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Overview
Professional educators at my school regularly engage in communities of practice with colleagues from other schools within our organization that share similar roles. As a collective, our staff engages with one another in professional learning during weekly professional development which occasionally is collaborative.
In terms of Community of Practice, our principal participates in a principal’s working group with the other principals in our region monthly. At these meetings, principals come together to analyze data to see how the region is doing as a whole and to monitor our regional initiatives. In relation to student learning and well-being, this community of practice has an impact on student learning because the principals analyze their school data and collaborate and share best practices that will improve student learning with one another. Teachers participate in communities of practice through grade-level team meetings. During these meetings, teachers debrief lessons, look at student data, discuss difficulties they are having with their class or specific students, and create units of study. In relation to student learning and well-being, this community of practice has a direct impact on student learning because teachers collaborate to address the specific needs of their own students. In these meetings, they are determining what students will be taught and how. Our Director of SEL also participates in meetings with other SEL directors from the region bi-weekly. In these meetings, SEL Directors share best practices for management of teaching associates, professional development needs for their respective teams, recess and lunch structures, and the regional SEL scope and sequence. The SEL Directors collaborate to create an SEL scope and sequence that teachers and support staff carry out in the classroom. They also collaboratively design recess and lunch structures that the support staff follows. In relation to student learning and well-being, this community of practice also has a direct impact on student well-being and learning. The structures that they create keep students safe during recess and lunch play and provide them with a joyous experience.
The SEL scope and sequence directly impact student learning because it determines the SEL concepts and lessons that students learn throughout the year. Our Teaching Associates (TA’s) also participate in professional learning with one another during grade level TA meetings and regional grade level TA planning meetings. In these meetings, TA’s collaborate with other TA’s in the same grade to create SEL lessons and Art lessons. They debrief previous lessons and share effective classroom management strategies. They also have opportunities to create recess structures with the parameters provided by the Director of SEL. In relation to student learning and well-being, this community of practice has a direct impact on student learning because the TA’s are creating SEL and Art lessons that they teach to the students. It also has an impact on student well-being because they discuss effective strategies that promote better classroom management and how to address unwanted behaviors. They also design play structures that allow students to have fun in a safe environment.
The professional educators at our school have not been offered training related to collaborative professional learning, communities of practice, and group learning process over the past three years because our school is in its infancy. Our school is in its second year of existence. Last year (our first year) we spent most of the year virtual because of the pandemic. This year is our first year fully in person. Unfortunately, the pandemic and constant changes in COVID protocols have not allowed us to partake in these kinds of training. Although we haven’t had training as a staff, our principal has found ways to create communities of practice within the school. She believes in “radical collaboration.” During our professional development, she provides space for all professional educators to work collaboratively to address an issue or task.
Being a new school that opened virtually during a pandemic, we were immersed in collaborative professional learning from the first-day school opened. As a small staff, we were forced to recreate teaching to be done effectively virtually. We relied heavily on our community’s expertise to collaborate to create the best possible educational experience possible. We termed this practice “radical collaboration.” With virtual learning being so new to everyone, we were forced to start practices of collaborative professional learning or communities of practice among teachers and staff. We valued everyone's knowledge and used their strengths to improve the educational experience for our students. Our teachers collaborated in grade-level teams to develop lessons virtually. We also valued our parents’ and students’ feedback and used that to redesign the structures that we created during this time. Communities of practice at our school are facilitated by the member’s direct supervisor but managed by team members of that group. The principal facilitates meetings with teachers, the Director of SEL facilitates meetings with the support staff, and the Director of Special Education facilitates meetings with the Special Education team. Problems of practice are determined by each individual team but then shared with the other teams so everyone collaborates to address the structures causing the problem. As a whole school community, we monitor the problem by collecting different types of data and as a team, we try to make sense of the data we collected. With this information, we collaboratively determine the next steps. Professional learning at our school facilitates collaborative learning because our school began with a collaborative spirit. I think it also lends itself to collaborative learning because we are still in the pandemic and constantly dealing with changes that have never been faced in education.
