Collaborative planning time (CPT) is pivotal to a school faculty’s ability to share successful teaching strategies, pool resources within a grade level or discipline area, examine student work, and develop a solid school culture of collaboration. At one ELT school, the Kuss Middle School in Fall River, it has been a key strategy for improving instruction and lifting student achievement. In 2004, the Kuss Middle School was labeled “Chronically Underperforming” by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.1 Since that time, Kuss, under the leadership of veteran Principal Nancy Mullen, has worked hard to redesign the school day and advance instruction to meet the needs of its students. Kuss became an ELT school in 2006. Nancy Mullen reflects: “On our path to improvement what has really helped us is our focused effort on instructional change. And to achieve instructional change you need lots of collaborative planning time. With more collaborative planning time, my faculty can observe instruction, discuss instruction, and then make the needed changes that really impact instruction. The big issue is time—solid, collaborative planning time.”
Nancy Mullen also emphasizes that collaborative planning time needs to be structured in a way that maximizes the productivity of the meetings and really focuses on school goals. Over the past two years of implementing ELT, the Kuss Middle School has developed a model both the principal and the teachers feel is working. The Kuss model includes approximately two hours of collaborative planning time for all teachers each week. The time is structured around three weekly meetings that each last 45 minutes. The three meetings include:
- Cluster meetings
- School Improvement Plan meetings
- Same subject/same grade meeting
In addition to these three types of collaborative planning time meetings, there are also two types of monthly meetings with the full faculty (usually 1 hour each). These include:
- Curriculum meetings
- Full Faculty meetings
Weekly Curriculum meetings are used to discuss specific grade-level curricular issues; full faculty meetings bring together the entire faculty to discuss outstanding school-wide issues.
Three Kinds of Collaborative Planning Time
Each of the three types of meetings plays a particular role in helping to advance the school’s goals. The three types of meetings are described more fully below.
Cluster Meeting:
A cluster meeting includes the faculty that teaches a given ‘cluster’ of students at the school. The meeting usually consists of one math, one ELA, one science, and one social studies teacher who teach the same students, as well as any special education teachers who work with those students. A cluster meeting allows time for teachers to talk to each other about a specific student’s needs, or to share strategies that have been successful with that student. The group may discuss student progress as a whole, discuss curricular issues that are arising, as well as any opportunities for cross-curricular collaboration. It can also be a time for participating teachers to talk to parents and/or summon students for a group conference if need be. The group appoints one teacher to be facilitator to run the meetings. Sometimes the same teacher acts as facilitator at all meetings, while in others, this role rotates among the cluster teachers.
One example of a student who benefited from the process was Rob M.* who began to struggle in the third term. He had been a steady student for the first half of the year, but his homework and class work began to slip. He was missing assignments and exhibiting low-level behavioral problems. The cluster team spoke about him at a meeting; everyone was having the same types of problems with Rob. They decided to hold a conference with him during the next cluster team meeting. As it turned out, Rob was experiencing difficulties at home. His mother was away from the family taking care of a parent for several weeks. Rob was living with an aunt. Being away from his home and missing his mom was taking a toll on his school work. As a short-term step, they had him come for some extra help after school. As a behavioral incentive, one of his teachers arranged for him to get a membership at the local Boys & Girls Club, and when the mom returned, they called her in for a meeting. They discussed their concerns, addressed some specific issues with his behavior, and put in a check system for assignments. They set a follow-up date for the group to check with Rob’s mother and keep her updated. With everybody on the same page, they began to see an improvement in Rob’s behavior and work. After grading periods, the group now compares lists of students who are struggling or failing, and any students who are in trouble in more than one class are targeted for intervention by the group.
School Improvement Plan (SIP) Meeting:
SIP meetings are attended by all school staff and are used to review and discuss the various goals articulated in the School Improvement Plan (SIP). At the Kuss Middle School, the SIP is a living, working document that clearly articulates what the faculty are focused on achieving. The SIP identifies target dates for achieving particular milestones or benchmarks. Through SIP meetings, a school administrator works with faculty and staff to review progress in achieving these targets. For example, one SIP meeting was devoted to the topic: “What are you doing to improve open response writing?” At this meeting, teachers reviewed the latest assessment data for the particular progress students were making on open response questions. Teachers discussed some of the strategies they were using in the classroom to improve student skills in this area and what was and wasn’t working. As part of the school’s effort to improve instruction around open response writing, teachers might also spend some of the allotted planning time observing a particular lesson in another teacher’s classroom. SIP meetings can also be used to discuss their observations.
One SIP goal for the year was to begin to develop a stronger professional learning community within the school. As an example, Kuss Middle School has been using the SIP meetings for a modified “Lesson Study.” Lesson Study, a professional development tool that is very common in Japan, has three parts:
- A teacher teaches a particular lesson or portion of a lesson
- Participants observe and make notes on what is happening
- A discussion takes place regarding what was observed, identifying both positive features and areas for improvement.
The meetings are done in an atmosphere of collegiality, and observations are discussed in non-evaluative language between peers.
Same Subject/Same Grade Meeting:
Same subject/same grade meetings allow the faculty to meet by grade and subject levels (all 8th grade math teachers, for example) to discuss common curricular and assessment issues. These meetings are led by department heads. An example of a meeting topic is: “What assessment are we using for divisional fractions?” During this meeting, the team might brainstorm around a common assessment and discuss how and when they will administer those assessments.
In combination, these three types of collaborative planning meetings create an integrated and comprehensive approach for professional collaboration. Teachers are supportive of all three types of meetings. A required notebook with minutes is kept for each meeting by a team member and minutes are checked (typically by a school administrator). Administrators are present at all collaborative planning meetings to make sure they run smoothly.
* – Name of student changed to ensure anonymity.
Sample Collaborative Planning Time Agenda:
Agenda
Math and Science Curriculum Meeting
Wednesday, May 28th
Auditorium Conference Room
8-8:40 am
Grade 6
Goal: The teachers will work on the next iteration of a common process for answering open response questions in math and science.
Current curriculum focus:
- Bits and Pieces III (math)
- Water and Weather (science)
Looking at Student Work:
- Science teachers will examine analysis section of Lab 5.2 Layering Hot and Cold Water
- Teachers will look at the impact of the CCLS focus on student writing
- Students have been using:
- Are students able to identify the evidence from the lab that supports the claims?
- Math teachers will describe the open response process they use with students
- English sentence
- number sentence
- visual—table, graph, diagram
- correct answer
Teachers will:
- Discuss the use of common language
- Identify ways to combine the strategies used in math and science to improve writing
1Chronically Underperforming School shall mean a school deemed by the Commissioner to be an underperforming school, also known as a Commonwealth Priority School, that is found by the Board, in accordance with M.G.L. c. 69, § 1J, to have failed to demonstrate significant improvement consistent with its approved remedial plan within 24 months after Board approval of its plan. http://www.doe.mass.edu/lawsregs/603cmr2.html?section=all
