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A COLLABORATIVE ENVIRONMENT If there are four of you moving a piano up a staircase, you’re going to work together, because you’re jointly responsible for that piano. But if you were each taking a box of books upstairs, you wouldn’t have to work together. So the principal has set up a school, and though there were a lot of other people involved, in some fundamental way he has made it possible for us to have a school where we’re lugging a piano up the stairs together. We’re so interdependent – it’s in our best interest to work together. – Teacher, International High School The kind of powerful collaborative learning these teachers describe doesn’t just happen. In fact, traditional school organization works against it, walling teachers off from one another. "Almost everything about school," Linda Darling-Hammond and Milbrey McLaughlin observe, "is oriented toward going it alone professionally. Few schools are structured to allow teachers to think in terms of shared problems and broader organizational goals." All eight of these schools found ways to reverse this model, to break down the walls. Through explicit expectations and deliberate structuring, each built over time a supportive community of practice. While we have seen how these schools support collaborative professional learning, this central work is supported by broader shared ownership and governance of the school as a whole. Teachers work in horizontal, vertical, grade-level, or interdisciplinary teams; they serve on committees such as budget, school leadership, "campus improvement," or "test utilization"; and they participate on any number of task forces. Mason Elementary, for example, has a Student Support Team, School-Based Management Team, Instructional Leadership Team, and weekly grade-level team sessions in which teachers examine student work and look at the effects of new strategies they’re trying in writing and math. Teachers at H.D. Hilley meet weekly in horizontal grade-level teams and monthly in vertical subject-area teams that coordinate curriculum and schoolwide initiatives. Hungerford’s school-based management team, which includes parents, teachers, and students, is, itself, a learning community that strives to increase students’ academic success, social skills, and independent functioning. Teachers at Woodrow Wilson serve on their school’s Quality Performance Accreditation committees and help shape school goals, professional development, and curricular improvements. In the same way, Montview teachers serve on a variety of committees, helping make decisions about curriculum, school resources, and new programs. Today, shared governance is a routine practice at each of the model schools. Having a real voice in the decisions that affect them most strengthens teachers’ ownership of and commitment to the change efforts. At International, a well-structured Coordinating Council handles operational and management decisions for the school. "Any major decisions are by consensus," reports one teacher: If there is resistance – and there almost always is – people stop to ask, "How can we change it so you can live with it?" Nothing comes from the top down. New ideas or strategies are tried out by experimental teams so that buy-in from everyone is gradual and influenced by proven success. Teams and individuals are free to adapt and adjust changes to meet their own specific needs. The atmosphere here is open and trusting. Teachers are free to observe, coach, and mentor each other both individually and in team format. Their opinions are asked for and they feel valuable. They can agree or disagree, challenge and confront, take risks and make mistakes. A non-judgmental focus on the positive allows for this level of trust. As schools build collaborative cultures in these ways, everyone comes to understand what it means to say, as one teacher does, that "School performance goals are not attained through the practices of individual teachers, but through what our faculty does as a whole." Each interview for this study told similar stories of a school built on collaboration. A "jigsaw puzzle," an H.D. Hilley teacher terms it, "where each teacher plays a role that, put together, creates magic." What does a collegial environment look like? A teacher at Shallowford Falls offers this glimpse: There is no competition, no superstars, because everyone is a star teacher. Everyone helps everyone else. Teachers teach for each other, share all ideas and strategies, give advice, listen, and mentor new people. It makes no difference what your role, support is always available. There are no boundaries when we work together. Everyone depends on each other. Some of the most effective staff development is what is learned from colleagues by just asking for help. The "jigsaw puzzle" mentioned earlier at Hilley is facilitated by a principal whose leadership style is to share constantly in support of a mutual vision. "This vision," one teacher explains, "started from the top and went to the bottom and then cycled back to the top in such a way that everyone was motivated to open her classroom door." A teacher at International stresses that "The voices of teachers are heard here. We feel free to offer our own ideas. And not only that – our ideas and opinions are asked for. We feel valued." A Ganado teacher concurs: I think the calmness here comes from the fact that when the district went to site management, every other school had a management team. Not this school – our whole school is the team. All of us meet and talk. All of our voices are heard. That’s what keeps the calmness, because everyone knows they can have their say. When decisions are made, there’s buy-in because they’ve been heard. This respect for the contributions of individuals to the whole extends beyond participation in group decisions to recognition that teachers need individuality and choice in the classroom as well. While all of these schools chose some common programs to adopt, they did not interpret this to mean precise uniformity in instruction. At Montview, one teacher explains, "Even when the entire staff agrees on specific programs or techniques, individual teachers can exercise their choice in the implementation. Perhaps the success of the program lies there – in choice." Referring to individuality within group responsibility, another Montview teacher says: If something is not working for a child, then it’s up to the teacher to make sure it does, and use something different if necessary. At Montview, we don’t just implement strategies, we teach children. It’s important to show how it all fits in the school’s goals and values along with the state standards – good, solid instruction within the parameters that have been established is the premium. As a result, teachers are not clones of each other, yet no one is out on the fringes, and there's consistency from grade level to grade level. This interweaving of group and individual choice and accountability is often manifested in planning at multiple levels. Not only do these folks have school plans, they also have plans for teams, grade levels, or other subgroups. And, often, individual teachers write improvement plans for themselves. At Montview Elementary, for example, teachers write personal action plans that become the focus of their coaching sessions with teacher leaders. At International High School, individual core-teaching teams establish their own goals for the year as well as develop their own agendas for their meetings. The learning community also extends beyond the teaching faculty. The principals in these schools model learning and take an active part in teacher professional development. As a Montview teacher comments, "The principal has to be a learner, just like every single teacher." In addition to participating in leadership development opportunities, these principals attend workshops and talk with the teachers about what they all are learning. Parents, too, become part of the learning community. At H.D. Hilley, for example, parents learned technology with and from students and teachers. (See "A Place for Parents at Hilley Elementary School.") See also: A Place for Parents at Hilley Elementary School

Each interview for this study told a story of a school built on collaboration.                   "If there is resistance – and there almost always is – people stop to ask, 'How can we change it so you can live with it?' Nothing comes from the top down."                 “School performance goals are not attained through the practices of individual teachers but through what our faculty does as a whole.”                 "Some of the most effective staff development is what is learned from colleagues by just asking for help."               "Even when the entire staff agrees on specific programs or techniques, individual teachers can exercise their choice in the implementation. Perhaps the success of the program lies there – in choice."                 Not only do these folks have school plans, they also have plans for teams, grade levels, or other subgroups. And, often, individual teachers write improvement plans for themselves.                 The principals in these schools model learning and take an active part in teacher professional development. Parents, too, become part of the learning community.