Instruction

Standard: Instruction Committee Members: Sheila Irvine, Marianne Knauff, Heather Ross, Stephani Sawyer-Main, Craig Campbell, Steve Mayo, Brian Lewia, Kate Stroman, Louella Grindle

Recommendations

1. Ensure that the school’s mission is used regularly and consistently to improve instruction. Bill has asked us to wait to discuss this.

2. Strengthen and formalize structures to discuss instructional strategies within and across all disciplines.

Validity and time line: We believe that recommendation #2 is valid and should be addressed in the next two years.

We suggest that the discussion of instructional strategies could be strengthened in the following ways:

 Continued use of protocols for greater efficiency  Use of staff development time for teacher presentation of instructional strategies  Possible shared department meetings  Online discussion board for instructional strategies  Interdisciplinary team teaching

Comments: • Who is really equipped to evaluate teacher performance, or improve student learnings (?) • Interdisciplinary team teaching – Yes! • What protocols, specifically? • Online gets ignored, what about respecting teachers to be professional and give/allow them time to prepare and teach • Protocols do allow expectations to be visible • Teachers do have a vast resource of excellent strategies. Good use of time in this time frame. • Department meetings – good cooperative idea • Time needed to prepare, teach, and grade • Mandatory participation for probationary teachers • Protocols – No. We are professionals, can set agendas and discuss and evaluate. • Team Teaching – impossible unless change entire school schedule. Would take away from individual school needs. • Continue common prep time / reduce conflicting initiatives to increase common planning time • Use PLC time for sharing instruction strategies. • Implement peer observations • Possible shared department meetings – why? • Protocols don’t work for everyone • Presentations of instructional strategies – would not be relevant for everyone • Shared department meetings – departments don’t even have enough time for own goals • Team Teaching – requires discussion and training • Online forums could make the process easier and lead to less and more productive meetings • Protocols are too stiff and formal • Do protocols make us more efficient? • Where do we get time for these presentations and meetings? • Staff development aimed at helping teachers devise ways to work across disciplines – specific strategies • Continue PLGs that promote cross-discipline discussion and work (underway) • Provide adequate time and resource and scheduling to allow this to happen • Shared department meetings – good idea, but would need great deal of structure and order to be effective

3. Establish formal ways to allow students and parents to give meaningful feedback to teachers.

Validity and time line: We believe that recommendation #3 is valid

We suggest the following opportunities for students and parents to give meaningful feedback to teachers:

 We might have two open house opportunities per year, so that semester courses can be served.  We might explore, with adequate professional development, the concept of student-led conferences.  We should make a more concerted effort to inform parents of feedback opportunities (i.e. newspaper announcements, announcements on report cards, mass emails, education about use of PowerSchool, etc.) Comments: • Good idea to have more open houses. • It is very important that we attempt to communicate more with parents. • More open houses are not necessary, only a few come to the one that we already have. • It is not a priority to have student-led conferences, we should be focusing on getting students to school. • Teachers need to make more phone calls and conferences with parents/guardians. • We will need a compensation day for the open houses. • We need to start a PTA for general purposes. • Why are students/parents not given the opportunity to evaluate teachers at the end of a course, similar to what is done at the college level. It could be electronically or by a paper survey. • There should be an open house for freshman parents before the start of school. • We need to explore the concept of student-led conferences. • We need to find a way to increase greater parent diversity at open house. • Powerschool gives parents more meaningful feedback. • Powerschool is great for the parents to find out how their children are doing. • There is a suggestion to include rubrics and feedback regarding student’s overall academic behavior and habits in report card. For example attendance, participation, punctuality etc. • Is it a contractual issue to have more open house nights? • We already make a concerted effort to inform students. • Student-led conferences sound like a good idea, but will the shy, introverted students participate effectively? • Student-led conference done earlier rather then the end of quarter of one. • We need to add times for teachers to give feedback to parents. • Students who are failing should have a parent meeting. • Students as well as staff will need training in how to conduct student-led conferences. • We need to provide opportunities on line and at the school computer lab for student/parents to complete surveys related to instruction at SAHS. • Possible ideas for more effective parent communication could include comment space on report cards and self-addressed comment cards.

