VFEL Webinar Series

Eight Elements of High School ImprovementTeacher Quality and

Professional DevelopmentJanuary 2012

The ultimate goal in school improvement is for the people attached to the

school to drive its continuous improvement for

the sake of their own children and students.

Dr. Sam Redding

Virginia Foundation of Educational Leadership (VFEL)

Webinar Faculty:Dr. Roger E. Jones

jones@lynchburg.edu Dr. Carol C. Robinson

carolc.robinson@gmail.com Dr. John C. Walker

walker.jc@lynchburg.edu

Today’s Agenda

1. Welcome (2 minutes)2. Team reports – Academic Rigor and the Virginia

College and Career Readiness Initiative (10 minutes)

3. Research regarding Element 3: Teacher Effectiveness and Professional Growth (30 minutes)

4. Activity/Discussion (10 minutes)5. Reflections/Next Steps for Webinar 4 (8

minutes)

Objectives Participants will be able to describe how their

teachers continuously build their content knowledge and pedagogical and classroom management skills to meet the needs of all students.

Participants will be able to describe how instructional staff members work collaboratively to meet student needs across all content areas and in all categorical programs.

Participants will recognize the importance of professional development being job-embedded, ongoing, and aligned with initiatives.

Report Out Discuss the instructional conversations that

you had with your staffs/departments regarding academic rigor and the alignment between the intended level of rigor in the SOLs with the curriculum, instruction, and assessment in your school. What are your next steps?

Teacher Quality and Professional Development (Element 3)

Teachers have the necessary content and pedagogical knowledge, as well as prerequisite, training and pre-service experiences.

Instructional staff members work collaboratively to meet student needs across all content areas and in all categorical programs.

Professional development is job-embedded, ongoing throughout each school year, and aligned with school and division improvement initiatives.

Content KnowledgeSilent Epidemic 2006 report

Key reasons why students drop out of school:

2/3 of respondents said they would have worked harder if more had been expected of them.

47% reported they were unable to connect what they were learning in their classes with the real world, which made classes uninteresting.

81% of the dropouts said that providing opportunities for real-world learning, such as internships/service learning, to make classrooms more relevant would have increased their chances of staying in school.

(in Goodwin, 2011, p.69)

Content Knowledge

21 st Century Skills

Problem-based learning

Real-life applicationsCurrent Research

Standards-basedRelevance

Guest lecturersSimulations

Cross-curricular

Pedagogical Skills Instructional strategies that support 21st

century learning: “creativity and innovation, flexibility and adaptability, leadership and cross-cultural skills – for all students.”

(Kay, 2010, p. xxiii)

“Students engaged in learning that incorporates high-quality multimodal designs outperform, on average, students who learn using traditional approaches with single modes.”

(Lemke, 2010, p. 249)

Reflection

Knowing that your goal is to increase the percentage of students who graduate from your high school, and knowing the challenges that those students have, discuss with your school team

- How staff members can “meet the needs of all students” through their pedagogical practices and classroom management processes, and

- How roadblocks hamper staff members from “continuously building” their content knowledge and skills in order to meet the needs of struggling students.

Student-Centered Teaching: It’s not the hormones; it’s the brain!

A brief quiz on brain research:

1.Teenagers develop the capacity for abstract thought at the same time. True or False

2.When material is unfamiliar, students do not need the support of hands-on activities to acquire the new learning. True or False

3.Short-term memory increases by about 30% during adolescence. True or False

4.The level of serotonin in the adolescent brain impacts the teen’s emotions which, in turn, strongly impact learning. True or False

Quiz, continued

5. Teenagers have trouble anticipating the consequences of their behavior because they rely more on the emotional amygdala than the rational frontal lobes.

True or False

6. Teachers can provide positive emotions in the classroom by A) sharing stories, B) smiling when yelling , C) showing empathy, D) giving all As on homework, and/or E) celebrating achievement.

(Feinstein, 2004)

Student-Centered TeachingWhat do you consider to ensure you use varied pedagogy?

Strategy I consider regularly

I used to consider it

I need more information

Brain research on adolescents

Technology needs

Observation of a colleague doing the strategy/technique

Data results

Feedback from an observation

Have a checklist of strategies to consider when planning

Participation in the professional learning community process

21st Century Skills

Student-Centered Teaching

Motivation is largely an emotional reaction in which the learner sees benefit and reward in attending to the learning task or activity or anticipates some positive result or sense of emotional well being…

The benefits or anticipated results that trigger motivation may be as diverse as the wide range of learners that we can expect in our classrooms.

However, it appears that motivation in most learners is influence by some or all of the (following) factors: relevance, control and choice, challenge, social interaction – chance to work with others, anticipated sense of success, need, novelty, cognitive dissonance.

(Corbin, 2008, p. 75)

CollaborationIf there is anything that the research community agrees on,

it is this: the right kind of continuous, structured teacher collaboration improves the quality of teaching and pays big, often immediate, dividends in student learning and professional morale in virtually any setting. Our experience with schools across the nation bears this out unequivocally.

~ ~ ~(Researcher Judith Warren) Little found that when teachers

engage regularly in authentic “joint work” focused on explicit, common learning goals, their collaboration pays off richly in the form of higher quality solutions to instructional problems, increased teacher confidence, and, not surprisingly, remarkable gains in achievement.

