year • 3 half days and 2 full days A Model of Excellence Among Learning Communities

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10. Coherence • District Initiatives • Common language & experience • Umbrella of “all students can achieve” A Model of Excellence Among Learning Communities

11. Coherence • Develop 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. A Model of Excellence Among Learning Communities

12. Coherence • Best Practices • Centered on discipline-based PLC’s • Data • Culture & Race • Instructional Strategies A Model of Excellence Among Learning Communities

13. Content • Discipline-based PLC • Cohorts differentiated based on individual content needs A Model of Excellence Among Learning Communities

14. Active Learning • Discussion-based • Take-away applications A Model of Excellence Among Learning Communities

15. "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 A Model of Excellence Among Learning Communities

16. 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 A Model of Excellence Among Learning Communities

17. 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 A Model of Excellence Among Learning Communities

18. Questions A Model of Excellence Among Learning Communities