When Students Fail to Learn

I am thrilled with Catherine Glaude’s newest collection of protocols to support this work. These protocols are an essential resource for our members as they develop and implement timely and systemic responses when students do not learn.

— Phyllis A. Deringis, Ph.D., Assistant Executive Director Maine Principals’ Association As a member of the team that Catherine Glaude describes in this book, I found regular collaboration with colleagues to be powerful, energizing, and inspiring to my daily practice. My experiences with using protocols have convinced me that they create the structure needed for educators to safely examine and analyze individual student and schoolwide data. This book provides the protocols needed for schools to meet the various learning needs of each and every student in their school.

— Julie Olsen, Assistant Director of Special Services, Regional School Union #21, Maine Catherine A. Glaude, Ph.D., is an experienced educator with a strong background in curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

She has taught elementary, middle, and secondary students, as well as university and district classes, and consulted at a state level. Catherine also served as a district-level administrator supporting team, professional, and organization development by offering tools and resources to help educators work toward improving student learning.

Currently, she is Principal of Bryantville Elementary School in Pembroke, Massachusetts.

solution-tree.com A Joint Publication

When Students Fail to Learn

Talking productively about difficult topics requires structure and clear tools. Catherine Glaude offers a powerful toolkit for facilitators of small group processes. Here you will find resources for shaping conversations about the important products of learning and teaching. By thoughtfully applying these protocols, you will be able to work with confidence and grace to support immediate project success and energize deeper changes in the culture of working groups and schools.

—Bruce Wellman, Co-director, MiraVia LLC

Catherine Glaude

Creating a schoolwide response when a student does not learn requires a high level of collaboration. Teachers must be comfortable sharing their students’ needs—and their own struggles to respond—with colleagues. The protocols offered in this book build trust as well as shared knowledge and skills for analyzing, interpreting, and acting upon student assessment data needed to shift thinking from “my students” to “our students”—where everyone in the school is invested in each student’s learning.

When Students Fail to Learn Protocols for a Schoolwide Response

Catherine Glaude, Ph.D.

Copyright Š 2010, 2011 by Catherine Glaude First Canadian edition 2010 First US edition 2011 All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction of this book in whole or in part in any form.

Published in the US by Solution Tree Press 555 North Morton Street Bloomington, IN 47404 800.733.6786 (toll free) / 812.336.7700 FAX: 812.336.7790 email: info@solution-tree.com solution-tree.com Printed in the United States of America 15 14 13 12 11

1 2 3 4 5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Glaude, Catherine.

When students fail to learn : protocols for a school-wide response / Catherine Glaude. p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-935543-85-5 (perfect bound) -- ISBN 978-1-935543-86-2 (library edition) 1.

Response to intervention (Learning disabled children)--United States. 2. Learning disabled children--Education--United States. 3. Remedial teaching--United States. I. Title.

LC4705.G57 2011 371.90973--dc22 2011008103 __________________________________________________ Solution Tree Jeffrey C. Jones, CEO & President Solution Tree Press President: Douglas M. Rife Publisher: Robert D. Clouse Vice President of Production: Gretchen Knapp Managing Production Editor: Caroline Wise Special Projects Editor: Tara Perkins __________________________________________________ Connections Publishing Stewart Duncan, CEO & President Project Manager: Judith Hall-Patch Editors: Kathy Busick, Annie Jack Design: Beachwalker Studio, Cori Jones

Table of Contents Foreword .................................................................................................................................. iii Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1 Changing the Culture of a School ...............................................................................................

What Culture Shifts Are Needed? ...............................................................................................

What Changes Occur as a School Develops Its Response When Students Fail to Learn? ��������� How Does a Protocol Support Adaptive Change? ....................................................................

1 2 6 7

Section 1: The Facilitator’s Role in Promoting Change ........................................................................................................................................ 9 What Is the Role of the Facilitator? ............................................................................................. 9 What Are Ground Rules, and Why Are They Important to Collaborative Work? ������������ 10 1.1 Creating Ground Rules With a New Group ...................................................................... 11 1.2 Creating Ground Rules With an Existing Group .............................................................. 13 1.3 Reflecting on Ground Rules at Start of Meeting ............................................................... 15 1.4 Personal Accountability for Ground Rules ........................................................................ 16 1.5 Exit Slip Reflection on Ground Rules ................................................................................. 17

Section 2: Protocols for Learning as a School ......................... 19 2.1 Uncovering Assumptions....................................................................................................... 21 2.2 Spreading the Learning.......................................................................................................... 23 2.3 Circulating Discussion........................................................................................................... 24 2.4 Key Word/Key Idea Sentence................................................................................................ 25 2.5 Muddling a Practice................................................................................................................ 26

Section 3: Protocols for Assessing a School’s Capacity. to Respond When Students Fail to Learn ....................................... 27 3.1 Self-Assessment of Culture Shifts .......................................................................................

