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Fellowship Paper
PSI does its work through unique and rare charter-district collaboration.
One of the fundamental reasons charter schools were created was so that
they could serve as laboratories for innovation and bring these innovations
back into the "regular public school system." For those who believe
that public education in Massachusetts is about serving all children, it
is critical to connect charter schools--which enroll less than two in 100
public school children--with district schools--which enroll the other 98
percent. The need for charter schools to impact other public schools is
reflected in the legislation that created charter schools in Massachusetts.
In fact, such impact is cited as one of the central purposes for the existence
of charter schools. Project Connect (1999), a federally funded program and
a joint project of the National Education Association's Charter School Initiative
and researchers at SRI International, encourages communication between charter
and district schools. It's based on the premise that "charter schools
may stimulate broader record of public education by serving as laboratories
for school improvement" (3). The Project for School Innovation was designed to pave the way for more
effective professional development and school change by bringing people
together to share ideas and innovations in education. The work of PSI is
based on four core beliefs, which Kevin Andrews and Michael Rothman, the
program's founders, developed over years of working in public schools, government,
and non-profit organizations that work with schools. First, every school
should be recognized for its strengths, and every school should be helped
to address its needs. Second, no one knows how to do this better than professional
educators--teachers, administrators, and staff--who engage in the work of
successful education reform every day. Third, schools that are granted the
independence to try out new ideas have the responsibility to share those
ideas with others. Fourth, every school is unique, but every school can
also learn from others, if it has the tools, the support, and the leadership
to help make that happen. Taken together, these beliefs led PSI to implement a program that brings
charter and district schools together, using teacher leadership, sharing
of best practices, and methods that promote effective organizational change.
Based on principles of experiential education and adult learning, PSI employs
a unique, five-step process that combines collaborative professional development
with technical assistance. The process starts when principals and their
schools join the PSI network in small clusters of 3-5 nearby schools. Each
cluster then engages in five steps: First, schools are matched together.
Second, they reflect on their own strengths and needs. Third, they come
together to swap innovative practices that meet one another's needs. Fourth,
they receive assistance to adopt models to their own schools. Fifth, they
develop expert teams to share effective practices nationally. As of September
2001, PSI had implemented most steps in the process and has plans to engage
schools in all five steps. From August to October of each cluster's first year, PSI recruits 3-5
nearby schools serving a similar population of students to form a new cluster.
Each cluster is made up of 3-5 schools, including at least one of each of
the following: a lead district school, a lead charter school, and a new
or struggling school. A "lead school" must have: (1) at least
three years of operation; (2) a strong reputation among local educational
leaders; (3) a principal with at least ten years leadership experience or
innovative experience outside the school system; (4) a record of student
success on statewide exams; (5) potential effective practices to address
needs of other member schools. Before the school year begins, PSI staff meet with leaders from local
education organizations, such as the local education fund, district administration,
state Department of Education, or the state's charter school support networks.
Building on their knowledge and relationships, PSI identifies potential
participating schools and school leaders and solicits agreement and support
from each school principal. Having established interest from potential participants, PSI meets with
each school principal to engage in a preliminary review of a school's strengths
and needs. Schools are matched together such that the strengths of one school
in a cluster will potentially meet the needs of another. Critical at this
stage are leadership from principals and close school collaboration. These
will help the school engage in effective organizational change later in
the process. From October to December of each cluster's first year, PSI engages school
principals and staff, who sign up for sessions on a voluntary basis (sometimes
encouraged by their principals) and receive stipends and/or PDPs for participation,
in a process of facilitated reflection. The sessions are structured to utilize
principles of experiential education and adult learning and thereby help
schools become more effective "learning organizations," that is,
organizations in which feedback and ideas that grow within the organization
are used and valued to improve the organization. In essence, the sessions
help participants identify their school's effective practices. The idea of a "learning organization" often runs contrary to
the typical style of school-based professional development and its tendency
to cast teachers in the role of "passive learners." It is critical,
then, for facilitators of these meetings to set a tone that is different
from that established in most other professional development, focusing at
this point not on giving information to schools, but rather on helping schools
reflect upon and draw out the knowledge they already have. To identify a school's strengths and weaknesses, each school conducts
in-depth surveys (through interviews) with at least 15 staff members. By
collecting qualitative and quantitative data, schools are able to develop
a strong understanding of their own strengths and needs, which are reported
back to the school in a thorough statistical analysis. PSI compiles and
analyzes results for each lead school in order to identify three to six
best or promising practices. These are defined as practices that have three
qualities. First, they have a strong positive impact on students and learning,
one which is identified through the experience of educators at the school.
Second, the practices were created or creatively employed at the school.
Third, the practices have the potential to be replicated at other schools.
The same school survey is used to compile data on areas in need of improvement.
This is a simpler process, with weaknesses generally identified as those
that at least one-quarter of staff surveyed view as needing improvement.
Using this data, participants select two best or promising practices (one
from each lead school) that meet the needs of other schools in the cluster. Once practices are selected, 4-10 staff members at each lead school participate
in a series of discussion sessions in which they reflect on the practices;
they are assisted by a facilitator from PSI. In these sessions teachers
are asked to take what they have experienced in their school and translate
it into key elements involved in the practice, challenges they faced in
the past, advice they would give to others, and evidence of positive impact.
