Doing Differently-Part 1 & 2 PLC Rollout 2012-2013

1. Dr. Timothy Mitchell Rapid City Area Schools Administrative Advance 8-6-12 Doing Differently-Part 1 & 2 PLC Rollout 2012-2013

2. Agenda 7:30-8:00 Continental Breakfast 8:00-8:15 Welcome and Intro of New Staff 8:30-9:15 “Doing Differently-Part 1” 9:15-10:00 Support Services 10:00-10:15 Break 10:15-10:35 Human Resources 10:35-10:55 Indian Education 10:55-11:10 Federal Grants/Assessment 11:10-11:25 Staff Development 11:25-12:00 Business Office 12:00-1:00 Lunch--(On Own)

3. Agenda 1:00-1:15 SB President--Sheryl Kirkeby 1:15-2:15 Special Education 2:15-2:30 Break 2:30-3:00 Technology 3:00-4:00 Student Achievement 4:00-4:30 “Doing Differently-Part 2”

4. Doing Differently Welcome and Introduction of New Staff

5. Administrative Advance In Latin, the word retreat means "to draw back." Many view retreating in a negative way - that it is somehow cowardly or unproductive. Gaining perspective before action is the best way to advance.

6. Administrative Advance What do we do during our ADVANCE: • Invest in yourself and your relationships • Quiet the mind to help see things clearer • Time to reflect on difficult decisions • Plan and strategize your vision • Celebrate past success

7. Doing Differently Learning Targets: To build a district-wide shared understanding of PLC principles, practices, and concepts with an emphasis on the four critical questions and how they interconnect and support each other. To develop a high-performing collaborative team at the district and building level in order to achieve the collective purpose of high levels of learning for all students

8. Doing Differently Learning Targets: To clarify what all district employees must know and be able to do to achieve a high performing learning culture that supports a highly functioning PLC. To develop and deploy frequent team-developed evaluation processes to provide specific and immediate feedback to the district that will support the development of a highly functioning PLC. 

9. Doing Differently Criteria for Success: The RCAS Administrative Team will develop as a Learning Team with a shared focus, shared priorities and shared understandings that support a highly functioning PLC. The RCAS Administrative Team will shift all behavior to align systems, structures, process and policies to create a high performing learning culture that will support a highly functioning PLC.

10. Doing Differently “Evolutionary biologists and psychologists have found neural and, possibly, genetic evidence of a human predisposition to cooperate. These findings suggests that instead of using controls or carrot and sticks to motivate people, companies should use systems that rely on engagement and a sense of common purpose” Discuss your thoughts regarding the quote above.

11. RCAS Mission Building a community of life long learners, one student at a time.

12. RCAS Vision All Rapid City Area School students will achieve to their full potential.

13. RCAS Priorities • Guaranteed, Viable, Relevant Curriculum • Life and Career skills • Technology Literacy (21st century skills) • Staff Effectiveness and Organizational Capacity-Building • Comprehensive System of Assessment • Diverse Opportunities for students to learn and be academically successful

14. RCAS Goals Goal #1: RCAS will develop a guaranteed and viable curriculum in all grade levels and in all courses so that all students have access to the same essential learning. Goal #2: RCAS will develop a comprehensive system of assessment that is aligned with content standards, curriculum materials and instructional practices. Goal #3: RCAS will develop diverse opportunities for students to learn and be academically successful.

15. Doing Differently The type of district and schools that I envision as we move forward embraces the current research as to what is the best way for leaders and teachers to act.

16. Doing Differently The Bird Card Unit

17. Doing Differently A Professional Learning Community (PLC) is: -An on-going process in which educators work collaboratively in recurring cycles of collective inquiry and action research to achieve better results for the students they serve -PLCs operate under the assumption that the key to improved learning for students is continuous, job-embedded learning for educators

18. Doing Differently What is the RIGHT Work? *All Educators work collaboratively and take collective responsibility for student learning *Collaborative teams implement a guaranteed and viable curriculum, unit by unit

19. Doing Differently What is the RIGHT work? *Collaborative teams monitor student learning through ongoing common formative assessments *Educators use the results of the assessments to: improve individual practice, build the team’s capacity to achieve its goals and intervene on behalf of students

20. Doing Differently What do Leaders do? -Organize Staff Into Meaningful Teams -Provide Teams with Time to Collaborate -Provide Supportive Structures That Help Groups Become Teams -Clarify the Work the Team Must Accomplish

21. Doing Differently What do Leaders do: -Monitor the Work of Teams and Provide Direction and Support as Needed -Avoid Shortcuts in the Collaborative Team Process -Celebrate Short-term Wins, and Confront Those Who Do Not Contribute to Their Teams

22. Doing Differently The Heart of the PLC Model: Collaboration -Conversations with each other -Learning from each other -Making decisions based upon collective knowledge

23. Doing Differently The primary goal of any learning community– improving student learning– is limited only by a district’s ability to establish new structures, improve communication, enhance teacher learning and develop collective intelligence.

24. Doing Differently New Structures and Procedures Formalized, collaborative ways to identify essential learning goals, assessing the extent to which students have mastered those learning goals, and responding to differentiated student needs—these are all essential for efficient collaboration

25. Doing Differently Improved Communication Teachers engaged in frequent conversations—using communication to build shared understanding about teaching and learning

26. Doing Differently Enhanced Teacher Learning Defined by a spirit of reflection, an action orientation, and a focus on collective inquiry— Instructional capacity improves as teachers share ideas

27. Doing Differently Collective Ownership and Intelligence Ownership of all students and respond as a collective entity– identify and then amplify instructional practices that work – and to eliminate those that are ineffective

28. John Hattie-Visible Learning Visible Learning synthesized the results of more than 15 years of research involving millions of students and it represents the biggest collection of evidenced-based research into what actually works in schools to improve learning.

