The Bulletin
Division of School & District Effectiveness
February 2016
"Advancing leadership -- Transforming schools"
Purposes
The SDE Bulletin: to provide regular, timely information to increase the shared understanding of our team of School & District Effectiveness professionals
Our Shared SDE Purpose: to increase collective leadership capacity to understand what effective schools and districts know and do, and to support the leaders to own their improvement processes
Previous Editions of The Bulletin
August 2014- https://www.smore.com/700mx
September 2014- https://www.smore.com/huyyh
October 2014- https://www.smore.com/std20
November 2014- https://www.smore.com/09uva
December 2014/January 2015- https://www.smore.com/09uva
February- https://www.smore.com/hrzfv
March 2015- https://www.smore.com/6wsrq
April 2015- https://www.smore.com/9vbmj
May 2015- https://www.smore.com/gwjuk
June 2015- https://www.smore.com/4suf4
July 2015- https://www.smore.com/kk5zr
August 2015- https://www.smore.com/uek4p
September 2015- https://www.smore.com/puabs
October 2015- https://www.smore.com/thryq
November 2015- https://www.smore.com/72hzp
December 2015/January 2016 - https://www.smore.com/85x7g-the-bulletin
This Month
SDE Quarterly Webinar and System for Effective School Instruction
Thanks to everyone who joined in on our first Quarterly Division Update. I hope it was useful. If you missed it, or if you want to hear it again, the recording is in the U drive, Atlanta Support, Professional Learning, Internal PL.
I am really excited about your upcoming Area ILCs. I have had the chance to see a few of the agendas, and they look terrific: full of rich content, well-paced, focused on specific needs of the Region, etc. My hope is that during these learning opportunities you all really emphasize the leadership of whatever issue/topic you are raising and presenting. I know you all offer sound content and best practices of effective schools. I am expecting that you are spending significant amount of time in the ILCs on how the leadership of the school can achieve/realize the best practices. We need to keep asking ourselves, what do participants need to understand about how to lead the process of developing the best practice in the school? There might be some new best practices that we can share, but most participants will have heard of much of what schools should do. What is probably more novel to them is how to develop processes that lead the school in institutionalizing and improving the best practice. That’s when big gains will be made with the schools: when we not only tell them what they ought to know, but also when we work alongside leadership to make it happen.
See what’s new with the System for Effective Instruction (SESI)! The SESI document has been updated with a cover page and table of contents which hyperlinks to each research-based strategy, making locating resources more convenient. The webpage has been streamlined and aligned to other SDE toolbox pages. Finally, we have a new tiny URL to make sharing the SESI resources easier than ever at: http://tinyurl.com/GaDOESESI
Do you have assessment, curriculum or instructional tools that have proven effective in your schools? The SESI team is requesting sample tools and resource submissions from the field. All submissions should be emailed to sde@doe.k12.ga.us
The SESI Review Team would like to invite all SDE and RESA Specialists to join our team! If you have an interest in improving SESI, please email Cindy Popp (Cpopp@doe.k12.ga.us ) or Dawn Ashmore (Dashmore@doe.k12.ga.us ) and join us at our quarterly reviews. Our next meeting will be held on March 14, 2016.
From Areas/Regions
Phillip Luck, North; Sam Taylor, Metro; Patty Rooks, South
Indistar Coaching Comments
Coaching comments are a critical part of the school improvement work. With time being so limited and human resources so scarce, the value of effective coaching comments serve as a means for helping school leaders improve their practices. An effective coaching comment is usually comprised of four elements: Glow, Grow, Questions, and Next Steps. The first element, Glow, provides a detailed comment about something that is going well. The second element, Grow, is a written statement that points out an area to be improved upon and explains why it is an important or better process. The third element, Questions, provides guided questions asking them to them to do something. For example, “What does Wise Ways say?” The fourth element, Next Steps, provides next steps that should be taken. The coaching comments should be “teaching” them something about the school improvement process or an effective operation or process of the school that impacts student performance and achievement. When writing coaching comments, ask yourself, “What is it I am trying to teach them?” The teaching comment should explain why it is important or a better process. When reading a coaching comment, it should be clear what the writer is trying to teach the reader. Coaching comments are an essential part of our work and critical to the guidance and direction provided to support school leaders. The provision of effective coaching comments serves as a valuable tool in building the capacity of our district and school leaders.
