Equity

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How can we create new, better, more equitable systems for our learners?

Equity has been a popular word in education for a while now. Unfortunately, I don’t think everyone is using the same definition of equity and what equity looks like in designing educational systems and experiences. My district has been confusing the term ‘equity’ with ‘equality’ for the past 7 years, and it’s been driving me nuts! Enough already. When we consolidated as a district, the leadership team would say that they were trying to make each school within our district ‘equitable’ and created ‘equity matrixes’ – but that was an attempt at making sure each school had the same resources, materials, etc., not making sure each school had what they needed. They were aiming for uniformity vs. equity. I’m also baffled by this idea that people consider Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion to be a separate concept that requires DEI Coaches in each building and a DEI Director at the central office level. DEI concepts should be at the heart of all decision-making when it comes to education. DEI should be infused in the culture of our schools, in all that we do. When reflecting and refining school systems, teaching, and learning, we should be asking ourselves; who are we (unintentionally) leaving out, what are the anticipated barriers that we can try to remove or avoid, and what are the actual needs that we can satisfy, so that we can be truly equitable – providing everyone access to inclusive learning experiences. The Univeral Design for Learning Framework provides us with these reflective questions to help us design equitable education for all. If we are implementing UDL practices, we will be incorporating a DEI lens in that process.

Equity = learning about the individuals who make up the learning community (assuming nothing by asking genuine questions for clarity), identifying what they need, and providing them with what they need. Designing equitable educational experiences requires an ongoing effort – this work of making learning relevant and applicable for the individuals in front of us is never ‘done’.

Some educators are on the verge of designing equitable learning experiences for students, but they (unintentionally) fall short. They might scratch the surface by utilizing Responsive Classroom’s First Six Weeks to co-create their learning community with their students. Some teachers have kids fill out “All About Me” surveys/worksheets/posters, or teachers sit down with individual students to conduct an interest inventory in an interview-style to ‘get to know’ the learners in their classrooms. They might kick off the new school year with an “Identity” unit to help kids explore and express who they are as individuals and how they will contribute to their learning community. Some teachers sit down with the students’ previous teachers to learn more about their new students. During the placement process we have teaching teams review the family input forms to help us find an appropriate placement for each student. All of these are great first steps in designing equitable learning experiences. The key move from being a ‘good’ teacher to an ‘excellent’ teacher, is when the teacher changes, revises, and/or refines the ways students receive information, engage with information, and express their learning that reflects their identities and needs. When students can make connections with their self, others, and the content, we know that we have effectively created equitable learning experiences for students.

It’s easy to see equity in education as a matter of fairness, access, and inclusion, but that’s only the case if what’s being fairly accessed is a system of teaching and learning that’s fluid, responsive, dynamic, neutral, alive, and able to meet the needs of an increasingly global population. ~ Terry Heick

When educators view themselves as lifelong learners and responsive teachers; modeling curiosity, flexibility, creativity, and resourcefulness, we can design equitable learning experiences for all. I have some teachers in my building who believe we give too much voice and choice to our students, and view empowering students as creating entitled students. There are teachers who still believe that they should be the authority in the classroom, the one with all the answers, and that learning how to be compliant and follow adult directions is more important than helping students advocate for themselves and genuinely engage in their learning journey.

As a learning leader in a consolidated district, our biggest conflicts with creating equitable systems comes from rigid, closed-minded thinking at the top, the budget, and decision-making of the allocation of resources (ie staff). ALL of these are adult-related issues, and not equity-based solutions.

Our youngest learners, most senior community members, and anyone who is pushing a stroller, holding a carseat, using a wheelchair or crutches can not access the school building because our double doors at all entrances are extremely heavy. I’ve been advocating for 7 years to get door assist hardware as a universally designed best practice, and our facilities director refuses to add this hardware because ‘it is not necessary per building codes’ (I’ve even found the money to purchase the hardware, and he still won’t place the order and install the hardware). Mind-boggling.

