Teacher Skills Forum 2019

Learn how the Supporting Teacher Effectiveness Project (STEP) is shifting traditional PLCs to communities where teachers become researchers of their practice and create a culture of innovation that supports measurable change. Implemented in several districts in the US and supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, learn the approach that creates change based on “bright spots” – uncommon but successful behaviors or strategies that enable better solutions to shared challenges. Through a four-phase continuous improvement process that participants will be able to implement upon returning to their schools, STEP leads educators through each phase in following a natural learning progression towards improvement. It provides a structured yet nimble way to conduct PLCs that attends to the technical and social aspects of improvement, and ultimately helps answer that central question: How do we know when a change is an improvement? In this session, participants will receive an overview of the process as well as concrete tools for launching it in their own schools. This is a two-part session. It is ideal but not necessary for participants to attend both parts.