From the Atlanta Support Office
Professional Learning Support
Christy Jones & Andrea Cruz
March SDE PL
Please mark your calendars and plan to attend our SDE PL on March 15th and 16th at the Macon Marriott. We look forward to seeing everyone in March!
Professional Learning Tidbit
At December SDE PL, we spent some time discussing coaching conversations. I found an article that outlines 5 C’s of Great Coaching Conversations. They are clarity, compassion, curiosity, confirmation, and commitment. A brief description of each of the C’s is listed below. For additional information, please click on the source link.
Clarity - Before you have the conversation get clear and specific on what you want to communicate. Start with acknowledging what’s working well as it creates a positive environment where the employee can be more open to listening.
Compassion - To be an effective coach, we need to be compassionate toward both ourselves and the person we’re coaching because after all giving and receiving developmental feedback can be hard.
Curiosity - Coaching conversations are more about listening and asking good questions than talking. The rule I like to follow as the coach is 90/10. Do 90% of the listening and 10% of the talking.
Confirmation - Feedback conversations are difficult because our own emotions are often caught up in them (both on the side of the coach and the coachee). Pay attention to not just what’s said but also what you observe in the body language.
Commitment - The end result of any great coaching conversation is a clear commitment to results and a strengthened trust in the relationship. Ways to capture commitment is to be specific in the list of agreements.
Source: http://www.transformleaders.tv/five-cs-of-great-coaching-conversations/
Strategy of the Month
Each month we’ll provide a PL strategy that could be used with adults or students. Our goal is to deepen learning and engage the learner.
Title: The Final Word
Description: The purpose of this discussion format is to give each person in the group an opportunity to have their ideas, understandings, and perspective enhanced by hearing from others. With this format, the group can explore an article, clarify their thinking, and have their assumptions and beliefs questioned in order to gain a deeper understanding of the issue.
Directions:
Roles
Facilitator / timekeeper (who also participates); participants
Facilitation
Have participants identify one "most" significant idea from the text (underlined or highlighted ahead of time), stick to the time limits, avoid dialogue, have equal sized circles so all small groups finish at approximately the same time.
Process
- Sit in a circle, and identify a facilitator/time-keeper.
- Each person needs to have one "most" significant idea from the text underlined or highlighted in the article. It is often helpful to identify a "back up" quote as well.
- The first person begins by reading what "struck him or her the most" from the article. Have this person refer to where the quote is in the text - one thought or quote only. Then, in less than 3 minutes, this person describes why that quote struck him or her. For example, why does s/he agree/disagree with the quote, what questions does s/he have about that quote, what issues does it raise for him or her, what does s/he now wonder about in relation to that quote?
- Continuing around the circle each person responds to that quote and what the presenter said, briefly, in less than a minute. The purpose of the response is:
- to expand on the presenter’s thinking about the quote and the issues raised for him or her by the quote,
- to provide a different look at the quote,
- to clarify the presenter’s thinking about the quote, and/or
- to question the presenter’s assumptions about the quote and the issues raised (although at this time there is no response from the presenter).
- After going around the circle with each person having responded for less than one minute, the person that began has the "final word." In no more than one minute the presenter responds to what has been said. Now what is s/he thinking? What is his or her reaction to what s/he has heard? Protocols are most powerful and effective when used within an ongoing professional learning community such as a Critical Friends Group® and facilitated by a skilled coach. To learn more about professional learning communities and seminars for new or experienced coaches, please visit the National School Reform Faculty website at www.nsrfharmony.org.
- The next person in the circle then begins by sharing what struck him or her most from the text. Proceed around the circle, responding to this next presenter’s quote in the same way as the first presenter’s. This process continues until each person has had a round with his or her quote.
- For each round, allow about 8 minutes (circles of 5 participants: presenter 3 minutes, response 1 minute for 4 people, final word for presenter 1 minute). The role of the facilitator is to keep the process moving, keep it clear and directed to the article, and keep time so everyone gets an opportunity for a round. Total time is about a forty minutes for a group of 5 (32 minutes for a group of 4, 48 minutes for a group of 6). End by debriefing the process in your small group.
Adapted from the original by Jennifer Fischer-Mueller and Gene Thompson-Grove for the National School Reform Faculty.
