Fall ND DPI Fall Conference 2016
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Making time for PLCs in a time deprived day
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Fall ND DPI Fall Conference 2016
- 1. Making Time for PLCs in a Time Deprived Day Dr. Michael McNeff Rugby Public School District Twitter: @mdmcneff
- 2. Learning Targets •Understand the specific challenges that schools face to develop effective PLCs •Understand the four critical questions all PLCs must explore •Explore potential school structures to implement a consistent time for PLCs
- 3. Discussion Question What challenges do you currently face in collaborating in a meaningful way?
- 5. Four Critical Questions What do we want students to know and be able to do? How will we know if they can? What will we do if they can’t? What will do if they already can?
- 9. We are prisoners of time Traditional schools make time the constant and learning the variable. This is exactly backwards of how it needs to be. New models of education should make learning the constant, and time the variable. – Robert Marzano
- 10. Discussion Question What structures need to change within your district/school to make learning constant and time the variable?
- 12. Discussion Question What is the “right work” of a PLC?
- 13. The Right Work •I Can Statements •Assessment (formative and summative) •Defining mastery •Scope and sequence •Intervention and enrichment •Data driven
- 15. Our most effective PLCs report out on the standard.
- 16. PLC Lite vs the Real Thing •Collective responsibility for student learning •Establish a guaranteed and viable curriculum
- 17. Powerstandards
- 18. Students can hit any target they can see and which stands still for them. – Rick Stiggins
- 25. Discussion Question What does collective responsibility look like in action?
- 26. PLC Lite vs the Real Thing •Assessment process involves team developed CFAs •Assessment results: •Identify those who need more time •Identify those who need enrichment •Identify individual strengths and weaknesses in instruction •Identify issues when students do not meet desired level
- 33. We have to become evidentiary. What will we tolerate as evidence?
- 34. Data Analysis
- 35. Mastery Connect
- 37. Action
- 39. Reiteration is a huge part of competence.
- 41. Discussion Question Are current classroom assessments tied to team developed Powerstandards? Do your assessment practices identify those that need intervention and enrichment?
- 42. PLC Lite vs the Real Thing •Create a system of intervention that focuses on both intervention and enrichment
- 43. Students at the top require just as much planning, consideration, and effort as those who struggle.
- 45. Discussion Question What steps does your team need to take to begin to develop a system of intervention and enrichment?
- 46. Creating time for PLCs •Find a consistent time •Occur at minimum once per week •Time is protected and considered sacred •Wednesday morning •What about the kids?
- 48. Discussion Question What will be your first step(s) to create a consistent time to collaborate when you return to your district?
- 49. In education isolation is the enemy.
- 50. Questions? Contact Information: Twitter: @mdmcneff Email: mike.mcneff@k12.nd.us Blog: http://mikemcneff.blogspot.com/ PPT Link: http://www.slideshare.net/mmcneffnd Powerstandard Link: http://www.rugby.k12.nd.us/
- 55. 8.3 8 8.3 9.6 9.2 10.4 11.2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 2009-2010 2010-2011 2011-2012 2012-2013 2013-2014 2014-2015 2015-2016 (FALL) Reading Grade 1 Student Growth Over Time
- 56. 11.6 12.2 15.1 13.2 15.4 17.6 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 2009-2010 2010-2011 2011-2012 2012-2013 2013-2014 2014-2015 2015-2016 (FALL) Reading Grade 2 Student Growth Over Time
- 57. 10.6 11.4 14 13.8 13.9 12.6 16.1 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 2009-2010 2010-2011 2011-2012 2012-2013 2013-2014 2014-2015 2015-2016 (FALL) Reading Grade 3 Student Growth Over Time
- 58. 12.5 11 9.5 11.9 11.6 11.7 13.7 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 2009-2010 2010-2011 2011-2012 2012-2013 2013-2014 2014-2015 2015-2016 (FALL) Reading Grade 4 Student Growth Over Time
- 59. 7.6 8.9 7.7 12.6 12.2 11.3 11.5 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 2009-2010 2010-2011 2011-2012 2012-2013 2013-2014 2014-2015 2015-2016 (FALL) Reading Grade 5 Student Growth Over Time
- 60. 8.8 9.2 9.8 8.7 10.2 11.8 10.6 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 2009-2010 2010-2011 2011-2012 2012-2013 2013-2014 2014-2015 2015-2016 (FALL) Reading Grade 6 Student Growth Over Time
Editor's Notes
- I have served as a teacher, a high school principal, and now I serve as a superintendent at Rugby Public School District. I will be brutally honest, unless your school leaders have bought into PLCs, they will be very difficult to implement. It was five years ago in a previous district prior to serving as superintendent when I began to think about how to find time for teachers to work on this very important work. There wasn’t enough time. I started to build common prep time into the high school schedule. This was darn near impossible, but I managed to do it. It wasn’t perfect, but we started to collaborate at the high school level. This collaboration wasn’t exactly guided by the guiding principles of a PLC, but we were making progress. I began to realize for us to really take it to the next level we needed the entire district