St. Martha School, 2825 Klondike Lane, has 348 students. And each teacher also has 348 students. That’s the perspective Principal Suzanne Barnett hopes to instill in her teachers.
She encourages them “to see all students at St. Martha as our students” so that “every teacher contributes to the success of every student, regardless of grade level or subject area,” she said in a recent interview.
This fall, St. Martha achieved the “Model Professional Learning Community” status from Solution Tree, a national professional learning organization.
The designation is given to schools that have implemented PLC concepts for three years or more and can demonstrate evidence of improved student learning, according to a press release from Solution Tree. St. Martha is among about 600 schools and districts — and the first school in the archdiocese — to receive this distinction.
Increasing accountability is one of many goals in a “professional learning community,” or PLC, said Barnett. “The big key behind being a professional learning community is that our entire school is our professional learning community.”
At St. Martha, teacher collaboration is an expectation — and a goal that required significant changes to the school, she said.
“We’ve modified the schedule so that all grade level groups have the same planning period.” Having the same planning period allows teachers to “collaborate and meet during the school day,” Barnett said. Teachers from the same subject-area also meet regularly, she said.
Katherine Kuhl, a third-grade teacher at St. Martha, said many teachers, including herself, can get caught in the “four walls” of their classroom, a classroom “bubble.”
“My first couple of years of teaching I fell into the belief that I have to do all of this, it is all on me, and I don’t have to worry about anyone else,” she said.
Under Barnett’s leadership, she’s learned the value of collaboration, which she said “can be working a muscle for some teachers,” said Kuhl.
Barnett said that if the teachers push the students to be better, she can push the teachers, too. “I want to grow and challenge them to be the best that they can be,” she said.
Now, Kuhl said, she sees her responsibility as wider than the students in her classroom.
“It’s not just the 18 in your classroom. If I see something I can help with, I help,” she said.
She finds herself on the receiving end of the help, too, she noted. Kuhl said she recently met with an upper-grade language arts teacher for advice on how to challenge one of her third-grade students who is reading at an eighth-grade level.
“Four years ago, I would have tried to do it on my own,” Kuhl said. But, “what she came up with, I could have never come up with.”
The teachers aren’t only working with each other — they’re working with data, too. The school’s support center — which includes a data coordinator as well as a learning coordinator and two instructional coaches — helps teachers with this process, said Barnett.
The teachers “rely on data to drive decisions,” she said, noting that data shows educators what is working and what is not working. Looking at student data ensures that all students grow, not just high-achieving students, she said.
Just last year, Barnett said student data revealed a few students’ reading scores were not on target for growth. In response, two reading groups were assembled to read short stories in her office.
Kuhl added, “It’s so easy, as a teacher, to follow the textbook,” but it doesn’t lead to the best outcomes. When a teacher uses data to drive instruction, some concepts may require additional class time, and lesson plans may need adjusting, she said.
