This past Tuesday a group of teachers, department heads and administrators piled into a van and headed to Stevenson high school in Lincolnshire Illinois. Stevenson is world renowned for it PLC model and the gains it has made for its teachers and students.
Here is a short list of the great things we saw that can be implemented for free:
- Twenty five minutes of lunch and twenty five minutes of senior tutoring.
- A privilege system of discipline. Get a C and you retain all your privileges, anything lower and into the pyramid of interventions you go until you get your grades up.
- Weekly collaborative time for teachers embedded within the work day.
- Well behaved, energized students who were proud of their school. They felt they were part of something special.
- A computer system that gave parents access to teachers grade books that were updated weekly. They could also see their kids attendance during each period of the day.
- A lot of in house remediation. The students had a number of options to fill gaps when they did not understand.
- Highly supported teachers.
- A staff infrastructure that promoted professional development.
We hope we can implement as many of the above as possible. God Speed!
