Conference Material

What Have We Learned? Local Systemic Change Initiatives Share Lessons From the Field

B. Preparing Professional Development Providers

     Ensure that teacher leaders fully embrace the tenets of reform.

The strongest professional development providers have a clear understanding of the project vision and goals. While this may be stating the obvious, LSCs have found that they have sometimes assumed too much in the area of vision, when they should have "assumed nothing." Projects must be proactive and explicit in communicating vision, and have a formal process for doing so with core staff, TOSAs, school- based teacher leaders, and outside content experts. Participation in high quality professional development both local and national and coplanning with core staff can help reinforce reform goals with teacher leaders.

Two pieces of the vision have been particularly thorny for LSCs: the effective use of inquiry in elementary science projects and ensuring high expectations for all students. LSCs can benefit from revisiting these issues in explicit ways over time, both to reinforce teacher leaders' evolving views and to ensure that they embrace these goals. Lead teachers have to be advocates and "sales people" to convince others of the value of reform. To do so, they must have a firm grasp of the vision and goals for the project.

     Clarify teacher leaders' roles and where they fit in the "big picture."

Having defined the tasks of professional development providers, LSCs need to define the skills required for the designated role. What expertise do potential leaders bring to the LSC and how do their skills fit with others on the LSC team? LSCs must ask these questions deliberately and answer them as explicitly as possible, with preparation tailored to meet both immediate and emerging needs. Regardless of their level or role, teacher leaders must understand both what they bring to reform and how they fit into the plan within the context of their district and school. LSCs must also recognize that roles may evolve over time as the context and system change, as turnover takes its toll, and as expertise and levels of readiness increase among teacher leaders.

     Provide time and a range of leadership opportunities for teacher leaders to gain skills and confidence.

Teacher leaders vary in their talents and background. Typically, as LSCs attempt to reach all of the targeted teachers, they struggle with pressing teacher leaders into roles before they are sufficiently prepared. Apprehension and burnout are particularly relevant for school- based teacher leaders who maintain full- time teaching assignments, and who may feel ill- prepared to lead professional development or advocate for reform with faculty, administrators, and parents. LSCs should expect that it will take participation in high quality professional development over a period of years for teacher leaders to become fully adept at their roles. Some advised working with teacher leaders as long as possible before using them as professional development providers, involving them in planning, reviewing instructional materials, and the development of new assessment instruments.

Easing teacher leaders into their roles "Start teacher leaders off easy, don't overwhelm them with the magnitude of the chore, feed them small bits of responsibility at a rate comfortable for them." PI Interview

     Develop a broad awareness of content.

LSCs can safely assume that content needs for elementary and middle school teacher leaders are huge. Beyond understanding the content included in the student instructional materials, professional development providers must have an understanding of, and be able to articulate, the "big content picture;" that is, how the content in the instructional materials fits into the curriculum as a whole. This was the "really challenging piece" according to PIs - working with teacher leaders on developing awareness of content strands over the course of grades K- 12. Reform leaders noted that LSC professional development for teacher leaders typically enhanced their understanding of module- related content and improved their classroom instruction, but it was less likely to convey the larger conceptual picture or link content across units. LSCs found the latter to be critical - yet elusive - pieces.

Some LSCs talked of the merits of formal coursework for TOSAs and school- based teacher leaders conducted by university professors who understand vision, inquiry, and content. Said one PI: "It's the only thing that can lead to teacher leaders' understanding of the larger conceptual picture." In the absence of these opportunities, LSCs must be explicit in addressing broader content knowledge in their own professional development courses through the use of standards, concept webs, and assessment tools. As one PI put it, how do LSCs reach teacher leaders "who don't know they don't know content?" LSCs suggested one- on- one coaching as a key strategy, but also recommended building a community of learners - allowing teacher leaders time and opportunity for discourse and reflection, for example, in small groups looking at student work. According to LSCs, that process best enables teacher leaders to realize where their needs are.