Intended Audience: Students or Adults
Source: National School Reform Faculty Protocols and Activities
Principal-to-Principal Webinar Series
The first webinar in the Principal-to-Principal Webinar Series occurred on January 13, 2016. Thank you to everyone for encouraging Principals in your schools to attend. The recording and supporting documents are located on the right-hand side of the SDE Professional Learning webpage. Please share this with any of your schools and districts who might benefit. The schedule of upcoming dates and topics is below. If you know any principals who would be strong presenters for any upcoming topics, please email Andrea Cruz at acruz@doe.k12.ga.us.
Date and Time
Topic and Related Georgia School Performance Standard
January 13, 2016
10:00 A.M.
Establishing and supporting a data-driven school leadership team that is focused on student learning (Leadership Standard 6)
February 10, 2016
10:00 A.M.
Using processes to systematically analyze data to improve student achievement (Leadership Standard 4)
March 9, 2016
10:00 A.M.
Using research-based instructional practices to positively impact student learning (Instruction Standard 4)
April 13, 2016
10:00 A.M.
Monitoring implementation of the school improvement plan (Planning and Organization Standard 3)
May 11, 2016
10:00 A.M.
Evaluating and improving school culture (School Culture Standards 1-5)
June 8, 2016
10:00 A.M.
Summer Planning: How do effective principals use their summers to prepare for the upcoming school year?
Operational Support
Cindy Popp, Region Resources
We have changed the public email address for our division to sde@doe.k12.ga.us.
In most cases, you will not need to share the division email address with your school and district staff. We just wanted you to be aware of the change from schoolimprovement@doe.k12.ga.us.
Please submit ongoing website feedback to sde@doe.k12.ga.us.
CHANGE – IT Updates Webinar, 9:00 AM–10:00 AM on Friday, February 12, 2016. I really appreciate everyone’s participation!
Please feel free to submit topics or issues you would like discussed during the IT Updates Webinars.
Please continue to send me screen shots or forward emails you think might be spam so that I can use them as examples.
If you think it’s spam, please do not click on the external links or open the documents before verifying it’s a valid email.
GaDOE staff, please try the Microsoft IT Academy course. We will share experiences during the IT Updates Webinar on March 4, 2016.
Please see the email from Delda Hagin for information on how to access the Microsoft IT Academy.
Please remember to register for our meetings by the registration deadline so that we can ensure accurate attendance numbers. We have to pay the facility based on registration and number of people who lodge at the hotel so your timely cooperation is greatly appreciated.
GaDOE staff, please remember to copy Will Rumbaugh and Cindy Popp on all Dtickets
Please remember to send the tickets to dticket@doe.k12.ga.us. Please DO NOT send IT tickets to helpdesk@doe.k12.ga.us.
Gary Wenzel, Operations
Award of Grants: The Title I, Part A, Section 1003(a) grants are awarded for the 2015 – 2016 school year. The expectation is that all funds awarded this year are used during this school year and summer 2016. All funds must be expended no later than September 30, 2016. There is no carryover of the FY16 funds.
In order to ensure compliant and timely spending and drawdown of federal funds, the following milestones have been established:
- By December 30, 2015, each LEA expends at least 30% of its awarded Title I, Part A, 1003(a) funds
- By March 30, 2016, each LEA expends at least 60% of its awarded Title I, Part A, 1003(a) funds
- By May 30, 2016, each LEA expends at least 80% of its awarded Title I, Part A, 1003(a) funds
- By September 30, 2016, each LEA must have expended 100% of its awarded Title I, Part A, 1003(a) funds
Feedback will be provided to LEAs in terms of percentage of drawdowns at each established milestone related to spending.
Federal Support
Karen Suddeth and Melvina Crawl- SIG/1003(g)
Cohort 3 (July 1, 2013-September 30, 2016)
Bibb County
Matilda Hartley Elementary School
Westside High School
Fulton County
Frank McClarin High School
Gwinnett County
Meadowcreek High School
Quitman County
Quitman County High School
Twiggs County
Twiggs County High School
Wilkinson County
Wilkinson County High School
Cohort 4 (July 1, 2014-September 30, 2017)
Atlanta Public Schools
Frederick Douglass High School
Bibb County
Southwest Magnet High School and Law Academy
Dougherty County
Dougherty County Comprehensive High School
Monroe Comprehensive High School
Muscogee County
Fox Elementary School
Jordan Vocational High School
William H. Spencer High School
Fiscal Reminders
Purchase of Equipment, Supplies and Materials
In order to maximize the impact of the resources provided by the grant, all equipment, supplies and materials to be purchased with this year’s SIG funds should now be purchased and in the schools. By the second LEA and SEA monitoring the drawdowns must reflect the purchase of all equipment, supplies and materials.
