An examination of collegiality in selected Christian schools in Oregon, Washington and Idaho: Evaluating the effects of the Christian School Leadership program

An examination of collegiality in selected Christian schools in Oregon,

Washington and Idaho:Evaluating the effects of the

Christian School Leadership program

Gary Kilburg and Scot Headley, George Fox University

A scholarly agenda regarding professional development of educators in Christian Schools

Headley, W. S. (1996). “The Role of Teacher Education Departments of Christian Colleges in In-Service Teacher Education” Nurturing Reflective Christians to Serve in Public and Private Education Symposium, Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, CA. Headley, W. S. (2003). “Professional development policies and practices in schools affiliated with the Association of Christian Schools International”. Journal of Research in Christian Education. 12 (2) pp. 195-215. Birky, V., Shelton, M. and Headley, S. (2006). “An Administrator’s Challenge: Encouraging Teachers to be Leaders”. NASSP Bulletin, 90 (2) pp.1-15.

In-service teacher education, how and who?

School-based professional development Teacher Leadership

A scholarly agenda regarding professional development of educators in Christian Schools

Headley, W. S. (2008). The academic preparation of educators in the K-12 schools of the Association of Christian Schools International. Private School Monitor, 29 (2) pp 1-10.

Shelton, M., Birky, V. D., & Headley, W. Scot. (2008). Encouraging teacher leaders. In W. K. Hoy & M. DiPaola (Eds.), Improving schools: Studies in leadership and culture: Vol. 7. Research and theory in educational leadership (7th ed., pp. 169-191). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing. Shelton, M., Headley, W. S. and Birky, V. (2008, May). Discernment in decision making: implications for leaders. Presentation made at the International Community of Christian Teacher Educators Conference, Gordon College: Wenham, MA.

Preparation of educators in Christian schools

Encouraging teacher leadership

School-based decision making

Kilburg, G. and Headley, S. (2009). The Christian school leadership mentoring program at George Fox University: A ministry of service and encouragement. In C. Wong (Ed.), Proceedings of the 2009 Mentoring Conference (pp. 104-111). Albuquerque, NM. Kilburg, G. & Headley, S. (2010, May). Christian School Leadership Program. Paper presented at the International Community of Christians in Teacher Education Conference. Letourneau University, Longview, Texas. Kilburg, G. and Headley, S. (2012, May) An examination of collegiality in selected Christian schools in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. Paper presented at the ICCTE conference, Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, CA.

Mentoring programs in Christian schools

University-based professional development programming Collegiality in school improvement

From a scholarly point of view, this project has significance that goes beyond the work being done in the Pacific Northwest. Since Headley’s (1997) initial work in the late 1990s additional scholarly work along similar lines has occurred in New York, Illinois and Virginia.

Finn, D. E., Swezey, J. A., & Warren, D. P. (2010). The perceived professional development needs of Christian school teachers. Journal of Research on Christian Education, 19(1), 7-26.

Looney, J. (2008). Developing comprehensive induction programs at Christian schools. The ICCTE Journal. Retrieved February 23, 2009, from http://icctejournal.org, 3(1).

Neuzil, L., & Vaughn, M. (2010). An examination of professional development activities available to teachers in the Mid-America region of the Association of Christian Schools International. The ICCTE Journal, 5(1).

Our previous research showed that PK-12 Christian schools in the Northwest were offering minimal mentoring and professional development work. Further, only about one-half of the educators at those schools had formal preparation in teacher education, with less than one-fourth receiving preparation at a Christian institution of higher education.

Ongoing service work in Christian schools, as well as our engagement with the professional and scholarly literature regarding professional development of educators has led us to believe that:

• Individual and group professional growth goals and activities are

sorely lacking in Christian schools;• Effective Christian school leadership is a process (not just a role)

and a series of commitments involving an interplay between organizational mission and vision and professional relationships focused on accomplishing agreed upon ends;

• Collegiality (as described by Barth, 2006) is a robust conceptual model for creating a climate of effectiveness and accountability within the school community; and

• Collaboration between schools has great potential for providing sustained commitment to professional growth of educators in Christian schools.

Collegiality is about getting [educators] to play together, about growing a professional learning community. When I visit a school and look for evidence of collegiality among teachers and administrators—signs that educators are "playing together"—the indicatorsI seek are:• Educators talking with one another about practice.• Educators sharing their craft knowledge.• Educators observing one another while they are engaged in

practice.• Educators rooting for one another's success. (p. 11)

Barth, R.S. (March 2006). Improving Relationships Within the Schoolhouse, Educational Leadership, Vol. 63, No. 6, 8-13.

The Christian School Leadership (CSL) Program Purpose

The CSL professional development program is funded by the MJ Murdock Charitable Trust, a Northwest Philanthropic organization, based in Vancouver, WA. The CSL program is designed to support appropriate leadership in PK-12 Christian schools by promoting collaborative leadership and shared responsibility and accountability. The program is administered by faculty in the School of Education at George Fox University.

We are grateful to the Trust for their support of this and several similar projects funded in the Northwest serving the needs of PK-12 Christian schools.

