Steps to Incorporate Data Analysis into PLTs Critical Friends Group: Purpose and Work

(Provided by National School Reform Faculty)

Developed in the field by educators affiliated with NSRF. The purpose of a CFG is to provide professional development that translates into improved student learning. This adult learning is accomplished through formal, ongoing interactions of small groups of staff that participate voluntarily. These groups, if engaging and effective, increase student learning, contribute to the participants professional growth, and strengthen the school and districts capacity to function as learning communities. To improve their practice, enhance student learning, and close the achievement gap, members of the CFG focus on questions that are both global and specific to their practice. For example:
What important tasks cant my students accomplish? Why cant my students accomplish these tasks? What does the student work tell us? What evidence do I have of students understanding or lack of understanding? What have I done in the past to address this issue? How can we help my students accomplish the task? What multiple measures can we use to demonstrate students mastery/growth of understanding?

Critical Friends Group members work together to:

Develop shared norms and values Focus on student learning Make their practice public Engage in reflective dialogue and collaborative work Inquire into, analyze and reflect upon student work

CFG members use their own insights and experiences, content or frameworks from other sources, and the following strategies and tools to acquire the knowledge, skills and perspectives they need to address the questions they have about their practice.
Dealing with issues and dilemmas related to student learning Looking closely at and learning from student work/student learning data Peer observations and debriefing Looking at and reflecting upon teacher/educator work (Provided by National School Reform Faculty)

Creating Community Agreements

1. Show up (or choose to be present).

This Warrior / Leader principle guides us to be both firm and yielding, honoring our own individual limits and boundaries as well as the limits and boundaries of others.

2. Pay attention (to heart and meaning).

This principle guides individuals to observe where in their experience they are half-hearted rather than open-hearted, when they carry a doubting heart rather than a clear heart, and when they are experiencing weak-heartedness rather than strong-heartedness.

3. Tell the truth (without blame or judgment).

This principle invokes the idea that the visionary is one who brings his or her voice into the world and refuses to edit, rehearse, perform, or hide. The task here is to come forward fully with our gifts, talents, and resources and to powerfully meet the tests and challenges of life.

4. Be open to outcome (not attached to outcome).

This principle is known as the Way of the Teacher. Traditional societies believe wisdom is flexible and fluid, never positional, that the human resource of wisdom is accessed by learning how to trust and how to be comfortable with states of not knowing.
Protocols are most powerful and effective when used within an ongoing professional learning community such as a Critical Friends Group and facilitated by a skilled coach. To learn more about professional learning communities and seminars for new or experienced coaches, please visit the National School Reform Faculty website at www.nsrfharmony.org.