Drawdowns:
Please be reminded that the monthly deadline for drawdowns is the 20th of each month and the expectation is that drawdowns be taken monthly. The drawdown is to include all SIG expenditures from the previous month. Both the LEA and the SEA monitoring should reflect the level to which these expectations have been met. It is important to note that the timeliness of drawdowns is a critical factor when considering the recommendation for continued funding.
Expenditure of FY16 Funds
The expiration date for the FY16 funds for Cohort 3 and 4 schools is September 30, 2016. In order to ensure timely expenditure of this year’s funds, it is expected that 50% of the FY16 budget be liquidated by March 20th, and that by May 20th, 70% of the budget has been drawn down. For those SIG schools that fail to meet this deadline, a plan for expenditure for the remainder of the FY16 funds will be required. The plan will be due to Melvina Crawl and Karen Suddeth no later than June 3, 2016.
SIG Program/Budget Amendments
Changes to the SIG budget and/or program require an approved SIG program/budget amendment. Please note, the final date for the submission of amendments for the FY16 budget is August 5, 2016.
Weekly Dashboard Reports
Weekly Dashboard Reports completed by the SES are due to Leads each Friday. These reports, using a green, yellow, or red color code, provide a quick assessment and view of each school’s progress related to assurances, non-negotiables, and SIG indicators. Green indicates expected progress is being made and no comments are needed for these indicators. Yellow indicates a concern or barrier exists within the school or district that if not addressed will lead to red. Finally, red indicates that a barrier exists or the school and/or district is in non-compliance. Yellow and red ratings require statements (brief descriptions) which explain why the school or district is not implementing or is in non-compliance with each indicator noted.
Leads compile the form for their assigned region and send the report to the SIG Program Specialists with a copy to the Area Program Managers and District Effectiveness Specialists. The Area Program Managers will inform the Division Director of all red and yellow concerns from the Weekly Dashboard Report.
Cross-Functional Monitoring
With the exception of Fulton County and Wilkinson County, all Cohort 3 and Cohort 4 SIG districts will receive a Cross-Functional monitoring this year, which will include fiscal monitoring for 1003(g) SIG. The dates for the Cross-Functional Monitoring are as follows:
Bibb County – February 9-10, 2016
Atlanta Public Schools – March 8-9, 2016
Gwinnett County – March 22-24, 2016
Muscogee County (SIG only) – March 29, 2016
Quitman County – March 30, 2016
Twiggs County (SIG only) – April 7, 2016
Dougherty County – April 12-14, 2016
LEA Monitoring of SIG Schools
This year LEAs with SIG Cohort 3 and/or Cohort 4 schools will be responsible for submitting three (3) LEA Monitoring Reports in QCIS/Indistar for each of their SIG schools. The format and content of the monitoring report allows the SIG Coordinator, in collaboration with key leaders at the district level, to assess the level of progress of the LEA/school in implementing the SIG indicators.
The electronic LEA Monitoring Report forms can be accessed from the District Dashboard and are to be completed and submitted within QCIS/Indistar. The second LEA Monitoring Report is due January 30th, and the third LEA Monitoring Report is due April 30th.
In the event that an indicator is either not progressing at an expected rate or not evident, an interim or “follow-up” LEA monitoring of those indicators is required and submitted in QCIS/Indistar utilizing the appropriate LEA “follow-up” Monitoring Report form. As applicable, schools or districts required to complete Interim LEA Monitoring have additional due date of March 31st. If all indicators are either progressing at an expected rate or fully implemented, completion and submission of the “follow-up” Monitoring Report form is not required.
Mid-Year SIG Status Report
LEAs should be in the process of planning and presenting mid-year status updates to the local board of education. This presentation is intended to inform stakeholders of the reform efforts taking place in each SIG school.