In the course of these discussions, teachers learn more about their own
school and its practices, and they develop expertise. With the groundwork in place for each lead school
to understand and share its practice, staff members from the different schools
are ready to meet with one another. The lead charter and district schools
enter the room on equal footing: each has an area of expertise it can offer
the other and an area of need in which it expects to receive help. This
balance is critical to effective two-way exchange. From January to April
of each cluster's first year, PSI engages staff in teacher-centered professional
development. Here educators share effective practices (practices that address
identified needs), and in the process they are empowered to effect change.
For each of the two best practices that have
been identified in the cluster (one practice at each of the two lead schools),
PSI facilitates a series of "swapping sessions." Teachers and
staff from each school join in school teams, comprised of 2-5 people interested
in learning about a specific effective practice. Sessions combine one-on-one
and small group discussion with teacher-led presentations and observation
of practice (live or on video). The sessions are facilitated by
PSI staff but are led by expert teachers, teachers who participated
in the first steps of the process, thereby becoming experts in the topics
to be explored in this step. Using what they learned while reflecting on
practices, teachers show how their effective practice works and in so doing
further develop their presentation and leadership skills. Evaluations show
that the process also leads to a greater sense of efficacy and confidence
among teachers, many of whom are more enthusiastic about learning practices
from their peers and colleagues than from someone perceived as an outsider. By the end of these sessions, each school team
has selected one element of an effective practice to bring back to its school. As these sessions near completion, the participants
in a cluster have become comfortable with one another; a network has formed,
and lessons have been learned. Each school has at least one team of teachers
planning to implement a new practice. Each lead school also has a team of
"expert" teachers who have explored a practice and have shown
it to others. Over the next year, PSI provides assistance to help schools
adopt practices in a way that has long-term, sustained impact. With help from an expert teacher, each school
team develops an action plan to bring a particular best practice to its
school the following school year. Each action plan includes three sets of
goals. First are goals for implementation; these describe how the team plans
to implement the new practice in a way that fits its particular school environment.
Second are goals for teaching; these explain what the team is hoping to
improve about teaching at their school by implementing the practice. Third
are goals for learning; these explain what the team is hoping to improve
about learning at their school by implementing the practice. As teams complete
their action plans, they submit them to PSI, where they are reviewed by
expert teachers and the director of the program. Based on the feasibility
and ambitiousness of the plan, schools are offered planning grants in order
to support implementation of the action plan the next year. During the second year of a cluster's work,
five after-school meetings are held in which all school teams and expert
teachers in a cluster share stories and data about their progress towards
stated action plan goals. During the time frame when these meetings are
being conducted, we also seek to broaden involvement beyond the first group
of "early adopters," lest change remain isolated in a corner of
each school. Building on the existing cluster relationships, we convene
eight informal peer exchange sessions designed to provide a comfortable
atmosphere for additional teachers and staff to join the process. Participants
discuss topics of interest and have the opportunity for more sporadic involvement. By the beginning of the second year of a cluster's
work, expert teachers have strengthened their ability to articulate and
share their effective practice. They are now ready to share those practices
nationally. Beginning in October of a cluster's second year, PSI nationally
disseminates two how-to guides on effective practices "by teachers,
for teachers" and builds teams of expert educators to provide national
training. The how-to guides are developed on each effective practice identified
in the first year of cluster work; they include lessons documented on video
and in writing. Because of the steps involved in the process described above,
the publications have, in effect, been thoroughly researched by practicing
educators and are thereby credible and comprehensible. The guides are posted
on the PSI Web site ( www.psinnovation.org
). They are also easily accessible in hard
copy, as they are distributed through appropriate national partnerships
and are submitted in article form to magazines and journals. Building further on experience within their
cluster, expert teachers from each lead school form a training team that
will provide professional development and follow-up technical assistance
to other educators. The training they provide is designed to accompany and
augment the how-to publications and provides teachers from other schools
with the opportunity to learn from the experience of PSI schools.
Education reform, like education itself, does
not simply happen. It requires For the principles of today to become the
reality of tomorrow, a system of structures and supports must be in place.
The charter school movement provides one ray of hope, so do the many innovative
schools of all stripes across the country. Indeed, so do the tens of thousands
of talented teachers who are engaging in successful education reform every
day. By harnessing the ideas and potential that these people and schools
bring to education, we hope to help make education reform happen. Michael Rothman serves as the founding director
of the Project for School Innovation (PSI). Mr. Rothman has written and
edited four books on education practices, including most recently, The
Massachusetts Charter School Initiative, the 2001 report on Charter
Schools in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Mr. Rothman has worked as
a journalist, speechwriter, service-learning trainer, designer of children's
toys, and consultant to the Massachusetts DOE. Prior to starting PSI, Mr.
Rothman served as a Public Service Fellow at the JFK School of Government,
where he received his Masters of Public Policy in 2000, and as a Jane Addams
Fellow at the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy in 1998. Michael
received his B.A. in Political Science from Brown University in 1994. Aron, Laurie Joan. 2001. Managing to Learn:
How Companies Can Turn Knowledge into Action. Working Knowledge: A Report
on Research at Harvard Business School 4, no. 1.
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