{"id":5584,"date":"2019-04-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-29T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/blog\/cw_post\/using-global-best-practices-for-school-self-assessment-and-action-planning-at-monmouth-middle-school\/"},"modified":"2020-03-21T09:38:49","modified_gmt":"2020-03-21T13:38:49","slug":"using-global-best-practices-for-school-self-assessment-and-action-planning-at-monmouth-middle-school","status":"publish","type":"cw_post","link":"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/cw_post\/using-global-best-practices-for-school-self-assessment-and-action-planning-at-monmouth-middle-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Using Global Best Practices for School Self-Assessment and Action Planning at Monmouth Middle School"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-19888\" src=\"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/GBP-image-1.png\" alt=\"Cover of Global Best Practices Tool\" width=\"263\" height=\"203\" \/>This is the second post in a series about the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.greatschoolspartnership.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/global_best_practice_2nd_edition_2016_forweb.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Global Best Practices<\/a> (GBP) tool from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.greatschoolspartnership.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Great Schools Partnership<\/a>. It is an outstanding, free resource that offers a practical, step-by-step process for assessing schools to inform school improvement plans. It focuses on characteristics of high-performing schools and can help facilitate shifts toward high-quality competency-based practice.<\/p>\n<p>The first <a href=\"https:\/\/www.competencyworks.org\/uncategorized\/global-best-practices-a-practical-tool-for-school-self-assessment-and-action-planning\/\">post<\/a> gives an overview of GBP. This article shares how GBP has been used by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kidsrsu.org\/o\/mms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Monmouth Middle School<\/a> in RSU2 in Monmouth, Maine. Their work advances several of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.competencyworks.org\/resources\/quality-principles-for-competency-based-education\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">quality principles for competency-based education<\/a>, such as developing processes for ongoing continuous improvement and organizational learning.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Developing a Self-Assessment and Action Plan<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Principal Mel Barter explained that Monmouth, a school with grades 4\u20138, used Global Best Practices when they had a multi-year coaching and professional development contract with the Great Schools Partnership. She was a teacher on the school leadership team at the time, and they had a new principal who wanted to conduct GBP\u2019s self-assessment and develop an action plan.<\/p>\n<p>After recording their performance strategies and evidence for each GBP dimension, teachers scored the school on each dimension. The school\u2019s leadership team used these scores to draft an action plan during the summer and presented it to the whole staff in the fall. Staff members volunteered to take leadership on the parts they were most interested in.<\/p>\n<p>The Action Plan \u201cgot traction quickly. It made it so easy to talk about challenges and how we could make important changes,\u201d Barter explained. \u201cHaving the Great Schools Partnership coaches was amazing. They did so much for us, and we still use their protocols.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The full action plan for all GBP dimensions is available <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1DEunnA-7faWA7hod7AH5mAjkHU3cE-BoDGTcb88cCOs\/edit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>. School culture was one priority area<!--more--> for the school\u2019s action plan, and the school developed three strategies to improve school culture that they thought could help bring the school together:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Launch peer mentoring program.<\/li>\n<li>Create school-wide activities for students (e.g., culminating events, celebrations, parent\/career activities, 4\u20138 student council meetings).<\/li>\n<li>Restructure staff meetings and professional development opportunities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Then they used the GBP Action Planning Template to lay out their action steps, evidence, timeline, leaders, other participants, and resources needed. The Action Planning Template below presents the action steps and evidence they developed for launching a peer mentoring program.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-20184\" src=\"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Monmouth-Table-GBP.png\" alt=\"Table of School Culture Action Steps and Evidence\" width=\"600\" height=\"512\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The complete Action Planning Template also includes these five columns:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Timeline \u2013 Indicate when the proposed action steps will be carried and when they will be completed.<\/li>\n<li>Coordinator \u2013 Name the lead coordinator and supply any relevant information about the role.<\/li>\n<li>Participants \u2013 List the names of additional participants and describe their roles in the process.<\/li>\n<li>External Support \u2013 Indicate what role (if applicable) any external support provider will play in carrying out the action step.<\/li>\n<li>Resources \u2013 List the financial and material resources that will be needed to carry out the action step.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Implementing the Action Plan: Peer Mentoring<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The teachers who were most interested in the peer mentoring strategy led its implementation. After doing research to understand how other schools do peer mentoring, they decided to start informally, with 8<sup>th<\/sup>-graders volunteering in 4<sup>th<\/sup>-grade classrooms in mentor-mentee pairs. \u201cLike with everything, you just have to get started and dip your toe in the water,\u201d Barter said. The 8<sup>th<\/sup>-graders helped the 4<sup>th<\/sup>-graders with school work, or they did a fun activity together.