Building School-based Teacher Learning Communities: Professional Strategies to Improve Student Achievement (Series on School Reform)

161 Pages·2006·0.64 MB·English

by  Milbrey McLaughlin

the series on school reform
Patricia A. Wasley Ann Lieberman Joseph P. McDonald
University of Washington Carnegie Foundation for the New York University
Advancement of Teaching
SERIES EDITORS
Building School-Based Teacher Learning Standards Reform in High-Poverty Schools:
Communities: Professional Strategies to Managing Conflict and Building Capacity
Improve Student Achievement CAROLA. BARNES
MILBREYW. MCLAUGHLINAND Standards of Mind and Heart:
JOAN E. TALBERT
Creating the Good High School
Mentors in the Making:
PEGGYSILVAAND
Developing New Leaders for New Teachers ROBERT A. MACKIN
BETTYACHINSTEIN AND
STEVEN Z. ATHANASES, EDS. Upstart Startup: Creating and
Community in the Making: Lincoln Center Sustaining a Public Charter School
Institute, the Arts, and Teacher Education JAMES NEHRING
MADELEINE FUCHS HOLZER AND One Kid at a Time:
SCOTT NOPPE-BRANDON, EDS. Big Lessons from a Small School
Holding Accountability Accountable: ELIOT LEVINE
What Ought to Matter in Public Education Guiding School Change:
KENNETH A. SIROTNIK, ED. The Role and Work of Change Agents
Mobilizing Citizens for Better Schools FRANCES O’CONNELLRUST AND
ROBERT F. SEXTON HELEN FREIDUS, EDS.
The Comprehensive High School Today Teachers Caught in the Action:
FLOYD M. HAMMACK, ED. Professional Development That Matters
The Teaching Career ANN LIEBERMAN AND
LYNNE MILLER, EDS.
JOHN I. GOODLAD AND
TIMOTHYJ. MCMANNON, EDS. The Competent Classroom:Aligning High
The Power of Protocols: School Curriculum, Standards, and
An Educator’s Guide to Better Practice Assessment—A Creative Teaching Guide
JOSEPH P. MCDONALD, ALLISON ZMUDAAND
NANCYMOHR, ALAN DICHTER, AND MARYTOMAINO
ELIZABETH C. MCDONALD
Central Park East and Its Graduates:
Beating the Odds: High Schools as “Learning by Heart”
Communities of Commitment
DAVID BENSMAN
JACQUELINE ANCESS
Taking Charge of Curriculum:Teacher
At the Heart of Teaching:
Networks and Curriculum Implementation
A Guide to Reflective Practice
JACOB E. ADAMS, JR.
GRACE HALLMCENTEE, JON APPLEBY,
JOANNE DOWD, JAN GRANT, Teaching With Power:Shared Decision-
SIMON HOLE, ANDPEGGYSILVA, WITH Making and Classroom Practice
JOSEPH W. CHECK
CAROLREED
Teaching Youth Media: A Critical Guide to
Good Schools/Real Schools:
Literacy, Video Production, and Social Change
Why School Reform Doesn’t Last
STEVEN GOODMAN
DEAN FINK
Inside the National WritingProject:
Beyond Formulas in Mathematics and
Connecting Network Learning and
Teaching: Dynamics of the High School
Classroom Teaching
Algebra Classroom
ANN LIEBERMAN AND
DIANE WOOD DANIELCHAZAN
(Continued)
the series on school reform, continued
School Reform Behind the Scenes Surviving School Reform:
JOSEPH P. MCDONALD, THOMAS HATCH, A Year in the Life of One School
EDWARD KIRBY, NANCYAMES, LARAINE K. HONG
NORRIS M. HAYNES, AND
EDWARD T. JOYNER Eyes on the Child: Three Portfolio Stories
KATHE JERVIS
Looking Together at Student Work:
A Companion Guide to Assessing Revisiting“The Culture of the School and
Student Learning the Problem of Change”
TINABLYTHE, DAVID ALLEN, AND SEYMOUR B. SARASON
BARBARASHIEFFELIN POWELL Teacher Learning: New Policies, New Practices
Looking at Student Work: MILBREYW. MCLAUGHLINAND
A Window into the Classroom (Video) IDAOBERMAN, EDS.
