Superintendent's Message - February 2007
"Instruction at the Core" was the lead-in to an article I read recently about the importance of quality instruction and the follow-on question was, "For what purpose does your school district exist?" While local community culture and needs might alter the answer a bit from school district to school district, we would be hard pressed to wander too far from the strong belief that "we exist for the purpose of educating all the students we serve to high levels through high-quality instruction."
Within educational circles, there hasn’t been much debate about the above statement. Well, at least the first part of the statement. All manner of research has been conducted to uncover what determines whether students achieve at high levels. Time and time again, the research demonstrates that quality instruction in the classroom is the key driver and that the ongoing, continuous improvement model of professional development is the way in which quality instruction remains at a high level.
"High absolute scores on assessments such as the SAT are best predicted by family income, but if we are predicting student growth – progress made over the year – research has demonstrated that good instruction is 15 to 20 times more powerful than family background and income, race, gender, and other explanatory variables."
- Theodore Hershberg in Phi Delta Kappan, December 2005
So, if it is so critical to create learning environments in which quality instruction takes place, what are the implications for those who deliver quality instruction? How do we support them? The implications are straightforward. Teachers must be learners and they must work in an environment that supports their on-going learning. The day of walking in to one’s classroom in the morning and working in isolation is as extinct as the dinosaur.
Professional Development In our District, there are many venues through which on-going professional development occurs and you support those each time your children come home early from school; or when students stay home while their teachers still go to school; or when your child’s teacher leaves the classroom to attend a workshop. These venues are not ideal and I have often said that we need an education calendar that affords teachers contracts that go beyond 180 student days; and beyond the 186 days currently in place in our district.
We have invested in four days each year for the purpose of professional development. These are those days the teachers go to school and the students stay home. Each Wednesday when your child comes home early, our schools engage in professional development, planning, staff meetings, and department and grade level meetings. I am certain your child’s principal and teachers will affirm the importance of these times that staff can work together. We have invested in a literacy coach who works with a broad range of teachers in our district on a host of issues aimed at enhancing quality instruction across the district. All teachers in Mill Valley have had or will have the opportunity to learn the importance of technology integration at the classroom level through a large scale, eight day professional development series provided by Apple. You may have heard it referred to as Vanguard Training.
For the past twenty-years our district has invested in the Education Task Force a consortium of Marin school districts for the purpose of collaboration and professional development. These are a few of the more formal structures through which professional development occurs. What is more difficult to capture, but is no less significant than the formal means of professional development, is what happens on a daily and weekly basis within schools. The profession of teaching has become also the profession of learning and most teachers will tell you that they are in a constant state of learning daily through conversations with colleagues, observing others or being observed, and learning more about their teaching each and every time they deliver a lesson to their students or assess their students’ growth. It is this ‘formative’ process that shapes instruction daily. It is the more formal opportunities that can bring people together to learn from each other and from those who are experts in the field. Michael Fullan, respected internationally for his work in the educational change process says, "Change (learning) is not a linear process. It is just one thing after another."
Our focus in this professional learning community needs to be on-going, continuous learning and improvement for the adults who educate so that our students receive the very best instruction. The art and science of educating has become much more sophisticated and strenuous than ever before. Important for all of our parents to know is how much our staff appreciates those opportunities to come together, away from the hustle and bustle of the student day; and to know how critical it is for the staff to engage each other on a regular basis for the purpose of delivering quality instruction.
Thank you for your continued support of all children and the adults who teach them.
Ken Benny
Superintendent