LearningFront™ looks forward to working with you to deliver an instructional leadership program to meet the instructional needs of your school. Our approach offers your teachers and administrators monthly opportunities to plan, teach, check, and act on the results of standards-based lessons and assessments to improve teaching and student achievement. The following features demonstrate the LearningFront™ Instructional Leadership Framework -- we look forward to customizing it to meet your needs and resources.

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LearningFront™ works with your principal and school leadership team to identify needs and priorities for this instructional leadership program. For example, your needs might require improving student achievement in reading, writing, and mathematics across all grade levels. Moreover, your vision of school reform might be dedicated to using best teaching practices to ensure the success of all students on classroom and State assessments for AYP. Our approach will assist your school to deliver the curriculum, instruction, and assessment strategies necessary to achieve your needs and vision of school reform.

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The instructional leadership program customized for your school will be delivered through a collaborative team approach involving your teachers and administrators and LearningFront™ consultants. The customized program will consist of your approach to the following components:

• A start-up instructional development workshop for teachers focused on standards-based teaching and assessment strategies targeted to your content need areas;
  
  
• A combined online and face-to-face professional development program for teachers supported by eLearningTeacher.com™, practice, and coaching (This program has been approved for 3 MSDE inservice credits in MD);
  
  
• Teacher-developed, taught, and scored standards-based lessons aligned with school and State assessment data;
  
  
• Results of teaching standards-based lessons, including a plan for follow-up differentiated instruction for students not performing at proficient levels;
  
  
• Subscriptions for teachers to the TaskBuilderOnline™ and eLearningTeacher.com web-based applications for learning about and developing standards-based lessons and assessments;
  
  
• The TaskBuilder Figure 8 Strategy™ for planning, teaching, checking, and acting on the results of standards-based instruction;
  
  
• One mid-year instructional networking conference to share teacher “works in progress” related to classroom instruction and assessment;
  
  
• One end-of-year demonstration and recognition conference to share teacher “best works” related to classroom instruction and assessment;
  
  
• School-based coaching sessions for individual teachers and subject matter or grade level instructional teams;
  
  
• One school instructional web site to post the activities and results of the instructional leadership program for sharing and feedback purposes;
  
  
• Coaching sessions for the school principal to support the leadership and management of instructional improvement processes.

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By the end of this instructional leadership program, the teachers and administrators from your school will demonstrate their ability to:

Vision

• Describe how the school’s vision for student learning in the 21st century can drive basic skills, knowledge acquisition, higher order thinking, and standards-based instruction and assessment;
  
  
• Apply their school improvement plan vision for student learning in standards-based lessons and assessments at the classroom level to improve teaching and student achievement in your targeted content need areas;

Data

• Describe the purpose and features of State assessment reports for school and instructional performance and improvement;
  
  
• Analyze State, district, and classroom test results to determine priorities for instructional improvement in your content need areas;

Benchmarking

• Recognize the benchmarking process as a strategy for continuous improvement of teaching and student achievement;
  
  
• Apply successful instructional and assessment practices to improve teaching and student achievement in their classrooms;

TaskBuilder Figure 8 Strategy™

• Use TaskBuilderOnline™ to develop standards-based lessons and assessments as part of individual and instructional team implementations;
  
  
• Plan, teach, check, and act on the results of implementing standards-based lessons and assessments each month of the school year;

Kaizen

• Apply the results of this instructional leadership program through subject matter portfolios and a web site for school and instructional improvement;
  
  
• Apply a quality improvement process to plan, implement, and continuously improve approaches to both basic skills and standards-based instruction and assessment to improve teaching and student achievement.

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August 2007 - June 2008:
Collaborative Leadership and Program Management

Collaborative leadership and program management is a process to support planning meetings for the lead LearningFront™ consultant and the school improvement team to ensure program implementation in a productive and timely manner. This includes making adjustments as needed in professional services during the program. As part of this service, LearningFront™ will prepare monthly progress reports and a final evaluation report of the program, including recommendations for instructional leadership in the next school year.

August 2007:
Start-Up Instructional Development Workshop for Teachers and Administrators

In this one-day instructional development workshop, participants will learn how to develop standards-based lessons and assessments using TaskBuilderOnline™ and eLearningTeacher.com™. The standards-based lessons will be based on the school’s vision of student learning, State content standards, available State assessment data, and best practices. Also, the teachers will learn about and build a plan for implementing the TaskBuilder Figure 8 Strategy™ in their classrooms beginning in September and continuing throughout the school year. This will include increased communication through the integrated email program in elearningTeacher.com.™

This workshop will produce at least one standards-based lesson for the first month of the school year for your targeted content need areas. These standards-based lessons will align with standards-based assessments and milestones expected in the school’s improvement plan and will act as models for the development of additional standards-based lessons. The principal, school improvement team, and LearningFront™ consultants will support the use of TaskBuilderOnline™ throughout the school year. Each teacher will receive a 12-month subscription to TaskBuilderOnline™ and eLearningTeacher.com™ to develop standards-based lessons and assessments, complete online training activities, compile a portfolio of training experiences and results, and link to related online professional development resources. Teachers may access their TaskBuilderOnline™ and eLearningTeacher.com™ password-protected accounts and their LearningFront™ coach anywhere, anytime with a computer connected to the Internet.

