Network Approach at YES

YES Public Schools are a partner district with Houston A+ Challenge. This year, three Regional Principal Leadership Academy (RPLA) interns have been gaining valuable urban leadership experiences on the YES campuses.

At YES Southeast, Destiny Evans, Dean of Instruction and A+ Intern, has been putting theory into practice using the work of Elizabeth A. City, Richard F. Elmore, Sarah E. Fiarman, and Leer Teitel detailed in Instructional Rounds in Education: a Network Approach to Improving Teaching and Learning.

Ms. Evans, in conjunction with her leadership team, has adjusted the procedures to meet the needs of the campus. Selecting teacher-leaders as facilitators, the groups fall into six categories: high school language arts; high school mathematics; middle school language arts; middle school mathematics; social studies (both levels); and electives.  At first, the facilitators met to practice the protocols themselves, as they built trust and cohesiveness as a group. As the practice began in the classrooms, teachers received feedback on instructional methodology and the administration was able to identify trends in the classrooms, which provide the basis for discussion and improvement. The campus is developing a new level of collegiality as a result of this work.

Destiny describes the process as very productive and has found that each group has determined its own individual focus for the rest of the semester, which will also be used to guide participants’ professional learning. The areas of study include questioning strategies; differentiation; student engagement; and the “best” way to close a lesson.

Empowering the people in our schools is what the Houston A+ Challenge champions. Using research and best practices is what our Regional Principal Leadership Academy puts into action! Instructional Rounds holds the promise of both.

For additional information about the implementation at YES Southeast, please contact Destiny Evans at Destiny.Evans@yesprep.org or 713-910-2510.