Learn - Part I

Describe your instructional challenge and how you identified it.

I have been disturbed by a teaching practice that has taken place in our school for many years, a practice that was adopted prior to my employment in the district. For the past two years, I have researched the pros and cons of within grade-level ability grouping and tracking across different subjects, mainly reading and math. I have also reflected on our school's use of ability grouping and cannot ignore the inequity and segregation of students based on perceived ability, class, home-support, student behaviors, student motivation, and effort. Looking at our school's benchmark data it is clear that students entering kindergarten and placed in the lower groups rarely if ever move out of those groups. Our scores also show that students placed in the lower groups make less progress in a year compared to students placed in on-level groups. I have also noticed that students that are pulled out into small groups often express that they wish they could stay in our classroom and not have to go to their reading/math group. They also exhibit more of a fixed mindset about their abilities than their peers in on-grade level groups. I would like to work with my colleagues to address the inequalities in our current practices and look for more successful and equitable options.

Describe your learners (students and diverse stakeholders for this project and how you selected them.

The students that are placed into the lowest grade-level groups are the learners that are most negatively affected by our current grouping practices. The lowest groups at each grade-level are taught by either our Title I or Special Education teachers and with our current grouping practices this means our lowest achieving students are pulled out of the general classroom for up to three hours a day, ninety minutes for both math and reading. These students are typically also receiving tier II or III support and are pulled from the general classroom for an additional twenty to thirty minutes for interventions. For me these are the students that I always struggle to build strong relationships with, but feel they are some of the students that need those strong relationships at school. I also identified several colleagues that would either support a shift in a new direction or at least listen with an open mind to provide feedback on the perspective of others not willing to make a shift. I worked very closely with one of our Title I teachers, Special Education teacher, fifth grade teacher, and had many difficult conversations with my two colleagues in second-grade.

Why is it important for your learners (students and diverse stakeholders) that this challenge be addressed?

For the students we place in the lowest groups it is important to address the issue of inequity and segregation for many reasons:

• Our current grouping practices are not helping them catch up to their grade-level peers.
• Benchmark scores show they make less progress than their peers.
• Benchmarks scores show that our lowest groups are growing as each group of students travels from kindergarten to fifth grade.
• These students are pulled and taught by four to six teachers a day limiting their interactions with any one adult to build strong relationships at school.
• These groups are taught below grade-level, never even given access or the opportunity to learn grade-level material.
• The groups remain static, as shown by our staff survey, which also can limit friendships with grade-level peers.
• Students with less home-support, low socio-economic status, or behavior issues are more likely to be placed in lower level groups even when they are capable of performing at grade-level.

I also thought it would be beneficial to work closely with our Title I and Special Education teachers because they are the teachers that teach our lowest groups at each grade level. They often are given the lowest groups across several grade-levels having to teach multiple grade-levels during one ninety minute block of time. This practice of within grade-level ability grouping limits the number of students our Title I teachers can service throughout the day and makes it extremely difficult for our Special Education teachers to service all the students on their caseload. Their perspectives our current practices would be valuable as we move forward to find a more successful solution. Having an open minded grade-level teacher willing to be apart of the problem solving would also be beneficial because moving forward would require a shared responsibility for teaching our most struggling students between our classroom and and support staff teachers.

In what ways will your addressing the challenge promote or support diversity, equity, cultural competence?

Challenging our current grouping practices would provide a more inclusive education for all our students regardless of ability, home-support, socio-economic status, and behaviors. All students would benefit from an innovative, engaging, and collaborative education. Mixed-ability groups would provide a plethora of experiences during class discussions where we could not only address and teach content, but could teach acceptance, tolerance, and carryout our growth mindset practices.

Is it your intention to change an existing practice/program or implement a new practice/program?

It is my hope to change our current grouping practices used in reading and math. I envision of model of mixed-ability classrooms utilizing our Title I and Special Education teachers as push-in support service providers. This would allow our support staff teachers to service a greater number of students, provide more effective interventions for our tier II and III students, and give all students the opportunity to learn grade-level material with the appropriate supports.

Why might this practice/program be a viable solution for your challenge?

Using our Title I and Special Education teachers as push-in support would address the issue of inequity and segregation of our students as I have mentioned above, but it would also address a larger district issue as well. We are looking at budget cuts at the end of the current school year and as one of our Title I teachers retires and we are looking at not refilling the position we will have a difficult time sustaining our current model of grouping with even one fewer teachers. The challenges we face moving towards a push-in model of support are great but the benefits would be so rewarding for the stakeholders that matter most, students.

Learn - Part II

On which two overarching competencies will you focus in addressing the identified challenge?

While working towards addressing our need to change our grouping practices the two Overarching Competencies that I will be focusing on will be Interpersonal Effectiveness and Communication. I feel the Interpersonal Effectiveness and Communication competencies go hand-in-hand in order to address the challenge of changing our grouping practices. Many of our teachers do not see the inequalities that we are creating when we ability group our students so building trusting relationships with colleagues is vital if we are to then challenge the status quo and point out some issues with our current practices. This is often met with defensive attitudes because teachers do not want to believe they have been doing something that could have been causing harm to their students. I will need to grow in my Interpersonal Effectiveness skills in order to have conversations that lead us to a shared vision. I will also be focusing on growing my communication skills so that I can be encouraging and inspiring as we look at moving towards a new model.

On which competency within Diversity-Equity-Cultural Competence will you focus in addressing the identified challenge? Why is it important for this particular challenge?

I will also be focusing on the Foundational Competency Explore and Challenge Inequity. This will be an important competency to address not only so I myself can grow and be more aware and proactive when inequities arise at our school, but also to help others on our staff realize and challenge the inequities. My ultimate goal is to be able to advocate and facilitate changes within our school that promote equity for all students.

Which competency in the Instructional pathway will you focus on in addressing this challenge? Why is it relevant for this particular challenge?

Within the Instructional Pathway I have decided to focus on Facilitating Collaborative Relationships. School-wide change cannot happen just because one person sees a problem. Changes within a school requires buy-in and that cannot be achieved without successful collaborative relationships where all parties involved are working to grow individually and collectively for the greater good of the shared vision.

With whom will you work in addressing your identified challenge? Who else might you recruit beyond your own cultural and/or professional identity group?

I have recruited one of our Title I teachers that teaches one of our math groups in second grade, one of our Special Education teachers that has expressed her concern for not having the time to meet with students on her caseload as well as her concern for her students rarely spending time in the general classroom with their peers, and a fifth-grade classroom veteran teacher that is open-minded but also not quick to jump into something new. I will also be working closely with our Dean of Students and our building Principal. My second-grade colleagues would be ideal teachers to get on board as well.

Which resources (people, money, programs, time and space, ect.) do you have to address the challenge? What resources will you need? How will you obtain them?

In order to restructure the our grouping practices it would not require more staff, money, time, space, or different programs. It would be beneficial to provide professional development to all staff, but our professional development days for the year have already been set so this would have to be something scheduled for the following year or something that people would be willing to participate in on their own time. A plan to restructure could actually allow us to utilize fewer classrooms and implement with fewer teachers if we find ourselves in a position where we will be cutting a Title I position at the end of the school year.