August 25, 2016

ILSTOY Recommendations for ISBE ESSA Plan for Illinois Schools/Districts

Title II Funding

ILSTOY ESSA Planning Team: Lynn Gaddis, Rebecca Wattleworth, Jacob Carlson, Jennifer Smith, Virginia Valdez, Pam Reilly, and Joe Fatheree

Student Learning Teacher Practice Teacher LearningTeacher Leadership Roles & Training

Change the Culture Shared Decision Making

What It Will Look Like

Illinois has the opportunity now through ESSA and Title Funding to enable districts throughout the state to build a culture of professional learning. Districts should develop career pathway/lattices for teachers to lead and learn from one another with collective responsibility and accountability based on analysis of multiple sources of data. This change in the culture from isolation to school shared leadership in content, context, and process of professional learning in the unique context of each school and district will result in improving the culture/climate for effective teachers to impact their colleagues practice to improve student-learning growth. Each district in the state has unique human and fiscal resources as well as needs of students so the design guidelines should be flexible so that each district plan shows how to do what is best for their students within the context.

We need to redefine professional learning that is teacher-led, just-in-time, and job-embedded that impacts student learning. Understanding the needs of diverse students, ways of learning and challenges, the state should enable districts to use funds to ensure that teachers know how to work with their unique and diverse population of students to achieve high and appropriate goals.

  • how they learn,
  • how to select instructional strategies and resources to connect the content to diverse students,
  • monitor and manage that learning,
  • reflect on analysis of their instruction’s impact on student learning, and
  • setting high and worthwhile goals appropriate for continued improvement for individuals and small and whole classes of students. (NBPTS)

Recommendations

Teacher Leadership in ESSA Planning and Implementation. ILSTOY identified three key components for teacher leadership in a redefined professional learning culture.

  1. Teacher Leadership in State Planning for ESSA
  2. State Guidelines for District Plans for Title II Funding
  3. State Support for Districts and Schools

The state should enable districts to design professional learning plans under Title II that will be effective in improving teachers’ practice that impacts their student-learning growth for all students. For PLEs to be teacher-led, job-embedded, teachers should select, design and deliver PLEs linked to the learning needs of their unique students and teacher learning in instruction, curriculum, and assessment. Illinois should offer “opportunities for teachers to share their professional expertise.” ISBE should model and set guidelines to partner with teachers validating their expertise in shared decision-making

I. Teacher Leadership in State Planning for ESSA

Ongoing Teacher Leadership

  • Establish a teacher-in-residence program for teacher leaders as advisors (full-time or hybrid) on state initiatives and serve as reviewers and consultants for PLE plans.
  • Establish a teacher leader advisory council for teacher leadersto provide input and feedback on development of guidelines, compliance recommendations, communication with teachers, and policy implications and initiatives.
  • Support teacher leaders as members on every development group of the ESSA and Title state plans (travel, release time). Respect teacher time through videoconference calls, webinars, asynchronous opportunities for input/feedback.
  • Implement a communication system directly focused to teachers (ESSA and PLE messages, platform for input, resources, listservs, social media, webinars). All teachers should have access for input/feedback to develop state priorities and planned actions in the state ESSA/Title plans.
  • Include guidelines for districts to plan comprehensive systems for teacher voice in shared leadership in schools/districts that impacts teacher and student learning.

II. State Guidelines for District Plans

ISBE should develop the following guidelines for district applications for Title II funding.

Shared Decision Making in District and School Planning

Districts should convene representatives from their district (teachers, teacher leaders, school and district administrators, parents, students, and community) to

  • Analyze their readiness using a state-developed readiness tool for shared decision-making and teacher-led professional learning.
  • what is currently effective in the district and
  • what they need to change to design and implement the features of teacher career pathways/lattice and enable the conditions for sustainability.
  • Develop plans that allow for the unique contexts of each school and directly addresses needs for teacher professional learning that will improve student-learning growth.
  • Analyze existing policies to identify barriers to effective professional learning (contractual obligations, schedules, and what is identified.)
  • Establish systems to engage teachers to identify and student learning strengths and gaps to high standards and how their students learn to teachers’ strengths and gaps in professional growth that impacts student-learning growth.
  • Establish professional learning teams (teacher leaders and principals) to analyze data to design, implement, and routinely adjust for the effectiveness of the PLEs for individuals, groups, and faculty to impact student growth.
  • Arrange schedules and opportunities for teachers’ collaboration before, during, after school in PLEs as appropriate to the district and school contexts.

