School Type: Public	School Setting: Rural
Level: Elementary	School Design: Traditional
Content Presented By:
National Awards Program for Model Professional Development

Replication Details

Replication Tips

NOTE: If you have not already read the "Design and Implementation" section, selecting that from the menu before reading further will provide a context for the replication details below.

All teachers except the after-school program group share preparation time the last 45 minutes of each day. Grade level and support teams share a common, duty-free 45-minute lunch. Teacher teams each have a three-hour and a one-hour block of additional common collaboration time each week. In these block times, teachers and the principal work on curriculum, instruction, assessment, study, and planning for improved learning. Professional development plans to supplement the core program emerge from this collaborative work. At least once or twice a year, these teams assess student progress and identify professional development priorities. Paraprofessional courses and workshops are planned based on what they want as well as on what the teachers they work with suggest. Graduate courses meet after the school day. The researchers meet twice monthly after school and several weekends during the year.

In our professional development program, participants study the best practices and more theoretical research. Teachers develop expertise in teaching content and strategies, and they become reflective practitioners engaged in continual personal improvement.

At the district level, the Career Ladder program's professional development specialist provides excellent support to the school in planning, preparing, and presenting workshops and courses. (More information on the Career Ladder Program can be found in the design and implementation section.)

During 1992-93, all staff members participated in a process of strategic envisioning and planning. Since then, four teacher teams, two paraprofessional teams, and one combination team have met regularly to collaborate on curriculum, instruction, and assessment work, including professional development needed to meet goals. Needs assessments and plans are made by these groups annually and as needed. Small components of professional development, such as day-long inservice training are generated by these groups.

The six partners support our professional development program:

1. Bread Loaf School of English, Middlebury College, Vermont
2. Northern Arizona Writing Project (NAWP)
3. Northern Arizona University (NAU)
4. Diné College
5. Northland Pioneer College
6. Tempe Elementary School District

We offer a summer institute for teachers and paraprofessionals during June, a K-3 academy for paraprofessionals in August, and courses for both groups during the school year. All of our teachers participate in refining curriculum, instruction, and assessments in alignment with the Arizona Student Assessment Program (ASAP) and national standards.

Bread Loaf
Bread Loaf provides fellowships for teachers' graduate study at the Vermont, Santa Fe, and Oxford programs, under the Bread Loaf Rural Schools Network (BLRSN) and a program for Native American educators.

Northern Arizona Writing Project
In June NAWP provides a summer institute with as many as six graduate and undergraduate courses in writing, Native American literature, integrated thematic instruction, and multiple intelligences. In addition, we offer writing project courses throughout the year based on interests and needs.

Northern Arizona University
NAU provides on-site courses in curriculum, gifted and special education, and technology applications. These courses are taught by NAU instructors who are also on our faculty.

Diné College
In cooperation with Arizona State University, Diné College provides pre-professional courses for teachers as well as a four-year teacher education program. More importantly, Diné College teacher (and Bread Loaf associate) Rex Lee Jim has provided the entire staff with a year-long in-service series about the Diné philosophy of education.

Northland Pioneer College
Northland Pioneer College provides paraprofessional courses in teaching assistance and technology.

Tempe Elementary School District
Tempe Elementary School District was the originator of the Collaborative Literacy Intervention Project (CLIP), a program to accelerate reading development based on the work of Marie Clay. CLIP training is provided through seven NAU graduate hours taught by a Ganado Intermediate School teacher, another example of faculty leadership and advanced professional development.

Site Visit Documentation

Ganado Intermediate School's success was recorded based on a site visit conducted by the National Awards Program for Model Professional Development in 1997.

