The school serves a high poverty area. Ninety percent of the school’s students qualify for free or reduced price lunch.

Nourani’s words are more than casual rhetoric. “I call this a country club,” says Nourani who is in his second year as the school’s principal. “I tell them this is a privilege we have in this country, that they are lucky to be here, that kids their age in Pakistan or some other countries are making soccer balls. I tell them they are in a great place that values education and taxpayers make sacrifices to educate them. I want them to understand the sacrifices made each day for them and that they owe it to us to come to school each day and learn.

“Our challenge is to make education important to our students and their families.”

Call that quintessential Nourani, a man who believes that with opportunity comes responsibility and that potential is meant to be realized.
Energetic, innovative and vibrant, he is a leader with a keen sense of possibility and a knack for instilling it in others.

Flash back to 1974. Nourani, then 17, arrived in this country from his native Iran to go to school. He spoke almost no English but honed his skills listening car salesmen as he shopped for a car, went on to college and a career in architecture designing performing arts centers around the country.

In 1993, “I just retired and decided to enjoy life,” says Nourani who moved with his family to the Roslyn area in Central Washington. Teaching attracted him. He got his credentials and worked as a teacher but, then took a full-time job at the tiny Easton School District in the Cascade foothills. The principal was preparing to leave and Nourani was encouraged to get his credentials and apply.

A dozen other candidates, all more experienced, were interviewed along with him. Drawing on his architectural background, he’d spent two hours preparing a portfolio with pictures and information on all the students in the school.

“I told them I might not have much administrative experience but I know your kids because I’ve been here,” Nourani says. He got the job. Five years later he moved on to run the Yakima School District’s alternative high school program.

“Math is an abstract field,” he says. “You have to make it concrete. I came up with a different way of teaching math. It was still a vigorous program but it became more vocational. Kids flourished. Attendance went up. More students started passing the state test. The atmosphere changed.”

In the summer of 2008, Nourani became principal at Lewis and Clark, embracing a challenge some educators might find daunting. The school had been in Step 5 for a number of years.

“I knew I was coming to a place that would have really talented teachers. It has an outstanding faculty,” he says of the school. “My job was to get them to the next level.”

That summer, Nourani spent an hour with each of the school’s 79 employees — from cooks and custodians to teachers and assistant principals.

“I want to know you. Tell me your story,” he told each of them.

“For one hour I was absolutely silent as they talked about themselves. I took notes. I wrote down the names of their kids. Then I took five minutes and asked three questions: What works well here? What needs fine-tuning? Then I asked them to give me one dream — and one goal. I wanted to know their aspirations.”

The investment in time and attention paid off. “They got to know me,” he says. “It was their school. I was coming in to their territory. I didn’t come in to change things overnight. But I did see a great opportunity to make things better, elevate it to a higher level.”

At the first staff meeting, he wrote three words: Transparency. Trust. Teamwork.

“I don’t want to climb a mountain with someone I don’t trust,” he says. “I have to know that other person has no hidden agenda.”

Working with Leadership Innovations Team, Nourani set out to help his staff climb that mountain.

Lewis and Clark used six keys to improve instruction:

1. A common protocol for effective instructional practices. Lewis and Clark had in-depth school wide training in using an instructional protocol to provide a common language and understanding of instructions.
2. Clear instructional goals. Lewis and Clark developed targeted goals for effective instruction school wide, collected data on instructional goals and provided continuous on-going feedback to support improvement.
3. Learning Walks. Learning walks supported the school’s identified instructional goals and provided a means for collecting data to measure improvement over time. They also provided a focus for coaching conversation and feedback between administration and teachers.
4. Effective feedback. Feedback was provided in a way that was non-critical, well-received and supported the goals identified in the action plan.
5. Multi-level coaching. At Lewis and Clark, everyone is learning to coach each other. Administration models coaching practices in their conversations with teachers. They also encourage and  provide opportunities for teachers to participate in Learning Walks and provide effective coaching and feedback to each other.
6. Accountability. Lewis and Clark began by identifying a FEW key instructional practices that would have the greatest impact on student achievement and focusing on those practices. They gathered data so that they knew how often the desired practices were occurring and had frequent, on-going coaching conversations. They did not start something new until they had reached the desired goal of proficiency within each practice.

Last year the Nourani-led administrative team did Learning Walks with a Leadership Innovations Team coach, a process that eventually came to also include teachers. This year the Learning Walks continue.

Nourani himself has committed to another project: spending two hours each day in the classroom — one hour in one class, the second in another.

