Structuring Retreats to Share Findings and Discuss Recommendations Paul Cobb and the MIST Team.
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Transcript of Structuring Retreats to Share Findings and Discuss Recommendations Paul Cobb and the MIST Team.
Structuring Retreats to Share Findings and Discuss
Recommendations
Paul Cobb and the MIST Team
Collaboration with Districts
October
• Interview district leaders to document current strategies for improving middle-school mathematics
January-
March
• Audio-recorded interviews with the 200 participants to document how the districts’ strategies are actually playing out in schools and classrooms
Collaboration with Districts
February-May
• Analyze transcripts of the 200 interviews• Identify and explain gaps between each district’s
intended and implemented improvement strategies• Develop a detailed report for leaders in each district
• Share findings and actionable recommendations
May
• Meet with district leaders to discuss our findings and recommendations
District Feedback Meetings
• Two hours – conference room• 6-8 district leaders– Decision making authority – Mathematics expertise
• Lead researchers + district specialist(s)– Talk from notes – no PowerPoint slides– Encourage open discussion
District Feedback Meetings• Setting norms– Design failure
• For each district strategy: – ToA: Envisioned forms of practice that constitute the
goal of the strategy + intended supports and accountability relations
– Findings – how that strategy is being enacted in schools
– Explain why this is the case– Recommendations for revising the strategy
District B (2011):General Framing of the Report
• The district continues to make progress but two areas where there is room for improvement:– Depth of teachers’ mathematical knowledge for
teaching has not improved and is still below the national average
– Quality of teachers’ instructional practices have not improved• Description of findings about classroom instruction +
why it matters for students’ learning
General Framing of the Feedback Report
• District is implementing a number of initiatives
• These initiatives as they are actually being implemented have not been effective in supporting instructional improvement– Instructional improvement and student
achievement
District Initiatives• Supports for Middle-Grades Mathematics
Teachers– Teacher professional development– Enhanced pacing guides and interim district
assessments– Teacher collaboration
• Mathematics coaches• School instructional leadership
Findings: School Instructional Leadership
• School leaders and accountability• School leaders’ visions of high quality
mathematics instruction• Monitoring classroom instruction• Professional development for school leaders
Recommendation: School Instructional Leadership
• Professional development that:– Focuses on a small number of high-leverage
instructional practices– Aims to support development of their visions of high
quality instruction• Enable them to communicate appropriate instructional
expectations
• Aligned with teacher and coach PD– Focuses on the same instructional practices
Reflection: Negotiating an Instructional Improvement Agenda
• Researchers have to go 90% of the way:– Take district’s current ToA as the primary point of
reference– Explicate conjectures that underpin
findings/recommendations and give them significance
• Researchers’ role is advisory– Ethics – fragile/non-existent research base
District Leadership Institutes
• 1 ½ days in summer• Leaders across district central office units• Co-planned with senior district leader(s)• Overall goal: Develop shared agenda for
instructional improvement for the next school year across central office units
CCSS-M: Clarifying Mathematical Capabilities Students Need to Develop
• Mathematics problems from old and new 7th grade state assessments– Apply taught procedures to familiar types of
problems– Analyze novel problems to determine procedures
to use / calculations to perform• Can all district 7th-grade students analyze and
solve novel types of problems?
Implications for Instruction
• Teachers should:– Pose high-level tasks• Clarify distinctions between the two sample problems
– Maintain the challenge of such tasks throughout the lesson• Proceduralize the task from the new state assessment
District Teachers’ Current Practices
• District mathematics experts– Choice of tasks + maintaining rigor of task
• MIST data: IQA and MKT
Supports for Teachers’ Development of Needed Instructional Practices
• Curricular resources:– To what extent and in what ways are teachers
currently using district curriculum frameworks and adopted instructional program?• Mathematics experts + MIST data
– Challenge: How can we work to ensure that teachers are making greater use of available resources?
– Proposal: Focus teacher collaborative time on lesson planning using the curricular resources
Supports for Teachers’ Development of Needed Instructional Practices
• Professional learning communities:– What should happen if teacher collaboration is to
support instructional improvement?– What is currently happening when mathematics
teachers work together?• Math experts + MIST data
– Challenge: How to make PLCs more productive?– Proposal: Leadership + types of activities + protocol
Implications for School Leadership
• School leaders’ current practices– Leadership directors + MIST data
• To what extent are these practices likely to support instructional improvement?– Articulate a vision of: • School leadership • School capacity for improvement
Implications for District Leadership
• Clarify the work of:– District mathematics coaches– District curriculum specialists– Leadership directors
Wrap Up• Review what we have accomplished:– Goals fro students’ mathematical learning– Teachers’ instructional practices– School instructional leadership– District leadership
• Review resulting plan for moving forward:– Clarify how MIST can assist FWISD