Most schools are not structured to sustain collegiality, therefore professional development and mentoring provides a means of addressing the need of assisting schools in moving toward collegiality. To strengthen leadership and promote a culture of collegiality, the CSL program design emphasizes these key principles:• Shared vision, mission, and goals• Collaboration within and across school boundaries• Shared leadership and decision making• Enhanced knowledge and support for professional growth• Shared knowledge and support of best practices within schools

Design of specific professional development activities includes:

• A negotiated process of determining need and response to need in consultation with CSL staff

• Offering of protocols and procedures based on best practices within the field of professional development and consistent with CSL purpose and philosophy

• A proposed school-specific plan with acknowledged challenges and benefits

• An assessment of program implementation

The Program has provided professional development and mentoring support for Christian school leaders and personnel for 4 years. During this timeframe, 31 schools and approximately 200 Christian school educators serving an estimated 2000 students have been impacted by the program.

The type of specific support provided includes • mentors for novice administrators and teachers, • an administrators’ bimonthly collaborative support network,• Professional Learning Communities at school sites, • credit-bearing coursework, • mentor institute seminars, • professional development seminars, • resource materials, • accountability and assessment processes, and • consultations with GFU faculty on school-specific concerns.

Trust-Mandated and Managed External and Summative Evaluation of the Program

To determine the impact of Trust investment on Christian schools in the Northwest. Of interest to the Trust are the following:

• School Achievement Data• Program Elements (are they consistent with the literature

base)• Transformational and Sustainable New Practices adopted as a

result of program participation• Characteristics of Successful and Unsuccessful Schools

Mixed methods approach with a combination of site visits, school survey through self-study, gathering of institutional data from websites and documents, interviews with key stakeholders. A combination of external evaluator and CSL personnel conducting the study

School Achievement Data

Although an analysis of comparable standardized test scores is limited, recorded school scores do evidence successful outcomes and high achievement in the areas of college readiness, college admission and grade-level performance.

Schools that use ACT, SAT, and ITBS standardized tests report scores exceeding the academic performance of most public schools. For example, the ACT composite mean score for college readiness is 21. All reporting schools achieve mean scores between 22 and 26.

High schools report 85% -100% of their graduates attend 2 or 4-year colleges in contrast to 60% of Oregon public school graduates. The Oregon governor’s goal is to raise the public school standard to 80%~ a standard already surpassed by CSL project high schools.

Program Elements

•From one-shot teacher workshops to structured professional scaffolding and accountability over months and years (i.e., monthly logs, administrator regional meetings, mentor institute conferences).

•From teacher isolation to structured collegiality within the school (i.e., Professional Learning Communities (PLC) of teachers, committed time during school hours to meet and plan for implementation of best practices in administration and teaching, in-school mentoring and classroom observations).

Program Elements

•From teacher and administrator isolation to structured collegiality beyond the school (i.e., cross-school mentoring and classroom observation, administrator support network, consultation with GFU staff).

•From a “one size fits all” model of PD to needs assessment by schools as their foundation for requests, funding, and consultation.

•From limited help-seeking and help-offering patterns of interaction to sanctioned and encouraged communication between novice and veteran educators committed to the integration of Christian faith and learning.

Transformational and Sustainable New Practices •Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) focused on connecting curriculum and instruction with student learning and assessment

•Pilot programming to whole-school adoption of PLC planning structures including allocated in-school v. after-school planning time

•Cross-school administrator support network meetings facilitated by GFU and focused on personnel issues, board relations, budget, policies/procedures, and professional growth of leaders

•Online resource identification including PD webinars

•Increased trust and confidence in sharing areas of expertise by veteran and novice educators

Transformational and Sustainable New Practices

•Renewed sense of calling and commitment to teaching and/or administering in Christian schools

•School-wide professional development seminars provided by knowledgeable educators from GFU and other institutions of higher learning (requires funding)

•Mentor assignments, accountability structures, and mentor training (requires funding)

•Regional invitational seminars hosted by schools (requires funding)

•Stipends for PD leadership roles within schools such as lead teacher position, outside consultant position, and mentor roles (requires funding)

Characteristics of Successful (28) and Unsuccessful Schools (3)

SuccessfulSupportive administrative leadershipFocused goals aligned with teacher growth and student learningSupport structures of accountability (mentor logs, report procedures, etc.)Norms of professional collegiality UnsuccessfulPolitical discord within the school’s administrative leadershipPoor planning that resulted in school closure before it could openFinancial constraints exacerbated by the economic downturn

Top 5 sustainable transformations •Administrator cooperation and collaboration between schools in identifying and discussing shared areas of concern and interest

•Teacher-leadership development through mentoring, Professional Learning Communities, and structural changes to facilitate during-school planning time

•Accessibility to CSL-developed online resources and materials, CSL Team leadership and training

•Participants’ trust and confidence in their abilities to both seek help and offer help to other educators resulting in greater collaboration versus isolation

•Participants’ renewed sense of calling in their commitment to teaching and/or administering in Christian schools

The Murdock Trust funding has allowed the Christian School Leadership program to offer leadership support for school-identified needs over several years in contrast to the more typical one-shot workshop approach to staff training. Through this sustained effort, relationships foundational to professional development within and between schools have been established.

IntentionInterventionIncentiveTrusting RelationshipsChanged BehaviorChanged CultureImproved Outcomes