A new report by LFA and Grunwald Associates, with support from AT&T, examines how parents perceive the value of mobile devices, how they see their children using mobiles, and what they think of the possibilities for mobile learning.
Working and Learning Together as a Team
Story posted July, 2008
Results:
• 90% of students passed the end-of-course test in Algebra II in 2007, up from 25% in 1998
• Narrowing the achievement gap - 84% of black and 85% of white students passed Algebra I in 2007
Granby High School is a large, urban, and diverse high school in Norfolk, Virginia, serving over 2,200 students, nearly half of whom are considered economically disadvantaged. Here students are enrolled in and passing high-level math classes including Calculus and Statistics. However, 10 years ago, few Granby students were taking advanced math courses, and of those who did, few passed. The school was described as "a high school in distress with low academic achievement and a high incidence of behavioral problems." Granby needed a change. School leaders recognized the need to push all of their students to reach higher levels in math, not only to be successful in postsecondary education, but to prepare for career opportunities as well.
At this same time, Norfolk Public Schools instituted a whole-system overhaul and dramatically increased the focus on professional development. Since then, Granby students have made tremendous growth, especially in higher-level math courses.
Building strong math teachers: a challenging and important task
Granby High School offers a prime example of a school with a powerful approach to professional development that provides teachers with opportunities for ongoing learning where they can develop and maintain skills and content knowledge. The school's purposeful teacher education is directly focused on instructional practice and supports achievement for all students.
Foundation for success: continually improving skills and math content knowledge
Granby's principal, Ted Daughtrey, cites three critical elements as contributing to the school's success:
- Working and learning together as a team
- Providing teachers with varied and appropriate learning opportunities
- Ensuring professional development has an impact on student achievement
Working and learning together as a team
Granby has instituted a culture of ongoing learning and support so new math staff members are not expected to learn on their own, but become part of the school's community of learners. Teachers are immersed in on-the-job learning - from their peers in collaborative teams and departments, from the analysis of student performance data, and from getting observation-based feedback from their school and district leaders. Professional learning is a constant, guided by teachers' real-world needs and, thus, targeted to their daily efforts to help all students succeed in mathematics.
Providing teachers with varied and appropriate learning opportunities
Granby recognizes that when it comes to professional development, one size does not fit all. So while the school emphasizes the need for all teachers to continue their professional growth, it takes a targeted approach to professional development, providing multiple and varied learning opportunities. While the opportunities and strategies listed below may exist in many schools, rarely do they exist at one site to create such a rich and supportive teacher learning community.
New teacher guidance and support: Teachers who are new to Granby participate in a range of learning opportunities designed to orient them to the school, district, the profession, and to bolster their subject matter knowledge. New teachers take part in a three-year teacher induction program that promotes their effectiveness and helps keep them in their positions. They work closely with a coach who observes their teaching and gives detailed feedback and guidance.
Subject-specific support teams: In addition to meeting as a department, teachers meet in subject-specific teams that work together to plan units, develop lesson plans, and evaluate student data. Teams discuss student needs and develop extra academic supports as needed. Granby teachers report knowing each other's work intimately and are therefore able to hold each other accountable for teaching all of their students to a high standard.
Ongoing learning opportunities for experienced teachers. Granby teachers also have access to a range of professional development experiences that complement what they are learning from departmental colleagues. Professional development leaders target learning opportunities to the needs of the students and to the individual staff members in need of the support.
Ensuring professional development has an impact on student achievement
Student achievement is the bottom line of teacher professional development in an effective math program. Between 1998 and 2007, Granby students have made tremendous gains on Virginia's "Standards of Learning" end-of-course tests in math. The pass rates for Algebra I and II increased dramatically to 84 percent and 90 percent, respectively, up from 17 percent and 25 percent. Equally impressive is the school's success in narrowing the achievement gap in math, as evidenced by a pass rate of 84 percent for black students in Algebra I versus 85 percent for white students in 2006-07.
Granby's math department chairperson, Beth Ellis, reports, "We have so many students who, seven years ago, would have been taking general math and are now taking Algebra II." Based on what she sees in classroom observations and in student performance data, she identifies needs for increasing the math teachers' content knowledge and teaching skills. She then uses this up-close knowledge of Granby math teachers' professional learning needs to mobilize resources - within Granby and the district - to meet these needs. With her guidance, department meetings become defacto professional development sessions.
This story came to LFA's attention after being featured in "Rethinking High School: Supporting All Students to be College Ready in Math," the fifth report in the series "Rethinking High School," published by WestEd with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Story adapted with permission from WestEd and the Gates Foundation
For additional information, please contact:
Edward Daughtrey
Principal, Granby High School
tdaughtry@nps.k12.va.us
Further details about Granby High can be found at:
Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, "Schools Making Progress: Granby High School," 2002
SIGN UP
Sign up for our e-newsletter on public school success.
A VISION FOR GREAT SCHOOLS
On this website, educators, parents and policymakers from coast to coast are sharing what's already working in public schools--and sparking a national conversation about how to make it work for children in every school. Join the conversation!