As a result of my investigation and given contexts as well as available school data related to student learning, the most important issue I will need to consider in preparing to co-facilitate and support a community of practice to engage in collaborative learning is my inexperience in facilitating communities of practice. I will need to get some training on how to facilitate them and observe other leaders co-facilitating communities of practice. I will also need to consider that although my teachers are eager and have experience being part of a community of practice, they have never been formally trained in collaborative professional learning at our school. Our teachers have different levels of training and experience with communities of practice. For example, one of our teachers has a lot of experience with Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) and has a high level of understanding of how they work which is not the case for all of our staff. I will need to consider how to get the teachers on the same level of understanding of collaborative professional learning. Another issue I will need to consider and learn how to handle through training, observation, and experience is how to facilitate collaborative learning when staff members have different perspectives and learning theory approaches.
Main Activities
As a team, the area of educational focus that we agreed upon is improving student culture. Students are coming to school for the first time with behaviors that are not aligned with a school setting without taking into account that some groups of students (students from lower socioeconomic households, students of color, students with either identified or unidentified social/ emotional or academic needs) have been impacted by the pandemic at a disproportionate rate because of systemic issues in healthcare, workplaces, housing, and more. Students of color are disproportionately referred for discipline because the behaviors exhibited by these students are not culturally aligned with the school setting which is exacerbated by the pandemic. Our school currently has 172 students enrolled at our site. According to our demographics, nearly half of our school’s population identifies as white. The other half identify as either Asian, Filipino, Black or African American, Hispanic, or by two or more races. When looking at the demographic of students being referred for behavior, only 27% of the students are white and 73% are students of color.
As a team, we discussed that students are exhibiting behaviors that are not culturally aligned with the school setting and are being referred for discipline. With our school being so new, we don’t have a set system for dealing with behavior. Thus, teachers and other staff members have shared an interest in developing a system on how to handle students’ social-emotional needs. As a school staff, we met and discussed a standard from our school's teacher framework that we wanted to focus on. Collectively, we decided on the standard pertaining to restorative behavior management practices. We then decided that our goal would be to work collaboratively to reduce the overall number of behavior incidents during instructional time, playtime (recess), lunch, PE, and our Special’s time. In order to collaboratively select a problem of practice, We conducted a causal system analysis by using a fishbone diagram. After some analysis, we determined several potential causes for the number of behavior referrals. We all agreed that the problem of practice we wanted to address is our problematic bell schedule.
Our Educational focus is to improve our school culture because students of color are disproportionately referred for discipline because the behaviors exhibited by these students are not seen as culturally aligned with the school setting. This school year at my school, we have been receiving a high volume of behavior referrals which is concerning because our school only goes up to second grade. Our school currently has 173 students enrolled at our site. According to our demographic data, nearly half of our school’s population identifies as white. The other half identify as either Asian, Filipino, Black or African American, Hispanic, or by two or more races. This data is important because it allows us to see the equity gap in the referrals we have received this school year. When looking at the demographic of students being referred for behavior, only 27% of the students are white and 73% are students of color. After doing some causal system analysis, we decided that the problem of practice was our problematic bell schedule. Through empathy interviews, we learned that our teachers believed that our set instructional time before recess was too short and made instruction feel rushed. We also learned that the set instructional time between recess and lunch was too long and which caused students to get learning fatigue. Finally, we learned that our schedule caused too many classes to be out on the playground at the same time during recess which is a problem because of our limited space. All of these factors contributed to the undesired behaviors students were displaying and the number of referrals we received.
In order to co-facilitate selecting the problem of practice, I had our team co-create a fishbone diagram that listed what we thought were the potential root causes for the high volume of office referrals for students of color. Then, I created an opportunity for each team member to build ownership by having each member share which root cause they thought had the most leverage but the smallest action required. We came to a consensus that our problematic bell schedule would have the most benefits to our student's and staff’s well-being and learning experience.