2015-2016 Reward Incentives Plan
The 2015-2016 Reward Incentive Plans for each of the Cohort 3 and 4 schools have now been reviewed at the state level. Comments and suggestions for additional details to the plans were provided to each school for revisions. Upon approval, the 2015-2016 Reward Incentives Plan is to be uploaded as a document in QCIS/Indistar. (Please have the school create a folder in the “file cabinet” entitled Reward Incentives Plans, in which they place their SEA approved Reward Incentives Plans each year of the grant.)
Please be reminded that the process by which the 2015-2016 Reward Incentives Plan was determined, as well as the notification of the GaDOE approved Plan to the school staff, should be documented by the schools within QCIS/Indistar. This documentation should be reviewed during the second and third LEA and SEA monitoring.
Sustainability Training
Research indicates that approximately two-thirds of schools that begin reform initiatives do not sustain their reform efforts after the funding is eliminated. In order to support Cohort 3 SIG schools and districts, services of Dr. Sheryl Turner (RMC) are secured to provide the second institute of sustainability training on February 4th and 5th. This training will provide in-depth understanding of sustainability, the characteristics of districts and schools that have been successful in sustaining programs/reform initiatives, and strategies for sustaining efforts. Participants will leave with practical tools to develop a comprehensive sustainability plan which includes the work of both the district and school.
A description of the Sustainability Institutes is provided below:
Institute I
Module 1: What is Sustainability?
This module introduces the participants to sustainability and research on characteristics of programs/reform initiatives that have been successfully sustained.
Module 2: Are We Ready to Sustain? Common barriers to sustainability, such as funding and leadership, are explored, as well as specific strategies participants can incorporate to overcome those barriers. Participants delve into ten critical elements that should be examined to continue to improve outcomes and sustain effective programs/initiatives.
Institute II
Module 3: Preparing to Sustain
In this module, participants prepare for developing a sustainability plan by exploring systems level changes including the role of district, school, and classroom personnel. Other areas of preparation include strengthening communication with stakeholders, determining areas of control and influence, and examining effective policies and procedures that support continued success.
Module 4: Developing Your Sustainability Plan This module guides the participants through the development of a comprehensive sustainability plan. Participants complete self-assessments to determine priority areas for sustainability of the program/reform initiatives and develop goals, objectives, strategies, and action steps for a successful sustainability plan.
Institute I will be provided to Cohort 4 this summer following Year 2 of the implementation of the grant, and Institute II will be provided during the winter of Year 3 of the grant. Participants will be designated LEA and school leaders. The training schedule for Cohort 3 and the tentative schedule for Cohort 4 are listed below:
Cohort 3 Sustainability Training Schedule:
Institute I (1½ days) June 11-12, 2015
Institute II (1½ days) February 4-5, 2016
Cohort 4 Sustainability Training Schedule (Tentative):
Institute I (1½ days) July, 2016
Institute II (1½ days) February, 2017
Communication to the Cohort 3 SIG LEAs/schools regarding Sustainability Institute II has been distributed, and the information for Cohort 4 training will be forthcoming.
Critical Dates for 1003(g) SIG Schools
January 30th Second LEA Monitoring Report submission due in QCIS/Indistar
February 4th & 5th Sustainability Institute II Training for Cohort 3, Decatur Courtyard Marriott
February 5th Required Monthly Reports Due (Teacher and Student Attendance, Discipline)
February 20th Monthly drawdown by LEA’s due for all SIG expenses (including salaries & benefits)
February 24th North Area ILC (Decatur)
February 25th Metro Area ILC (Decatur); South Area ILC (Decatur)
February 29th SEA Monitoring due in QCIS/Indistar
March 5th Required Monthly Reports Due (Teacher and Student Attendance, Discipline)
March 13th & 14th SDE PL (Macon Marriott)
March 20th Monthly drawdown by LEA’s due for all SIG expenses (including salaries & benefits)
March 20th 50% of FY16 Budget expended
March 31st Interim LEA Monitoring (as applicable)
An Administrator's Guide to Co-Teaching
Wendy W. Murawski and Philip Bernhardt
Follow these five steps to support a vision of successful co-teaching in your school.
