Continuing to give assistance is strongly linked with the fifth strategy we discussed. "Assessing and assisting really go together like a hand in a glove," says Shirley Hord, SEDL program manager and school change researcher. But Hord says continuing to give assistance is a strategy that is often overlooked when implementing school change and reform.

She explains, "There is an assumption that if we have a professional development session and we provide teachers and administrators with half a day or a day or maybe even two to three days of training, that will be the end of it and now they will be well equipped to implement this new program in a high-quality way. And what we’ve learned out of research over and over again is that this is patently not true. What has to happen is coupling the checking progress with the giving of assistance."¹

Through evaluation and assessment, then, school leaders can determine what the staff—including the administrative team—needs to meet school improvement goals. Hord likens this to what a teacher does with his or her students: "In a classroom, teachers will be helping students to learn new skills and monitoring their progress. Then they will give assistance to particular kids who need that. The same thing needs to happen with adults learning, so that after you have checked progress, you will know who needs what kinds of assistance. There’s the high probability that there are two or three people, or small groups of people who need the same kind of help."

Follow-up assistance to teachers engaged in comprehensive school reform may take many forms. Hord emphasizes that it is up to the school leaders to look at the change process from different points of view because teachers learn differently and change at different rates; they need different kinds of support and assistance to change. For example, changing teacher attitudes may be much more complex than providing assistance to a teacher who needs additional help improving his instruction on a particular topic in one subject.

Not surprisingly, one of the most effective methods of follow-up and continuous assistance results from the collaboration and collegiality that develop as a school becomes a professional learning community (PLC). These communities provide teachers with some of the best opportunities both for learning and extending their learning. For example, through discussion with colleagues, teachers are apt to reflect seriously about their practice including new skills or strategies and the implementation of a comprehensive school reform program. Other benefits of becoming a PLC include the moral support that is available to community members and the feeling of trust that encourages teachers to take risks and practice new skills and strategies.²

Another effective method of additional assistance is coaching, where a peer, the principal, or an outside consultant provides additional instruction and support.

Dennis Sparks, executive director for the National Staff Development Council, is a strong advocate for coaching. "Very often teachers will discover that there might be some knowledge gap that they have in terms of the content they’re teaching, or that maybe they’re using a new strategy 90 percent effectively, but there’s a part that they have omitted," Sparks explains. "The coach in a classroom can provide the kind of fine-tuning where a slight change in [teacher] effort can make a big difference in student learning."³

Peer coaching is actually beneficial to both the person being coached and the person who is acting as coach. David Collins explains in Achieving Your Vision of Professional Development, "As you watch a colleague’s teaching performance, you mentally rehearse the model that was presented during training and compare it to what is being demonstrated in your partner’s classroom. The act of analysis that is part of observing increases your understanding of the practices being demonstrated. When you observe a colleague teaching, you are learning from the teaching performance of your partner."⁴

Additional assistance may also take the form of going to visit other schools where a certain practice or program is in place, or in obtaining outside materials such as reading or videos.

"Having the opportunity to visit other teachers on their grade level, implementing the same program can be a very, very powerful kind of assistance to teachers," reports Hord. "Sometimes there are videotapes of these programs and so an individual teacher or small group of teachers may get together and view a tape and discuss it and talk about what they’ve learned from the videotape," she adds. "One could even invite a teacher from another school who is having a successful implementation of a program or model to come talk with teachers at the local school and to share what they’re doing and what’s been successful."⁵

School leaders can also serve as cheerleaders, encouraging staff to keep trying to implement the reforms, to keep their energy up, and most importantly, to stay focused on the vision. Therefore celebrating successes could be another form of continuing assistance.