ANNENBERG INSTITUTE FOR What’s Happening in Math Class?
SCHOOLREFORM Envisioning New Practices Through Teacher
Teachers—Transforming Their World and Narratives (Volume 1)
Their Work DEBORAH SCHIFTER, ED.
ANN LIEBERMAN ANDLYNNE MILLER What’s Happening in Math Class?
Teaching in Common: Challenges to Joint Reconstructing Professional Identities
Work in Classrooms and Schools (Volume 2)
ANNE DIPARDO DEBORAH SCHIFTER, ED.
Charter Schools: Another Flawed The Subjects in Question: Departmental
Educational Reform? Organization and the High School
SEYMOUR B. SARASON LESLIE SANTEE SISKIN AND
JUDITH WARREN LITTLE, EDS.
Assessing Student Learning:
From Grading to Understanding Authentic Assessment in Action:
DAVID ALLEN, ED. Studies of Schools and Students at Work
Racing with the Clock: Making Time for LINDADARLING-HAMMOND,
JACQUELINE ANCESS, AND
Teaching and Learning in School Reform
BEVERLYFALK
NANCYE. ADELMAN,
School Work: Gender and the Cultural
KAREN PANTON WALKING EAGLE, AND
ANDYHARGREAVES, EDS. Construction of Teaching
The Role of State Departments of SARI KNOPPBIKLEN
Education in Complex School Reform School Change: The Personal Development
SUSAN FOLLETT LUSI of a Point of View
Making Professional Development Schools SEYMOUR B. SARASON
Work: Politics, Practice, and Policy The Work of Restructuring Schools:
MARSHALEVINE AND Building from the Ground Up
ROBERTATRACHTMAN, EDS. ANN LIEBERMAN, ED.
How It Works—Inside a School–College Stirring the Chalkdust: Tales of Teachers
Collaboration Changing Classroom Practice
SIDNEYTRUBOWITZ ANDPAULLONGO PATRICIAA. WASLEY
Building
School-Based
Teacher Learning
Communities
Professional Strategies to
Improve Student Achievement
Milbrey W. McLaughlin
Joan E. Talbert
Teachers College
Columbia University
New York and London
Published by Teachers College Press, 1234 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027
Copyright © 2006 by Teachers College, Columbia University
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, or any information
storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McLaughlin, Milbrey W.
Building school-based teacher learning communities : professional strategies to
improve student achievement / Milbrey W. McLaughlin, Joan E. Talbert.
p. cm. — (the series on school reform)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8077-4680-6 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-8077-4679-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Teachers — Training of — United States. 2. Teachers — In-service training —
United States. 3. Educational change — United States. I. Talbert, Joan E. II. Title.