to PLC and that time needed to be designated and free of distractions for teachers. This consistent time is important for administrators to provide support. I was a middle level manager and I did not have the power to make a change like this, so I became a superintendent. I began to research districts out of state, because there wasn’t a district in our state that had installed a time for PLCs that were meeting during the school day at a consistent time across the district. We mimicked a few districts in the state of Oregon that were seeing success by starting school late. When I reflect back on our work it really is really about a shift in focus. Our focus has shifted from teaching to a focus on learning. It used to be that we taught it and it was the students job to learn it. This was how I taught early on in my career. I was more concerned about my output than the output of the students. Today I am going to talk specifically on about PLC functions and hopefully provide some insight that will help your district. I am going to make an argument for system wide change and share our journey with you. The best part about this presentation is that I can return to my district and you get to make your own decisions. I believe wholeheartedly in this process. There is not a silver bullet, there is no program, it is all about you guys in this room making your school better. Update on the work of our school district We are in year three of full fledged PLC implementation. I am big believer that we cannot expect you to do this work on your own time. Because of this belief we implemented a weekly late start that occurs on Wednesday of every week. Our teachers collaborate from 8:00 – 8:50 and we start school at 9:00AM. We’ve moved past the power standard stage and have moved into assessment building, data analysis, and are now taking action. I won’t lie the process has and continues to be painful, but it’s the right work. I hope to provide you with insight on how to do this process, with practical examples, and most importantly cause you to question your current reality.
- Discuss this question at your table. Take 5 minutes What changes will need to be made to collaborate in a meaningful way?
- I am going to go over the whole process – you need to understand that this has taken us four years to get where we are at. Creating effective PLCs is a process and one that takes multiple years. You can’t look at the immensity and get discouraged. We have to take small steps to gain momentum.
- You have probably seen these questions before. The first question is the foundation of this work. This question seems so simple, yet it is very complex. What we want students to know and be able to do will guide the rest of the questions. Its important that I say this. You will still teach the standards but your emphasis will be on those identified powerstandards. You will only report out on those.
- Please raise your hand if you believe you develop a deep understanding on every single standard. Currently we teach content that’s about a mile wide and we go about an inch deep in terms of understanding. There is no possible way to develop deep understanding on every single standard. I am an advocate of developing power standards. I recommend that we should have no more than 15 power standards. I am getting to the point of saying we should have about 10. The power standards should also be student and parent friendly. When we collectively work together to unpack these complex standards and use our professional judgement we can get a list of 80 standards down to a reasonable number. I am not saying that you shouldn’t teach all of those other things – because you should. I am saying that within your team you should be able to agree upon certain standards that are musts. That means we expect ALL kids to reach an agreed upon mastery level for that specific powerstandard. It means that we are doing everything and anything to not allow that child to slide through with out mastering the powerstandard
- Time and Learning We know the deeper the learning the more time it will take. That is our struggle isn’t it? Feedback takes time, assessment takes time. We only have X number of minutes to teach all of this content. Kids will be at this extracurricular activity, kids will be going to band soon, kids are going to recess, kids are going to lunch, and etc. How are we ever going to teach all of these standards? We only have so many minutes and we have way too many standards. I want us to really think about the immensity of what we cover. (SAY AFTER DISCUSSION QUESTION) I can tell you right now that time is the constant in most classrooms and grade levels in our district, but we are making progress. This of course requires different structures for the given day. (SRB and LRB) You have to make time for reteaching. What structures need to change within your district to make learning constant and time the variable?
- A typical K-12 experience has around 3500 benchmarks to cover. When we look at this picture think of the subway as the student and the people as the standards and benchmarks. We end up cramming and covering as much material as we possibly can into the student. How much of it sticks? To cover all this content, you would have to change schooling from K–12 to K–22 according Robert Marzano We cannot expect to get to a deep level of understanding if our goal is to get through every standard. We have to shift our focus from coverage of standards.
