Leaders cannot expect to improve and transform their schools without collective efficacy.

 Together, Educators Can Improve Struggling Schools

Susan Moore Johnson

Moore-Johnson-December-3-2021-Express-Photo

School improvement and reform

Principals

Data analysis and use

Leadership and Management

Leadership strategies and support

Professional development / learning

Professional learning communities

Principal effectiveness

School and district leadership

Teacher leadership

Achievement gap

Leadership

Equity

Collaboration among teachers on school-based teams helped many schools keep teaching successfully during the pandemic. Drawing from observations of how teams recently operated in a Massachusetts school district, Moore Johnson suggests how leaders can build and support strong teacher teams so schools can continue leveraging this strategy on an ongoing basis.

Why Teacher Teams Are More Critical Than Ever

September 2021 Moore Johnson header image

0921_MooreJohnson_shutterstock_1835976799

Collaboration

Teacher engagement and motivation

School climate and culture

Teacher effectiveness

COVID-19 Pandemic 

Professional Learning

School Culture

Teachers in high-poverty schools often feel stressed and fatigued. We might expect that if we ask these teachers to take on even more work by meeting regularly in collaborative improvement teams, they will respond with skepticism, even resentment. But in a study of 83 teachers in six outstanding high-poverty schools, these researchers found the opposite. Teachers consistently reported that their teams reduced stress and gave them the support they needed to persevere. This article describes how teams operated in the five schools that made them the central component of school improvement. It also discusses the conditions that made teams effective in these schools, such as sacrosanct time in the schedule for team meetings; the school principal's active engagement with teams; facilitation of teams by teacher leaders; and the integration of other supports for teacher growth into the fabric of the school.

Team Work: Time Well Spent

Team Work: Time Well Spent- thumbnail

Successful African American team leader turning to smile at the camera as her multiracial team of executives links hands across the table; Shutterstock ID 435400798

shutterstock_435400798

Peer Assistance and Review (PAR) has the potential to elevate the professional culture of schools—if we pay attention to the key lessons provided by districts that have done PAR right, write Moore Johnson and Fiarman. Drawing on a study of seven districts that they conducted with the Project on the Next Generation of Teachers, the authors discuss five key components of successful PAR programs: open and rigorous selection of peer reviewers; clear guidelines for the reviewers' role; explicit instructional standards that serve as the basis for evaluations; deep, ongoing training for peer reviewers; and effective supervision by the PAR panel. Effective PAR programs, they warn, must emphasize the assistance component as well as the review component. Evaluation programs that use peer reviewers mainly to rank teachers so that the weakest can be fired are squandering a valuable opportunity.

Susan Moore Johnson

About

Expertise

Articles by Susan

Together, Educators Can Improve Struggling Schools

Why Teacher Teams Are More Critical Than Ever

Team Work: Time Well Spent

The Potential of Peer Review

Write for ASCD

To process a transaction with a Purchase Order please send to member@ascd.org