Carbon School District Press Release
Benjamin Franklin is credited with the wise saying, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Schools are tasked with the responsibility to plan for making improvements each year. Schools are, however, very complex organizations with a lot of moving parts. Learning to develop and implement effective improvement plans does not come naturally and requires significant professional learning to achieve.
During the 2018-19 school year, Carbon School District will invest in comprehensive training for school leaders and teachers to ensure that schools learn how to develop and implement plans effectively. This effort will require some changes in the way things have been done.
“Several years ago, the concept of Professional Learning Communities (PLC) was brought to the district,” said Lance Hatch, the district’s superintendent. “The school board supported that concept and approved setting aside time within the teachers’ contract day for collaboration. That’s what the early out on Monday is for. That was a very important step. Many districts don’t ever take that critical step. And because they don’t, their collaboration is more like a ‘we wish you would’ kind of program, instead of ‘this is how we do business here.'”
Those steps were taken in the district and a lot of high-level training has been done on PLCs, but there has not been enough support for principals and teachers regarding what the work actually looks like and how to do the work in the trenches where the rubber hits the road.
“When I came here last year and started talking to people about school improvement and collaboration, it became clear that there was adequate time for educators to do the work, but many teacher groups were still wondering what they should be doing and how to do it,” Hatch said.
After visiting many PLC team meetings and facilitating discussions with administrators, Hatch and his administrative team realized that teacher teams needed more specific training. He said they didn’t need more mile-high view type training, but ground level, nuts and bolts type of instruction.
“We want that training to be about how collaboration around school improvement looks, what processes teachers and administrators should go through to determine what the most important things are that students should learn, and how to properly analyze student data, so teachers can come away with the most effective improvement plan possible,” Hatch explained.
Consequently, the district administration started exploring how that could be done. With that in mind, the district has approached a consultant group called Ed Direction, the same group that has been helping Mont Harmon with their school turn-around project this year.
“I’ve worked with Ed Direction in the past, in fact for several years,” said Hatch. “There is nobody else out there, that I know of, that is willing to get down to the rubber hits the road kind of stuff. They are the only ones really digging in and getting their hands dirty with real implementation science.”
The group was founded on the principles developed by Dr. Trent Kaufman from Harvard. Hatch said the group is very successful and, due to that success, demand for their services is high and securing their assistance requires a significant financial investment.
“The reason they are expensive is because they are so good,” said Hatch. “So, we have been working for the last couple of months to see what it would take to bring them here to help the entire district. At the same time, we looked at what we were spending by sending people to all the other trainings our people have been attending. In the end, we will be spending a little more money next year than we would normally spend for professional development, but what we will get will be a lot better product and result.”
The consulting group will spend three days with the district’s leadership teams (up to 10 people from each school, each one representing a different grade level or department) this summer. Ed Direction will then return for four days during the school year and help the district to develop, analyze and adjust 60-day improvement plans. Every 60 days, the group will return and walk schools through the next steps in the process. On these days, the consultants will spend time with every teacher in the district. In between those days, they will continue to work with the leadership teams.
“These meetings will not be so much training sessions as they will be work groups,” said Hatch. “They will walk us through the process of developing these improvement plans, analyzing how well they are working and helping us to adjust them.”
The support of the administration and a definite plan on how to improve results will culminate in an improved educational experience for students. Often, other types of training outside and sometimes in far away places not only costs, but can result in little benefit. Hatch said that research shows there is 0 percent implementation from most trainings unless the organization introduces coaching and on-going administrative support. When combining professional learning with support for administration and feedback, there is a 95 percent implementation.
“This will be a sacrifice for some people,” said Hatch. “We are going to have to tell some people that they can’t go to their favorite conference or meeting because our funding is going to be wrapped up in this partnership with Ed Direction.”
Hatch noted that the focus of the district will be on moving in this direction, and he said that that focus must be sharp and to the point.
“There is a great quote from the book “Essentialism.” It says we must, ‘deliberately distinguish the vital few initiatives from the trivial many, eliminate the non essentials, and then remove obstacles so the essential things have clear, smooth passage.’ So, what we are doing is giving up some of these other things and we will focus on only the vital few things leading us to accomplish specific goals.” Hatch said.
Hatch continued by saying that the process the consultants use will expose the district’s weaknesses.
“Let’s say through this process we find that our weakness is reading for example,” stated Hatch. “Then the 60 day plan will be used to address that issue, and if we need more professional development at the conclusion of next school year, we will cross that bridge then.”
Hatch said the district has written a grant to pay a large portion of the cost, and if it is awarded that will free up some funds for other professional development situations.
“We just believe we need to get good at the process of school improvement,” he stated. “That is important so we can have a real, tangible impact on student learning. This will help us target specific areas and we will know for sure if we are making a difference or not.”
Presently, the district is focused on this program for only one year and Hatch said the contract with Ed Direction includes all the visits, meetings with every teacher and many virtual meetings and over site as well. The last of the four-day visits through the year will come the day after school is released in 2019.
“Then, we can decide what we want to do for the next year or coming years,” said Hatch. “Of course, the hope is that we can take it from there ourselves and make it work.”
The improvement plans will all be based on data and will include very specific items that schools and teachers must do to reach specific student learning goals. Hatch also said that from his experience, what the administration and teachers will learn is reproducible, which means it can be used long after the consultants have done their job.
“The idea is for the individuals within the district to learn the process of school improvement and then, as we keep practicing and get good at that process, we hope it will just become a part of our culture at Carbon School District. It will just be how we do business here,” concluded Hatch.