     Provide multiple formats and opportunities for practice and reflection for teacher leaders to gain expertise in pedagogy.

Teacher leaders need time to learn and practice inquiry- based instructional strategies before they can effectively help others use these methods in the classroom. As with content, LSCs suggested formal and informal learning opportunities, including one- on- one coaching by core staff and small group discussion among teacher leaders. The design must allow teacher leaders to engage in the inquiry process themselves - asking questions and struggling with applications. One PI described a model that includes a series of stages to groom leaders and help them grasp new practices: teacher leaders first attend "basic" workshops, then observe and script workshop sessions, participate in planning and leadership sessions, and finally, join the core team to design and present sessions. Within these formats, modeling of pedagogy by LSC staff was key, along with structured debriefing time afterwards. In addition to these local experiences, several national workshops (e. g., The Exploratorium) came highly recommended for providing in- depth experiences in pedagogy for teacher leaders.

Modeling and debriefing with teacher leaders

"Teacher leaders can replicate an activity without understanding what you're trying to achieve. You lose quality when that happens. Discussing it explicitly was really important." - PI Interview

     Provide opportunities for teacher leaders to acquire skills and expertise beyond content and pedagogy.

Teacher leaders must be well- grounded in content and pedagogy. But LSCs are quick to assert that teacher leaders need an array of skills. Facilitation skills, the ability to work with adult learners, and knowledge of the change process are fundamental, as well. Reform leaders discovered that teacher leaders were typically far more adept at handling the pedagogy and even the content than they were at working with their peers. LSCs should expect this to be a key challenge, and work with teacher leaders on how to tap into what the adult learner brings to the professional development situation. Core staff must lead by example, providing interactive sessions where teacher leaders can safely participate as learners.

Teacher Leader Preparation: Beyond content and pedagogy "The challenge is in training the TOSAs. They are supposed to be the movers within the schools - motivators, mentors, facilitators, not the traditional professional development provider.... Their [preparation] needs are much broader than instruction. They need political acumen: how to go into a school and pick up clues as to what's important; how to nurture it toward a successful science school. How do you build consensus? How do you solve logistical problems? What is the balance between a specific teacher lesson or content versus school- based team building or system building? And how can TOSAs access the principal community?" - Conference Participant "Professional development providers need to know about the change process - the school culture, how you help a school assess where they are, where they want to go, and develop a road map for getting there. Some will say this is not the role of professional development providers - changing the school culture - but there is a huge gap in the focus of earlier NSF teacher enhancement grants and the LSCs. We're expected to address the system, to create mechanisms for change at the school site. Professional development providers need facilitation skills, how to focus the discussion, about the nature of dialogue and teacher decisionmaking, how to help teachers figure out how to take the next step in their teaching. You can do lots of centralized professional development, but if you don't have the follow- up, you don't get a lot of impact. You have to develop professional development provider skills to do that." - PI Interview

     Attend to philosophical differences among professional development providers.

LSCs indicated that identifying and preparing outside content experts as professional development providers was well worth the effort, despite some of the logistical headaches of using them for school- based professional development. But LSCs must be vigilant about philosophical differences among the professional development providers, especially between teacher leaders and content experts. Even projects that were "primed and ready" for the LSC - with a long history of working with university faculty on teacher enhancement projects - were not immune to these difficulties. When preparing content experts, as with teacher leaders, LSCs must attend to vision; be explicit about roles; involve them in professional development planning from the outset; and prepare them well on pedagogy, using the designated instructional materials, and working with adult learners.

