The Transforming Power of CFG, by Janet Howard - EdNews, April-May 2008 - A publication of the UCLA School Management Program

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The Transforming Power of CFG

by Janet Howard, UCLA SMP Faculty

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For the next two years, OCS devoted one staff meeting each month to using protocols to look at student work and dilemmas. Some of the issues they have tackled include:

What to do when you’ve run out of ideas to help a student
Planning an instructional unit
Assessing student writing
Deciding whether or not to retain a student
How to best teach spelling

Protocols are also regularly used in Student Study Team meetings.

Carolina Goodman, their BTSA provider, said that the learning community at OCS is the real thing. Ms. Goodman has participated in OCS’s protocols and was so impressed with their results that she tried the Consultancy Protocol in a high school setting. There, teachers thoughtfully addressed dilemmas such as:

How to help the Student Council implement a new structure that they are struggling with
What a faculty advisor can do when student leaders are not making wise decisions, even after much guidance

What are the effects of using the CFG tools and processes at OCS?
According to the school’s principal and teachers:

Everyone believes without reservation that their colleagues are there to help students. Therefore, teachers are more willing to be open and honest about the problems they experience in their own classrooms.

Teachers appreciate that protocols help tap into their thinking, bring out their creativity, and allow them to achieve resolution. This has led the staff to value each other more and recognize their ability to collectively tackle and resolve hard issues.

Teachers continually develop a greater understanding and appreciation of what happens at other grade levels, thus unifying the school without a mandate to “unify.”

What’s next for CFGs at OCS?
Items under consideration include:

Teaching Student Council members to use protocols to address school-wide issues
Using protocols at Community Meetings to bridge the gap between the concerns and priorities of the school and those of its families
Using protocols in teachers’ weekly cluster meetings in addition to monthly staff meetings
Because teachers have come to appreciate the value of using protocols for their own professional growth, they want to make more time to work together as Critical Friends. They know from experience that even when a protocol focuses on another teacher’s work, each participating teacher gains valuable insights and can often apply concrete suggestions that emerge from the discussion.

CFG protocols and processes have become part of the OCS culture. They are viewed as important tools for the learning community’s growth and unification. Today, the principal automatically reaches for a protocol whenever she needs a process for getting work done efficiently and effectively. As she says, “Once you know how to use the protocols, it just makes things easier.”

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