Rightsizing a school district includes technology and collaboration
Education Week
The transformation of the Kansas City, Mo., School District has been long overdue as multiple superintendents and administrations, using billions of dollars of desegregation funds, have tried to transform the district by creating magnet schools, themed schools and career-focused high school initiatives. Missing from these initiatives, but included in the current restructuring, was a laser-like focus on teaching and learning. In light of shrinking dollars due to the worst recession since the 1930s, professional development funds have shifted to support in-house curriculum writing and other leadership activities. The district uses technology to support collaboration among teachers through professional learning communities, data teams, discussion threads and transmedia platforms. Teachers continue to have access to individual professional development through commercial and district-generated video links.More

Do the homework on your professional development investment
Learning Forward via Education Week
How much of a school system's budget should be allocated to professional learning? Unfortunately, there is not a definitive answer to this question. But whatever information people present in their efforts to maintain or increase their professional learning budgets must include answers to several key questions.More

Oregon district may standardize early-release Mondays for teacher collaboration
Albany Democrat-Herald
Maria Delapoer, superintendent of the Greater Albany, Ore., Public School District, hears it everywhere she goes: Albany parents hate the school calendar, particularly the sporadic early-release Mondays. Yet the district is committed to giving teachers time to collaborate. So Delapoer is proposing next year's calendar increase the early-release days to one hour every Monday, for consistency, and that every school join in. The planning time is called "professional learning communities." Proponents see them as a way to boost student learning by allowing time for teachers to collaborate on best practices. More

Oshkosh, Wis., School District examining redefined teacher workweek
Appleton Post-Crescent
A redefined workweek for Oshkosh, Wis., teachers would aim to create more flexible hours while increasing expectations for collaboration, professional development and face time with students outside the normal school day. The school board and administrators briefly entertained the idea of a 40-hour workweek but ultimately chose to pursue a more flexible schedule that asks teachers to attend professional development, collaboration meetings and co-curricular events outside of the normal school day without extra pay, said Director of Assessment and School Improvement Holly Rottier.More

Celebrating North Tahoe, Calif., School's students
Sierra Sun
The North Tahoe, Calif., School has implemented some successful structures and systems this year promoting a sense of shared responsibility around academic achievement and around a safe and respectful school climate. The staff of NTS is devoted to providing a rigorous and viable education via the essential grade level standards to all students. In providing quality instruction, teachers work weekly and monthly in their Professional Learning Communities to collectively implement various research-based instructional strategies and instructional units. As a result of this collaboration and "effective" instruction, the percent of students who are proficient on the district's wide language arts and math benchmarks have grown at least six percent from last year.More

Canada's Grande Yellowhead teachers focus on teamwork
The Hinton Parklander
The Grande Yellowhead Public School Division in Alberta, Canada, is putting a new emphasis on collaboration between teachers — ensuring that education reaches every student in the classroom. Called "embedded learning," the division's schools have set aside regular periods of time for teachers and support staff to discuss what each student needs to reach their learning goals. Most of Grande Yellowhead's schools have a 2 p.m. dismissal on Thursdays for this collaborative time amongst staff. The embedded learning approach has been employed by most of the division’s schools for the last few years as part of Alberta's ongoing emphasis on inclusive education, replacing segregated classrooms for different learning needs that were common in schools a generation ago.More

Kansas middle school connects instructors to professional learning collaboration with technology
Great Bend Tribune
Great Bend, Kan., Middle School is one of five schools selected nationwide to be part of a five-year, $26 million project with Old Dominion University's Center for Educational Partnerships. "The use of technology will play a key role in providing professional development to mathematics teachers in rural and urban areas across the nation in a highly cost-effective way, linking them together in a professional learning community that will enhance sustainability," said Dr. John Nunnery, project director.More