- Mike Schmoker, pp. 177-178

Recommended Viewing

Richard DuFour – PLCs and 21st Century Skills (Solution Tree)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KskLjbv3YI

Collaboration

If teachers want to make progress as professionals and have an impact in the complex world of schools, they must learn to trust and value colleagues who are distant and different from them as well as those who are the same… Teamwork, learning from people who are different, sharing information openly – all of these essential ingredients of the knowledge society involve vulnerability, risk, and a willingness to trust that the processes of teamwork and partnership ultimately will work for the good of all, including oneself.

Andy Hargreaves, pp. 28-29, in Bellanca & Brandt (2010)

ReflectionWith your school team, discuss where your school is with the following items:

Item 1SD

2D

3NA

4A

5SA

A. We have a process that enables us to know that teachers are using a variety of instructional approaches.

B. Our teachers collaborate during regular, frequent, and scheduled times.

C. The main focus of our collaboration is to address student needs.

D. We have a clear process to implement a professional development plan that meets individual/group needs.

E. Our professional development activities support our school improvement efforts

Reflection

Knowing that your goal is to increase thepercentage of students who graduate from your high school, and knowing the challenges that those students have, discuss with your school team

- how do you collaborate with colleagues in order to provide a supportive and inviting learning environment for students in danger of not graduating, and

- what process does your school use to determine the professional development needs of staff members that will further the school’s goal to increase the graduation rate?

Take a minute to think about these questions:

Team Assignment

Select one of the areas addressed in today’s webinar.

Use the 3-2-1 approach to address that area: Name 3 things we do well Name 2 things we can improve Name 1 thing that we need to fix right

now

Divisionwide

How does the division link Elementary goals and middle school

expectations? Middle school goals and high school

expectations? High school goals and college and career

expectations?

Divisionwide

What resources does the division provide to build teachers’ content knowledge and pedagogical and classroom management skills? In-house training? Outside experts? Partnerships with feeder schools? Partnerships with neighboring divisions?

Summary Effective teachers continuously build their content

knowledge and pedagogical and classroom management skills to meet the needs of all students.

Collaboration among teachers and instructional staff members across all content areas and categorical programs is critical if schools are going to meet the needs of all students.

Professional development opportunities must be job-embedded at the school and classroom levels, aligned to high school improvement strategies and initiatives, and offered throughout the school year.

Efforts in teacher quality and professional development that are NOT based on student needs will NOT raise your graduation rate.

School Administration

Efforts

School Department

Efforts

Feeder School Efforts

Central Office Efforts

Teacher Quality and Professional Development

Needs Assessment

Take a few minutes to review the results of your needs assessment for Element 3.

Select an indicator that is a strength and be prepared to explain why it is a strength

Questions to considerto stimulate team reflections

How do you develop your teachers’ knowledge of the stages of growth and development of students in grades 9-12?

How do you make sure that your teachers use varied approaches?

What does it mean for our school to have our professional development activities be “job-embedded”?

Resources for Element 3Bellanca, J. & Brandt, R.(Eds.). (2010). 21st skills: Rethinking how students learn. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree.Corbin, B. (2008). Unleashing the potential of the teenage brain: 10 powerful ideas. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.DuFour, Richard. (2011). PLCs and 21st Century Skills. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree. YoutubeFeinstein, S. (2004). Secrets of the teenage brain: Research-based strategies for reaching & teaching today’s

adolescents. San Diego, CA: The Brain Store.Goodwin, B. (2011). Simply better: Doing what matters most to change the odds for student success. Alexandria,

VA: ASCD and Aurora, CP: Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL).Hargreaves, A. (2003). Teaching in the knowledge society: Education in the age of insecurity. NY: Teachers College.Kay, K. (2010). 21st century skills: Why they matter, what they are, and how we get there. In J. Bellanca & R.

Brandt (Eds.), 21st skills: Rethinking how students learn (pp. xiii - xxxi). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree.Lemke, C. (2010). Innovation through technology. In J. Bellanca & R. Brandt (Eds.), 21st skills: Rethinking how

students learn (pp. 243 - 272). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree.Marx, G. (2006). Sixteen trends, their profound impact on our future: Implications for students, education,

communities, and the whole of society. Alexandria, VA: Educational Research Service.Marzano, R. J. Marzano. (2007). The art and science of teaching: A comprehensive framework for effective

instruction. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.National High School Center. (2008). Eight elements of high school improvement: A mapping framework (Rev. ed.).

Washington, DC: National High School Center at the American Institutes for Research. (betterhighschools.com/pubs/documents/EightElementsMappingFramework.pdf)

Schmoker, M. (2006). Results now: How we can achieve unprecedented improvements in teaching and learning. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

What was one idea I learned during today’s webinar that I

plan to share with colleagues at

my school?

Next Steps After reflecting on teacher quality and professional

development within your school, use the 3-2-1 approach to Name 3 things we do well Name 2 things we can improve Name 1 thing that we need to fix right now

Prepare to share how you used the 3-2-1 approach to discuss a portion of element 3 with colleagues

For the next webinar: a representative from guidance and/or SAP team must attend

Regional Liaisons

Frank Ehrhart (fehrhart@cox.net)

Courtney Graves (cgraves18@cox.net)

Linda Hyslop (linhyslop@aol.com)

Steve Sage (ssage@embarqmail.com)

Melanie Yules (melanieyules@yahoo.com)

Next Webinar

Regional Liaison Date Time

Steve Sage February 14 10:00

Frank Ehrhart February 14 1:00

Courtney Graves February 15 10:00

Melanie Yules February 15 1:00

February 16 10:00