Educational Malpractice
In an opening keynote for a Professional Learning Communities at Work Institute in Washington, DC, Richard DuFour presented “Hard Facts, Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense in Education.” Rick stated teachers are engaging in educational malpractice if they don’t work in a collaborative environment.
He went on to explain that in a collaborative environment, members of the team should work interdependently towards a common goal with all held mutually accountable. But the focus of the collaboration is critical. Energy and attention should focus on student learning. Professional Learning Communities look to evidence that their students are achieving the identified knowledge, skills, and dispositions and use that information to drive their instructional decisions.
So what is the best way to collect and use evidence? DuFour shared research supporting the use of formative assessments.
A focus on the use of formative assessment in support of learning, developed through teacher learning communities, promises not only the largest potential gains in student achievement, but also provides a model for teacher professional development that can be implemented effectively at scale.
Dylan Wiliam and Marnie Thompson (2007)
To the extent that teachers work together in teams to 1) analyze, understand, and deconstruct standards, 2) transform standards into high quality classroom assessments, and 3) share and interpret results together, they benefit from the union of their wisdom about how to help students continue to grow as learners.
Rick Stiggins (2005), p.82
Two strategies seem especially promising for schools. One is to expand the quality and variety of formative assessments; a second is to promote and organize collective inquiry into and discussion of student progress and achievement based on a range of assessments.
Judith Warren Little, (2006), p.9
Working in true Professional Learning Communities will help eliminate what DuFour refers to as the “educational lottery” of our children’s school experiences. If research identifies the effectiveness of teachers working in collaborative teams using formative assessments to increase student achievement and educators continue to resist, should educational malpractice be the charge?
Little, J.W. (2006). Professional Community and Professional Development in Learning-Centered School. Washington, D.C: National Education Association.
Stiggins, R. (2005). Assessment for learning: Building a culture of confident learners. In R. DuFour, R. EAker, & R. DuFour (Eds.), On common ground: The power of professional learning communities (pp.65-83). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree.
Wiliam, D., & Thompson, M. (2007). Integrating assessment with learning: What will it take to make it work? in C.A. Dwyer (Ed.), The future of assessment: Shaping teaching and learning. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Image credit: http://flickr.com/photos/lumaxart/2137737248/in/photostream/
on September 20th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
Wendy,
I’ve heard DuFour several times and just finished a conference with Doug Reeves and Thomas Guskey, all part of the Solution Tree Team.
I agree with all their stuff for the most part. I wished they’d focus a bit more on authentic personal learning. I find too many leaders who read and listen to Dufour and others, tend to focus PLC’s around very narrow and outdated learning models. Specifically the increase of reading and math scores. Not that this isn’t necessary and the model effective but the lack of emphasis on the arts or project based learning bothers me? You?
on September 21st, 2008 at 1:53 am
Good point and you got me thinking….
I think that most PLC schools at the elementary level focus on reading and math for several reasons including state tests, the dedicated amount of time to those subjects during the school day, the higher level of teacher confidence with the content, especially in language arts, and because key concepts and skills in those areas are fairly easy for teams to identify and agree upon. Formative assessment data is more likely to be used to provide intervention strategies from support providers (AIS, special ed., classroom aides, etc.) I think reading and math are comfortable places for teachers to start this focused work and to see the fruits of their labors. And I can’t forget that increases in student achievement in Language Arts and Math are often identified in district-wide goals which in turn drive building and then grade level team goals.
I noticed the emphasis from DuFour tends to be on specific curricular area standards, but why couldn’t a PLC examine the integration of the arts or PBL to assess the effectiveness on student learning? Five teachers in our HP Pond Partner group last year compared student learning from our year-long project-based experience with a non-participating control class. Granted, we didn’t utilize formative assessments along the way and provide interventions, but rather only relied on pre-post data from an objective test as well as an open-ended inquiry design task. At least it was a start for us to look at data, ask more questions about our practice, and to help fit together the pieces of student learning for our team. Now others can look at that data for themselves and start to draw their own conclusions about their own practice.
I guess we all need to work at putting the pieces of this together: Teacher collaboration focus on student learning using formative assessment to drive instructional practices while providing authentic experiences for kids.
on September 21st, 2008 at 7:44 am
I’ve just begun leading a PLC this year who was brought together to begin uncovering and better supporting what “literacy” is (with the hope, of course, that it will lead to rising scores ; ) ). Thanks for sharing this and for tweeting too–I plan to share your post with district admins this week as we begin discussing the ways in which we are conceptualizing formative assessment. The need to increase the quality and THE VARIETY is apparent at this point.
I agree……thinking good formative assessment would include pieces grounded in the arts as well as authentic or performance-based tasks. One of our greatest tasks with this particular initiave includes exposing teachers to new technologies and asking them to identify and begin using those that might act as great formative assessments. I’m looking forward to watching how this unfolds.
Thanks again—this post provided some timely assistance and with any luck, it will help to clarify our thinking as our PLC moves forward.
on September 21st, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Angela,
Thanks for taking the time to comment. From the work I’ve done so far with the DuFour model of PLCs, the first question is identifying what we want our kids to know. If your group is focusing on literacy, this will present a large challenge in itself. However, once the group has come to a consensus on exactly what it is you want your students to be able to know and do, developing the formative assessment pieces becomes much more clear. This is the second question – identifying how we will know that they know it.
But then once the formative assessments are in place and being used, how do teachers use that data to provide additional instruction and intervention and also enrichment. (Questions 3 & 4) This is where the teamwork component is so critical. Being able to openly share that your kids did not do well on the assessment while kids in another class did is a lesson in risk taking and personal reflection. How was the instruction taking place in the classroom different? What changes can take place in the classroom to ensure that all kids are learning? This is the part where all on the team feel mutually accountable for the learning for all students, not just those in their own class.
How refreshing it will be to hear more about educators working in this sort of capacity rather than the lone ranger type – going above and beyond completely on their own and influencing only a small number of students rather than working towards making significant changes in the school culture, climate, and learning for all students in their building.
Please do share your work along the way. I’d love to hear and learn from your PLC group experiences.
on September 22nd, 2008 at 10:22 am
You may be interested in this PLC website http://www.allthingsplc.info. It’s a great forum for conversations like the one you are having here.
on September 23rd, 2008 at 11:37 pm
Hi Shannon.
Thanks for sharing the link. I’ll send it along to others in my district as well.
on June 23rd, 2009 at 12:36 pm
I realize I’m posting this a long time after your post, but I just stumbled across it and I think it’s great.
I think collaboration is important in every aspect of teaching. I hadn’t thought of it in assessment, but it’s obvious that it’s important there as well. I like the term “educational lottery.” I assume he’s referring to the fact that each teacher as an individual has strengths and weaknesses and as such any given student may or may not benefit from this teacher. However, when teachers work together, much of this randomness is abated, as it levels the playing field somewhat.
I used to teach in Japan, and the level of teacher collaberation there is remarkable. I’ve never seen a school in the U.S. where teachers from a certain grade meet and plan together as much as I saw in Japan. (Granted, they tend to work until 6-7PM every day…)
I loved your comment:
I guess we all need to work at putting the pieces of this together: Teacher collaboration focus on student learning using formative assessment to drive instructional practices while providing authentic experiences for kids.
That certainly sums it up well!
Thanks for your post.