“It gives a different perspective than just a walk through,” he says. “It’s a luxury but I have made it my most important mission this year.”

Coaching, he says, has been and continues to be essential to his own growth.

Everyone in life, no matter how good, needs a coach. The most successful people have coaches. A coach works with you and lets you unfold. I believe everyone has a lot to unfold. Leadership Innovations Team helps me see things I might miss. They sharpen my skills through reflection. They are there to give me feedback.”

“The ultimate goal is to be able to have conversations that help everybody. Everybody should be a coach to others.”

He likens what is going on at Lewis and Clark to a racing scull gliding quickly across the water.

“Imagine that I am in a racing boat and everyone is working hard to get to the destination. What happens if one person is not synchronized? Are we going to throw that person out and lose the manpower? No. We are going to help that person be synchronized,” he says.

Nourani believes that the effort is already paying off. Last year’s eighth grade math scores went up 20 percent.

“Just because we were successful last year doesn’t mean we can be casual,” Nourani says. “I warned our staff. Are we at 100 percent? No. That’s our destination. We don’t measure ourselves against others. We only measure ourselves with us.

“I don’t care about other ships. I care about our ship.”

(Scroll down to the podcast link at the bottom to skip straight to the good stuff.)

As the State School Improvement Coordinator for Idaho, Kinnaman has been hard at work over the past few years figuring out how to get the most out of improvement and professional development dollars. What she and the entire network of educators, administrators, coaches and leaders have done in that time is nothing short of impressive.

In this 24-minute podcast, I talk to her about the nuts and bolts of their program and Lisa lets us in on what’s made Idaho so successful.

She discusses:

• How they’ve strategically partnered with the state’s university network
• How they’ve engaged and trained a powerful contingent of distinguished educators to build capacity
• How they’ve grown the program to serve an astonishing 54 sites statewide
• How they’ve  been able to build an extensive statewide system of support
• How training coaches and investing in teacher-leaders has directly impacted the quality of learning that is happening in the classroom
• How the initiatives have helped to improve student achievement results
• How many of their Title 1 schools have risen to meet AYP – some for two consecutive years

Kinnaman also wrote her dissertation on the program and has meticulously tracked every step of their implementation, tweaks, and successes. She’s an invaluable resource for schools, districts or states looking for a guide map to improvement and I’m honored that she was able to take some time to talk with us about what they’ve done in Idaho.

I hope you’ll enjoy this podcast. We’ll be releasing a transcription of the entire interview in the next few days and will update the blog with the download link as soon as its available. If you’d like to be notified when the transcription is ready, enter your name and email address below and we’ll be sure to notify you. (Be sure to confirm your email address when prompted to ensure that we can get the podcast transcription through your firewalls).

As always, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact us.

To listen, hit the “play” button or, if you experience streaming issues, “Download to Desktop” will allow you to download the file and listen to it directly from your computer. Please have a bit of patience as the file loads – it may take a few seconds.

Best,
Heather

The cohort is a grassroots movement by a group of teachers, led by Richards, who decided to take professional development into their own hands by coming up with a structure to benefit from observing one another. The tool of choice? Our recently developed Student Learning Protocol.

Richards was inspired after doing an observation a few years back: “It was an overwhelming learning experience for myself to be able to watch another classroom and then reflect back on my own teaching practices – and that really started the interest in observing and learning from each other.”

What Richards realized, was that in order for observations to be successful, there were a number of essential things that had to come together. They needed a simple and straightforward tool to guide the focus, as well as a good group of teachers who were willing to risk, trust, and share what they were doing.

The group decided that each time they met they would go over one of the six indicators (positive behavior, aligned instruction, student engagement, student-centered instruction, student assessment for learning, and assessment of learning). Cohort meetings followed a similar process each time:

1. Introduce the indicator
2. Reflect with partner
3. Talk with whole group about it

The structure allowed teachers a “safe” structure for posing questions (with a partner) and then leveraged the knowledge of the group as a whole through sharing at the end of the session. It encouraged deep reflection and collaboration.

That was the start, but the JCILC took things one step further. The group then agreed to periodically give up their planning time in order to be able to go observe each other. They’re initiative impressed administration, who believed so strongly in what the teachers were doing that they went so far as to watch teacher classrooms in order to free up even more of their time for observation.

Indeed, Richards noted that support from leadership was absolutely key in their success as they moved the program forward. Administration’s willingness to sit down with them at meetings and to discuss how things were going to look and how the implementation would take shape was a critical driver as the program moved forward: “Without leadership support the school is most likely going to fail.”