3.2 Vision Energizer ....................................................................................................................

3.3 “Building Common Language” Icebreaker ........................................................................

3.4 Identifying Adaptive Challenges .........................................................................................

3.5 Assessment of Learning Community Roles .......................................................................

3.6 Documentation and Celebration of Team or School Learning .......................................

When Students Fail to Learn

29 31 33 35 38 40

i

Table of Contents

Section 4: Team Protocols ................................................................................... 43 4.1 Documenting Personal, Professional, and Student Learning ����������������������������������������� 4.2 Common Assessment Analysis ...........................................................................................

4.3 Consultancy ...........................................................................................................................

4.4 Sharing an Instructional Practice ........................................................................................

4.5 Peer Visit ................................................................................................................................

4.6 Monitoring Improvements in Learning .............................................................................

45 47 49 51 52 53

Section 5: Schoolwide Response Protocols ��������������������������������� 57 5.1 Casting-the-Net-Wide Data Review ........................................................................................ 59 5.2 Student Work Slice Think Tank ................................................................................................. 61 5.3 Intervention Identification .......................................................................................................... 63 5.4 Monitoring Interventions ...................................................................................................... 65 5.5 Celebration of Student Learning Results .................................................................................. 67

Section 6: Other Applications and Adaptations of Protocols ......................................................................................................... 69 Closing ....................................................................................................................................... 71 Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................ 73 References .............................................................................................................................. 75 Appendix: Reproducibles ................................................................................... 79

ii

Protocols for a Schoolwide Response

Foreword

S

chools in the United States, as a result of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) 2004, have been required to develop and implement response to intervention (RTI). Addressing this requirement thoughtfully necessitates a schoolwide response when a student fails to learn. To implement this well, a team of educators must learn new ways of working together to support the learning of each child who is struggling. Teachers must be comfortable sharing their students’ needs—and their own struggles to respond—with colleagues.

To implement a schoolwide response when a student fails to learn, teams of educators must be skillful in collaboration and collectively possess a depth and breadth of expertise in teaching. Educators must also have a specialized set of tools and competencies, which include protocols for problem solving and decision making, knowledge of a range of interventions to support learners who are struggling, and structures to help them use and reflect on data from a variety of formal and informal assessments used to monitor student progress in academic and behavioral areas.

This book offers resources to support educators as they continue their journey toward creating a schoolwide response when a student fails to learn. The protocols offered in this book build trust as well as shared knowledge and skills for analyzing and interpreting student assessment data needed to shift thinking from “my students” to “our students”—where everyone in the school is invested in each student’s learning.

When Students Fail to Learn

iii

Introduction A school that focuses exclusively on responding to students who are having difficulty without also developing the capacity of every administrator and teacher to become more effective will fail. The most important resource in every school will continue to be the professionals within it. ~ Richard DuFour et al., 2004

Changing the Culture of a School Creating learning communities where all educators are focused on student results is about shifting the culture from isolated teacher action to team and whole-school interventions. This shift requires new ways of learning together: building common language and understanding of the essential components of formative assessment; sharing and analyzing student results; collaboratively designing ways to improve practices to gain better results; and collectively monitoring interventions. Shifts in leadership are necessary to nurture and sustain the work. This requires shared leadership among teachers and administrators in which all are invested in facilitating school change. Protocols are essential to prompt and support new habits of working together.

The following describes some of the shifts that occur as a school becomes systemic in its approach to ensure that each student meets all learning expectations. These shifts are adapted from the work of Richard DuFour et al., in Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work™ (Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree, 2006, pp.

187–189). Though they are numbered, development of the shifts is not linear.

When Students Fail to Learn

1

Introduction

What Culture Shifts Are Needed?

There are six main culture shifts involved in educational change.

(This list can be found in the appendix on page 81.)

Shift #1 From individual teachers determining their responses when students fail to learn . . .

. . . to a schoolwide response that guarantees each student will receive timely support to become proficient

Questions to consider about a school’s development toward this first shift: • Do teachers individually determine which students are not meeting standards in their classes . . . or does the entire school monitor learning results of all students? • Do teachers individually decide what type of support, if any, is given when a student fails to learn . . . or does a team of educators, including the teacher, work together to determine the best response?

Shift #2 From teacher-determined assessments used to identify which students meet or fail to meet learning expectations . . .

2

. . . to a combination of common schoolwide, grade-level, and subjectarea assessments, along with teacher informal assessments, to determine which students need additional time and support to become proficient

Protocols for a Schoolwide Response

Changing the Culture of a School

Questions to consider about a school’s development toward this second shift: • Does the school rely on assessments that individual teachers select or design themselves to determine which students are failing to achieve learning expectations . . . or are there agreed-upon common assessments that the school uses to corroborate classroom assessment evidence in determining each student’s level of proficiency on essential learning goals?

