Growing Teacher Leaders the RBT Way

By: Amy Wasser
We are excited to hear about the progress with Research for Better Teaching (RBT), first reported on here on the AVI CHAI blog. RBT, a professional development organization dedicated to improving classroom teaching and school leadership, is partnering with Prizmah: The Center for Jewish Day Schools to model teamwork among educators in Jewish day schools, while using data to inform student learning. Read on for examples of the work!
The Middle School STEM team at Margolin Hebrew Academy in Memphis is working closely together to discuss ways to differentiate for students in the classroom. The teacher team has been able to stay in touch with the student’s growth and progress in real time, analyzing formative assessments and discussing the process of realizing when students don’t know as much as they thought they should. The support of the STEM teacher team is a key resource for meeting the needs of more students more of the time. Teachers are also seeing real growth in how they learn from each other.
Denver Academy of Torah has seen an increase in collaboration and communication between the teachers who are on the teams. This results in more robust conversations about student achievement and student work, which has impacted the learning in the classrooms. In the past, there was not enough dialogue between members of the faculty about students, and in particular about how a certain student learned. Now we see the faculty teams looking at student learning from a growth mindset position; the child can achieve if we give them the tools, if we see the child from different perspectives (ie: various teachers), and if we implement strategies that work for that child.
At Rodeph Sholom in New York City, a Judaics teacher team is looking at how they can improve on understanding what they each teach in their classroom and how that will impact learning for students as they progress through the program. The teachers are meeting on a regular basis to ask questions of practice and implementation and how the curriculum is received by the students in their classrooms. When they see a disconnect, they are able to correct it together and make the learning stronger across the program. This team will continue this collaboration to include implementation of similar learning targets and strategies for enabling student growth at an individual pace, while seeing synergies in the curriculum. As the teams get used to their protocols, they see that they are strong content resources for each other and that not only is the student learning being impacted, but so is the creation of stronger curricular units. The educators are able to see the units in a new light, starting with the over arc of the theme, then establishing a narrative for the process of establishing the content and finally including the skills they want as part of the outcomes. The team meetings will allow them to determine gaps in the program bases on assessments and the meeting of the learning goals. The focus on building this team is also key to establishing trust among colleagues.
All of these strategies build teams that enable a healthy culture of inquiry, exactly what RBT strives to create.
Amy Wasser is Director of Field Advancement, Prizmah Center for Jewish Day Schools.