Public Impact

Professional Development

Putting Data In Its Place How Strong Teaching Teams Use Data To Achieve Student Growth

By Sharon Kebschull Barrett; first published in EducationNC. Can deep dives into large flows of student learning data actually lower teacher stress? Successful multi-classroom leaders, who lead small teaching teams in data analysis, say yes. When schools focus on small teams led by highly successful teachers, they help address the concerns North Carolina teachers expressed in […]

What Schools Can Learn From Google (Spoiler: It’s Not What You’d Expect)

eSchool News, October 3, 2018, by Talia Milgrom-Elcott and Mo-Yun Lei Fong

One of the American workplaces with the most to learn is, ironically, public schools themselves. Too few schools prioritize employee satisfaction, failing to recognize the link between it and customer value. In other words, they fail to see how fulfilled and supported teachers lead to better student learning and growth.

Analysis: New Study Finds Huge Student Learning Gains in Schools Where Teachers Mentor Their Colleagues as Multi-Classroom Leaders

By Emily Ayscue Hassel and Bryan Hassel; first published on The 74. In survey after survey, teachers report dissatisfaction with the professional development they receive. Many aren’t satisfied with their professional learning communities or coaching opportunities. Teachers say they want more on-the-job development, career advancement while teaching, and collaboration time. Some teachers are getting what they want. But is that good news for students? […]

Free, In-depth Training Materials for Teaching-Team Leaders

With advice and feedback from the first multi-classroom leaders (MCLs) in the Opportunity Culture initiative, Public Impact has created a free set of in-depth training sessions uniquely suited to the MCL role. The sessions may also benefit other teacher-leaders who lead teams and develop colleagues on the job.

Multi-Classroom Leadership is the most popular model chosen by school design teams implementing Opportunity Culture models. Multi-classroom leaders are excellent teachers who continue teaching while leading a team of teachers, taking full accountability for the success of the team’s teachers and students—for a lot more pay. But that combination of teaching and team leadership requires new skills that few teachers—even excellent ones—have developed. Feedback from MCLs indicated that leadership programs focused on aspiring principals or traditional coach/mentor roles don’t suit the needs of the high-accountability MCL role, which requires daily instructional management and leadership to succeed.

Opportunity Culture models use teamwork, job redesign, and technology to extend the reach of excellent teachers and their teams to more students, for more pay, within recurring budgets. Each school creates a design team that selects and adapts models that will suit their school best. Teachers and principals on these teams cite the importance of genuine team leadership and consistent, on-the-job feedback and development as key factors in the frequent choice to use Multi-Classroom Leadership, as well as the desire to reach as many students as possible with great teaching. In some schools, MCLs operate as a team of leaders for the school, supporting one another and the principal.

The MCL training sessions are structured to run over three summer days, followed by six shorter sessions during the school year. New and experienced MCLs can experience these sessions in formal training, study them on their own, or study them in meetings with other MCLs in their schools. District professional learning staff, principals, assistant principals, and other training providers can lead sessions using the included facilitator notes. Public Impact also organizes formal training and train-the-trainer sessions—with experienced, successful MCLs co-facilitating—and helps districts and schools establish a clear process for MCLs and principals to support one another’s success.

In 2014–15, the Opportunity Culture initiative included more than 30 schools, 450 teachers, and 16,000 students, and will include more than 60 schools in 2015–16. Early data from the initiative reveal that:

New Website: Resources on Teacher-Led Professional Learning

Short-term. Sporadic. Disconnected: Just a few of the words used to describe current professional development for teachers. School leaders are stretched too thin to provide routine feedback and coaching – and they aren’t in the classroom with teachers day to day.

Without more guidance and support, too many teachers are being robbed of the opportunity to achieve the higher level of success with students of which they are capable.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. TeacherLedProfessionalLearning.org aims to catalyze changes to ensure that all teachers have the chance to learn on the job and that great teachers can lead on the job.

“Our nation’s best teachers must lead the way to excellence for all students. To do that, they must be able to help their peers learn and pursue excellence, too, while teaching,” said Emily Ayscue Hassel, co-director of Public Impact and a member of the team of Pahara-Aspen Teacher-Leader Fellows who created the website. “This is not a political issue–it’s a practical one. On-the-job teacher leadership and on-the-job teacher learning are inextricably connected.”

The website starts with a simple premise:

Schools already have their greatest professional development resource on hand: great teachers who are ready to take on leadership roles, who could lead professional development that is a natural part of everyday school work. Instead of continuing to spend great sums on low-impact professional development, schools must allow these teachers to continue teaching while helping their peers improve.

To design high-quality, teacher-led professional learning, the website offers overviews and links to resources for every step, from schools, districts, and supporting organizations across the U.S.:

  • Defining teacher-leader roles: Descriptions of teacher-leadership roles that put great teachers in charge of developing their peers
  • Selecting teacher-leaders: Information on skills and competencies that teacher-leaders need to help their peers improve instruction and achieve positive student impact
  • Training for teacher-leaders: Descriptions and links for well-regarded national teacher-leader training programs
  • Finding time for teacher-led professional learning: Multiple ways to find time during the school day for frequent, teacher-led, job-embedded, collaborative development
  • Funding for teacher leadership: Funding methods for on-the-job teacher leadership
  • Leading successful teams: Research and resources on successful team leadership
  • Evaluating teacher-leaders: Methods for developing effective evaluation for teacher-leaders

The new website was developed by a team of the Pahara-Aspen Teacher-Leader Fellows with a common mission but differing backgrounds—teacher-leaders, union leaders, nonprofit leaders, and others. The fellows’ goal is to help teachers and their schools, unions, and districts implement collaborative, job-embedded professional learning that leads to better student learning by developing and using the skills of involved teacher-leaders.

The Teacher-Leader Fellows who conceived of the website (listed below) believe teacher-leaders need their own training and development, time to collaborate with and help peers during the school day, and supportive administrators who ensure that professional learning is part of everyday teaching. They believe that teacher-leaders should lead the great majority of professional development in schools—and be paid and empowered to develop excellence among teaching peers.

Teachers consistently report wanting more collaboration and opportunities to develop. With high-quality professional learning led by great teacher-leaders on the job, all teachers win—and students can reap the rewards.