<\/p>\n<p>The peer mentoring took place during academic assistance period, a school-wide scheduling structure that enabled flexible, multi-grade learning and support activities. The school maintained a Google Doc of what every student was doing during the academic assistance period, so they could check whether the mentor and mentee students were both free. (This type of scheduling and tracking innovation is very helpful for two key aspects of competency-based education \u2013 providing timely, differentiated support based on students\u2019 individual learning needs, and enabling students to advance upon demonstrated mastery.)<\/p>\n<p>The next year, more students wanted to participate. The school developed a seminar that trained students in peer mentoring. Barter said that both age groups love it. The older students feel helpful, important, and empowered. The younger students are thrilled to have the attention of an older student. The day before our call, Barter had seen a 7<sup>th<\/sup>-grade mentor just walking around the school talking with his 4<sup>th<\/sup>-grade mentee. She felt strongly that peer mentoring has been effective in improving school culture, and that several others strategies initiated as part of the GBP self-assessment and action planning process have also been successful.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Academic Growth through Authentic, Real-Life Experiences<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The second action planning goal that emerged from GBP was \u201cSupport Academic Growth and Achievement,\u201d and one of its strategies was \u201cIncorporate Authentic, Real-life Experiences.\u201d The school\u2019s first step was starting a maker space in the building, called the Learning Lab. This enabled teachers to leave their classrooms and work with students on skills such as industrial arts and home economics that had become less available in the school curriculum.<\/p>\n<p>It soon became apparent that the space was only being used by teachers who were comfortable leading these types of activities. In response, the school started broadening what they meant by \u201creal-life learning,\u201d so that all teachers would participate. That\u2019s where the idea came from for the peer mentoring seminars described above. Other seminars have included podcasting the ongoing construction of Monmouth\u2019s new school building, and developing a student group that uses the school\u2019s 3D printers to address problems that arise in classrooms.<\/p>\n<p>Barter reported that this strategy has been effective in supporting academic growth. Students are very motivated and tend to finish their seminar work at high levels. She has also seen a spillover effect, where seminars are increasing students\u2019 engagement in other classes. In addition, the seminars have been a way to increase student agency, as they have proposed new seminars and participated in their planning and implementation.<\/p>\n<p>The school district\u2019s website provides helpful <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kidsrsu.org\/about-rsu2-and-our-mission\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">materials<\/a> for parents\/guardians that situate all of these activities within a proficiency-based learning framework. (\u201cProficiency-based\u201d is another term for \u201ccompetency-based,\u201d and is the term mostly used in Maine.) The peer mentoring and academic growth strategies are both aligned with RSU2\u2019s Five Tenets of Learning, which reflect key aspects of high-quality, competency-based learning:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Classroom culture that encourages learner agency.<\/li>\n<li>Clear learning targets in a good progression.<\/li>\n<li>Gathering evidence to provide feedback about the learning target.<\/li>\n<li>Learners engaged in learning that is in their zone of proximal development and interest.<\/li>\n<li>Learning is applied and not simply tested.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Thank you to Principal Mel Barter for sharing Monmouth Middle School\u2019s experiences with using the Global Best Practices self-assessment and action planning tool!<\/p>\n<p><strong>See also:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.competencyworks.org\/uncategorized\/global-best-practices-a-practical-tool-for-school-self-assessment-and-action-planning\/\">Global Best Practices \u2013 A Practical Tool for School Self-Assessment and Action Planning<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Global Best Practices <a href=\"https:\/\/www.greatschoolspartnership.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/global_best_practice_2nd_edition_2016_forweb.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Self-Assessment Tool<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Global Best Practices <a href=\"https:\/\/www.greatschoolspartnership.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/gbp_facilitator_guide.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Facilitators Guide<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Global Best Practices <a href=\"https:\/\/www.greatschoolspartnership.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/gbp_research_summary.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Research Summary<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.inacol.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Quality-Principles-Book.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Quality Principles for Competency-Based Education<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Eliot Levine<\/strong> is the Aurora Institute\u2019s Research Director and leads <em>Competency<\/em>Works.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","mapsvg_location":""},"legacy_category":[],"issue":[370,368],"location":[],"class_list":["post-5584","cw_post","type-cw_post","status-publish","hentry","issue-lead-change-and-innovation","issue-issues-in-practice"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - 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