From TBT Lite to TBT Right: Five Strategies to Make the Most of Your TBT Time

The key to successfully implementing the Ohio Improvement Process (OIP) is effective Teacher-Based Teams (TBTs). While the process was designed with excellent intentions, over the years, we have noticed significant differences in the way OIP was implemented in schools around Ohio. This article offers five strategies to help Teacher-Based Teams make the most of their time, have a greater impact on student results, and improve teacher morale. 

Strategy 1: Focus 

At the inception of OIP, the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) allowed each district and school to determine the protocols for TBTs that were most effective for each school and district. This allowed TBTs to focus on the essentials of teacher collaboration: learning, assessment, support, and enrichment. Teachers and school leaders were permitted to identify specific learning needs, the classroom assessments that would inform the degree to which students were meeting learning targets, and specific professional practices that would lead to improved achievement. Unfortunately, many TBTs were overwhelmed with the required paperwork, which detracted from the intent of collaboration and, ultimately, from improved student achievement, and they lost focus. Whether the TBT is in a small rural, large urban, or suburban district, by focusing on the four essentials, they can avoid the fragmentation that occurs when TBT meetings become little more than miniature faculty meetings. TBT Lite wastes time on announcements, logistics, and items not related to instruction and achievement. TBT Right focuses on learning, assessment, support, and enrichment.  

Strategy 2:  Accelerate Feedback 

In Ohio and many other states, data analysis focuses on test scores from the previous year or universal screeners administered two or three times a year. While this can be valuable, it does not answer the central question Ohio teachers must address: What do my students need right now, and how can I best address those needs? A good practice for District and building leaders is to complete high-level data analysis by identifying specific skills that students have repeatedly missed over several years and discover trends that can be addressed through curriculum and instruction. However, for the TBTs to be right, teachers need to accelerate feedback to students based on ongoing cycles of formative assessment. The conversation should sound something like this, “Here are my results from Tuesday; we will discuss those results in our Wednesday TBT and improve instruction and learning on Thursday.” TBTs done right provide immediate feedback to teachers regarding where their instruction can be refined AND real-time feedback for students so that they know how to improve their performance.  

Strategy 3:  Consider Causes, Not Just Effects 

School leaders understandably wish to have their decisions informed by data. But the question is this: What data are most relevant to help improve teaching and learning right now? Too often, when we think of data, we think of test scores. But that only tells one-half of the story. Focusing only on student reading scores without considering the underlying causes of those scores is not likely to address the issue – we call it admiring the problem. Highly effective TBTs focus on both cause (teacher/adult behaviors) and effect (student outcomes) to directly link specific practice to student achievement. The best thing TBTs can do is determine the antecedents leading to a specific data point and either celebrate a success or find a better path forward if there is room for growth. In this inquiry process, TBTs will learn from each other by finding the best practices in their collective classrooms and replicating them. TBTs done right will link specific adult practices, such as goal setting, use of manipulatives, or scaffolding, to gains in student achievement. 

Step 4:  Emphasize Literacy and Non-Fiction Writing 

Ohio has committed to literacy for every student to ensure all children are afforded the basic civil right of being able to read. But do the teachers in every TBT see themselves as teachers of reading and writing? A powerful strategy for TBTs is to begin integrating short reading and writing activities into instruction. Reading and writing have proven to be a powerful practice that can be implemented in every classroom (Reeves 2002). This is especially helpful when TBTs are singletons or cross over multiple grade levels. TBTs done right can start tomorrow by adopting the simple phrase “writing is thinking through the end of the pen” (Reeves, 2019) and using the written evidence that students produce when planning for instruction.   

Strategy 5:  Celebrate Local Evidence of Impact 

Another highly effective practice is the use of action research by teams of teachers to address current challenges they are experiencing. Aligned with the OIP 5-Step Process, action research for TBTs includes four very important steps:  

1. Identify your challenge  

2. Choose a practice or strategy to address it immediately in your classroom  

3. Define your expected results.  

4. Monitor results and adjust as needed. 

These results can be celebrated at faculty meetings or other staff gatherings, or evidence of these short-term wins can be collected and created for a larger celebration at the end of the year. The collected evidence can be displayed in simple, three-panel charts in which the left identifies the challenge, the middle is the strategy selected, and a reflection on implementation, and the right is a reflection on the outcomes and lessons learned. When teacher teams engage in action research, they can end the year with a public display and confidently say, “We know that these ideas work with our students, our culture, our agenda, our budget, and our collective bargaining agreement.” This is the single best rocket fuel for school change we have seen nationwide. It is not workshops or keynotes that change schools, but rather the modeling of effective practices by teacher teams who will have the most credibility with their colleagues. TBTs done right are the most effective form of professional development in which local evidence of impact is documented and shared. 

Teacher-Based Teams can be a powerful tool for improved student achievement and teacher effectiveness. To make the shift from TBT Lite to TBT Right, teams should consider using these strategies:   

• Focus on Learning, Assessment, Support, and Enrichment 

• Accelerate Feedback 

• Consider Causes, Not Just Effects 

• Emphasize Literacy and Non-Fiction Writing 

• Celebrate Local Evidence of Impact 

Ohio schools devote enormous amounts of time and energy to Teacher-Based Teams.  In a era of limited resources in every school, teachers do not have time to waste on TBT Lite.  

Creative Leadership Solutions provides support for schools around the world. For more on these strategies or information on how your school can move to TBT Right, contact service@creativeleadership.net to schedule a consultation.  

Permission is granted to share this article for educational purposes.