You've heard the message. Co-teaching is the newest initiative to be implemented by your school district. Students with special needs can no longer be simply physically "included" in general education classes. These students need and deserve authentic opportunities to access and participate in the curriculum. To accomplish this goal, co-teaching has been embraced as the panacea, the magic bullet, and the fairy dust all rolled into one. Teachers must now "co-plan, co-instruct, and co-assess" (Murawski, 2003, p. 10). And guess what? You're the lucky one to help make it all happen! What do you do?
First, you breathe. Second, you realize that you have the resources and leadership ability to make co-teaching happen. Third, you take stock of your school's dynamics and create a plan of action that incorporates five important steps. In all honesty, some of these steps may be more difficult to implement than others, but our goal here is to provide practical strategies to make thoughtful implementation of co-teaching less difficult.
1. Provide professional development on inclusion, collaboration, and co-teaching.
This step cannot be emphasized enough. Co-teaching literature is replete with stories highlighting what can happen if teachers are thrown into a collaborative relationship without time to think about the process, plan for the implementation, or participate in training aimed at creating the conditions for success (Damore & Murray, 2009; Dieker & Murawski, 2003; Murawski, 2009; Villa, Thousand, & Nevin, 2013).
Co-teaching requires more than just learning to "play nicely" together. It requires a paradigm shift—from teaching in silos to teaching in tandem, from owning the front of the room to sharing space, from sending students with special needs out of the classroom to thoughtfully differentiating for diverse learners. Before working on collaboration and communication skills, educators need to embrace the mindset that inclusion is an issue of both equity and social justice. Then, teachers and administrators will be more prepared for and committed to co-teaching.
What can you do to create the conditions for successful professional development? First, don't assume your administrators, faculty, staff, parents, or students understand what co-teaching is or how it will play out in classrooms. Adopt one schoolwide or districtwide definition of co-teaching and provide clear examples of what it should look like. Engage individuals in the school who have power, expertise, and experience in co-teaching to help bring others on board. Try to avoid having all those individuals be special education personnel; co-teaching shouldn't be seen as a "special education thing," but rather as a "best practices in education thing."
Next, create buy-in for inclusion and collaboration before introducing co-teaching itself. Without a collaborative culture in place, faculty are unlikely to want to share their classrooms (Murawski & Spencer, 2011). Use outside experts and facilitators if your internal experts are being ignored. Sometimes folks simply need to hear an "expert from afar" clarify that this isn't just another fly-by-night initiative.
Provide professional development to specific groups for specific purposes. Make sure your special educators can clearly articulate their areas of expertise and know how to provide specialized instruction while in the general education class without becoming a glorified aide (Murawski, 2009). Make sure paraprofessionals have training on their role in the inclusive classroom (Nevin, Villa, & Thousand, 2009). Don't assume that faculty from these two groups already know their roles or are experts in co-teaching and inclusive practices.
Finally, ensure that all teachers are familiar with the most common co-instructional approaches: One Teach–One Observe, One Teach–One Assist, Teaming, Station Teaching, Alternative Teaching, and Parallel Teaching. (See Marilyn Friend's article on page 16 of this issue for a description of these approaches.)
2. Establish scheduling strategies.
Everyone involved in the scheduling process needs to understand the key criteria for creating an authentic co-teaching environment. Too often, we hear horror stories of two teachers being asked to instruct 60 students together because someone thought combining two classes of 30 students constituted genuine co-teaching. Similarly problematic are classes labeled as "inclusive" but made up of 30 students with individualized education programs (IEPs) and four students without IEPs.
How can you create a suitable schedule? Most important, schedule students receiving special education into the master schedule first. This demonstrates your commitment to inclusion. Try to avoid having more than 30 percent of a general education class designated as having special needs (Murawski & Dieker, 2013). This includes students with disabilities, English language learners, students on 504 plans, and even students who are highly gifted. Each of these students is likely to require more attention than the typical learner; plus, the more students with special needs there are in the class, the more their needs begin to dominate classroom instruction and the less "inclusive" it truly becomes.
Be careful not to burn out your teachers or spread them too thin. The more specialists a general education teacher sees in one day, the less likely it is that the teacher will co-plan with any of them, so assign general educators only one special educator to co-teach with. Special educators can collaborate with multiple colleagues; but to truly co-teach, which entails co-planning, co-instructing, and co-assessing, they need to start with one or two partners. It's also important to limit the number of content areas and grade levels in which the special educator co-teaches.
