Elements of a Professional Collaborative Culture . Development at the Josiah Quincy Upper School
Components of Effective Meetings . Norms: Young Achievers Educational Leadership Team
Young Achievers Decision-Making Procedures . Q & A with Executive Director of Friends of Young Achievers
Team Roles . Building a Professional Collaborative School Culture: How Are We Doing?
A Sample Protocol: The Consultancy

1. Strong relationships are founded in trust.
2. There is a norm established of publicly sharing work, and being open to dialogue, discussion, and critique.
3. Substantive, intellectual discourse takes place with a defined purpose.
4. There are multiple levels of collaboration occurring in the school (for example, within grade-level teams, the leadership team, committees, and the governing board).
5. Defined structures and protocols exist (for example, facilitator, timekeeper, and recorder roles; agendas and minutes; reflective time).
6. Assumptions are questioned and new perspectives are used to solve problems. 
7. Differences are treated with respect

• Looking at student work in teams using defined protocols, and using these discussions to take steps to improve learning, teaching, and assessment.


• Observing classrooms, and having conversations with the teacher being observed to improve learning, teaching, and assessment.


• Developing a shared vision and common goals for moving the school forward with the input of the entire school community.


• Creating shared decision-making governance structures that engage the entire faculty and include representation of families, students, and community members. Teams, committees, and full-faculty and governing board meetings allow the school to decide on key instructional, programmatic, and budgetary issues.


• Working in teacher teams to plan and implement curriculum and assessments for shared students, including rubrics to assess student work.


• Working in study groups or committees to examine data, read and discuss literature, and form strategies and solutions for improving learning, teaching, and assessment.


• Serving on faculty panels to judge and assess student work that is presented through exhibitions, demonstrations, and portfolios.Collaboratively examining multiple sources of data to identify challenges, and then using an inquiry process to develop schoolwide goals and action plans.

Study Groups at JQUS in 2006–07
A Brief Description
           
Overarching Question: What does it mean to be a learning community, and how can we, as a faculty, work collaboratively to build one? 

Our “Areas of Exploration” introduce the following basic questions:

JQUS Study Groups: Small mixed-grade groups with the freedom and flexibility to explore a topic more thoughtfully and deeply.
           
Format: We have worked approximately ten hours of study-group time into our whole-faculty PD schedule. During this time you will meet in your study groups and have the opportunity to delve into one of our “Areas of Exploration” more deeply. In our efforts to achieve a true understanding of the topic, and due to the depth of each topic, we are going to stay in the same study groups for the entire year.

Areas of Exploration

Differentiated Instruction
To differentiate instruction is to recognize students’ varying background knowledge, readiness, language, preferences in learning, and interests, and to react responsively. Differentiated instruction is a process to approach teaching and learning for students of differing abilities in the same class. The intent of differentiating instruction is to maximize each student’s growth and individual success by meeting each student where he or she is, and assisting in the learning process.

Cooperative Discipline
To put it simply, cooperative discipline shows teachers how to work hand in hand with students, colleagues, and parents to solve the discipline dilemma. With “cooperative” as the byword, two achievements are possible: First, the classroom becomes a safe, orderly, inviting place in which to teach and learn. Second, student self-esteem increases, which must happen if we want students to behave more responsibly and to achieve more academically.

International Baccalaureate
The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) is a recognized leader in the field of international education, encouraging students to be active learners, well-rounded individuals, and engaged world citizens. Founded in 1968, it currently works with 1,889 schools in 124 countries to develop and offer three challenging programs to more than 486,000 students aged 3 to 19 years.

Issues of Race, Ethnicity, Language, and Class
In our diverse urban educational setting, it is extremely important to explore what experiences our students bring into the classroom. Conversations and research relating to our students’ cultural and economic backgrounds can go a long way toward developing an effective educator:student relationship.

Meetings should be productive and efficient. Below are components of effective meetings.

• An agenda is distributed in advance.
• Meetings start and end on time.
• All team members participate in the discussion.
• Team members ask clarifying questions when something is unclear.
• Discussion stays on topic.
• Plans about who will do what by when are finalized and recorded, and issues that require follow-up are carried over to the next agenda.
• Minutes are recorded and shared with team members and others.
• Commitments are carried out prior to deadlines.
• Meetings are evaluated periodically for productivity, thoughtfulness, and how well members interact.

The following norms were developed by the Educational Leadership Team with their CCE coach. The norms were reviewed at the first ELT meeting of the school year, and are revisited as needed throughout the year. 

• Listen (openly and actively).
• Honor start and end times.
• Offer mutual respect for: opinions, beliefs, background, and differences.
• Watch your air time and reflect on your practice.
• Strive for a common language and ask for clarification.
• Communicate your needs and expectations and trust that others are coming from a place of good intentions.
• Always have an agenda.
• Exercise forethought—avoid “last-minute” decisions.
• Members who are absent from a meeting will call another member who was present to find out what happened at the meeting.
• When possible the ELT will try to reach a consensus in making its decisions.
• Seek first to understand and then to be understood.

• Time and resources available;
• Type of decision to be made;
• Importance of the decision to the organization or individual;
• Expertise and experience of the participants in the content of the decision as well as in their function as decision makers;
• Potential value of the opportunity to create a stronger team through the decision-making process

• Discuss and identify parameters of the decision.
• Identify who will be affected and how they will be involved.
• Develop a timeline.

