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Transform a school into an authentic collaborative learning community.
Authentic collaborative learning communities are schools in which all staff members share a collective responsibility for the success of each student. In these schools, every staff member participates in at least one learning team. Learning teams are organized at the school leadership level, at the grade or department level, and around key school priorities. The school day is structured to allow learning teams to meet several times a week to engage in a continuous improvement process focused on improving student outcomes.

Resources required
Successful turnaround of schools into collaborative learning communities requires approximately 50 days of technical assistance to support training for the schoolwide leadership team; assistance with schedule development; training and coaching for learning team leaders, principals, and instructional coaches; and a plan for monitoring staff and student results.

Outcomes

• A leadership team that can facilitate the processes necessary to sustain a collaborative learning community committed to improved performance for staff and students;
• Team leaders who can facilitate a continuous improvement cycle that includes data analysis, determination of adult and student learning needs, a plan for professional learning, design and examination of joint lessons, common assessments, and support for team members who continue to struggle;
• Principal and instructional coaches who use a variety of data collection tools to assess staff and student performance; and
• A comprehensive plan to assess the ongoing impact of the learning teams.

NSDC in the field

New Jersey Center for Teaching and Learning
In collaboration with the New Jersey Department of Education and Professional Teaching Standards Board (PTSB), NSDC has developed Collaborative Professional Learning in School and Beyond: A Toolkit for New Jersey Educators, which provides information and tools to support schools’ and districts’ efforts to implement school-based professional learning teams.

NSDC is also working at the individual school level in New Jersey. Funded by a $25,000 grant from the New Jersey Center for Teacher and Learning, three New Jersey middle schools created collaborative professional learning communities of mathematics teachers during the 2007-08 school year. NSDC provided training and support for the principals and the collaborative learning teams at these three schools, including working with participants on developing effective ways to look at student work and to develop consistency in curriculum. In the first year of the program, each school saw increases in student test scores on the Accuplacer test, an online adaptive test used to measure algebra achievement levels. The work continued into the 2008-09 school year, and may continue for a third year.