The group worked in carefully selected pairs (chemistry and trust between the two individuals was paramount) and rotated three times, so each person got a chance to work with and observe three different people.

Measuring Results

They were keen to measure the effectiveness of their efforts so that they could use outcome-based decision making to determine next steps, make changes where necessary, and evaluate the impact of their program. As part of a Master’s Study, Richard’s has been analyzing the survey data of pre and post groups to compare results between teachers who had participated and those who had not.

He’ll apply a multivariate formula to analyze the data to see if the work was effective. This phase of evaluation isn’t yet complete, but we’re excited to see what the results have to say.

What the Teachers’ are Saying

The response to the JCILC has been overwhelming.  Teachers find that being able to work with teachers in different grade levels greatly enhances their instruction. There typically aren’t many chances for them to cross those lines, and the affect in the past has been isolating. Getting out, getting together, and getting into other classrooms has been energizing, eye-opening, and inspiring.

What’s Next?

Richards and team have discussed implementing a kind of “Tier Two” level in which teachers from last year’s program do more peer coaching and more looking at planning lessons together and helping out other teachers. By building internal capacity this way, the group can spread the impact and reach even more educators within their school.

They also have plans to arrange to get teachers out of their own buildings and into new spaces.  The act of entering others’ classrooms was so powerful that the group believes going into an entirely new building will only amplify the effect. “As classroom teachers we’re very isolated… Just having teachers get used to the ideas of opening up their classrooms and sharing ideas is pretty huge”

They’re lobbying to get funds to increase and expand on the groundwork that’s been laid down so far.

“There’s really a lot you can do with it.” Richards explains, “It will be about looking at what’s working and what we should do next.”

In the end, Richards reminded me, it’s really about what you bring to the table. “You get out of it what you put in. You have to really reflect on what you’re seeing and apply it to your own practice.”

We’ll be following the progress of the JCILC with continued interest and will report back periodically with updates about this innovative, inspiring program at Thelah School District.

]]> http://www.leadershipinnovationsteam.com/blog/2009/07/14/the-student-learning-protocol-in-action-a-case-study/feed/ 0 http://www.leadershipinnovationsteam.com/blog/2008/05/29/podcast-3-joy-landsdowne-elementary-school-principal/ http://www.leadershipinnovationsteam.com/blog/2008/05/29/podcast-3-joy-landsdowne-elementary-school-principal/#comments Thu, 29 May 2008 23:31:53 +0000 heatherknight http://www.leadershipinnovationsteam.com/blog/?p=32 To start listening right away, just hit the play button:

We’ve been having some great conversations with people lately about our podcast series. Here’s what people are telling us: We Want More!

In the same way that we consistently hear teachers tell us how much they value having time to collaborate with their colleagues, it seems that most of you out there are eager to hear other schools tell their stories.

We’ll continue the series as long as we keep getting the kind of feedback that we’ve received so far, so if you enjoy hearing how other people have implemented PTL, please leave a comment or shoot us an email to let us know. We’d love to hear from you.

In Podcast #3, I talk to Joy Landsdowne of Glenwood Elementary School. We had a great discussion about how Glenwood got started with PTL, what they did to ensure universal buy-in, how they moved forward, and what kind of results that they’ve seen. This is a longer podcast at around 32 minutes long, but it’s one of our best yet, so we’ll hope you’ll find a corner of your day to listen along. If you’d rather have time to comb through the content slowly, you can download a transcript of the interview from our Resources Page.

(Don’t forget: Due to the size of the audio file, it may take a few moments to load.)

******

The feedback from our first podcast was overwhelming and since it was so clear that listening to other educators talk about implementation was so powerful, we put together another one for you.

This time I spoke to Russ Waterman, Assistant Principal at Eastmont High School. Russ and I had a chance to discuss how Eastmont High School has been able to start a teacher-driven, grass roots movement around Powerful Teaching and Learning.

The interview is about 15 minutes long and we’ll have a transcript available in the next day or two in case you’d prefer to read along. Use the tools at the bottom of this post to listen directly from this page or in a separate pop-up, however you’d prefer. I’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback if you have a moment to leave a comment or send an email!

What made you decide to have teachers in your district participate in the Teachers Institute?

The decision to pursue this initiative was a collective one made by the three School Improvement Facilitators assigned to the middle, high, and alternative high school. Per the orientation and research shared over the past two years during SIF trainings, we agreed that Powerful Teaching & Learning is most appropriate to address the challenge of improving instructional practice from grade six through high school. We felt strongly that the secondary teachers needed to gather together, focus on the same data driven research and instructional protocol, develop common instructional language, and begin to build a bridge of collaboration and communication between buildings. One of our goals was to build secondary PLCs around PTL that would begin to build teams and develop relationships between levels.

