OUR WORK

We are proud of our ongoing partnerships with many schools, districts, service centers, professional organizations, and departments of education. Here are some of the colleagues who have called for our services:

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A district in South Carolina identified one of its feeder patterns for targeted assistance. Although the schools had experienced a great deal of support and training, practice had not changed. Working with leadership at the district and school levels, Colleagues on Call designed a program to support and encourage experimentation. Five times during the school year, each school hosts a Colleagues consultant for two days:

Day 1: The building leadership team “walks and talks” with a Colleagues consultant. Data collected includes learner focus, student knowledge of the objective, and levels of engagement. Also during the day, time is set aside for private coaching conversations with the principal and/or the leadership team.

Day 2: Teachers meet for approximately 45 minutes during planning time. They are introduced to a new concept, given a tool which models that concept, and are expected to apply that tool at least once before the next session and to bring evidence of its effectiveness. In Day 2 of the next block, teachers present their experiment and its results.

While these schools have had much support in the past, the principals and district leadership say that this simple process has led to real, lasting growth and change. Student achievement growth has been substantial and school leadership teams give much of the credit to this process.

Separately, a consortium of private schools in Florida would not have had the capital to secure training and support for sustained initiatives. By pooling their resources — across the divisions of board, budget, and even faith — these schools have been able to partner with Colleagues on Call to present quality professional development and assistance for teachers and their leaders. A key feature of this multi–year plan has been support for thoughtful and consistent implementation on content and strategies learned, as demonstrated in the chart below:

While the most active and committed members of the consortium are designated as pilot schools, many training sessions have been opened to other private, non-profit schools in the county.

This large elementary district in California began its work with Colleagues on Call around the area of writing. Many of the students were limited in their English proficiency. By emphasizing “writing as thinking,” the focus of instruction began to shift and writing to improve. This led to several questions:

• If this works in writing, what about in other areas? Colleagues consultants presented a series of hands-on workshops for teachers, administrators, and coaches. Demonstration classrooms were developed so that teachers could see new concepts in action in all subject areas.
• What does this shift in focus look like in the classroom? How can we nurture it? The district contracted with Colleagues to certify a number of in-house Look 2 Learning trainers. After the initial L2L sessions, Colleagues consultants visited each school for “walks and talks” to support and clarify the process.
• What does “leadership for learning” look like? Using a “coach the coaches” model, school leaders received ideas and strategies for implementation. This was delivered in small groups and, for principals, often individually.
  The natural progression of these initiatives made sense to teachers and their leaders, leading to commitment and sustained implementation.

A large district in Idaho uses the work of Colleagues on Call as the “umbrella” for its school improvement efforts. Implementation has been intentional, sustained, and supported. The chart below illustrates the scope of the work in the past three years.

A large district in Idaho uses the work of Colleagues on Call as the “umbrella” for its school improvement efforts. Implementation has been intentional, sustained, and supported. The chart below illustrates the scope of the work in the past three years.

In addition, other ad hoc work was scheduled to ensure consistency in district programs. This included a 2–day custom conference on the district’s in–service days, consultation with the district instructional support team to create professional development modules, work with instructional coaches on engaging learning centers. Future work is likely to focus on effective instructional coaching, refining the understanding of student engagement, and effective learner-focused lesson design.