ASSESSING SCHOOL CULTURE AND PROFESSIONAL COLLABORATION

Assessing School Culture

Directions: For the following questions, rate how you think our department/team and school is doing. Use this scale:

1 = No, or rarely, or only a few teachers.

2 = Some, but not everyone.

3 = Most teachers and teams do fairly regularly.

4 = All teachers do regularly.

Within our Department/Team, We:

1.         Look at student work in teams using specific tools, and use our discussions to take steps to improve learning, teaching, and assessment.

2.         Observe each other teach, and then meet together to dialogue about how to improve learning, teaching, and assessment.

3.         Work in teacher teams to plan and implement curriculum and assessments for shared students.

4.         Engage in discussions about what we read professionally.

5.         Use “Critical Friends Groups” as a means to bring instructional dilemmas to the forefront and receive feedback on them.

6.         Learn in study groups to examine data, conduct action research, and try new strategies for improving learning, teaching, and assessment.

7.         Identify what students should know at the end of our courses, and develop common assessments that help us determine if our students actually learned what we expect them to know at the end of our courses.

Within our School, We:

1.         Have established school-wide foundations of a common vision or mission, core values.

2.         Have set norms as a faculty of how we work with each other.

3.         Use data to determine one to three school-wide, student–focused learning goals.

4.         Have identified what we want our students to know, how we’ll know they’ve learned it, and what we’ll do when they don’t.

5.         Created shared leadership and decision-making structures that engages the entire faculty through teams, committees, and full faculty meetings to decide on key instructional, programmatic, and budgetary issues of the school.

6.         Have defined a school-wide decision-making framework, so everyone knows who makes what decisions.

7.         Have created a communication system that informs each person about what they need to know in a timely manner, and that allows each person a means of providing timely input.

Assessing Professional Collaboration

Directions: The statements in this section focus on the overall school-wide professional culture in our school and within your department.  Use this scale:

1 = Rarely or never

2 = Sometimes

3 = Often

When Collaborating Within Our School, There:

1.         Are multiple levels of collaboration going on among faculty.

2.         Is an established culture of publicly sharing our work..

3.         Is an understanding that it’s “OK” to question our own assumptions with each other, and try on new lenses to solve problems.

4.         Support when trying out new things, and it’s “OK” to take risks when doing so.

5.         Are staff members who regularly look for new and better ways to teach and to help students learn.

6.         Are staff members who enjoy being with and around each other.

7.         Is protection from unreasonable demands on our time and energy that interfere with contract time with students and instructional planning.

8.         Are productive meetings.

9.         Are regular events and ceremonies that we look forward to each year.

10.      Are resources (money and time) that show staff collaboration are a top priority.

11.      Is appropriate communication, and input from those who are impacted by decisions

12.      Are staff members who speak honestly but respectfully to one another?  Staff members are not afraid to disagree, and can do so without jeopardizing their relationships.

13.      Are skills and strategies to solve conflict so that all parties’ needs are met.

14.      Is an information flow that keeps everyone informed about what’s going on in the school.

When Collaborating Within Our Department/Team, We:

Directions: The statements in this section focus on the faculty in your school engaging in various types of professional collaborative work on a regular basis. For the statements below, use this scale:

1 = Never, or only a few teachers

2 = Only several times a year

3 = Most teachers and teams do about once per month

4 = Most teachers and teams do about once per week

15.      Look at student work in teams using specific tools/strategies (protocols), and use these to take steps to improve learning, teaching, and assessment.

16.      Observe each other’s classrooms, and have follow-up conversations about how to improve learning, teaching, and assessment.

17.      Talk in department/team meetings in concrete and precise terms about things we are trying in our teaching.

18.      Teach each other things we know about teaching and how our students are learning.

19.      Openly ask for and give assistance for problems with teaching issues. We know we’ll get feedback without being judged.

20.      We plan and implement curriculum and assessments for shared students.

21.      Engage in text-based discussions (reading and discussing a common text to increase our understanding of research and practice).

22.      Use specific strategies/tools that help us solve challenges each person might be facing.

23.      Learn together in study groups to identify teaching and learning issues, conduct action research, and identify strategies for improving learning, teaching, and assessment.

24.      Work in teacher teams to develop rubrics and other assessments for assessing student work.

25.      Collaboratively examine multiple sources of data to identify challenges, and then use an inquiry process to develop department/team goals and action plans.

Team Behaviors and Actions Within Our Departments/Teams Demonstrate:

The statements in this section focus on how departments/teams in our school function together. Respond using your general overall impressions of the primary team that you are on (e.g. grade level, interdisciplinary, subject area, study groups).  For statements below, use this scale:

1 = Almost never or never

2 = Sometimes

3 = Often

4 = Almost always or always

26.      That all team members are involved in activities and decisions.

27.      A supportive atmosphere.

28.      All equally shares the responsibility for the department/team’s work.

29.      An agreed-upon system for making decisions. When decisions are made, all work to support them.

30.      There is someone from our department or team that is in charge, or leading the meeting.

31.      A desire to have effective meetings, where all have an agenda before the meeting, and are provided with a written summary of what was discussed/decided upon at the meeting.

32.      A desire to accomplish significant things through the identification of common goals, projects or tasks, each with its own action plan.

33.      That members have assigned roles that operates during our department/team meetings.

34.   That through careful reflection, the team regularly assesses how well it is accomplishing its goals and action plans.

35.   That team members pay attention to how each affects the group’s work and progress toward        reaching its goals.

36.   That team members assume that each person means well.

36.   That team members seek clarification or understanding before disagreeing with each other.

38.   That team members can equally get their ideas “on the table.”

39.   That individual team members are recognized in motivating ways for their contributions to the team’s success.

40.   That communications between team members are respectful of each teams member’s expertise and contributions.

41.   A respect for each other’s time by not working on activities that are really not part of the team’s purpose.

42.   An awareness of team members’ style, and expertise, that work together to accomplish what the team has said it values. 

43.   That each team member can anticipate issues and challenges, and can develop creative strategies for dealing with them.

44.   A common understanding of the impact of their work on the overall school goals.

45.   An attention to important details following each meeting: Members are clear about what has been decided, who is responsible for any actions to be taken, the timelines for activities to take place, and how and when we will report progress back to the team.