As a team, the problem of practice we have identified is that we have a problematic bell schedule that is causing students of color to be disproportionately referred for discipline because the behaviors exhibited by these students are not culturally aligned with the school setting. This problem of practice corresponds with our mission because our mission states that we want to provide a “socio-economically, culturally, and racially diverse community” of students an “intellectually challenging, experiential learning environment that develops each individual student’s confidence, potential…” With the number of behavior referrals we have received this school year, we aren’t meeting our mission because not all of our students are getting a learning experience that develops their confidence and potential. It also corresponds to our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion goal (DEI) goal because our goal states that we want to “examine student culture, including discipline systems, rewards, and consequences. With our staff, we will provide coaching and classroom observations using an equity lens (coaches read and attend online training on Elena Aguilar’s Coaching for Equity book). We want to create Affinity spaces to allow our staff to explore their identities, building their own understanding and skill of themselves, our community, and ABAR practices.” This problem of practice shows the need to examine and develop the discipline system that will potentially lead us to receive equity coaching and do classroom observations with an equity lens. It may also bring to light the need for Affinity Spaces to discuss how our identities and positionality affect how we deal with undesired behaviors.
This problem of practice also reflects the 2022 Mathematics Draft Framework because it states that “In California, all teachers strive to ensure every child has an equal opportunity to succeed. Teachers of mathematics can provide equitable education by making sure all students receive the attention, respect, and resources they need to achieve their potential. California classrooms combine diverse communities and students who bring a rich variety of cultural and linguistic resources that teachers can draw on to create culturally-relevant lessons (Ladson-Billings, 2009; Hammond, 2020; Milner, 2011).” The students that are being referred lose the opportunity to receive this instruction when they are sent out of the classroom for discipline. The framework also mentions that “A focus on equity recognizes that mathematics, over the years, has developed in a way that has excluded many students (see Chapter 1). Because of these inequities, teachers need to work consciously to counter racialized or gendered ideas about mathematics achievement (Larnell, Bullock, & Jett, 2016).” Our current discipline practice only further widens the equity gap.
After determining our problem of practice, the Student Culture team and I, collaboratively discussed how we were going to address the problematic bell schedule. We started by looking at the trends and patterns that our whole staff shared about undesired behaviors they were seeing at school during a PD a few weeks prior. Then we looked at the FIshbone diagram we created when doing root cause analysis of potential causes for undesired behaviors and decided that the problem of practice was our problematic bell schedule. We discussed how we can address it by discussing the problem with our current bell schedule. The teachers on our team shared that the schedule had a long instructional block between recess and lunch that would cause students to get fatigued and unengaged with the content being taught. They also shared that the instructional block was really short and didn’t allow students to get fully settled in. I shared that the schedule also caused us to have one recess where all our students shared a limited space on the playground. As a team, we decided that our evidence-based strategy would be to redesign our bell schedule to have even instructional blocks and create two recess times so that our students had more space to play with fewer students and more supervision. We believed that by doing so we would improve student learning during the instructional blocks and improve student well-being during unstructured playtimes.
As a team, we decided that our evidence-based strategy would be to redesign our bell schedule to have even instructional blocks and create two recess times so that our students had more space to play with fewer students and more supervision. Our rationale was that evening out the instructional blocks would improve student learning because students would have a longer morning in order to get settled in and have a morning routine that would prepare them to have a successful day. We believed that decreasing the instructional time between recess and lunch would reduce the fatigue students were having and increase their engagement. Finally, we believed that having two recess times would improve student well-being during unstructured playtimes because students would have more space to play which would help decreaseincidents during recess. Having two recess times would allow us to have more supervision because all of our supervision staff would only have to watch half of the students at a time.
In order to co-facilitate the selection, I had the team share what problem on the fishbone they felt we could address the quickest and why they believed that. By doing so, the team determined that redesigning the bell schedule would be high leverage but small step. We will learn about this strategy by finding research that supports the impact of having age-appropriate instructional blocks, how setting morning routines and structure set students up for success, and how having space to play decreases behavior incidents.
Some of the challenges we believe we’ll face are teachers not wanting to create a new schedule and not being able to visualize how to adjust what they currently teach at certain times. In order to address this challenge, we will create sample schedules for each teacher with their set Music, Art, and PE times. The other challenge we think we’ll face is overwhelming our staff if we communicate the schedule without time to process. We don’t want to overwhelm our teachers so to address this challenge we’re going to share the new schedules with them a week before winter break to get their input on it. We will make any final tweaks before winter break and then we will implement it when we return from winter break.