Criteria	Evidence
There is clear evidence of the infrastructure, content, and process components of professional development.	There is evidence of a long-term process that identifies specific and special content that fits the school's needs. The infrastructure is clear; it is a framework based on a network rather than a hierarchy, which means relationships are based on shared purpose and interests, not rank, and which the school considers more sensitive to the needs of the children and the teachers. It is also a framework based on shared decision-making, where all staff members participate and speak for themselves rather than being represented by a smaller leadership team. This framework for operating fosters school-wide support for professional development, with participation ranging from that of parent volunteers to that of district superintendent. The site visit uncovered more evidence of an infrastructure that supports professional development. This includes the schedule at the other three schools in the district that allows flexibility to create several consecutive early release days for professional development activities. In addition, the building itself reflects the professional development goal of promoting communication and collaboration: each grade level is organized around pods, where a central area can be devoted as a space for computer mini-lab, reading centers, small group activities, or teacher work. "Infrastructure" includes policies, processes, and practices to support a program, but it also includes attitudes that help support the program. In this respect, the leadership provided by the superintendent is significant. His positive attitude and his expectations for achievement and high standards complement his encouragement of risk-taking. The principal publicly acknowledged that he fosters an environment where it is safe to create a school that works.
The professional development is comprehensive and long-term and not narrowly focused on one subgroup of students or staff.	Strategic planning, which started in 1992, crosses content areas and is long-term, as evidenced by the continuous periodic notes and revisions in the plan itself. The entire staff ? administration, faculty, and paraprofessionals provide input into the planning process via grade level meetings, and everyone (again, administration, faculty, and paraprofessionals) has the opportunity to update their skills through a wide variety of professional development activities. They can choose from credit courses, workshops conducted at the school, paraprofessional academies, summer institutes, action research, committee leadership, and service as a mentor or coach to new staff. These activities cover a wide range of topics, such as classroom management, technology, using the state standards in the classroom, conferencing with parents, team building, lesson planning, and coaching for reflective teaching.
There are clear professional development goals based on needs assessment and focused on improving ALL students' learning.	Needs assessments, both formal and informal (such as surveys and dialogue), are administered to staff to build the professional development program. The staff analyzed the children's strengths, analyzed the school's strengths, and decided what programs could serve those strengths and bolster those needs. Based on the work done on the school improvement plan, the staff identified priority concerns and defined five goals of professional development to help address these concerns. These included building a knowledge and practice base in several key content areas, integrating the Diné (Navajo) philosophy into the curriculum, encouraging and assisting paraprofessionals (parents) to become certified teachers, using technology to support learning, and strengthening the staff's reflective practice. Complementary to these primary goals are a core of support activities, such as workshops in portfolio assessment, lesson planning, using the state assessment criteria in the classroom, teaching reading as thinking, and classroom management. These various professional development activities and others that are part of the Career Ladder program are offered to both professional and non-professional staff, with the clear objective of improving student learning.
The professional development goals and plan were developed through an inclusionary process.	The staff's request to follow a shared decision-making model, which includes the administration, 35 professional staff, 45 classified employees, and a parent advisory committee in the process, is definitely inclusionary. Through systemic change planning, professional development goals were developed during 1992-1993. The staff has since that time continued to build on these goals, again through regular grade level meetings, teacher assistant meetings, and entire staff meetings. The staff have a say in what practices and activities to focus on and the means by which to accomplish their goals. Teachers, for instance, suggest courses that should be added to the roster of available options and they identify areas where they need more knowledge, such as in learning styles. Teacher assistants and parent volunteers feel very much a part of this process; they know their input is valued and they see how their ideas become part of the program. For example, the development of the Diné curriculum, or the Foundations of Learning, was developed by a committee of community members, students, teachers, counselors, administrators, and governing board members. The committee continues to refine the curriculum to more fully describe the symbolism and to strengthen the integration into all instruction. In another example, during annual reviews of the plan, the staff consistently identified parent involvement as a need to be addressed. Efforts to increase parent involvement in the school lives of their children became a school-wide focus. Among the activities to spring from this effort was an at-home reading program, designed and carried out by the staff.
The professional development goals are part of a long-term school improvement plan.	Begun in 1992-93, the school improvement plan has been revisited annually. With the overarching goal of improving student achievement on state and national standards, something which cannot be accomplished in a single year, it is clear that the school staff are looking at a long-term plan. Additionally, the action research group realized that becoming competent researchers is a developmental process, and they consequently requested a second year of funding so they may continue their exploration and continue building their expertise.