When it comes to our Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS), you would think our district would look at student data for each school and each grade level to assess what the needs are and where they are, and then allocate intervention services and supports where the needs are. Instead, our district is trying to provide ‘equal’ number of interventionists at each building based on our enrollment numbers (not based on academic or behavior needs). This ensures that there is stability and consistency for the adults in the interventionist positions, but we really need people to be flexible, fluid, and responsive to move where the needs are within the district.

Another example is when our school welcomed 23 newcomer students (unexpectedly) and we needed to increase our teaching team and support staff in our Multilingual Department (ML), and we received an incredible amount of pushback from our district leadership team. We did eventually increase the teacher FTE, hired 2 paras, and established a relationship with an ML consultant to support our teaching teams in working with these new students and families. It shouldn’t be this hard. There must be a better way.

During my second year as an elementary principal, I made the following shifts to start developing more equitable learning experiences for our school community members (**I am aware that this is just the beginning of a long list of things we will continue to revise and refine with input from our community members**);

  • Streamlined our registration process to reduce redundancies and accessibility for all community members.
  • Added visual signage throughout our building so everyone can navigate our large building fairly independently.
  • We ask for family input and previous teacher input in the student placement process.
  • Our school budget is used to ensure that all students are provided with what they need during the school day. We reduce stigmas associated with socio-economic diversity to reduce anxiety and stress for students and families.
  • We serve breakfast after the bell in classrooms for all students.
  • Provide all school supplies and use a general supply closet – no more school supply shopping lists for families
  • Our school (or PTO) pays for all field trip expenses, and all students experience 2 field trips per year – one in the fall and one in the spring. We no longer ask each family to donate money at the beginning of the year for field trip expenses.
  • All students have access to all buses (close to their homes) – we no longer have a ‘special education bus’.
  • Created playground structures that are inclusive and accessible for all ability levels.
  • We’re working on getting door assist hardware for our entryway – so people don’t have to struggle entering our building.
  • All students are provided with a digital device during the school day – we no longer allow personal devices to come to school.
  • We provide school gear, water bottles, and clothes for all students, as they need it.
  • We have students and staff help select what recess equipment to have in our recess shed – this way, all personal items can stay at home.
  • We provide morning movement for all families who need to drop kids off at school before the school day begins.
  • We have upgraded our communications platforms to be translated in many different languages, and we use voicemails, texts, and emails to get messages out to all families.
  • We have developed a visual food menu to show students what meal options are available to them each day.
  • We apply our school logo stickers on our hallway walls, hung at student eye-level to help our youngest learners find their way to their classrooms.

The best thing we can all do to ensure equitable learning opportunities and experiences for all is to;

  1. Stay curious by asking questions and asking for feedback/input, and
  2. Show that we were genuinely listening by reflecting on and incorporating what we learned from our students into the design of our teaching and learning. 

Equity_AC_4_25_24 by Alison Celmer

Expression & Application

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How do teachers universally design assessments that empower students to express knowledge and skills in authentic, meaningful ways that drive future teaching and learning?

Imagine your classroom (or your school) filled with students who are genuinely excited to come to school each day, who look forward to learning new skills and concepts, who accept challenges, and who persevere through an ongoing process of refining their personalized projects that demonstrate their new learning. What if we could create learning environments where students never used the words ‘bored’ or ‘tired’, and you never experienced ‘disruptive’ or ‘defiant’ students.

I’ve got some great news for you!  You can make this happen. You have everything you need to create this type of exhilarating learning community, where all learners feel successful and show growth over time.

I believe that the majority of children are eager to learn when things are of high interest to them personally, and when they feel like they will be successful. As facilitators of learning, our job is to find ways to present concepts in ways that are intriguing to the learners. We can reduce anxiety and increase confidence in risk-taking by providing clear exemplars of students’ work – so students know what the ultimate goal is and the different ways of getting there. When we can see where we’re headed, we are much more motivated to stay focused on achieving the goal.

When students know what is expected of them, are provided with choices, and believe their teacher is their #1 champion, the wonderful world of learning opens up for them. We can lean into students’ natural sense of curiosity to allow them to explore the world around them in ways that are meaningful to them. One of the many reasons I choose to work in education is to create the learning experience for kids that I didn’t have when I was growing up in the ’90’s. I knew there was a way to make learning more engaging and sticky than the drill-and-kill, pop-quiz, scantron testing, type of ‘learning’ that I was exposed to in school.