Also, an added benefit to organizing this PTL experience for all secondary teachers would allow them to mix when on their site visits, as well as in the 12 hours of training, if they chose to do so. Conversations and interactions were richer during trainings as a result of combining the three schools.

Describe their experience, what has been the impact on teaching and learning as a result of their participation? What did they gain by participating and how will it support the district’s learning goals?

Comments reflected enthusiasm for the 4 domains of effective teaching practices (STAR) and implementation in their classroom of specific strategies/tools they clearly observed during site visits and/or trainings, etc. Improvement of instructional practice is identified in the SI plan for WMS. The STAR protocol clearly aligns with and supports this target that applies to ALL teachers.

Can you give examples of how things are different as a result of their participation?

PTL is now discussed at the SILT meetings by those SI leaders who are in the cadre. Principal and SILT are addressing what should be put in place to sustain this momentum and encourage next level of training so that a strong cadre of “trainers” will be available within the middle school.

Why was the training so effective? What sets it apart from other trainings and do you anticipate teachers continuing to work together and improve instruction as a result?

I believe that the success of this training is based upon:

• Quality orientation of PTL and STAR that addresses readiness to benefit prior to teacher commitment to the process
• Current, well researched data consistently included and aligned within all segments of PTL
• Quality training (initial & follow-up) provided by a highly skilled and currently practicing teacher…increases trust and credibility!
• Site visits with coaching provided for effective debriefs

Did you get your money’s worth? Would you recommend the training to others? Who and why?

Yes. I would suggest that school’s have the option of participating in a second visit, if they chose to do so. Subs are such an issue in our district.

Anything else you think others should know?

I would like to compliment the leadership of PTL, Alison Olzendam and Heather Knight, for their exemplary service that went beyond what is normally provided by program administrators. Alison’s excellent orientation that addressed “readiness to benefit” was the initial “key that unlocked the doors of passivity”. Her orientation was supported by strong, well organized, and high energy trainings by Heather Fox and positive and productive coaching provided by Kathi Christensen. Heather Knight’s immediate response to any challenges or special needs over the past 7 month has been most appreciated.

The number one question that I hear from the educators, administrators and school leaders that I talk to is, “What are other people doing with Powerful Teaching and Learning strategies and how are they making it work?” At this point, everyone’s seen the research, read the reports and studied the evidence. It’s clear that there are effective ways to begin to raise achievement scores and close traditional and predicted gaps. The problem isn’t knowing what to do, it’s knowing how to do it.

Helping schools figure this out is why we formed the Powerful Teaching and Learning Group in the first place and I’m constantly looking for ways to demystify implementation and help people understand how to get started and, almost more importantly, how to create internal systems and support networks that foster ongoing progress. One of the best ways that I’ve found to do that is to talk about what is already working for people and why.

I recently had a chance to talk to Chris Farrell, School Improvement Facilitator and PTL Coach at Brewster Elementary School, about the progress of their PTL implementation. Some pretty amazing strategies, suggestions and tips came out of our conversation. The Brewster story is one that we’ll be following closely over the next several years to get a real understanding of how to make the most of Powerful Teaching and Learning in schools.

Chris was kind enough to allow me to reproduce our conversation in this blog to give readers a picture of one implementation and allow us to start learning from each other:

Tell me a little bit about Brewster School District.

Brewster School District serves a community that is multi-cultural and is primarily a combination of established Anglo and migrant Hispanic families. We’re a small, rural school district serving a student population of approximately 950 students. In the past few decades our demographic has shifted significantly – as previously migrant Hispanic population settled and became permanent residents. The district has gone from a system that educated a predominately Caucasian middle class student to one of sixteen minority/majority districts in the state. These changes in demographics definitely present some educational challenges, namely educating second language learners and students raised in poverty.

How did you get started working with PTL?

As part of developing a School Improvement Plan over the last four years, Brewster Elementary School staff received training in new curriculum for reading, math, writing, and science. They had the WHAT, but needed the HOW which PTL provided – instructional strategies based on research using the STAR Protocol.

