In schools across the nation, many will claim they are engaged in Professional Learning Communities, which we've worked to reframe as "Collaborative Teams." The research is clear: Collaborative Teams, when structured properly, increase rates of collective efficacy while positively impacting student achievement. In examining teams in your school ask yourself the following:
1) Do your teams have norms?
2) Do team members have roles?
3) Do teams control their agenda, focused on the four tenets of the Collaborative Team process (e.g., Learning, Assessment, Tier 1 Support and Enrichment)?
4) Do teams see true purpose and meaning of the Collaborative Team process such that they see benefits such as less instructional planning in isolation, calibrating expectations for proficient student work and working together to analyze learning standards to determine the intended level of rigor?
