By Rick Dufour

Journal of Staff Development, Winter 2002 (Vol. 23, No. 1)

Copyright, National Staff Development Council, 2002. All rights reserved.

At the end of a recent workshop, I invited participants to reflect on ideas we had discussed and to pose any lingering questions. A principal responded: "I understand the need to improve my school, and I learned some strategies today that I think might work. But with all the things I’m already asked to do, where can I find the time to take on this, too?"

His question resonates with beleaguered school administrators everywhere. They look at their to-do lists and cannot imagine how they can possibly add school improvement to the mix. This principal was thinking, "I already have to maintain discipline, evaluate teachers, meet with parents, mediate staff conflicts, develop the budget, complete state reports, attend central office meetings, administer board policy, and manage the building. I’d like to spend more time working with curriculum, instruction, assessment, and staff development, but how can I find time to work on these critical school improvement issues when I’m struggling to maintain the status quo?"

I realized responding with some bromide such as, "Remember, leaders do first things first and second things not at all" would offer little consolation to this principal. He knew and I knew he could not justify skipping a meeting at the central office or failing to complete a state report with the explanation that he was tending to school improvement. He sincerely wanted to know how to find more time.

Of course, the bad news is that there is no more time. Time is a constant – 24 hours in a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year for all of us. I could encourage him to delegate some of his more routine responsibilities, but most educators feel they have no one to whom they can delegate. I could tell him to eliminate some of the nonessential things he is doing, but if he considered them nonessential, he would not be doing them in the first place.

Ultimately, I responded to the question in two ways. First, he must view school improvement not as an add-on, but as the essence of his job. Second, because his time is scarce, he must ask where and how he can use his time to the greatest advantage.

I am convinced the one area in which educators can get the best return on the investment of their time is helping collaborative teaching teams focus on and become proficient in developing local classroom assessments to be given to all students in the same grade level or course. In this process, teachers would work collaboratively to:

1. Analyze state and local curriculum guidelines and recommendations of professional organizations for what all students should know and be able to do at the conclusion of a grade level or course.

2. Agree on the essential outcomes of each unit of instruction.

3. Develop common assessments to be administered to all students regardless of who is teaching the course.

4. Establish proficiency standards – the performance level each student must reach to be deemed proficient in each intended outcome.

5. Administer the test to all students.

6. Review the results, identify and assist students who need additional opportunities to master the outcomes, and discuss ideas to improve on the collective level of achievement.

When teachers come together to develop common assessments for their courses or grade levels, they must begin by asking, "What is it we want students to learn? What should every student know and be able to do as a result of this unit of instruction? What knowledge and skills must our students demonstrate on the high stakes state and national assessments they will encounter?"

As teachers grapple with these questions in preparing their common local assessments, they inevitably impact curriculum. Teachers become more purposeful about what is taught, and the likelihood that they will teach the agreed-upon curriculum increases exponentially.

Developing common assessments also will lead to professional dialogue about the nature of authentic, valid assessments. Teachers inevitably will struggle to answer critical questions: "How will we know if students have mastered the essential outcomes of this unit? What evidence will we gather? What criteria will we judge in assessing the quality of student work?" A good classroom assessment program will help staff monitor every student’s learning.

As teachers gather and analyze student achievement data from these common assessments, two things happen. First, they can identify program strengths and weaknesses – where students in general are doing well and where they are struggling. This knowledge will enable the team to identify strategies for improving their program through different instructional methodologies or increased attention. Second, they can identify individual students who are not mastering the essential outcomes and initiate steps to give those students additional time and support. Thus, a good classroom assessment program will begin to impact instruction, pacing, and support systems for students.

Finally, as teachers go through this process, critical areas for staff development begin to emerge. Each step of the processes will require teachers to develop and use specific professional competencies. Thus, teachers begin to engage in professional development activities not because the central office has prescribed offerings or because of a casual interest in a topic, but because learning in that area is critical to the task at hand.

As I have written before, schools that are improving will organize themselves to ensure that teachers focus on the critical questions of a learning community: "What is it we want our students to learn?" "How will we know when they have learned it?" and "How can we improve upon the results we are getting both for individual students and for all students?" The single best way to immerse a faculty in these questions, and ultimately to improve a school, is to focus teacher attention on developing local assessments, analyzing the results, and working together to improve upon those results.

We may not have enough time, but we can use the time we have more effectively.