District Administration - November 2012 - (Page 40)

Sustainable PrOfeSSiOnal DevelOPment “In traditional classroom observations, administrators would look for kids sitting quietly in rows, all eyes on the teacher, displaying listening cues,” says Nussbaum-Beach. Now, the process is somewhat “messier.” Administrators must tell the difference between chaos and excitement, identifying, for instance, a “humming excitement” that indicates students are engaged, she says. John Bailey, executive director of Digital Learning Now, a national initiative to advance digital learning policies in schools, says administrators must observe teachers with more precision. “When you have a literacy coach, a paraprofessional and a student mentor in the classroom, offering specific feedback to a teacher can be very complex, as it could be difficult to measure that teacher’s separate impact,” says Bailey, former U.S. Department of Education director of technology. Teachscape aims to help administrators effectively evaluate teachers through training and technology-based observation products. Teachscape Walk software, a data collection program that runs on mobile devices, is a diagnostic tool designed to facilitate classroom observations by helping administrators gather and analyze data and craft action plans. For example, the software might include a checklist of things to look for, such as student engagement and or how a teacher acknowledges students. If the teacher needs improvement, the software walks the administrator through the stages of working with the teacher on a plan. Teachscape also offers a Classroom Walkthrough Institute, training on use of the Teachscape Walk program, that can be customized for face-to-face, online, or blended learning instruction. A school leader assists a teacher with the professional development process using Teachscape’s technologies. Overcoming Challenges Many education experts involved with transforming professional development say overcoming ingrained practices and attitudes continues to be a challenge to establishing the open environment At Winthrop University’s College of Education, faculty and teachers participate in shared professional learning in science education at a summer Partnership Conference for Educational Renewal. 40 November 2012 that welcomes risk taking and continuous learning. Lisa Johnson, project director for Netscope, a teacher training program that is part of Winthrop University’s College of Education in Rock Hill, S.C., says building teacher-administrator trust can be a challenge to creating a culture of ongoing learning. The Netscope program, which includes a network of nine K12 districts in the area, partners with schools to give the university’s pre-service teachers authentic classroom teaching experiences in medium income and high-poverty schools, and also manages a sustained PD program that brings educator experts together from the districts to train each other and share best practices. The teacher training program relies on video recording to collect, archive, and analyze real teaching episodes for learning, but overcoming certificated teachers’ reluctance to being filmed can be an initial obstacle. “To reassure them,” says Johnson, “we require administrators to sign on the dotted line that they will not use the videos for evaluation purposes, which is huge.” The nature of administrator-teacher communication can also prove an issue in establishing an environment of ongoing learning. Cosner says that, for schools to make the shift from a “culture of accountability” to a “culture of learning,” it’s important for administrators to speak with teachers about reinforcing learning rather than accountability. As part of Winthrop’s Netscope program, says Johnson, administrators in the area districts undergo an eight-day cognitive coaching program that trains them how to empower teachers to problem-solve. Administrators are taught how to ask teachers the right questions, prompting reflection on their classroom instructional practices and eliciting ideas for strategies, such as how to ask students the questions that engage them in higherorder thinking, as opposed to simply telling them what to do. But teachers can also get “initiative fatigue,” which Morris says can block efforts to establish sustainable learning practices because it overwhelms them. A plethora of mandates for schools, like learning to create 21st century assessments, and implementing the common core, or Response to Intervention (RTT) programs, requires that district leaders connect the dots for teachers, and show them how these all dovetail with a larger district goal. “We go in and unpack those initiatives to make sure teachers understand how they’re all part of a single strategy to support learners, as District Administration

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - November 2012

District Administration - November 2012
Contents
From the Editor
News Update
District Profile
Administrator Profile
Flipping the Script in K12
Sustainable Professional Development
Brave New World of Teacher Evaluation
Philadelphia’s “Servant- Leader” Superintendent
Enhancing School Access Control
New Products
Professional Opinion
New Directions

District Administration - November 2012