• Do individual teachers have a widely varying understanding of and ability to apply the characteristics of quality classroom assessment to gather evidence of learning in their classrooms . . . or are there shared understandings and applications of the principles of quality classroom assessment so that classroom evidence adds vital information to schoolwide assessments?

• Are decisions about student learning needs and strengths based on a single form of assessment (often written responses) . . . or do they rely on a varied and “triangulated” collection of products, observations and conversations that more fully represent student learning?

Note: For more information regarding the indicators of sound assessment practice see Richard Stiggins et al., Classroom Assessment for Student Learning (Portland, OR: Assessment Training Institute, Inc., 2004).

Shift #3 From remediation after the learning . . .

. . . to just-in-time interventions when a student begins to demonstrate challenges in learning

Questions to consider about a school’s development toward this third shift: • Is assessment occurring after the learning . . . or is formative assessment used to guide timely discussions and adjust support in the midst of learning?

• Is there a one-size-fits-all remedial program for students who fail to learn . . . or are teachers working together proactively to craft immediate and unique responses when students exhibit learning difficulties?

When Students Fail to Learn

3

Introduction

• Is the teacher the only one assessing the learning . . . or are students also involved in the assessment process—co-creating criteria, using samples to clarify the learning goal, giving and receiving feedback, and reflecting on the quality of their work to plan next steps toward the learning expectation?

Note: See the research on student self-assessment and student involvement in assessment

by Anne Davies, Making Classroom Assessment Work, 3rd Edition (Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press, 2011).

Shift #4 From privatization of practice . . .

. . . to sharing and exchange of results, practices, and resources

Questions to consider about a school’s development toward this fourth shift: • Is teaching a private practice performed in isolation or with limited interactions between other professionals in the building . . . or do colleagues openly share their students’ learning results, teaching strategies and resources, and offer feedback regarding each other’s practices?

• Does a teacher depend primarily on personal readings and workshops to improve professional practice . . . or is professional learning embedded daily into collaborations that occur regarding students?

• Do educators view the sharing of their teaching challenges as revealing of personal inadequacies . . . or do educators seek and embrace the expertise of colleagues in order to improve their practices?

Note: All students benefit when a teacher successfully uses new strategies with students who are struggling. The newly acquired strategies increase a teacher’s repertoire of skills and ability to differentiate when any student needs additional support.

4

Protocols for a Schoolwide Response

Changing the Culture of a School

Shift #5 From reporting each student’s progress half way or at the end of the marking period . . .

. . . to ongoing monitoring and communication of the progress that each student makes

Questions to consider about a school’s development toward this fifth shift: • Is there a schedule determined by the school or the teacher on when progress is reported . . . or is the progress of a student communicated both by teacher and student as the intended learning results are achieved?

• Are reports of students’ progress mainly given to parents . . . or do colleagues expect to share all their students’ progress with each other?

• Is a student’s progress monitored after the marking period . . . or does a team together decide the best schedule for monitoring the impact of interventions used with a struggling student?

Shift #6 From “my” and “your” students . . .

. . . to “our” students

Questions to consider about a school’s development toward this sixth shift: • Do teachers work in isolation constrained by roles . . . or are roles blurred as educators collaborate around the identification and support of students needing extra attention?

• Is it acceptable that some students are not proficient with the essential learning . . . or does the entire school rally its resources to support all students’ learning?

• Do classroom teachers feel that the successes or failures of students rest in their hands . . . or does the entire school assume responsibility for contributing to and openly celebrating the success of each student’s learning?

When Students Fail to Learn

5

Introduction

• Are the adults in a classroom the only ones supporting the needs of students . . . or do teachers engage students in sharing the responsibility for the learning of those who are struggling?

Note: Protocol 3.1 (Self-Assessment of Culture Shifts) is designed for discussing the shifts offered above. It can be found on page 29.

What Changes Occur as a School Develops Its Response When Students Fail to Learn?

Shifts in school culture require change. Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky in “When Leadership Spells Danger” (Educational Leadership, 61[7], April 2004) state that there are two types of change: technical and adaptive.

Technical changes are those that can be accomplished using existing logic, expertise, or knowledge. Technical changes include such things as allocating time for collaborative work, purchasing supporting resource materials, reorganizing individual classroom workspace, gaining online access to student assessment data, and revising forms. By themselves, such changes can ease some barriers to learning; however, without adaptive change, they will not by themselves create the critical conditions for schoolwide action on behalf of students who fail to learn.

Adaptive change requires behavioral changes in individuals across the school community. These include shifts in the way people work together, changes in assumptions and beliefs, or adoption of new schoolwide practices. Such changes seldom involve immediate, easy solutions. Yet technical or structural changes often grow out of the insights and needs generated as cultural or adaptive change occurs.