Guidelines for Features, Conditions and Data

  • Design features support effective professional learning experiences that impact student-learning growth:
  • transparent public teacher leader roles, eligibility criteria and the selection process;
  • opportunities for collaboration/released time;
  • compensation;
  • peer coaching/peer evaluation;
  • professional development of teachers and teacher leaders (aligned to the Teacher Leader Model Standards; and
  • teacher voice in school leadership.
  • Enabling conditions for sustainable effective PLEs in the following areas:
  • readiness;
  • leadership commitment and training;
  • stakeholder involvement;
  • school culture in shared decision making; and
  • funding allocation for sustainability.
  • Process for data analysis for continuous improvement. Compile and analyze data from multiple sources to determine the content and appropriate professional learning experiences for teachers. Data from the following should be included:
  • Student growth accountability systems.
  • Teacher professional development surveys, exit slips, focus groups, feedback, and input.
  • Teacher evaluations. In the professional growth section, teachers may voice their successes/concerns to inform how they may lead or in what areas they need professional learning experiences to improve.
  • Walk-through and observational data.
  • 5 essentials state-mandated, bi-yearly school survey of teachers, parents, and students that addresses the culture of readiness for professional learning in these areas: effective leaders, collaborative teachers, involved families, supportive environment, and ambitious instruction.

Teacher Leader Roles

District plans should select from or combine types of leadership roles from the list below based on analysis of data that connects student learning to teacher learning needs. To ensure student success, teachers take risks in shared leadership and collaboratively influencing one another’s practice. State guidelines and support should include flexibility in selection of contextual supportive roles.

  • Peer coaching/mentoring for new and experienced teachers in learning how to teach diverse students and connect to appropriate curriculum, assessment, and pedagogy. Focus may include diversity of students (listed above), curriculum (specific student standards, technology). A coach mentor may observe classrooms of colleagues, co-plan, co-teach, or provide on-the-job PLEs with shared student- learning-growth accountability. A reflective cycle incudes pre- and post- observation conferences and formative feedback on technology, data analysis, curriculum, instruction, assessment, management, standards, best practices, and teaching complexity in reflective process of NBPTS:
  • Analyze knowledge of students, ways students learn and student-learning growth data.
  • Identify goals for individual, small and whole groups of students.
  • Select appropriate instruction.
  • Assess and analyze learning data and connection to instructional choices.
  • Identification of new and worthwhile goals.
  • New teacher induction programs for two years expanding the number of years to four years over the next six years that are developmental with coaches and identified PLEs determined through the coaching cycle as in peer coaching.
  • Model teacher opens classroom for observation, pre- and post-conferences.
  • Professional learning collaborative communities leaders.
  • PLE specialist provides workshops, resources, webinars, discussions, and networking among teachers on all aspects of teaching.
  • Lead/master teacher mentors teacher leaders in roles influencing practice, policy, and advocacy.
  • Department/grade-level chairs or Building Leadership Team is a liaison among teachers and principals to develop/implement/monitor school improvement/PLE plans.

III. State Actions to Support Districts and Schools

Shared leadership and leading PLEs requires teachers to take risks and to take on unique roles that require unique knowledge and skills beyond teaching students. Teacher leader training should be ongoing and collaborative toward meeting high standards unique to their roles. The state should—

  • Align Teacher Leader Endorsement programs to TLMS.
  • Establish micro-credentialing system for teacher leaders to demonstrate TLMS function competencies for their particular role.
  • Partner with NNSTOY TLMS training to revise/expand regionally through ROEs/ISCs and locally.
  • Compile state report from district’s impact reports through multiple measures for improved student-learning-growth, teacher retention/recruitment and school culture.

ISBE should convene face-to-face statewide and regionally and work online with representatives of all stakeholders led by teacher leaders to—

  • Develop a tool for districts to analyze their readiness for developing a career pathway/lattice professional learning system so they may design their plans based on where they are and where they want to move on the continuum of continuous improvement.
  • Audit and remove existing policies that are barriers to districts and schools implementing effective PLEs (e.g. credentialing, evaluations, scheduling, etc.)
  • Build awareness of effective PLEs through teacher career pathways/lattice. Define effective professional learning.
  • Develop school leadership team training (teacher leaders, principals and district administrators).
  • Collect and disseminate online resources.
  • Communicate definitions, models, and professional learning resources through a communication system.
  • Interactive recorded webinars
  • Documents
  • Website
  • Online asynchronous platform for communication and network new and experienced teachers
  • Social media

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