QUESTION Four Steps

As the 2022–23 school year is well underway, it is likely your collaborative team has settled into the systems, practices, and procedures you have established. is is a wonderful time to look at what you have in place and consider areas in which you can improve. Following are some questions your team could discuss.

• Have you established team norms, and do you follow them consistently?

• Do you have a process for determining what you want all students to learn?

• Do you have a consistent approach to determine what students already know?

• Do you have a well-established system of interventions?

• Do you have a plan for students who already know the material?

A high-functioning collaborative team will have consensus around the answers to these questions.

In our experience in working with teachers across the US, we’ve found that the most challenging question for highfunctioning teams is the last one on the list—critical question 4: How can we extend and enrich the learning for students who have demonstrated pro ciency? Teachers share that the di culty lies in nding time within the already busy day, prioritizing students who are pro cient when they have students who are struggling, and simply not knowing what to do. e good news is that these barriers can be overcome.

It could be argued that students who already know the material aren’t a priority for collaborative teams. Generally speaking, even if we don’t do much for these students, they will still be ne and pass the tests we give them. However, meeting the needs of all students is a priority in a PLC. When students who know the material are asked to quietly play along, help tutor other students, or help the teacher by grading papers or performing other such tasks, they are not being challenged. If we are to truly meet the needs of all our students, then we must address critical question 4 and provide learning experiences that challenge those who are pro cient.

e importance of this work cannot be understated; schools and workplaces seek to ensure that everyone belongs and has appropriate opportunities. In the United States, gifted and talented programs have been scrutinized for being geared toward White students, Asian American students, or students from high-income families. All students deserve a formal opportunity to learn and grow in a personalized manner. Imagine the contributions of high-performing students from marginalized communities that we have lost because of the education system we have in place. Providing opportunities for all students is one way to begin to overcome systemtic barriers and promote educational equity for all students (Weichel & Pearce, 2022).

We explore question 4 in depth in When ey Already Know It: How to Extend and Personalize Student Learning in a PLC at Work (Weichel, McCann, & Williams, 2018) and What’s Next?: Monthly Extensions to Challenge Pro cient Students in a PLC at Work (Weichel & Pearce, 2022). e latter resource helps collaborative teams implement a preassessment coupled