Assessing Professional Collaboration in Schools: Knowing What Works

1. Assessing Professional Collaboration in Schools: Knowing What Works Kathy Brinker, Nancy Lopez, Laura Massier, Mary Young

2. Learning Objectives a.    The educator will improve their knowledge of collaboration techniques.b.The educator will analyze skills of collaborating while watching a videoc.The educator will complete a tool assessing effective collaboration techniques

3. Gable, Mostert, & Tonelson (2004) • Schools have greater responsibilities now to provide effective and efficient services to students, placing a new importance on collaboration. • Current research shows that there is a lack of information on how collaboration is assessed • The authors propose different forms for evaluation, using a Likert-type scale.

4. Collaborative Evaluation 1

5. Collaborative Evaluation 2

6. McLaughlin (2002) • If the push for collaboration is being intensified, we must have ways to assess its effectiveness. • Collaboration was a defining feature of each exemplary school in the study • Communication and collaboration were identified as key strategies used by all teachers • Schools valued teamwork, and supported common goals and high expectations for all students • Schools were characterized by a collaborative culture and shared responsibility

7. Buettner (2011) • Example of collaborative problem solving, where people are using Person-Centered Planning or PCP to help guide a student in the right direction. • Buettner was tired of meetings being where there was an expert model in which clinicians were experts and the teachers were recipients to this data interpretation. • Teachers need to be collaborators and equal to the clinicians in these meetings. In order to have this equality, there needs to be meetings that promote the sharing of ideas. • These meetings are meant to interpret student’s data and is time to discover students’ needs and how these can be best supported.

8. Video – Teacher Collaboration • Observe the exchange between the teachers, and then assess the effectiveness of the collaboration using the provided evaluation form. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z3PuPxjUq8

9. References • Buettner, E. G., (2011). Sharing psycho-educational assessment results: A person-centered collaborative approach. Retrieved from ERIC database (ED516137) • Gable, R. A., Mostert, M. P., & Tonelson, S. W. (2004). Assessing professional collaboration in schools: Knowing what works. Prevention School Failure, 4-8. • McLaughlin, M. J. (2002). Examining special and general education collaborative practices in exemplary schools. Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation, 13(4), 279-283.