III. the series on school reform (New York, N.Y.)
LB1715.M348 2006
370.71’55—dc22
2005055956
ISBN-13: ISBN-10:
978-0-8077-4679-0 (paper) 0-8077-4679-7 (paper)
978-0-8077-4680-6 (cloth) 0-8077-4680-0 (cloth)
Printed on acid-free paper
Manufactured in the United States of America
13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
1. Learning to Improve Student Achievement 1
The Essential Role of a School-Based Learning Community
for Teachers 3
Evidence That Teacher Learning Communities Benefi t Students 8
The Empirical Foundation and Organization of the Book 11
2. Challenges of Re-culturing Schools into
Learning Communities 16
How Teacher Learning Communities Differ from
Typical School Communities 16
How Do Teacher Learning Communities Improve
Student Achievement? 22
Stages of Learning Community Development and Challenges
of Transition 30
3. Developing Communities of Practice in Schools 38
Getting Started: Principles for Developing
Communities of Practice 39
Developing Communities of Teaching Practice:
Case Illustrations 44
School Leadership for Developing Teacher
Learning Communities 56
Tensions and Challenges in Changing School Culture 60
4. Professional Development in Support of Teacher
Learning Communities 64
Special Contributions of Off-Site Professional Development 65
v
vi Contents
Quality Professional Development and Its Value to
Teacher Learning Communities 68
Implications for Teacher Professional Development Systems 77
5. Teacher Learning Communities and the Broader Context 79
System Administrators 80
Teachers’ Organizations 83
Professional Developers 86
Stakeholders: Parents and Community Members 88
6. Everyone a Learner: Challenges and Promising Practices 92
System Administrators 92
Professional Developers 98
Parents 106
Community Members 110
Expanding the Local Learning Agenda 111
7. A Local Learning System to Support Teacher
Learning Communities 113
Why Are Teacher Learning Communities Rare? 113
The District as the Unit of Change 116
The District as a Local Learning System 118
Implementing a Local Learning Agenda:
Boston Public Schools 122
Outcomes of Boston’s Learning System 126
Research for School-Based Learning Communities 129
Notes 130
References 133
Index 139
About the Authors 148
Acknowledgments
We learned about the character, consequences, and development of
school-based teacher learning communities from the more than 15 years
of research on education reform carried out by Stanford’s Center for
Research on the Context of Teaching (CRC). Our debt to the many
researchers and practitioners who participated in various CRC efforts
extends across several projects involving many schools and districts. A
National Science Foundation study involved us with innovative math-
ematics departments. Evaluations of two major education reform initia-
tives, the Students at the Center (SATC) project, funded by the DeWitt
Wallace–Reader’s Digest Fund, and the Bay Area School Reform Col-
laborative (BASRC), supported primarily by grants from the Annenberg
and Hewlett foundations, brought us into sustained contact with school-
level reform efforts and their diverse contexts. A research project under-
taken in partnership with colleagues at the federally supported Center
for the Study of Teaching and Policy (CTP) at the University of Wash-
ington focused on district reform in several states. The education reform
initiatives we studied offered opportunities to understand the problems
and processes of building effective school communities; our documenta-
tion of these efforts forms the book’s evidence base.
The Students at the Center initiative, carried out in Chicago, New
York, and Philadelphia from 1996 to 2001, funded several professional
development organizations in each city to collaborate to improve teach-
ing quality in district schools. Our CRC research team involved gradu-
ate students and research staff in field-based research and qualitative
and quantitative analyses over the 5 years of the initiative. Stacey Pelika
played the pivotal role of SATC project director and made major contri-
butions to the project’s data analysis and reporting. Stacey’s black-belt
organizing skills kept years of interview and record data accessible, and
her terrific recall made her indispensable to team members seeking to re-
vii
viii Acknowledgments
trieve an interview or make connections across sites. Although this book
has changed significantly from its original conception and drafting, we
are grateful to Stacey for her key role in developing some of the case
analyses that we draw upon here. Teresa McCaffrey joined the project
staff during the last phase of data collection and analysis; she took the
lead in analyzing the Chicago SATC parent project featured in chapter
6. Stanford School of Education doctoral students formed the core re-
search team and brought particular analytic lenses and contributions to
understanding implementation challenges and outcomes of the SATC
design. Linda Friedrich was lead researcher for the New York SATC site,
and her dissertation analyzed collaboration among the initiative’s pro-
fessional developers there. Patricia Burch headed up the Chicago SATC
research; her dissertation examined how “marginal” community-based
organizations such as the arts interact with “mainstream” education or-
ganizations. Chapter 6’s discussion of the Chicago art project’s success
with community engagement and political diplomacy draws upon her
research. Cynthia Coburn and Ellen Meyer were key field researchers
in Philadelphia and Chicago, respectively. Ginger Cook and Kim Powell
contributed to the last phase of field research in New York City and
Philadelphia, respectively, and participated in the initial data analysis
and writing.
