Competent Leaders Make the Difference in Achieving School and ...

Leading Teachers to Work Together to Improve Achievement
When Virginia Dean became principal of North Side
High School (NSHS) in Fort Worth, Texas, in 2006, she
inherited a 107-member staff and a well-established
leadership team consisting of a lead counselor, a lead special
education teacher, lead content
teachers, novice and veteran
“Don’t be afraid to
make changes when
the data is screaming
that improvement is
needed.”
— Virginia Dean
Principal
North Side High School
assistant principals, and an
advanced academic coordinator.
She decided to get to know the
staff before initiating any new
programs and procedures.
“Most importantly, know
your data,” Dean urged new
administrators. “Be honest
about the current reality, but
never lay blame, even when the
data may not be pretty.”
For example, something was obviously wrong in an
Advanced Placement (AP) English class where only four of
32 students scored 3 or above on the AP exam, and 28 of the
students scored 1,000 or less on the SAT, even though most
of the students made an A in the class.
Keys to Collaboration
To bring needed change and get all staff members “on
the same bus,” Dean identified eight keys to collaboration:
observation; team training; data disaggregation; honest
examination of current realities; planning; and scheduling,
mentoring and monitoring.
“Increased teacher collaboration begins with increased
administrative collaboration,” Dean said. She observed the
actions of the leadership team to find strengths, weaknesses
and informal leaders and then scheduled a leadership retreat
to discuss new procedures. In a follow-up session, the team
identified goals and methods and gave individual opinions
on how to improve the school. Team members identified
barriers, decided on a common vocabulary and shared data.
“I asked the team to be honest and objective,” Dean
said. She learned to listen before saying no and to take time
to think about suggestions instead of making hasty decisions.
Using Data
Disaggregating data is one of Dean’s keys to
collaboration. She listened to what the leadership team said
about data and asked departments to disaggregate the data
and formulate responses. Then she regrouped the leadership
team to review the responses.
Each department was asked for an honest appraisal of
student achievement: What have you noticed about
classroom practices and student performance in your
department? What do you need to change?
Meanwhile, teachers throughout the school were sharing
ideas, making connections to data and planning new lessons.
Informal teacher leaders volunteered to become formal
teacher leaders, ninth- and 10th-grade teams of teachers
emerged, and teachers requested and received time for
collaborative planning.
Dean conducted two types of administrative classroom
walk-throughs. First, she and the leadership team conducted
empty-room walk-throughs to look for predefined evidence of
specific practices and strategies, such as word walls, rubrics,
student work and teacher models. Second, she and the
leadership team conducted live-room walk-throughs. Dean
trained her staff to avoid subjective comments and to seek
helpful information. Team members asked students about
their learning experiences and shared findings with the staff.
After one semester of administrative and leadership team
walk-throughs, teachers asked if they could visit classrooms.
The school’s instructional specialist began leading walkthroughs
with teachers, using the same guidelines as those
used by the leadership team.
Team Building
Teachers also participated in team building activities and
professional development focusing on establishing common
ground within teams. The four core curricular teams met at
least once a week during common planning time to develop
daily agendas, common syllabi and common assessments.
They also increased the number of student conferences and
parent contacts.
Dean believes one of the best uses of common planning
time is to look at student work. She recommends using a
method such as a tuning protocol to examine student work
and/or teacher assignments and assessments.
Mentoring is another form of collaboration used by
NSHS to increase teacher effectiveness and student
achievement. Dean said mentors are essential for all new
teachers. She defines her expectations for the mentor and the
teacher and provides essential follow-up. Substitute teachers
are brought in two days per semester to allow teachers to
observe and have conversations with each other. The mentor
and the new teacher prepare reflective summaries that they
review and discuss. They also establish and review goals.
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