ASU Problem Solving Improvement Plan

Chapter 7:  More Skills for Teacher Leaders 

Being a teacher leader does not mean that you – or even you and administrators – decide what your colleagues need and then march them through getting it.  Being a teacher leader does mean that you can facilitate your colleagues’ process of determining what their needs are based on evidence, and what you and they can do, based on research, to meet those needs.

Evidence for needs comes from data such as achievement data, observations of student needs, surveys, school improvement plans, teacher leadership groups and focus groups, parent concerns, community needs, dreams for what a school can be, and many other sources.  Once needs are identified, then research is carried out to determine how others might have successfully – or unsuccessfully – addressed those needs, what ideas have the most potential in your situation, what resources are required, etc.  

But first – – – the needs of your colleagues must be assessed.  To be successful, a facilitator needs strategies and skills that can be effective in assessing the needs of colleagues in a way that also addresses the needs of students, the school and system, families, and the community. 

In the text, you will read some excellent foundational information about needs assessment from the viewpoint of a teacher leader.

The readings for this module give you the required content, and the assignment provides the opportunity for practicing a skill that you must demonstrate in all of the clinical courses (EDET 8001, 8002, and 8003) and in completing GACE tasks.

In the text Every Teacher a Leader, read in Chapter 7, pp. 103-110 about designing and conducting a needs assessment.

Assignment 8 Assessing Your Colleagues’ Needs

Open a copy of the Assignment Title Page Template (in Module 1), make appropriate changes to the title page, and be sure to change the header on page 2 (Remember that instructions for using the template are provided in Week 1).  Then begin Assignment 8 on page 2 of the document.

Read through the full assignment before beginning.

Choose an academic need at your school for an area in which you are involved, and for which you can envision working with colleagues toward improvement. 

Some examples:

If you are a second-grade teacher and your grade level is seeking to improve reading scores, you might work with other second-grade teachers to determine what would be the best focus for an improvement initiative.  

If you teach high school Social Studies, and your School Improvement Plan identified making greater use of primary documents in lessons, you might work with other Social Studies teachers toward that improvement.  

If you teach Band, you may envision working with other music teachers in the system or area. 

You are not going to implement this assignment, but you can envision this work as a teacher leader.

Suppose that your administrator has asked you to facilitate this work by planning a needs assessment so that you can help colleagues to determine a plan for this academic improvement.  Starting on page 2 of your Assignment 8 paper, address each of the following prompts, labeling them as you go.  Prompts b-e are closely parallel to some of the needs assessment steps on text p. 105.

Page limit:  2 pages, double-spaced, for all six prompts.  Use complete sentences.

a.Briefly identify your teaching assignment and describe the broad academic improvement that will be the focus of the work. Use the examples above as a pattern.

b.What existing data might you and colleagues gather for review related to the need? Be specific.

c.After reviewing the data, devise five questions you might use on a survey to determine your colleagues’ needs related to addressing the improvement.  

d.Describe a potential method for administering the questions.

e.Describe how you (or you and your colleagues) will compile and analyze the results and how you might present the results (chart? narrative? other?).

f.Reflect on what step above might be the most difficult and identify some specific adult learning strategies you can use to plan for success (refer to Chapter 4 of the text).