Group Teachers and Students in Collaborative Teams
DuFour et al. (2016) write extensively about the power of a PLC as a “group of people working together interdependently to achieve a common goal for which members are held mutually accountable” (p. 36). When teachers share students, they are mutually accountable to each other for meeting all of the learning needs of those students. In schools focused on competency-based learning, students often organize into smaller groups that share the same set of teachers who work collaboratively with those students. In these teams, teachers are able to become laser focused on the four essential questions that every team must answer (DuFour et al., 2016).
1. What knowledge, skills, and dispositions should every student acquire as a result of this unit, this course, or this grade level? The answer to this question becomes the course competencies and performance indicators that guide the team’s instructional planning. Teams work together to align their curriculum and instructional practices with these learning objectives.
2. How will we know when each student has acquired the essential knowledge and skills? Teams work together to develop quality performance assessments as the ultimate measure of student mastery. Since team members share students, they have a mutual interest in making sure all students demonstrate competency.
3. How will we respond when some students do not learn? The answer to this question defines how the team will approach intervention, both at the classroom level and beyond. Effective teams work together to use flexible time to support the needs of all learners. Some teachers on the team may offer reteaching sessions to students, while others may offer targeted intervention. Students recognize that it will be not just their own classroom teacher, but any teacher on the team who will work with them when they have not demonstrated mastery.
4. How will we extend the learning for students who are already proficient? Teams work together to develop opportunities for extensions and enrichment for students who have already mastered a skill or concept. Perhaps some will need a blended learning approach to allow them to extend their thinking in a new way or even move ahead. The team can also use flexible learning time to provide additional instruction and resources for students who already demonstrate mastery.
At many high schools, the concept of a freshman academy (or ninth-grade small learning community) is an example of an effective way a school focused on competency-based learning can use collaborative teacher teams to group students. Souhegan High School (n.d.) in Amherst, New Hampshire, uses such a concept. In its model, teams in one area of the building (part of an organizational structure it calls Division I) schedule students in grades 9 and 10. The teams are called 9A, 9B, 10Y, and 10Z and share common teaching areas separated by an accordion wall, which allows for flexible collaboration space. The team structure promotes a strong sense of community and encourages the development of meaningful relationships between adults and students, and between peers. Each team consists of a teacher from English, social studies, science, and mathematics, and a reading specialist. Teachers collaborate on all aspects of planning and preparation, curriculum and instruction, and assessment and grading. Each collaborative teacher team also has access to guidance counselors and special educators to assist in their efforts to differentiate instruction to meet the needs of each student on the team. There is also a support period known as saber support that allows teachers to provide personalized preteaching, reteaching, intervention, or enrichment options for students as needed.
Offer Recovery Options for Students Who Aren’t Successful the First Time
Schools that focus on competency-based learning believe that failure is not an option. All students can learn, and all students must reach competency. It is simply not good enough to allow a student to fail a course or an individual course competency and not provide him or her with recovery options. Failures represent gaps in student understanding, and if not addressed, these gaps will get wider and wider. In a perfect world, no student would ever reach the point of failure in a course. Helping a student recover a course after he or she has already failed is as effective as using an autopsy to determine what is wrong with someone in an effort to keep him or her alive. Once a student has failed, it is too late. It is far better to work with students who are failing while there is still time to recover the credit, much like it is easier for a medical professional to discover a potential life-threatening medical condition through preventative screening.
In a competency-based learning system there is always time because time is not the constant that dictates when learning can occur. This does not mean that schools need to move away from time-bound organizational structures such as school years, terms, or semesters. It is acceptable to assign students to a grade level or course for a set period of time. The question becomes, What will a school do for a student who has not reached competency by the end of the course? Schools must have recovery options for these students.
Elementary schools focused on competency-based learning can achieve recovery with additional targeted instruction during the summer or during the next school year. At middle and high schools, courses are tied to credit, so students receive credit for a course only when they have demonstrated mastery in each of the course competencies. If that doesn’t happen, students are placed in an appropriate competency-recovery program, which could take many forms—from summer work to online learning or a blended model that includes both. Oftentimes, students must reach mastery before they are allowed to continue to the next course of study.
Learning Outcomes Emphasize Competencies That Include Application and Creation of Knowledge, Along With the Development of Important Skills and Dispositions
All educators have had students who did well not because they mastered the material, but rather because they learned how to play “the game of school.” They may not be the best test-takers, but they come to class each day with the right attitude and their homework complete, and they make sure to raise their hands every day to ask important questions or contribute to a class discussion or activity. Subconsciously, teachers look out for these students. They exhibit the behaviors and dispositions that teachers want all students to exhibit. Teachers find ways to weave these behaviors into these students’ grades, sometimes without even realizing it. By doing this, teachers create grades that are no longer a pure representation of what it is the students know and are able to do.
In schools focused on competency-based learning, the fundamental purpose of grading is to communicate student achievement toward mastery of learning targets and standards. Grades represent what students learn, not what they earn.
In schools focused on competency-based learning, the fundamental purpose of grading is to communicate student achievement toward mastery of learning targets and standards. Grades represent what students learn, not what they earn. Academic grades must be separate from academic behaviors. These behaviors are critical to academic achievement, but commingling them with academic grades does not provide an accurate picture of the students’ achievement levels with their academic course competencies. For much of this chapter, we focused on the importance of learning outcomes that emphasize competencies, including the application and creation of knowledge.
Competencies That Address Important Skills and Dispositions
Now, we turn our attention to the importance of competencies that address the development of important skills and dispositions. The New Hampshire Department of Education (2014) provides a foundation for this work:
New Hampshire’s system of educator support should promote the capacity of educators to deeply engage students in learning