Further, rather than "inviting" students to seek help, the systematic plan "requires" them to receive additional assistance until mastering the concepts.
For example, at an Illinois school, the collaborative team determined that every three weeks, each student receives a progress report. Within the first month of school, new students learn that if they are not doing well, they will receive a wide array of immediate interventions. First, the teacher, counselor, and faculty advisor separately talk with the student to resolve the problem. The school also notifies the parents about the concern. In addition, the school offers the student a pass from study hall to a school tutoring center to get additional help in the course, with an older student and/or advisor.
Counselors make weekly checks on any student who falls short at the end of six weeks. The student is assigned to a daily guided study hall with 10 or fewer students, where the supervisor communicates with classroom teachers to learn what homework each student needs to complete and monitors its completion. Parents attend a meeting and the student, parents, counselor, and classroom...
However, the school in Illinois has 4,000 students and is able to monitor all students' progress toward the aim of continual academic improvement. Also, most important, educators who are developing a professional learning community recognize that they must work together to achieve their collective purpose of learning for all and create structures to promote a collaborative culture. Despite emphatic evidence that working collaboratively represents best practice, teachers in many schools work in isolation. Finally, the school scores itself on the results achieved.
This is hard work and it entails teachers putting in more time and effort, when they are already pressed for time. It requires everyone to focus on learning rather than teaching, work collaboratively, and hold oneself accountable for the results that fuel continual improvement. The success rests with the commitment of the educators.
Below is an example of how to set up standards for each class)