• Identify the decision-making method to be used (see below).
• Identify a communication strategy.
• Discussion should be guided by the questions below:

• What is the issue?
• What do we believe? (values, philosophy, beliefs, guiding principles)
• What do we know? (research, experience, best practice)
• What is the desired result? (ultimate goal)
• What resources are needed and available? (human, time, fiscal, physical)
• What do we do? (action, responsibility, implementation, evaluation)

• Decide and announce
  The designated leader makes the decision using the information available at the time.
• Gather input from individuals and decide
  The designated leader asks selected individuals for input (ideas, suggestions, information) and then makes a decision.
• Gather input from team and decide
  The designated leader asks the team members to share their ideas in a meeting. The leader decides after hearing from the team.
• The team gathers input from individuals and decides
  The team asks individuals for their input and then decides.
• Team decision by majority-rule voting or polling
  The team makes a decision based on the choice of 50 percent plus one of the people on the team.
• Decision by consensus
  A consensus decision is one about which all members have had an opportunity to give their opinion and to understand the implications of various options. All members, including the leader, have the same formal power to support or block proposals. A consensus decision is one that each and every member of the group/team is willing to support and help implement. If consensus cannot be reached, the leader has a fallback decision-making option.
• Delegate with constraints
  The leader defines the decision that needs to be made in the form of a question(s), clarifies the constraints (e.g., budget, timeframe), and delegates the decision to others as long as it adheres to the constraints

• a vital partnership with each child’s family;
• antiracist pedagogy and interpersonal relationships;
• meeting the needs of the wide range of learners in the school;
• use of data in making effective decisions.
  

Decision Category	Responsibility
Policy	Governing board
Schedule	Educational leadership team (ELT)
Curriculum development	ELT
School-based rules	Student support team, given authority by principal
Procedures/class placement	Located with different grade-level teams, school-based teams (e.g., nurse, office), in consultation with principal and assistant principal
Staffing and hiring	Recommendation from representative committee to principal
Professional development	ELT
Program development and evaluation	Begins with a school-based team responsible for the program element. The school-based team recommends to ELT
Facilities	Principal
Fundraising	Principal/FOYA
School-based practices	ELT
Individual goal setting and evaluation	Supervisory relationship

Team or committee members need to fill a number of different roles so the team operates smoothly. These roles can be rotated among the members, but teams often choose to keep the facilitator or team leader consistent because of the complexity of that role. Teams should spend time during their first meetings deciding what roles will fit their work and help them reach their goals. These roles could include, but are not limited to: facilitator, recorder, timekeeper, and observers. Any roles a team decides to use are not the exclusive responsibility of the person who takes on that role. All team members are responsible for making sure all roles are working effectively

Descriptions of Team Role

Facilitator or Team Leader—The team leader’s primary responsibility is managing the process of the team and helping team members stay focused on their purpose, goals, and norms. The team leader should also help build commitment and the confidence of the group. Perhaps most important, the leader is not there to control or run the team, but to create opportunities and a tone that allows all members to use their skills to help the team. 

Running effective meetings is one way a team leader helps the team reach its goals. The leader’s responsibility for running effective meetings includes distributing an agenda two or three days before each meeting, making sure team members’ ideas are heard, and keeping the meeting focused on the agenda and the issues that are being discussed. The facilitator ensures reflection at the end of each meeting to see how effectively the team worked together during the meeting.

Recorder—In addition to taking minutes of the meetings, this person is also responsible for communicating with groups outside of the team such as parents, other teachers, and the principal.  

Timekeeper—This person keeps a close eye on the progress of all meetings to make sure the entire agenda is addressed. Because it is often hard to keep people on task and within the timeframe the group has agreed to, the timekeeper is vital to making sure the team addresses all agenda items during each meeting.

Observers—Essentially all team members take this role and watch carefully to see how the team is operating in relation to the norms, goals, and purpose. It is everyone’s job to observe and give feedback on how team members interact with each other and how the group maintains its focus.

As a school reflects on its professional collaborative culture—either for the first time or as an ongoing review—the following survey can be useful and thought provoking. Take time to individually complete the survey and then meet in small groups to compare and discuss findings.

For the following questions, rate where you think your school is on the following continuum:

1 = No, or rarely, or only a few teachers.
2 = Some, but not much, or not everyone.
3 = Most teachers and teams do fairly regularly.
4 = All teachers do regularly.

DO WE:

           Look at student work in teams using defined protocols, and use these discussions to take steps to improve learning, teaching, and assessment?

           Observe classrooms and have follow-up conversations with the teacher whose classroom is being observed to improve learning, teaching, and assessment?

           Work in teacher teams to plan and implement curriculum and assessments for shared students?

           Engage in text-based discussions?

           Use consultancies in teacher groups as a means to bring instructional dilemmas to the forefront and receive feedback on them?

           Work in study groups to examine data, conduct action research, and try new strategies for solutions for improving learning, teaching, and assessment?

           Serve on faculty panels to judge and assess student work that is presented through  exhibitions, demonstrations, and portfolios?

           Work in teacher teams to develop rubrics for assessing student work?

            Collaboratively examine multiple sources of data to identify challenges, and then use an inquiry process to develop schoolwide goals and action plans?

For the following questions, rate where you think your school is on the following continuum:

1 = No.
2 = We are at the beginning stages.
3 = We have, and many but not all are/were involved.
4 = Yes, and most everyone is/was involved.

HAVE WE:

           Set norms as a faculty for how we work with each other?

           Developed a shared mission and common goals among the entire school community for moving the school forward?

           Developed schoolwide principles, values, or habits of mind?

           Created a shared decision-making governance structure that engages the entire faculty through teams, committees, and full-faculty meetings on key instructional, programmatic, and budgetary issues of the school?

Some Tips for Consultancies