The adaptive challenge of creating a schoolwide response when students fail to learn is a complex problem resisting a technical solution. The complexity of this challenge is defined by the thoughtful collaborative responses necessary to address the unique, yet diverse, needs of individual students as well as the joint, whole-school action required to support groups of students with common struggles.

6

Protocols for a Schoolwide Response

Supporting Adaptive Change

It demands that educators are open to being influenced by others’ thinking as they consider new practices that challenge their own assumptions about student learning.

It means that educators take risks as they implement strategies not yet mastered, while confronting the resistance to change that often accompanies the initial efforts of implementation. It also means taking a leap of faith in believing that the product of collaborative work, not yet supported by personal evidence, will be more effective in addressing students’ needs than an individual response. Finally, it means managing the uncertainty, confusion, and sense of loss that may occur during transitions that involve significant change.

How Does a Protocol Support Adaptive Change?

The six shifts in school culture take time to accomplish and require both technical change (new structures and procedures for working together) and adaptive change (shifts in beliefs and practices). Protocols are process tools to focus and guide conversations and collaborations as change occurs. A protocol (which is a technical solution) serves as a prompt to adaptive change when used with educators to surface differing assumptions and values, reflect on long-standing practices and habits, design new interventions for addressing student learning needs, and evaluate the effectiveness of new practices.

Using protocols will benefit schoolwide change in the following ways: 1. Conversations are focused and on task.

2. Meeting time is effective, efficient, and respected.

3. Less-verbal participants are supported in offering thoughts and expertise.

4. There is an equal exchange of ideas, feedback, and expertise.

5. Thoughtfulness is encouraged with time for dialogue and reflection before decision making.

6. Participants know what to expect as they work together.

7. A safe and supportive structure is promoted to discuss challenges.

When Students Fail to Learn

7

Introduction

Focus on Results Section 5 There is a schoolwide approach when students fail to learn.

Team Development Section 4 Teams create and select common assessments and analyze results together. Teachers share best practices and challenges within teams. A team goal may be created from an area of need.

Building a Foundation Sections 1–3 Schools use faculty meeting time for text-based discussions and the analysis of school assessment results. The discipline of working together collaboratively is established.

This book provides a collection of protocols designed to prompt the adaptive changes needed as a school develops its response when students fail to learn. The protocols in Sections 1, 2, and 3 are for building and maintaining the foundation for whole-school learning. Protocols in Section 4 are for teams to use as they collaborate around common assessment results. Section 5 offers a model with protocols for creating and sustaining a schoolwide focus on student results. The figure above outlines the organization of this book.

It is important to note that the suggested times of the protocols that follow are estimates and vary depending on the group, their experience working with each other, and the nature of the learning challenge.

8

Protocols for a Schoolwide Response

I am thrilled with Catherine Glaude’s newest collection of protocols to support this work. These protocols are an essential resource for our members as they develop and implement timely and systemic responses when students do not learn.

— Phyllis A. Deringis, Ph.D., Assistant Executive Director Maine Principals’ Association As a member of the team that Catherine Glaude describes in this book, I found regular collaboration with colleagues to be powerful, energizing, and inspiring to my daily practice. My experiences with using protocols have convinced me that they create the structure needed for educators to safely examine and analyze individual student and schoolwide data. This book provides the protocols needed for schools to meet the various learning needs of each and every student in their school.

— Julie Olsen, Assistant Director of Special Services, Regional School Union #21, Maine Catherine A. Glaude, Ph.D., is an experienced educator with a strong background in curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

She has taught elementary, middle, and secondary students, as well as university and district classes, and consulted at a state level. Catherine also served as a district-level administrator supporting team, professional, and organization development by offering tools and resources to help educators work toward improving student learning.

Currently, she is Principal of Bryantville Elementary School in Pembroke, Massachusetts.

solution-tree.com A Joint Publication

When Students Fail to Learn

Talking productively about difficult topics requires structure and clear tools. Catherine Glaude offers a powerful toolkit for facilitators of small group processes. Here you will find resources for shaping conversations about the important products of learning and teaching. By thoughtfully applying these protocols, you will be able to work with confidence and grace to support immediate project success and energize deeper changes in the culture of working groups and schools.

—Bruce Wellman, Co-director, MiraVia LLC

Catherine Glaude

Creating a schoolwide response when a student does not learn requires a high level of collaboration. Teachers must be comfortable sharing their students’ needs—and their own struggles to respond—with colleagues. The protocols offered in this book build trust as well as shared knowledge and skills for analyzing, interpreting, and acting upon student assessment data needed to shift thinking from “my students” to “our students”—where everyone in the school is invested in each student’s learning.

When Students Fail to Learn Protocols for a Schoolwide Response

Catherine Glaude, Ph.D.