September 2007 - April 2008:
TaskBuilder Figure 8 Strategy™

After the start-up instructional development workshop for teachers, LearningFront™ consultants or your instructional leaders will coach the teachers in the school setting to plan, teach, check, and act on the results of standards-based instruction. One day per week from September 2007 to April 2008, a LearningFront™ consultant will support the work of teachers in instructional team meetings to plan and develop standards-based lessons and assessments that accommodate their content standards and instructional approaches, e.g., differentiated instruction, higher-order thinking skills, special education accommodations and modifications. After each weekly session, the teachers will teach the standards-based lessons and administer assessments to their students and discuss the results during the next month’s coaching session. School-based coaching will be supplemented with monthly online feedback through the integrated email system contained in TaskBuilderOnline™ and eLearningTeacher.com™.

The standards-based lessons and results will be used to demonstrate teaching strategies and student learning in subject matter or grade level portfolios and to plan for additional standards-based lessons for the following month. Standards-based lessons will be developed to address basic skills and academic content standards and State assessment data. The results of the classroom lessons and assessments will be summarized, examples of student work collected, and the lessons, scoring tools, and assessments will be stored in a three-ring notebook for other teachers to access. Samples of these standards-based lessons and assessments will be posted on the school instructional web site. Teachers will be encouraged and supported to complete digital video episodes of their teaching strategies for posting on the school web site. This approach is known as the TaskBuilder Figure 8 Strategy™ and has led to increased student achievement on State and local assessments in urban schools.

August 2007 - June 2008
Leadership Coaching for the Principal

The lead LearningFront™ consultant will support the principal in leadership coaching sessions." Coaching will be delivered four times per month for 10 months from September 2007 to June 2008. The mission of these coaching sessions is to build on the principal’s prior knowledge and experiences and to provide new knowledge and skills to improve school, instructional, and professional development processes in the school. Moreover, this approach will enhance the principal’s understanding of how this instructional leadership program and related school initiatives increase student achievement on classroom and State assessments.

The coaching session approach will include weekly discussions of priority instructional goals and successes, current issues and problems, and periodic reviews of implementing the school’s improvement plan. The first phase of leadership coaching sessions will focus on the vision, results, and offline/online training approaches employed in this instructional leadership program. The second phase will focus on State assessment results. The third phase will support the principal in making needed adjustments in standards-based priorities and recognizing the work of instructional teams to plan, teach, check, and act on the results of standards-based lessons and assessments. The fourth phase will focus on needs and issues related to the instructional leadership program and ways to expand the school web site for greater sharing of the standards-based lessons and assessments developed in the school. The coaching sessions will also support the principal to author a professional article on the efficacy of the instructional leadership program to improve teaching and student achievement in the school.

January 2008 and June 2008:
Instructional Networking and Demonstration Conferences

In January 2008, teachers and administrators will participate in an instructional networking conference at a computer-supported training site. This conference will provide opportunities for all teachers and administrators to share the results of their start-up activities in classrooms and to address needs and issues for additional support and training in the second half of the school year. They will share start-up standards-based lessons, teaching strategies, scoring tools, student work, and needs for improvement. Moreover, they will provide suggestions for the program and school web site for sharing standards-based lessons and assessments and related instructional topics.

In June 2008, teachers and administrators will participate in a demonstration and recognition conference to share their accomplishments in this instructional leadership program. In this conference teachers will demonstrate classroom-piloted standards-based lessons taught, scoring tools, assessment results, and student work. The school web site developed and launched during the program will highlight the teachers’ best works. Finally, the teachers and administrators will be recognized for their accomplishments and provided rewards for outstanding and creative accomplishments.

September 2007 - August 2008
Design and Upload the School Instructional Web Site

LearningFront™ consultants will work with a team of teachers and the principal to develop and launch the school instructional web site. LearningFront™ will assist the teachers to post a sample of their standards-based lessons, samples of student work, and video episodes on the school's web site dedicated to quality instruction and assessment. This approach will offer all teachers the opportunity to both share and access standards-based lessons with other teachers over the Internet throughout and beyond the close of this program.

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The following benefits are expected as a result of implementing this instructional leadership program at your school.

• A needs assessment process for instructional leadership focused on school, teacher, principal, and student needs;
  
  
• A network of teams comprised of teachers and coaches for developing standards-based-based lessons and assessments related to basic skills and State assessment data in your targeted content areas;
  
  
• Increased leadership skills by teachers and the principal to support standards-based instruction and assessment;
  
  
• Standards-based instruction and assessment lessons developed, taught, scored, and analyzed by participating teachers during the school year;
  
  
• A school instructional web site to share standards-based lessons and assessments and to promote and communicate about the instructional leadership program at the local, State, national, and international levels;
  
  
• Evaluation data collected about the impact of the instructional leadership program on teacher leadership, teaching, administrative leadership, and student achievement in the classroom.

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LearningFront™ will prepare a proposal and cost estimate for your school to deliver all or selected components of our Instructional Leadership Framework. Please click here to share your needs and inquire about how we might customize an instructional leadership program for your school. We look forward to hearing from you.

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