29. John Hattie-Visible Learning *Promoting high levels of learning are about linking specific teaching strategies with specific student results *There is a huge variation in the impact of different teaching strategies—but few schools focus on the highest impact strategies

30. Doing Differently John Hattie (2009), in his book Visible Learning, examines numerous instructional practices and concludes that teachers working together in collaborative teams to clarify what students must learn, gather evidence of learning, and analyze that evidence so that they can identify the most powerful teaching strategy is indeed the practice that yields the most results in improving student learning. Getting this powerful continuous model in place requires both structural adjustments and cultural shifts.

31. John Hattie-Visible Learning What is the barrier to high quality learning in every classroom: *The variation of implementation causes different impact on learning

32. Doing Differently “There is an assumption in more traditional districts and schools that only bottom-up initiatives will be successful or should be undertaken. But the complex journey of district reculturing is not likely to simply bubble up from the bottom. In every district with which we work, we emphasize the need to provide high-quality, top-down leadership, direction, and support, especially in the beginning of the PLC journey.” Robert Eaker & Janel Keating, 2012 Discuss your thoughts regarding the quote above.

33. Doing Differently The PLC work includes two key prongs. The first prong involves building shared knowledge and understanding . Launching District-Wide Professional Learning Communities (PLCs): An Implementation Guideforms the basis for building this shared knowledge district-wide and provides the initial clarification principals and teachers.

34. Doing Differently Priorities/Non-Negotiables: 1. Build district-wide shared understanding of PLC concepts 2. Develop high-performing collaborative teams focused on high levels of learning for all students 3. Clarify essential learning outcomes/power standards 4. Develop and deploy common formative assessments

35. Doing Differently These priorities allow educators in the district to break the journey ahead of us into initial component parts. There are no shortcuts or easy routes to take in becoming a PLC. While there will be occasional storms and roadblocks, the purpose of the journey—higher levels of learning for all students and adults alike—is worthwhile.

36. Doing Differently Launching District-Wide PLCs:An Implementation Guide for All Staff Key Features: 4 Priorities/Non-Negotiables Aligned with BOE Goals – Approved 6/7/12

37. Doing Differently Launching District-Wide PLCs:An Implementation Guide for All Staff Key Features: Each priority has: • Learning Target • Content provided for everyone to learn – Building shared background • Framework includes why, how, who, when, what • Accountability and Indicator of Progress (building level and classroom level) • Monitoring Process

38. Doing Differently Launching District-Wide PLCs:An Implementation Guide for All Staff Key Features: Glossary References and Additional Resources

39. Doing Differently This document is intended to provide direction and support, to encourage educators to take action, and to point staff in the right direction, while at the same time promoting and encouraging flexibility and autonomy.

40. Doing Differently “Successful transformation to a PLC cannot happen without effective leadership from the building principal. Highly passionate and skilled principals are an essential ingredient to successfully transforming schools into high-performing PLCs...No school can truly become a PLC unless the principal is fully committed to the process” (Myers, 2012, pp. 103, 177). Discuss your thoughts regarding the quote above.

41. Doing Differently The second prong of the PLC process involves the building-level leadership that is required to bring the PLC process to life.

42. Doing Differently Leadership for Launching District-Wide PLCs:An Implementation Guide for Administrators This document provides direction and support regarding the building-level leadership practices and conditions that must be created in each school to achieve the priorities. Priorities #1 and #2 particularly underscore principals’ responsibilities.

43. Doing Differently Leadership for Launching District-Wide PLCs:An Implementation Guide for Administrators Key Features: • Specify learning targets (for principals) • Clarify “the tight” • Offer “how to” strategy ideas based on the PLC literature • Provide opportunities to collaborate, share, and learn from each other

44. Doing Differently Leadership for Launching District-Wide PLCs:An Implementation Guide for Administrators Key Features: • Provide timelines for implementation • Accountability and Indicator of Progress (building level and classroom level) • Monitoring Process

45. Doing Differently The district’s “big picture” approach to building principals’ capacities to successfully lead PLCs will be to (1) clarify what principals are expected to do, (2) organize principals into teams so that they can learn and grow together, and (3) provide them with resources, training, support, and examples needed to be successful.

46. Doing Differently www.solution-tree.com www.allthingsplc.com Tools and Resources Blog Download the Presentations View Webinars PLC Locator

47. Doing Differently Learning Target: To build a district-wide shared understanding of PLC principles, practices, and concepts with an emphasis on the four critical questions and how they interconnect and support each other. To develop a high-performing collaborative team at the district and building level in order to achieve the collective purpose of high levels of learning for all students

48. Doing Differently Learning Target: To clarify what all district employees must know and be able to do to achieve a high performing learning culture that supports a highly functioning PLC. To develop and deploy frequent team-developed evaluation processes to provide specific and immediate feedback to the district that will support the development of a highly functioning PLC. 

49. Doing Differently Criteria for Success: The RCAS Administrative Team will develop as a Learning Team with a shared focus, shared priorities and shared understandings that support a highly functioning PLC. The RCAS Administrative Team will shift all behavior to align systems, structures, process and policies to create a high performing learning culture that will support a highly functioning PLC.

50. Doing Differently A PLC acknowledges the incongruity between a proposed commitment to learning for all and the absence of a coordinated strategy for identifying, monitoring, and responding when students do not learn or when students require advanced learning. PLCs offer educators an opportunity to embrace a new story of the purpose of schooling and the way in which they must work to fulfill that purpose.