4. Ensure sufficient opportunities for students to self-assess and reflect upon their own progress in achieving the school’s academic expectations for learning.

Validity and time line: We believe that recommendation #4 is valid, and that it should be a long-term goal.

We suggest that teachers work self-assessment and reflection into practice through the implementation of strategies such as K-W-L charts, quick-writes, action and reaction activities, anticipation and reaction guides, student-generated class participation criteria for evaluation.

Teachers should also consistently promote the academic learning expectations in instruction.

Comments: • Yes, along with current goals. • School wide rubrics • There are other ways that are not necessarily literacy strategies • Are those activities truly self assessment • Portfolio • Standard based • Kuder (an electronic portfolio) could help with this • Possibly include rubrics & feedback regarding students overall academic behavior/habits in report card • Advisory program, wherein teachers advise/counsel a group of students and meet first day of each quarter to review performance/goals for next quarter • I believe that many teachers already do these actively • Too much standard minimization • Student led conferences to promote self assessment

5. Involve teachers in the development and use of a meaningful evaluation process that provides sufficient feedback to improve instruction and promote professional growth.

Validity: We believe that recommendation #5 is invalid because there is a process for evaluation that is part of our negotiated contract. Further, the district supports and has a procedure in place for administrators to evaluate their staff.

Time line: The evaluation process is stipulated by our contract and is therefore current through August, 2009. In the interest of improving instruction and promoting professional growth, personal learning groups and departments could review the following suggestions beginning in the fall of 2009.

We suggest that the process of teacher observation and evaluation become a discussion within personal learning groups and departments. Following are suggestions for further discussion:  Adherence to current procedures as outlined in the building principal’s and teachers’ contracts  Consistent use of pre-conferencing, observation, and post-conferencing  Explore the use of peer review  Explore the possibility of student and parent review  Conference among department head, principal, and teacher  Distinguish between observation for personal growth and evaluation for continuing employment

Comments: • Should some criteria be established for probationary teachers? • Is this even followed? Pointing to the administrators evaluating their staff • Very Good for our 6 comment on distinguishing between observations • Important to know – points to comment 6 • Concerns over student/parent reviews • Would a peer coaching/mentoring/observation process be helpful for increased feedback for self-evaluation? • Are you really recommending teacher evaluations be fodder for PLG’s? • Seriously question this is actually happening – pointing to the promote professional growth. • Great opportunity to set up better “t-e-p” than exists. • ??? comment #4 – about student and parent reviews • Good idea – conference among dept. head, principal, and teacher • Consistent use is questionable now • Peer reviews could help growth, but should NOT be used as an evaluative tool • They do peer reviews at Poland HS and teachers hate it • Will student & parent review use survey monkey? • If invalid – no discussion needed • Evaluation = separate done by admin • Make self evaluations/assessment an important component of the process • Very important to include peer assessment as well • Provide time/resources/scheduling to allow there suggestions to be implemented • Peer review, student review, and parent review should NOT be linked to a teacher’s written evaluation or terms of employment. It is potentially detrimental if someone has an axe to grind.

6. Ensure that clearly identified instructional needs guide the professional development offerings.

Validity and time line: We believe that recommendation #6 is valid and is an ongoing goal.

We recognize that the recently developed principal’s advisory group has sought to address professional development opportunities using the expertise of our teaching community. The principal’s advisory’s group is specifically planning for some of the 2009-2010 staff development days.

Comments: • “Teacher input is a must.” • “ I feel that all staff need to be involved in this process.” • “Involve the staff in deciding in what area professional development is needed—Not necessarily the current “hot” topic.” • “Annual evaluation of teachers should also include teacher listing their own desired professional development goals.” • “Is the principal’s advisory group for initiatives only or is it expanding to serve this recommendation, too?” • “PLGs could play an important role in setting professional development goals.” • “Have departments chart professional development goals.” • “How is the whole staff involved?”