Build in planning time for co-teachers. The best way to do this is to create common planning periods. If your departments or grade-level teams have common planning time, ensure that the special educators working with those teams have a planning period at the same time so they can assist teams in creating universally designed lesson plans that incorporate opportunities for differentiation. Other options for scheduling planning time for teachers include using professional learning community time, having a substitute come in once a month, using banked time, organizing lunch meetings, and replacing lunch or recess duties with co-teaching planning time (Murawski, 2009). Choose what works for your school and teams.
Strategically schedule paraprofessionals in general education classes and provide them with professional development about their role in the inclusive class (Nevin et al., 2009). We suggest paraeducators be in classes that are not co-taught, thus maximizing the number of general education classes that have additional support. Try to assign paraeducators to classes in which students need minimal support or monitoring, as opposed to classes that need the more strategic support that a special education teacher would provide.
3. Partner the right teachers.
Research continues to find confusing and contradictory results related to co-teaching (Damore & Murray, 2009). The main reason for this is that co-teaching involves people with complex and dynamic personalities. Co-teaching is a relationship built on professionalism, collaboration, and a common goal of supporting student success. It is important to note, however, that these goals can be derailed by partnerships that simply do not work. Although there is no formula to finding the "right" pairs, there is research indicating how to improve the chances that co-teaching teams will gel.
As the school leader, what can you do to create successful co-teaching partnerships? Above all, don't throw teachers together and hope for the best!
After providing professional development on what co-teaching is and is not, start by asking teachers to consider finding their own partners and volunteering. Be sure to give them the parameters of what classes, grades, or subjects will need to be co-taught, and ask them to work within those parameters. Create a small pilot program of volunteers to try co-teaching so you can see how it works in your school. Provide resources to these teams to maximize their chances of success.
If you have to form the co-teaching pairs, try having faculty complete surveys on learning preferences, multiple intelligences, personal dispositions, and relationship dynamics. Dieker and Murawski's (2003) SHARE worksheet is a resource for helping potential partners communicate about their hopes, expectations, responsibilities, and pet peeves. Use this information as you think about your faculty; can you identify individuals with complementary personalities who you think would work well together? Ask each one individually about co-teaching with the other.
Finally, set up fun ways for faculty members to meet and interact with one another, such as a pizza lunch or TGIF party. This will assist in the relationship-building process and will start to build natural partnerships. Remember, the more collaborative your school culture is, the easier it will be to create and maintain co-teaching teams.
4. Supervise and evaluate strategically.
Many education leaders have never had personal experience co-teaching, but they need to know what to look for, listen for, and ask for when observing, supervising, and evaluating co-teachers. A few resources are available to support this process (see, for example, Murawski & Dieker, 2013; Murawski & Lochner, 2011; Wilson, 2005).
When evaluating co-teaching pairs, make sure you understand co-teaching principles and strategies in addition to what you already know about effective teaching practices. Because the most effective co-teaching teams use a variety of co-instructional approaches, you will need to observe pairs more frequently to get a deeper understanding of what is occurring in the classroom. Learn what to look, listen, and ask for that will demonstrate co-planning, co-instructing, and co-assessing. This might include an inability to tell the general educator from the special educator, differentiated assessments, the use of regrouping, and evidence that all students are actively included and all have access to the academic content (Murawski & Lochner, 2011).
Be sure to evaluate both teachers at once and not in separate observations. Otherwise, teams will typically allow the teacher being observed to "take the lead" in order to get the best evaluation, and you may not actually observe true co-teaching in action. Remember that there is no reason to take sides when evaluating co-teachers. Co-teaching is collaborative, so the supervision and evaluation process should be as well.
5. Improve, increase, and institutionalize co-teaching practices.
Congratulations! You've created a co-teaching program. Unfortunately, your work is not finished. What happens when more parents learn that your school offers co-taught classes? What happens when more of the IEPs written in feeder schools require co-teaching? What happens when you lose faculty who were trained in and committed to co-teaching?
What happens is that you are ready. You are ready to improve what you have, increase sections of successful co-teaching as needed, and institutionalize the process so that it's not dependent on you, specific teachers, or a particular curriculum. You've built a process that has become part of the culture of your school. If you're not quite there yet, you will be soon!