Professional development is comprehensive and applicable across students and teachers at all grade levels and in all subject areas.	Professional development is comprehensive across grade levels and subject areas. Articulation takes place throughout the district as well. There is an emphasis on the key content areas of reading, writing, and mathematics, but the activities also cover early childhood development, critical thinking, classroom management, English as a Second Language (ESL), technology, and the Diné culture, as well as a concerted effort to assist paraprofessionals to become certified teachers who can eventually teach in the district. The infrastructure is designed to provide ongoing input and feedback so modifications can be made as necessary.
Professional development is integral to the school culture and promotes continuous inquiry and improvement.	With so much importance placed on communication, the school culture, promotes continuous inquiry and improvement. Regular grade-level meetings to discuss curriculum and student needs are a significant means to exploring improvement; in fact, the principal views them as the most effective professional development. In such meetings, staff look at specific results of a particular initiative or activity and analyze why they achieved those results. They share their understanding of grade-level performance standards. They discuss individual children as they score ASAP assessments, exploring continually how their students learn. Such inquiry is not perceived as formal because it happens so routinely. The shared decision-making model promotes this inquiry and improvement, and the action research project especially provides an impetus for inquiry.
The professional development activities reflect the best available research and practice in teaching, learning, and leadership.	A major strength of the professional development at the site is the partnership with universities and colleges which provide the latest research and best practices in teaching and learning. Examples include the Writing Project component (NAWP), the accelerated literacy component (CLIP), and the Bread Loaf School of English action research project. The school also bases its decisions on a variety of data, both quantitative and qualitative. In addition, shared decision-making and teacher empowerment are hallmarks of current research on leadership, a direction this school is definitely taking.
The specific content, instructional strategies, and learning activities are designed to reach the professional development goals.	The credit courses offered in reading and writing explicitly address the desire to improve instruction and achievement in these areas. The year-long inservice for the entire staff on the Diné culture and the class on the Diné culture for all students were specifically designed to achieve the goal of integrating learning within the Diné philosophy of education. Classes to help teacher assistants to be more effective in the classroom and classes to help them become certified were developed to achieve the goal of improving the level of involvement and the effectiveness of support provided by parents. Building the technology infrastructure to make way for a computer lab and providing classes for teachers to learn how to incorporate technology into their instruction directly address the goal of making technology a learning tool. And the action research project funded by the Spencer Foundation has strengthened the staff's reflective practice as they strive to build the knowledge base about their students and their achievement. Other workshops, such as the ones on learning styles, multiple intelligences, and integrated thematic instruction, were planned to meet the specific needs of their children. Every opportunity is part of a design, part of a plan to improve the opportunities for the students.
There are processes for documenting and monitoring the alignment of school improvement plans, professional development activities, and teacher and student outcomes.	The process for documenting and maintaining alignment is woven through the fabric of the strategic plan. Ongoing discussions that take place throughout the entire school community, both formal and informal, assist in the alignment of the professional development plan with the strategic plan. For example, at grade-level meetings, the staff and the principal discuss alignment of the curriculum with the state standards, and they plan how professional development activities can strengthen that alignment. In strategic planning discussions as well as grade-level discussions, the staff identify gaps in student achievement and performance and further identify how professional development activities can close these gaps. These discussions are documented in the strategic plan portfolio. In addition, the school's story is documented in a planned book that relates the journey of the group of teachers involved in the action research project as they explore learning, teaching, and school reform. They gather information in multiple ways ? observation, reflection, audio and video tapes, previous school records, interviews, student word samples, surveys, and assessment, and they use it all to answer their questions more deeply. These teachers report becoming more observant, responsive, and creative in their instructional approaches, and they are required to document the positive effects of the changes they made in order to match their students' ways of knowing. They are also encouraged and stimulated to share their inquiry with other teachers. Finally, the Career Ladder Teacher Portfolio is a means for documenting and monitoring the alignment of school improvement plans, professional development activities, and teacher and student outcomes. Its stated purposes are to demonstrate and record specific activities of teachers, create data that the district can use to document the success of the school, and improve student performance and success particularly in the Diné curriculum and the Arizona State Essential Skills. It has four components: Student Achievement Plan and Results, Parent Involvement Activities, Professional Leadership, and Professional Development. It includes specific requests for teacher reflection, drawing conclusions from what was learned, and making plan adaptations.