Preparing Content Experts One PI described the project's strong collaborative culture among professional development providers. Core staff basically told faculty to "check their credentials at the door." Still, there was tension between TOSAs and university faculty over the design of content courses. TOSAs felt that teachers should learn it the way they were expected to teach it, and that content courses should be designed to be "accessible for adult learners." To resolve this tension, the LSC teamed content experts with a TOSA and another classroom teacher to co- plan the content courses, incorporating concepts from the student instructional materials and fundamentals from the appropriate science domain. In another LSC, university faculty worked intensively with school- based teacher leaders, both centrally and on- site. Despite their past experience as professional development providers, the faculty had never worked with a population who typically lacked an undergraduate degree in science. The LSC provided sessions for faculty to "get them smarter" about working with elementary teachers: getting scientists familiar with the instructional materials; identifying K- 6 content relevant to their discipline; discussing the AAAS Benchmarks; familiarizing them with grade- level appropriate pedagogy; and having them visit classrooms.

C. Deploying and Supporting Professional Development Providers

     Team professional development providers of varying backgrounds to get the best match of skills and expertise.

Given the breadth and diversity of roles required of LSC professional development providers, teaming was the recommended strategy. Said one PI: "Teaming has been key - telling teacher leaders that they're not expected to have all the skills." Using veteran professional development providers with less experienced ones helps launch reform activities while building capacity for the future, and helps ensure quality control. Other LSCs noted that teaming university faculty or other content experts with TOSAs and teacher leaders can ensure a range of perspectives and a better integration of content and pedagogy; this teaming approach can also increase the likelihood that university faculty - sometimes "unrealistic about teacher needs" will work effectively with teachers who have limited backgrounds in mathematics or science.

The benefits of teaming professional development providers "Our project staff consists of people with a whole range of skills: university math and science professors, district reps, classroom teachers, college of education faculty, grad students from several departments, and other staff from other universities. Of course, some aspects of the [professional development design] 'solutions' depend on the skills of the professional development producers. But more than the individual skills, the ability of the producers to act as a team that addresses content, pedagogy, and leadership is the biggest asset in arriving at a balanced professional development program." - Conference Participant

     Create learning communities among the professional development providers.

LSCs must balance the need for formal, high quality professional development experiences for teacher leaders with interim opportunities for shared reflection, problem- solving, and mutual support. Regularly scheduled meetings of TOSAs with core staff provide these kinds of opportunities, and LSCs noted that they were critical to the professional growth of TOSAs. Similarly, school- based teacher leaders need their own learning communities - through both formal, project- provided sessions, and informal strategies instigated by TOSAs (e. g., potluck suppers). LSCs recommended teams of several teacher leaders in schools to foster collaboration. "More than one [teacher leader] was definitely better" for providing mutual support and sustaining a community of learners. How can LSCs help sustain these learning communities? Providing resources, materials, and information, and creating an awareness of how teachers can access these resources on their own, were among the ideas shared by PIs.

     Build in quality assurance and feedback mechanisms.

Reform leaders recognized the benefits and need for site- based professional development but lamented the drawbacks: greater inconsistency, lower quality overall, and limited resources for monitoring. LSCs have learned that school- based teacher leaders' "... background and skills are fragile. Regression will occur if you're not attentive. You have to keep them focused on the model you're using." To ensure quality, projects must build in mechanisms for consultation, improvement, and replacement of teacher leaders, if necessary. One- on- one work with schoolbased teacher leaders is key for building in quality: a design that includes frequent communication, observation, coaching, and formative feedback by TOSAs is optimal. Where TOSAs are spread thin over a number of schools, projects cited the need for convening monthly meetings with site- based teacher leaders for discussion and feedback on implementation issues.

D. Tensions and Trade- offs

Throughout this report, at the end of each section, we have included a summary chart to recap the dilemmas described by LSCs. These "Weighing the Options" charts are not intended to provide either/ or scenarios for LSC designs. More than likely, LSC strategies will fluctuate in response to context, need, and resources. Some strategies will make more sense at the beginning of implementation, as opposed to 4- 5 years down the road. Multiple strategies may be required at any given time. Our purpose is to alert LSCs to some of the strengths and pitfalls associated with particular decisions, and to help them be more deliberate in the choices they make. The following chart summarizes some of the dilemmas LSCs can expect to encounter in their work with professional development providers.