Facilitating Communities of Practice

 I began my journey into English Learners by looking at data and digging in. As I looked at the Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA) and at the English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC) data at Loreto Street Elementary, I saw that a gap exists between ELs and the rest of the students. The SBA data in ELA and SBA data in Math indicates that ELs are lagging behind when compared to ALL students. In SBA ELA, over the course of three years, there is an equity gap of an average of 34 points when focusing on ALL students and ELs. In SBA Math, over the course of three years, there is an equity gap of an average of 24 points when focusing on ALL students and ELs. Additionally, Summative ELPAC shows that students are not moving up in their English Language Development (ELD)  Levels. The percentage of ELs at Levels 1 and 2 is 52.36% while ELD Level 4 is 13.98%. I would like to address the equity gap faced by English Learners in terms of their academic progress. My goal and guiding question for Reciprocal Learning Partnership (RLP) was: How can high impact instruction affect English Learners? 

In order to engage in collaborative learning, I created a space where all members had a voice and input on the decisions that we made in this community of practice. Each member was a vital part of this Reciprocal Learning Partnership (RLP) and each member brought their expertise, drive, and positionality to the table.  Additionally, each member had the opportunity to expand on the work that they are already doing with English Learners.

I worked collaboratively with my group to select a problem of practice. First, I discussed the purpose of our community of practice and guided our group to select norms that would be in place for our meetings. I asked the group to work collaboratively by choosing active roles in the meeting (co-facilitator/norm checker, script, and time keeper.) Then, I invited the group to discuss ELD, one of the educational focus areas for the year. I provided data on ELs, and I gave the team time to look at the data and the opportunity to ask questions. I also asked probing questions about the data and led a discussion on the possible reasons for why ELs are not moving up in levels. By providing the time and space to dig into the data on ELD, and how our ELs are not moving up in ELD levels and how they are not reclassifying in a timely manner, I led my team in our community of practice to work collaboratively to select a problem of practice. After much discussion on the school’s data, our group collaboratively agreed on ELD as the area of our educational focus to address how our teachers (the practitioners) will improve their instructional practice in order to impact student learning. At this school, the area of expertise on ELD instruction varies greatly. We have some experienced teachers who have been teaching ELD for many years, but we also have 5 brand new teachers with no prior experience teaching ELD curriculum. For a school that has 17 teachers on staff, having 5 new teachers is significant. That is almost one third of the school’s teachers. The new teachers are still becoming acquainted with ELD standards and instruction. Because of this, not all teachers at this school have the same set of skills when teaching ELD. ELD instruction is inconsistent at this school. This is a problem. As a community of practice, we want to look at how to improve ELD at this school. By providing a space for discussing data and school needs, I worked collaboratively with this group and I helped us reach a consensus. All members of this community of practice feel very strongly that addressing ELD instruction as our problem of practice is imperative to improving students’ learning. 

My strengths in co-facilitating this community of practice include being organized and showing professionalism in the meeting.  My organization is evident in the documentation of this CoP, including the clear and organized agendas and minutes of the meetings, as well as the gathering of group work products, student feedback form, and organization of data gathered by the group members when they visited and supported classrooms with the evidence-based strategy. My professionalism is evident in the videos where I co-facilitate the meetings and I display respect for all opinions and viewpoints, as well as being able to refocus the group, and ask clarifying and probing questions, and restating members’ contributions as well as documenting agreements through the agreed upon protocol of “thumbs up/thumbs down”. The group’s feedback to me was very positive. The members stated that they felt this space was both collaborative and positive. This feedback reaffirms the research explained through Knowles’s Four Principles of Andragogy where he states that “adult learning is problem-centered rather than content centered.” He also states that “adults are more interested in learning subjects that have a direct impact on their job or personal life.” Because this community of practice had the opportunity to work on a problem of practice that impacts our daily life in a school setting, the members felt that this work was imperative to address the needs of our English Learners. By centering our work around this PoP, we were able to collaborate and discern on our educational focus of ELD, thereby investigating how to be more effective educators when providing instruction to EL students.

I know that in the future, though I may have a team that may want to work together, they may not be as cohesive and there may be diverse opinions and viewpoints on decisions and actions that must be made. I must be mindful of actively listening and providing time and space for the expression and processing of diverse viewpoints. Because of this possibility, an area of growth I want to focus on is developing a deeper toolbox of strategies for engaging members in difficult conversations. Another area of growth is about addressing the operational aspects of leading a school toward supporting students in learning. As an equity driven leader, I realize that professional learning can occur from many sources, both from within the school and from outside the school setting. I must be mindful of how I will provide support for the work that the teachers are willing to engage in, be it through allocating budget, allocation of staff, and also providing grade level articulation time. By building my capacity in the operational aspects of the school, I can be supportive in creating a school that addresses student needs in multiple ways.