- GO BACK TO TIME AND LEARNING SLIDE Have a conversation with your table about this topic. Can we adequately cover the material in a given year? Take a minute to discuss this with the people around you. Why is it that time is constant and learning is the variable? What structures need to change within your district to make learning constant and time the variable?
- What does this conversation have to do with PLCs? I think through collaboration we can make learning the constant and time the variable. Just getting together to talk and having good conversations is not enough. Those of you that have PLCs right now think about the topics, are they aligned with the four questions mentioned earlier? We may provide time for PLCs – BUT are only feel good conversations occuring? The bottom line is that feel good conversations do not improve student achievement. Instead of collaboration it becomes coblaboration… We talk a lot about 50 great minutes – we understand that you can get off topic – but its important to have an agenda for each meeting so that time is used wisely
- Before we get to some ideas on how to adjust your school structure to find time. We need to talk about what the right work of a PLC is. I need to get a baseline of your understanding of PLCs. I am going ask that you discuss at your table what you think the work of a PLC is. Some of you have some background. More importantly - What is the “right work?” These sessions can turn into a lot of really good talk, but often lack an action plan. Effective PLC cultures take action. Bring chart paper and write key components that are mentioned. Discuss for 3-5 minutes at your table.
- These areas are the right work of a PLC. If we aren’t collaborating around these processes then it is just another meeting and will not improve student outcomes. Reflect as a group on your progress as a PLC in relation to these areas of right work.
- Our highest functioning PLCs are those that have implemented standards-based grading. The work becomes real when they assess, analyze data, take action based on the data, and intervene and enrichment based on the standard.
- I continue to get concerned when we tack PLC onto every meeting we attend? It’s like adding the acronym automatically heightens the greatness of the meeting or something. This waters down a powerful practice. Lets talk about the right work of a PLC and see where your responses fit. Collective responsibility for student learning: Work together in collaborative teams rather than in isolation and take collective responsibility for student learning. When we get to the level of collective responsibility this process becomes a beautiful thing. Establish a guaranteed and viable curriculum: Establish a guaranteed and viable curriculum that specifies the knowledge and skills students are expected to acquire, unit by unit. It is no longer a lottery for a student. They will not miss out on important content because the teacher doesn’t like certain standards. It becomes guaranteed.
- The most logical place to establish a guaranteed and viable curriculum is the unpacking process that occurs for teachers when they develop powerstandards. We required all subject areas and grade levels to create their powerstandards. We recommended 10-15 of them per course or grade level. This process took a long time.
- Parent friendly terms
- 10 powerstandards that we report out on in 7th grade.
- Kindergarten Powerstandards
- High school math powerstandards. I really like how they show an example of the powerstandard as a math problem. All of these can be found on our website.
- We began to complete our scope and sequence after the powerstandards were complete. These are still a work in progress.
- Thinking about the previous slides and your current reality discuss this question within your groups.
- Assessment becomes an integral part of this process. We are finding that we as teachers aren’t very good at developing quality assessments and our curriculum does not match specific standards very well. We have to often pull resources and develop our own Common Formative Assessments. Assessment drives the process, it allows us to collect and act on the student data generated from the team developed assessments.
- As we develop our assessments we need to have a discussion as to what mastery looks like.
- Nobody cares about what you teach – they care about what students carry forward.
- Have a brief discussion at your table on the implications of defining mastery within your PLCs.
- Within this example this team decided that they will report out on a 4 point scale. 1 being the lowest level of mastery and four being the highest level of mastery. This is the team’s rubric to measure the effectiveness of the content that was taught. Rubrics are key to all of this. How will your team develop their level of mastery without developing a rubric with levels for every assessment created? Take a minute to discuss mastery levels and how rubrics play a role in your PLC team discussions. Rubrics and measurement of every assessment Very time consuming to create multiple assessments and rubrics per I can statement. Summer PLC time / weekly PLCs / Monthly early outs
- Here is a second grade common assessment made by a team to assess whether or not a student can answer questions to show they understand important details. The assessment is short and sweet and is meant to gauge the student’s level of master in this particular I can statement
- Show the Wormeli Clip What are your discussions that occur in terms of mastery? What will you tolerate as evidence? What is the evidence that we will accept from the student that will tell us that he or she has mastered the Powerstandard? What should we accept? Our assessments need to show us that a student has either mastered or not mastered the topic. Lets take a few minutes to discuss what mastery is to your subject area or grade level in general. My students are literate in my subject area when they…. Become focused on student evidence. What can the student show us?
