UCLA SMP EdNews, May 2007

SMP staff and faculty recently journeyed to the windy city, joining thousands of colleagues in the fields of education, research, and evaluation at the AERA (American Educational Research Association) Annual Meeting. There they presented their research on SMP programs and shared experiences in implementing school improvement efforts.

AERA and Hearing the Studies of Others
By John Otterness, Faculty

Attending an AERA conference in Chicago means sharing space with 12,000 others who can select from thousands of sessions to attend over five days.  So it was that about 75 people chose to attend the symposium titled, Critical Teacher Education With an Attitude: Learning to Read the World of School and the Lifeworlds of Students.  I was one of the four presenters, with Ernest Morrell, UCLA Assistant Professor of Education, as the discussant.

My portion was titled Moving From Teaching With Certainty to Teaching With Curiosity: Using Readings From Research and Interactive Discussion Procedures to Change Teaching Culture.  I presented research showing how factors other than the organization of the curriculum and teaching techniques effect the results we obtain for our students.  This was coupled with descriptors of processes we use at UCLA SMP to help our participants engage with readings on research.

Other participants in the symposium focused on the use of Digital Video Composing to transform teaching; Russian children in American schools; and using critical-inquiry groups in urban schools.  All of these topics, and the questions and discussion that followed, focused on helping teachers understand their practice and effects on a deeper level than only the content of the curriculum.

The conference also provided a chance to hear many of the names we see on articles about education – among those most prominently featured were David Berliner on testing and Jean Anyon on social issues.  On a personal note, I took great pleasure in sitting in on several talks on math education given by one of my former high school students, Joi Spencer, now a Ph.D.

We spend so much time learning what to do that it is a real benefit to take time out to talk about why we do what we do and have conversations with others on understanding our practice and our students.

Creating Professional Learning Communities in Schools:  Professional Development for Teacher Collaboration with a Focus on Learning

By Ofelia Huidor, Research & Evaluation Coordinator and Monica Sanchez, Graduate Student Researcher

We presented a paper at the AERA Annual Meeting with the goal of discussing the program evaluation of UCLA SMP’s CFG (Critical Friends Groups) New Coaches Institute.  Data was collected to examine the impact of the CFG institute on teacher collaboration and its association with student learning.  The conceptual framework that informs this study emerges from the principles of a Professional Learning Community (PLC).

Overall, survey data indicated that significant gains were achieved in participant understanding with respect to the following key topic areas: (1) Collaboration across learning communities, and (2) How to engage in inquiry and reflection to enhance student learning.

Our paper presented survey data that highlighted the following findings:

•  Post survey results indicated that educators who participated in the CFG institute had greater understanding of PLC concepts – guiding principles that are critical to authentic teacher collaboration and a focus on student learning.

•  Survey data taken before and after the CFG institute indicated that participants had higher rates of confidence in developing their expertise in the use of protocols and the practice of exchanging feedback with colleagues – skills that are critical to the successful management of a CFG.

•  Data focusing on CFG implementation collected from respondents at the CFG institute follow-up day confirm that the training has been helpful in providing effective methods and ideas for facilitating collaboration with other colleagues.

•  Responses from participants in active CFG groups also tended to show a high degree of communication and trust between CFG members, further indicating that the institute was successful in opening up dialogue and providing coaches the necessary training to facilitate a CFG.

•  Analysis of qualitative data from a participant questionnaire focusing on CFG development several months after the CFG institute indicated that administrative support is critical to the formation of active CFGs.

We had about eleven people attend our 40-minute roundtable presentation, mostly university scholars in the field of curriculum and instruction.

Improving Instruction:  Using Communities of Practice to Bring High-Quality Teaching to Scale
By Dan Chernow, Executive Director

I was invited by Richard Elmore to the AERA Annual Meeting to serve on a panel with him, along with Lee Teitel and Elizabeth City of Harvard University; Andrew Lachman of the Connecticut Center for School Change; and Mary Ann Prichard, Julie Burnett and Sybil Madison-Boyd of the University of Chicago.  We were exploring our respective support for educators in developing disciplined approaches to collaborative work around instructional improvement.

While my panel colleagues described their truly fine work in establishing communities of practice with superintendents or school administrators, UCLA SMP was unique in that it brought the teacher voice to the table with its focus on school leadership teams, including representation from the district office.  Along with the teacher voice, we represented opportunities for cross-fertilization across school and district boundaries, thus establishing broader communities of practice amongst a larger segment of educators.

The panel was dialoguing with a group of about seventy-five attendees that had close to equal representation from researchers and practitioners.  We engaged the audience in small group discussions around questions presented, and encouraged them to formulate questions to the panel based on those discussions.  We then talked with them about their issues of concern – not just points we wanted to make.

Listed below are books and a website, all of which provide additional resources related to Professional Learning Communities, Critical Friends Groups, and understanding your teaching practice.

DuFour, Richard & Eaker, Robert. (1998).  Professional Learning Communities at Work:  Best Practices for Enhancing Student Achievement. New York: Solution Tree.

Eaker, Robert, DuFour, Richard & DuFour, Rebecca. (2002). Getting Started: Reculturing Schools to Become Professional Learning Communities. Indiana: National Educational Service.

Finn, Patrick J.  (2003).  Literacy With an Attitude:  Educating Working Class Children in Their Own Self-interest. New York: State University of New York Press.

Marzano, Robert J., Waters, Timothy & McNulty, Brian A. (2005).  School Leadership that Works: From Research to Results. Virginia: Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development.

About Critical Friends Groups – National School Reform Faculty (Harmony School) website: http://www.nsrfharmony.org/faq.html

Patrick and Mary Finn’s latest release features a chapter written by UCLA SMP faculty member, John Otterness:  Literacy With An Attitude and Understanding the Water We Swim In (Chapter 11).

In this chapter, John examines SMP’s efforts to guide schools in seeing “themselves as part of a social class system, and to understand how that system, and the different cultures associated with it, governs schooling” (Finn, p. 192).  This chapter also explores how SMP, through its instructional leadership institutes and school-site coaching, uses Patrick Finn’s Literacy With An Attitude – Educating Working-Class Children in Their Own Self-Interest – to assist schools in identifying new ways in which they can help their students learn.

Pick up your copy today!

No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.

Voltaire – French Enlightenment writer (1694-1778)

Enrollments are now being accepted for our upcoming summer institutes.  This year’s offerings include:

Critical Friends Groups (CFG) New Coaches

Classroom Walk-Throughs

Advisory Programs

Bridges to Understanding: Teaching That Matters for English Learners 

Download an application today!

Melanie Overby is the Research and Evaluation Coordinator for UCLA SMP.  Along with a team of graduate student researchers, she designs and implements evaluations and analyzes student achievement data for SMP programs.  Her responsibilities include designing and conducting quantitative and qualitative data analysis, developing and administering data collection instruments, and generating reports for UCLA SMP staff and faculty.  She holds a masters and Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the University of Michigan and served as a postdoctoral fellow on a grant investigating the formal and informal literacy practices of urban adolescents.  She received her B.A. in psychology at Amherst College.

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A nonprofit school reform initiative of the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, the UCLA School Management Program (UCLA SMP) is devoted to the sustainable transformation of public schools into learner-centered organizations where all students can achieve at high levels.

UCLA SMP works with educators, building and district administrators, and community members to improve student achievement by fostering well-managed schools where professional development enhances teacher effectiveness, builds community, and results in personal transformation.

Since the program was launched in 1992, UCLA SMP has worked with over 800 schools in districts throughout California.