In November, 2005 eight staff members, including two building administrators and the School Improvement Facilitator, attended a three-day PTL workshop sponsored by North Central Educational Service District in Wenatchee. The group included 3 elementary and 2 high school teachers. During the last workshop session, planning time was provided for teams to discuss how to introduce and implement PTL in their districts. All eight team members were so enthusiastic about their experience that, upon their return, they asked the Superintendent for time at the next School Board Meeting to give a short presentation on PTL. As a result of that presentation, the Superintendent and board approved an additional early release day in April, 2006 to introduce Powerful Teaching and Learning to all K-12 teachers in the district.

Tell me a little bit about your implementation. How are you rolling PTL out in your district? How are you building capacity for the future?

Six teachers, the Special Programs Director, the elementary principal, and the School Improvement Facilitator attended Coaching Institutes taught by Heather Knight, PTA Senior Associate. These trainings included 6 full-day sessions held approximately a month apart. It was our belief that having a solid core team of certified coaches would help us build capacity as well as provide a PTL advisory group for the long term.

At the beginning of the 2006-07 school year, both the elementary and secondary principal encouraged all teachers to go on a school visitation by the end of February. Seven schools in our ESD region were identified and visitations were scheduled by Heather Fox, PTL consultant, who has a 20-day contract with Brewster School District. A total of 16 visitations (4 teachers per team) took place from October to February. Having been trained as a PTL coach, I was able to take the elementary teacher teams on visitations while Heather Fox facilitated the secondary school visits. Approximately 90% of the K-12 teachers took part in these off site classroom observations. We scheduled a time for teachers to share their experiences with each other during our February half day in-service session.

What advice do you have for school districts that are just getting started with Powerful Teaching and Learning?

• The key is to start small! Send interested staff to a PTLworkshop. It is critical that an administrator attend with the teachers. Ask them to share what they learned with other staff at a faculty meeting.
• I can’t focus enough on the importance of principal leadership. Our elementary principal is passionate about PTL and has been on board from the very beginning. Also, involving teachers who are recognized by the staff as strong leaders is essential.
• Don’t drag anyone kicking and screaming! The entire staff may not be ready, but work with those who are interested to learn more. Visiting other schools to do classroom observations is a great “AHA” for everyone.
• Don’t use the word “evaluative” when talking about PTL. The goal is personal reflection on your own teaching.

How is your staff responding to the PTL training? What has been their reaction?

All nine staff members who attended the PTL Coaching Institutes felt they were excellent. They appreciated the opportunity to practice their coaching skills and found the sessions informative, practical, and “hands on”. The recommended books and readings were relevant and the new PTL Team Member Guide was especially useful. Discussions and small group work were enriched by the variety of participants from other districts.

What do you see as the potential impact for students and teachers?

Using Powerful Teaching and Learning will help us increase student achievement and minimize the effects of poverty, especially in our small, rural district with a high poverty level and a Hispanic population of over 80%. One of the greatest impacts for teachers is the opportunity to observe other professionals and reflect on their own teaching.

Do you think this will make a difference for Brewster?

It is already making a difference. Teachers returned from the school visitations with enthusiasm and ideas to make their own teaching MORE POWERFUL. They have begun to share with each other during collaboration time and have a common vocabulary based on PTL and the STAR Protocol. Several teachers went on a second school visitation and are using Self reflection more than they ever did in the past.

What are your next steps?

Based on the continuum of Powerful Teaching and Learning, we have worked the entire year at Level 1: Building a foundation, increasing staff awareness of PTL, and observing teachers in classrooms/schools outside the district. Our PTL team, consisting of our PTL Coaches and administrators, will meet in mid April for a planning session to discuss what year two of Powerful Teaching and Learning will look like. This is especially important, since we will have a new high school principal and a superintendent. Agenda items for discussion include a continuation of school visitations off site, teacher observations within the school, inclusion of paraprofessionals, and a two day PTL Teacher Institute after school is out.

Any final advice or other tips for others?

What has worked extremely well for me is to schedule a short meeting with the four teachers prior to their visitation. At that time, I hand out PTL Team Member guides, introduce the observation process, review the STAR Protocol, and share the visitation schedule. This is time well spent with the TEAM and sets the stage for a great visitation.

Approximately 2-3 weeks after a school visitation, I schedule 30-minute individual mini-conferences with each teacher. This is easily done with a “roving” substitute who covers the teacher’s classroom while they are meeting with me. I am always amazed when the teachers share strategies and ideas they have incorporated into their classrooms as a result of the classroom observations. They like watching other professionals and value the follow up discussions with their own colleagues after the observation. During the mini conference, I ask each teacher what their next step with PTL might be. It is helpful to review my role as a PTL coach and ask them how I can help. The biggest advantage of these mini follow up conferences is to keep PTL alive and fresh – not just an isolated school visitation.