- We hosted Rick Wormeli and he helped me understand….
- One of our AdvancED required actions is to use data more effectively to improve instruction. So this idea of using locally developed assessments based on our Powerstandards is very big for our district. Our most highly effective PLC teams are reporting out on the standards. It forces them to approach things differently. Here is a very basic example from our kindergarten teachers. I want you to think about this data tracking and reporting as a method.
- This whole process is really about action. Taking action based on the data that you as a team collect. This process will go no where if we are not going to act based on the data. Otherwise all we get are great conversations and no action. SRB – need to begin to shift from a focus on homework completion to a focus on skills LRB – At the elementary level.
- I don’t want to focus so much on the peer feedback component although its good. I want us to think about where we stand with giving kids multiple times to reassess a specific skill. If we are about developing mastery then we need to be okay with reassessment and giving students multiple opportunities to reassess. As a district you may need to have some serious discussions about eliminating zeros and allowing retakes. In a standards based system we provide multiple opportunities to reassess.
- I don’t want to focus so much on the peer feedback component of this video although its good. I showed this so we could think about where we stand with giving kids multiple times to reassess a specific skill. This is a scary thing to talk about typically with high school teachers. As a district you may need to have some serious discussions about zeros and retakes. Where do we stand? In a standards based system we provide multiple opportunities to reassess – If Austin didn’t get multiple opportunities to reassess what grade would you have given him initially?
- Also where do you stand on reassessment? Identify those who need more time Identify those who need enrichment Identify individual strengths and weaknesses in instruction Identify issues when students do not meet desired level
- I do some adjunct work for the University of Mary and this comes from one of my students. It is something to keep in mind.
- This is an excellent video showing how they use data to take action and provide time for reteach and enrichment. I understand that this is an upper elementary setting – but I want you to think about the components that we have talked about today, this video and your school. If we are going to ensure all kids master our power standards – there will need to be time set aside for those that don’t get it the first time. What does that look like at Bottineau? You are going to have to have conversations about zeros and homework – to come to a compromise on how you will reteach because the child didn’t get it the first time. What are the barriers to implementing a system like this?
- We cannot expect this work to occur during their prep, after school, during lunch, before school and etc. Find a consistent time: Find a consistent time that works for your district. The time should be consistent across the district. This will help administrators to support each PLC. This will also help with vertical meetings that will need to occur to address gaps in overlaps with curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Occur at minimum once per week: If we aren’t meeting once per week we forget about our focus and it is harder to get back on track and use the time efficiently. Time is protected and considered sacred: People will try to consume this newly found time that you have implemented with meetings that don’t matter. Administrators need to protect this time. That means No IEPs, No practices, No activity meetings, No kids present, No advisor meetings, No field trips. The only thing that occurs during the time are activities that are associated with the PLC. We have coined the term 50 Great Minutes. We want our teachers to PLC for 50 great minutes. 50 minutes is a very short amount of time and it is imperative that we hit the ground running at 8:00AM. “We would like to go on a field trip to Bismarck Heritage center, Nope sorry, you can leave at nine if you would like…” Wednesday morning: I truly believe there isn’t a better time than Wednesday morning. I don’t want our coaches to miss this time due to practice, not that coaches would try to get out of this time. There is typically less events and vacation days on Wednesdays. What about the kids? If you start school late in my experience the high school students will sleep in. We still allow all students to be dropped off at their regular times. In the elementary school, we have upwards of 100 students that head to the library to read silently, read with a friend, or be read to. This alone has been a positive for kids.
- In closing – I wish you success on your journey with this process. There is not a silver bullet. In this industry its about people and not programs. This process takes times, but I can assure you it is beneficial. The only people that are going to address the issues that occur in this school district are the people that sit in this room. The only people that will improve student achievement in this school district are the people in this room. We are smarter together. Imprecision is built into all of this and we have to live with it.
- All of these documents can be found on my blog.
- This is rubric we have developed for our PLC progress meetings. We meet formally with all of our PLC subjects / grades to check in once a year for an hour. This is part of the document we use to provide an opportunity for reflection and feedback. Your school leadership team will need to have a discussion on how tight or how loose you want your PLCs to be. Within the research I have done – many suggest to require weekly agendas and minutes. We have not done that in Rugby. We have instead created this PLC Progress Meeting Process. We have provided four domains for the team to reflect on and we provide feedback as administrators to every groups once a year. We didn’t want to take time away. These four domains provide a road map for where we want to go as a school district in terms of teacher collaboration.