The group and I believe that our new bell schedule will improve student learning and well-being because the number of behavior referrals will decrease and our students won’t miss valuable instructional time. We think the new bell schedule will also improve student learning because it will provide equal instructional blocks between breaks. This will allow students to have a morning routine that is structured and sets them up for success because they will have more time during their morning block. They will also be able to be taught a lesson that is not rushed or broken up by their first-morning break. It will also improve our students' learning and well-being because they won’t get exhausted during the long instructional block between recess and lunch. This will allow students to stay engaged with their learning. Students won’t be hungry either because they will only have a 2-hour break between their recess snack and lunch meal. The group also believes that students’ well-being will improve during recess because the ratio of student to support staff will decrease allowing for our support staff to engage in play with more students during recess play.
In order to ensure validity and reliability in the interpretation of the data, the student culture team will collect different forms of data to analyze after the implementation of our evidence-based strategy. To co-facilitate how we determined a monitoring process, I created a space for discussion and had the team share any ideas on how we can monitor results. The team determined that we will conduct observations of different school areas, empathy interviews of supervisors of different school areas, empathy interviews of students, student surveys, and teacher surveys. Interviewing and surveying students, teachers, and other support staff makes this data valid because they directly connect to the problem we are researching. We decided that we will conduct observations of different school areas daily, the empathy interviews bi-weekly, and the teacher and student surveys two weeks after implementing the new schedule. Then, we will discuss the data we collect during our bi-weekly student culture meetings.
Reflection
One strength is my ability to collaborate in a team setting in order to equitably co-facilitate a community of practice. I see all of my team members as my equals and listen to their perspectives with an open mind. I come into spaces wanting to learn from my team members. My teammates shared that they appreciated that I began our first meeting by letting each member share how their identity impacted their decision into joining our community of practice.
Another strength is my ability to create agendas and meeting plans that help keep a productive workflow, a focus on implementation results, and progress monitoring toward the next steps during our meetings. Several of my team members have mentioned that they feel like we get a lot accomplished during our meetings and they look forward to them because it’s their most productive meeting. As stated in the article An Overview of Adult Learning Processes, “Most adults learners develop a preference for learning that is based on childhood learning patterns” The agendas I create are supportive of visual and auditory learning styles. For the visual learners of the group, they can see the question and plan for the day. Review the agenda verbally, support the auditory learners because they get to hear those same questions as well.
After analyzing my ability to co-facilitate a community of practice, an area for growth that I have identified is giving people more processing time and being mindful of who hasn’t participated in the conversation in order to ensure that all perspectives are being accounted for. After watching some of the videos back, I noticed that I moved on to the next part of our agenda before checking to see if anyone who hadn’t spoken wanted to share anything. Although I did have open-ended questions so everyone could participate, I need to do a better job of asking anyone who didn’t if there’s anything they want to add before moving on.
Another area for growth that I have reflected on is delegating and coming up with questions for allowing people to step up. I need to do a better job of recognizing people's talents and create more opportunities for people to use those talents to support the team. I sometimes take on too many things because I want to be helpful to the team. I have to be willing to let others take on things because it will allow us to get more done and more things accomplished. A team member mentioned that I do a lot and they’d be more than willing to do more. After dividing the work up between the team during the implementation process, I learned that I need to learn how to delegate more often.
Based on the analysis of my experience, a specific learning goal that I have is improving my ability to make sure that I get everyone involved through the whole process. I have never received training on facilitating communities of practice. In order to learn strategies and best practices to address this goal, I will attend training on facilitating communities of practice. I will also look for the facilitation of communities of practice videos online and pay close attention to the facilitators and their questioning.
My other specific learning goal is to improve my practice of delegating. My next step to improve in this area is to conduct interviews of leaders and ask them how they delegate in order to learn different approaches and questions I can use to support me in the process. I will also do some research on the MOCHA project management model. According to The Management Center’s article Clarifying Responsibilities with MOCHA, “Multiple people working together can generate greater participation, more equitable outcomes, and broader impact.” I truly believe that if I get better at delegating, my community of practice is going to make a broader impact.
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