Organizational structures support the implementation of professional development activities on the individual, collegial, and organizational levels.	Structures are in place to provide ongoing support to professional development activities. These structures include individual professional development plans, grade level teams, virtual teams, parent meetings, and paraprofessional meetings. The structure also fosters continual communication among the staff, providing a forum for all voices to be heard and heeded. It provides a means to build leadership capacity in the classroom, the school, and the district through opportunities (and expectations) such as serving as lead teachers, participating in study teams, sharing with each other, and mentoring and peer coaching.
The professional development design includes a comprehensive evaluation.	Staff meet regularly to discuss student achievement and ways to better meet the needs of students, and to ask where they should go next and how they should get there. This reflective dialogue prompts the staff to explore what they can do to provide higher quality instruction and services. The discussions are linked back to ASAP scores, the at-home reading program, and other projects that are directly related to student learning. They are interested in seeing not only individual achievement, but growth trends over the years. Evaluation of various components of the professional development plan are documented in the teacher portfolios, where reflection, conclusions, and analysis are recorded, as well as in the minutes of some of the school reform planning meetings, where professional development options are discussed and modified.
The data collected are used to make appropriate programmatic adjustments to professional development.	Based on standardized test information that reveals a high visual-spatial ability among the student population, the staff asked for professional development opportunities to better address the learning styles and preferences of their students. This led to an intensive exploration of Gardner's learning styles and Kovalik's thematic instruction. A closer look at the ASAP assessments revealed unclear language use in the directions, particularly for Limited English Proficient (LEP) students, which prompted the staff to rewrite the instructions using simpler language. They also created culturally appropriate texts to use for the pre- and post-test reading assessments. This past year the faculty developed a new series of math assessments that are in alignment with the new state standards. It is significant that such activities are viewed as professional development, and is an example of how professional development is embedded in the daily life of the school. Feedback from the evaluation of credit courses prompted ESL classes to be taught on site, with an instructor from the university living on campus to provide additional, specialized assistance in the classrooms; and they prompted an advanced course in Navajo literature for the summer writing project to meet the needs and interests of the faculty. There are other kinds of data that prompted programmatic adjustments and that show the promise of those adaptations: Three paraprofessionals became teachers recently, two more are completing student teaching, two more should be certified within two years, and one is completing an internship to become a principal; Also, 24 teacher helpers are in the classrooms to tutor students and to participate in site-based management, up from zero parents involved five years ago. The number of books read at home since the at-home reading program was initiated has increased from 14,000 to 60,000; and teacher inquiry that focuses on developing teaching strategies that utilize student strengths has expanded to a second year.
There is adequate description of the infrastructure, content, and process components to understand and draw lessons from the professional development plan.	The site visit helped to reveal how this school's professional development program could be viewed as a model. Drawing all the components together shows a strong emphasis on applying professional development to the classroom and extending it throughout the school and beyond to the family and culture. Programmatic examples include strong multicultural training, parent involvement, and reading and writing programs. Organizational examples include the determination to share decision-making. While this process is described, the school does not provide a specific prescription or framework for making this work. Communication seems to be the key.
The lessons learned are useful for other schools or districts.	The program demonstrates how strongly the teachers believe that children are central to education. Consequently, they build an environment where they can understand their children and they can be wise about making decisions to meet the children's needs. It demonstrates that teachers need not be demeaned by imposing decisions on them, but rather teacher capacity for leadership can be fostered by including them in the decision-making process. Just one example of this is the importance put on teacher recommendations for hiring new staff, based on teacher representation in the hiring process. The program demonstrates that it is possible to make professional development opportunities easily available to teachers by such things as offering classes on site rather than making teachers drive to the university. Further, it demonstrates the value of offering opportunities to be thoughtful about one's practice and to engage with each other in dialogue about common tasks. It shows how effective it is to tell stories about the changes that take place in a school community. The program demonstrates the value of collaboration on standards and assessments and of interweaving these into the curriculum. It demonstrates the value of offering theory in the context of practical application. Very importantly, the program demonstrates the benefits of reflection and dialogue. If other schools adopt a policy of listening and communicating, their efforts to improve student learning can bear fruit as well.

This resource is developed and maintained by The Education Alliance at Brown University. Seed funding was provided by the U.S. Department of Education. Send comments to: loom@alliance.brown.edu