"It’s something we seldom do—celebrating even the smallest of accomplishments," observes Hord. "Whether it’s a school change process or just in our own daily living interacting with friends. Change can be very anxiety producing for many people. And so if those people who are anxious do even the slightest bit to learn new skills and try them out, then a great deal of applause—either public or private—is helpful," says Hord. "Celebrating progress is much too often overlooked and it is very effective when people are given that applause or that affirmation of what they’ve been doing."⁶

Margarita Calderón, a researcher with the John Hopkins Center for Research on Students Placed at Risk, and Wendell Brown, a principal at Alderson Junior High in Lubbock, Texas, agree the power of recognition as a motivational tool is sometimes overlooked.

Calderón says, "We forget to congratulate people. Even the most reluctant of our teachers or parents have contributed in some way and so we need to acknowledge them, and reward them—give them additional incentive so they’ll want to keep on trying for the following year. Nobody complains about celebrations. There’s never too much or too many."⁷

Brown, whose school is one of the CSRD awardees, says he is a firm believer in complimenting teachers individually, face to face, to let them know that he appreciates all of their efforts. "We want to acknowledge very, very clearly what staff members have done, their growth, and the effort they’ve put in. We announce that in our faculty meetings. We talk, we say good things about individual teachers as well as groups of teachers who have pulled together to attack a particular issue. So everything that we do is built around acknowledging the teachers," he reports. "But," Brown adds, "we do it in writing, too, because it’s concrete and tangible. As teachers look at building portfolios about the successes they’ve had, it’s very important for them to be able to validate that when they’re looking at their professional growth."⁸

Brown says that observing and acknowledging professional growth goes hand in hand with being able to redirect staff as well, because it lets staff know that as a leader "you’re observing and recognizing and encouraging growth and development. That redirection is also part of growing and caring, and you know and they know that it’s not personal, it is part of the professional growth process."

How Did Sierra Vista and Sunrise Measure Up?

Once again, Principal Suzanne Martinez did a great job in the area of continuing to provide assistance. Ms. Martinez was a visible principal, checking progress and following up on her observations. Teachers seemed to appreciate her candor, whether she was giving positive reinforcement or constructive feedback. She was able to provide her staff the right balance of praise and redirection about which Principal Wendell Brown spoke. Sierra Vista also celebrated successes with parents, helping to create support for the school and its reform program within the greater community.

The Sunrise staff, by and large, did not receive assistance from each other, as shown by the fact that they spent little time discussing instruction and visiting each other’s classroom. Although the technical assistance provided by the national model encouraged observing others in the classroom and providing feedback, the staff may have needed additional training to feel comfortable actually doing so. For a variety of reasons, Carolyn Smith was not a highly visible principle at the school; therefore little coaching was available from her. She did not take it upon herself to try and obtain additional assistance for her staff related to incorporating technology, although many wanted such training.

Because the school did not celebrate its successes much or spend time reflecting on what went right in the implementation process, there wasn’t the motivation for teachers to continue the comprehensive school reform program, even though Mr. Hammond, the consultant, was able to see progress. Instead, there was a sort of downward spiral, with teachers spending time talking among themselves about what was wrong with the reform plan. As was true with the other five strategies, if Ms. Smith had received more support from the district and had more training in the area of school change and reform, she may have been better able to encourage her teachers and provide the example and direction they needed.

For Discussion or Reflection

• What types of assistance will we need to maintain the momentum of our reform efforts?
  
  
• What are good forums for celebration and acknowledgment of success? What kinds of success should be celebrated?

¹Interview with Shirley Hord, January 10, 2000.

²Collins, David. Achieving Your Vision of Professional Development (2nd edition). Greensboro, N.C.: SERVE, 1999, p. 97-107.

³Interview with Dennis Sparks, February 2, 2000.

⁴Collins. Achieving Your Vision, p. 95. See also Bruce Joyce and Beverly Showers (1988). Student Achievement Through Staff Development (2nd edition). White Plains, NY: Longman.

⁵Interview with Shirley Hord, January 10, 2000.

⁶Ibid.

⁷Interview with Margarita Calderón, January 21, 2000.

⁸Interview with Wendell Brown, January 21, 2000.