Northeast ASCD Affiliate Conference

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Please choose from one of the Pre-Conference Workshop sessions listed below:

Choice P1: High School Redesign - The Need for the Four R's - Rigor, Relevance, Relationships and Reflections

with Willard Daggett

Highly successful schools have academically rigorous curricula that also incorporate real-world relevance. These schools understand that rigor, while essential, is not adequate to lead all students to high levels of achievement. This presentation will provide an in-depth look at the Rigor/Relevance Framework, created by the International Center for Leadership in Education, which has become a cornerstone of curriculum and instruction for schools throughout the country and abroad. Two additional R’s, which are also critical to maximizing student success, will be described: the importance of the relationships between student and teacher, student and student, and teacher and teacher and the need to provide opportunities for reflective thought on what is being taught and learned.

Register for Pre-Conference Session P1

Choice P2: Making the Case for PLC Practices

with Rick and Becky DuFour

Consistent and powerful quantitative research on school improvement is clear: the most promising strategy for sustained and substantive school improvement is developing the capacity of school personnel to function as a professional learning community (PLC). Some of the most compelling evidence of the benefits of PLCs, however, comes from the words of teachers and principals who have built them. This session will make the case for PLCs by both highlighting the quantitative research and celebrating the stories of educators throughout North America who are bringing the PLC concepts to life in their schools.

Register for Pre-Conference Session P2

Choice P3: Unleashing the Power of Collaborative Inquiry: Connecting Data to Results

with Nancy Love and Susan Mundry

Many schools are faced with the challenges of closing achievement gaps, building robust professional learning communities, and using data effectively to guide instructional improvement. In this session, participants will learn about a structured process of collaborative inquiry that is unleashing the creativity and resourcefulness of educators to meet these challenges. Through collaborative inquiry, school-based, grade-level, or course-or subject specific data teams construct meaning of student learning problems and embrace and test out solutions together through rigorous use of multiple data sources and ongoing reflective dialogue. In this session, participants will learn about a structured approach to collaborative inquiry known as the Using Data Process that is contributing to significant gains in local and state assessment results in diverse schools as well as increased collaboration and data-driven dialogue and instructional improvement.

The approach features the development of data coaches, school and district leaders who learn how to lead high-functioning data teams through a process of 1) building a foundation; 2) identifying a student-learning problem: 3) verifying causes of student learning problems; 4) generating and monitoring solutions: and 4) achieving results. This session will provide an opportunity for participants to experience the process first hand through a data simulation and to gain insights into how to marshal the power of data and collaborative inquiry as catalyst for equitable school improvement.

Participants will learn how to:

• Build the foundation for successful implementation based on shared commitments to equity and collaborative inquiry
• Use multiple levels and sources of student learning data to accurately identify a student learning problem as a focus of improvement
• Verify causes of student learning problems using local data about practice and relevant research
• Apply highly engaging and visual tools for facilitating data-driven dialogue and instructional improvement

Register for Pre-Conference Session P3

Choice P4: The Skillful Leader II: Confronting Malfunctioning Groups and Building Accountable Communities

with Andy Platt and Caroline Tripp

A growing literature links the building of “professional learning communities” or “small learning communities” with positive impact on student achievement. As we watch and listen to leaders who are trying to transform their schools, however, it’s not hard to note the gap between the promise of adult collaboration and the current reality. Too many teams, departments and professional groups are mired in old habits and ineffective patterns of behavior that stall improvement efforts and drain energy and attention away from important goals.

In this practical session designed for anyone who wants to create stronger professional communities, we will

• consider and apply a framework for assessing how well professional groups are functioning to help students learn.
• suggest leadership skills and strategies for confronting toxic, laissez-faire, and congenial communities who block or contribute little to improved learning and teaching
• examine the difference between good “collaborative” teams and great “accountable” ones

We’ll provide video vignettes, interviews, samples and case studies to start off the practical discussion about mediocre group work and what skillful leaders are trying to do to turn their professional communities around. You bring your own cases and questions to add to the mix.

Participants will be able to

• Take away and apply a set of indicators of excellence for groups who need to be actively engaged in solving problems of student learning
• Diagnose the presence of mediocre group work and the specific nature of malfunctioning groups in their own work settings
• Propose a set of skills and strategies for confronting and changing ineffective professional communities
• Identify a network of colleagues who are also engaged in this work and willing to share support and strategies

Register for Pre-Conference Session P4

Choice P5: Results NOW!  From “Brutal Facts" to the Best Schools We’ve Ever Had

with Mike Schmoker

A true renaissance could occur in our schools—starting immediately. It will begin with an encounter with what Jim Collins calls the “brutal facts”—those practices which educators know are important but which have yet to occur in classrooms. We will realize historic improvements in teaching and learning the moment we choose to implement the most basic, agreed-upon practices and leadership structures supported by researchers from every camp.

In this interactive workshop, participants will learn about the simple elements most essential to substantive, measurable improvement:

• Effective, targeted teamwork
• Manageable, measurable goals
• Simple, ongoing use of student assessment data

Participants will leave the workshop knowing how to immediately and effectively conduct (simple) school improvement planning and ongoing activities that achieve both short and long-term results. Throughout the workshop, we will be referring to real schools and districts which demonstrate the power of these elements in ensuring higher achievement.

Register for Pre-Conference Session P5