What A Difference A Delay Makes

Today marks the first district-wide delayed start of the school year. It is part of eighteen hours of professional learning for teachers built into the instructional schedule, and complements twelve hours that were conducted the week before students returned. When I was a classroom teacher, many of my students would ask what we did during the delayed start times. Many of our other stakeholders (parents, community members, board members, etc.) may wonder the same. We owe it to everyone to be as transparent as possible.

All of our professional learning time this year is guided by our district professional learning goal: To increase our instructional expertise through collaborative, intentional planning to enhance student learning. Similar to other professions that demand continued professional education, we recognize that teachers are learners too, and that ongoing professional learning for teachers must be collaborative, intentional, and focused on the ultimate objective of high levels of learning for all students.

Here are just two examples of how the two-hour delay this morning was utilized:

School A focused on two topics – the building blocks of a “guaranteed and viable curriculum,” and SMART goals. In our district, when we use the phrase “guaranteed and viable curriculum” we mean that students have access to the same essential learning no matter who the teacher may be and that it can be taught in the allotted time, as well as that a collaborative team of teachers works to ensure that every student acquires the knowledge and skills the team has agreed are most essential (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Many, 2010). Within that context, collaborative teams looked at content standards to be taught, the “big” curricular ideas, essential questions, assessments, resources, and time frame. In conjunction with that comes the concept of SMART goals – strategic, measurable, attainable, results-oriented, and time-bound. Both topics relate back to the overarching school improvement goals the school has set forth in its school improvement plan.

School B also focused its efforts on school improvement. Specifically, each department in the school contributed goals and objectives to the school improvement plan in June, and this morning was a time to examine how to continue to move forward to meet them. Each department has a proficiency measure and teachers are learning new, collaborative methods in which to use available data to analyze proficiency levels. The action plan for each department is similar: 1) identify the bottom 30% of students in each grade level with specific assessment and data; 2) develop strategies to increase proficiency levels for all students with a focus on those students identified in the bottom 30%; 3) regularly use formative assessments to measure ongoing progress; and 4) use summative assessments to determine whether the measurable objective was met.

The professional learning in both of these schools this morning was tied directly to our district professional learning goal in order to enhance student learning. And these two schools are not exceptions, but rather, the “rule” for the use of this precious collaborative time. Two of our high schools are also experimenting with multiple delayed starts throughout the year in addition to those that are district-wide. With this repurposing of time, instructional staff are gaining approximately sixteen hours of additional collaborative time to intentionally focus on the quality of teaching and learning so that all students achieve at high levels.

Similar to the idea that we would not want to be treated by a doctor or advised by a lawyer who was not immersed in current best practices, we do not want our students in classrooms that are staffed by teachers who are not lifelong learners. By intentionally supporting teachers in collaborative, professional learning such as this morning’s two hour block, we are enhancing student learning for all of our kids and fully living our vision of "all learners achieving individual potential."