How can you successfully institutionalize co-teaching? First, thoughtfully support struggling co-teaching partnerships. You don't want to let frustrations or aggressions build between partners. Just because a team isn't effective doesn't mean that the teachers cannot co-teach; it may just mean they would be better paired with someone else.
Find ways to keep effective co-teaching partnerships together (Murawski & Dieker, 2013). It takes time and commitment to learn each other's content and ways; breaking up quality teams negatively impacts your forward movement. Celebrate these successes. These teams should be the models others look to emulate. Identify your stellar teams, and have other teams observe them.
Create capacity by adding more co-teaching teams based on instructional need. Do this slowly and methodically by putting the appropriate scheduling and planning times in place as well.
Finally, solicit feedback from students, parents, teachers, administrators, and other community stakeholders. Are they noticing any benefits from the co-teaching classes or relationships? If not, why not? Collect and share data about student success! After all, isn't student success why we're doing all this?
IN MY EXPERIENCE …
Sometimes You Need Couples Therapy
The nice thing about teaching alone is that you have autonomy; you can make decisions without having to talk through everything. In co-teaching, you need to make room for shared discussion. It's like coming up with a future plan with a spouse or significant other—you have to take time, be patient, listen, and be willing to compromise.
Part of the school leader's role is ensuring that co-teachers have time for that kind of shared communication. At my school, to give co-teachers time to plan together, we've had to spend a little bit more time and money to have someone else engage the co-teachers' students for a two-hour block each Wednesday afternoon.
Another part of leadership for co-teaching is making sure you have ways to mitigate problems when the partners need "couples therapy." Not all teachers are going to work well with all other teachers, even when everyone assumes that we all have the best of intent. Sometimes teachers have different beliefs about what's best for students. You need to be ready for that. If it happens, what is the leadership team's game plan going to be?
The leader needs to know how to structure a conversation without micromanaging it. At my school, we have two two-person teaching teams, a preschool team and a kindergarten team, in which both teachers have the same level of leader-ship and responsibility in the classroom. I meet frequently with them, even individually, before they go into the team- teaching situation. I ask, "What are you looking forward to? What are the strengths you think this person is going to bring to the classroom? What fears do you have? You've got another educator moving into your room who has their own fingerprint that they're going to add to your classroom. Are you going to be able to give up things that you care about?" Getting those feelings out in the open gives the teachers the space to reflect on their own practice so that they can be clear about their expectations. That helps ensure that the co-teachers form a strong team that can take risks together.
Jason Flom is director of Cornerstone Learning Community, Tallahassee, Florida. He is a 2010 ASCD Emerging Leader.
References
Damore, S. J., & Murray, C. (2009). Urban elementary school teachers' perspectives regarding collaborative teaching practices. Remedial and Special Education, 30(4), 234–244.
Dieker, L. A., & Murawski, W. W. (2003). Co-teaching at the secondary level: Unique issues, current trends, and suggestions for success. High School Journal, 86(4), 1–13.
Murawski, W. W. (2003). Co-teaching in the inclusive classroom: Working together to help all your students find success. Medina, WA: Institute for Educational Development.
Murawski, W. W. (2009). Collaborative teaching in secondary schools: Making the co-teaching marriage work! Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Murawski, W. W., & Dieker, L. A. (2013). Leading the co-teaching dance: Leadership strategies to enhance team outcomes. Alexandria, VA: Council for Exceptional Children.
Murawski, W. W., & Lochner, W. W. (2011). Observing co-teaching: What to ask for, look for, and listen for. Intervention in School and Clinic, 46(3), 174–183.
Murawski, W. W., & Spencer, S. A. (2011). Collaborate, communicate, and differentiate! How to increase student learning in today's diverse schools. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Nevin, A. I., Villa, R. A., & Thousand, J. S. (2009). A guide to co-teaching with paraeducators: Practical tips for K–12 educators. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Villa, R., Thousand, J., & Nevin, A. (2013). A guide to co-teaching: New lessons and strategies to facilitate student learning (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Wilson, G. L. (2005). This doesn't look familiar! A supervisor's guide for observing co-teachers. Intervention in School and Clinic, 40(5), 271–275.
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