Collaborative Learning Networks
At Partners for Educational Leadership, we have been working on several fronts to change the way that schools and districts think about continuous improvement, particularly the role of teacher teams (which could be called data teams, grade level teams, department meetings, PLCs). In our Collaborative Learning Networks, we support teachers to work in small, instructionally focused teams that meet consistently throughout the year. The work of these teacher teams (which we call “Instructional Improvement Teams,” or simply “Improvement Teams” for short) is to engage in continuous improvement research routines around instructional “best practices” for creating equitable, adaptive thinking classrooms. In most cases, this entails starting with a specified method for an instructional practice (what we refer to as a “recipe” for reasons that Isobel Stevenson outlines in Coaching Letter #190), asking teachers to test the recipe in their own classrooms, collect data and reconvene as Improvement Teams to share what they’ve learned and collaboratively improve the recipe. Improvement Teams then come together in quarterly Network convenings to learn with and from each other’s instructional improvement efforts.
Current Collaborative Learning Networks:
- Thinking Classrooms Network
- Rhode Island Equitable Instruction Network
For more information about our Collaborative Learning Networks please contact us at info@partnersforel.org.