Phase 1 of the Bay Area School Reform Collaborative took place
from 1996 to 2002 and featured inquiry processes throughout a school
as a vehicle for developing teacher learning communities capable of im-
proving student learning and closing achievement gaps. The CRC evalu-
ation involved a team of researchers in 10 case study schools; repeated
surveys of 86 Leadership Schools; and observation of many workshops,
institutes, staff meetings, network convenings and other BASRC re-
gional sessions. BASRC project researchers contributing to the evidence
base cited here include Betty Achinstein, Mike Copland, Becky Crowe,
Rachel Ebby, Jennifer Goldstein, Jim Greeno, Ed Haertel, Ken Ikeda,
Julia Imburg, Anastasia Karaglani, Wendy Lin, Jacob Mishook, Kay
Moffitt, Ida Oberman, Laura Post, Marjorie Wechsler, Catherine Roller
White, and Joel Zarrow. Dana Mitra took the lead in analyzing stages of
BASRC schools’ development of inquiry processes and teacher learning
communities, described in chapter 2. Celine Toomey Coggins’s disserta-
tion on coaching during BASRC’s second phase (2001–2005) focused
on the two BASRC schools and districts featured in chapters 3 and 4. A
study of math education reform in a satellite sample of California high
schools complemented findings from the BASRC evaluation. In particu-
Acknowledgments ix
lar, Joanne Lieberman’s dissertation research, sponsored by the National
Science Foundation, focused on the mathematics department featured in
chapter 2.
Our research on reforming districts supported by CTP also contrib-
uted to this book’s empirical base. CTP’s research program studied re-
form strategies and practices at the state, district, and school levels in
California, New York, North Carolina, and Washington; the work of the
entire CTP team, led by Michael Knapp at the University of Washington,
informed our analyses of district contexts. Case studies of district reform
efforts developed by Amy Hightower and Julie Marsh provide founda-
tion for chapters 5 and 6.
Practice grounds this book’s argument and evidence. The teachers,
administrators, professional developers, and teacher community facili-
tators who opened their professional lives to our research teams helped
us to understand the principles that guide their work with teacher com-
munities, the ways in which local contexts matter to them, the chal-
lenges and successes they experience, and the conditions that support
their learning and effectiveness.
The Students at the Center initiative included professional develop-
ers and consultants from diverse organizations in each city. In Chicago,
the SATC effort involved Smokey Daniels, director of the Illinois Writ-
ing Project, and colleagues at the Center for City Schools at National-
Louis University, including Angelee Johns, Linda Bailey, Lynette Em-
mons, and Peter Leki, who coordinated the Parent Project; Cleeta Ryals,
acting director of the Chicago Algebra Project, and consultant Imara
Randall; Arnold April, executive director of the Chicago Arts Partner-
ship in Education, and his colleagues; and Allen Swartz, executive direc-
tor of the Chicago Metro-History Education Center, and colleague Lisa
Oppenheim. Judith Foster and Litrea Hunter of Chicago Public Schools’
Teachers’ Academy for Professional Growth and principals and teachers
in four anonymous case study schools provided generous insight into
how SATC looked to them and what it accomplished in their schools.
New York’s SATC project team involved Rick Lear and Anthony
Conelli, who successively served as SATC project directors over the five-
year period. Many consultants from the Lehman College Institute for
Literacy Studies and its director, Marcie Wolfe, were involved in the
team. They included Ray Durney, director of the New York City Math
Project, and NYCMP consultant Linda Dolinko, whose work with a
middle school is featured in chapters 3 and 4; Linette Moorman, direc-
tor of the New York City Writing Project, and consultants Ed Osterman