There is immense potential that universally designed assessment tools can have on improving instructional design and learning. The key to well-designed assessment tools is keeping focus on what the essential skills are that you are expecting students to be demonstrating. For example, being clear on a writing skill – spelling, grammar, handwriting, content, structure, etc. will dictate what items you list on your menu of options for demonstrating each skill. When students have the opportunity to choose how they apply their skills and knowledge in ways that are relevant to their real lives, they will be more engaged, motivated, and invested in their learning. By allowing students to utilize their strengths (ie creating videos, podcasts, graphic organizers, speaking/listening, performances, teaching, etc.) to create a product or presentation that shows what they know, they will be more inclined to take risks and show some areas of vulnerability (new learning).

Universally designing assessments means that we are removing barriers for students by providing a variety of ways for students to ‘show what they know’. There is pride in their work and excitement to take on achievable challenges that help create lasting, memorable, sticky learning. Learning solidifies when we can put skills into practice, explain our thinking, and teach others what we’ve learned.

When I was in my second year of teaching (back in 2012), I invited the 5th grade class to join my Kindergartners to participate in a collaborative Wiki project. I provided the context and scenario; all of the students were told they were ‘designers, engineers, and architects’ bidding to win a PTO project to upgrade our current school playground. Their mission was to research and brainstorm ways to improve our recess area, then design and build a prototype of what they would present to the PTO. I designed a website that led small groups and partners to explore a variety of materials at their own pace. We worked on these projects for about two months, and I was blown away to see the sustained focus and enthusiasm for these projects from all the kids. Groups chose how they wanted to present their projects to our PTO – some created videos, some wrote proposals, and some chose to present in person. Students applied a variety of skills throughout this project, connected with other students, and contributed to something that would benefit the greater community – now that’s some sticky learning!

Expression_AC_4_3_24 by Alison Celmer

Accessibility

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Scaffolding, also called scaffold or staging,[2] is a temporary structure used to support a work crew and materials to aid in the construction, maintenance and repair of buildings, bridges and all other human-made structures. Scaffolds are widely used on site to get access to heights and areas that would be otherwise hard to get to. (Wikipedia, 2024.)

As an Educational Designer, and a facilitator of learning, my goal is to provide opportunities for all learners to be successful in reaching their individual potential. To help set every learner up for a successful learning experience, I assume nothing and teach everything. I provide background knowledge, context, and explicitly define terminology, and vocabulary before launching learners into the materials to extend their learning.

There’s an art to delivering complex and abstract concepts into simple and concrete experiences. Thoughtfully designed instructional delivery models ensure all learners have access to understand and engage with essential information. When we examine the Common Core State Standards, teaching methods, materials, and assessments are not outlined. This provides us with an opportunity to create multiple pathways to meet the same destination by providing students with options. It is important to take our time to work through our instructional materials with a sensory and experiential lens by putting ourselves in the learner’s seat.

As facilitators of learning, our job is to create a buffet filled with a variety of resources, strategies, and tools. The learners build their own customized plates full of relevant and accessible resources, strategies, and tools for personal skill-building. This ensures that the ownership and responsibility of learning is on the learner – by giving them choices in what and how they absorb and engage with information.

An educational designer must be cognizant of the ultimate objective of the lesson. What is the essential skill/concept that is the primary focus of this particular lesson? Will we be introducing, reviewing, practicing, and/or mastering that skill/concept in this lesson? It is easy to get overzealous in trying to incorporate a variety of skills/concepts in one lesson – but when we do this, our learners can lose focus on the essential skill.

We also need to know how to provide appropriate scaffolds – by providing bite-size mini-concepts to help slowly build up to the ultimate skill/concept. Asking, “What are the pre-requisite skills needed to understand, explore, and apply the essential skill?” is a vital step in designing effective learning experiences and knowing what materials to prepare and present for the learners to explore. By providing multiple checks for understanding throughout the lesson, the educational designer knows when to provide these scaffolds.

When I look at each of the resources/materials, I ask the question, “What assumptions are being made about who (and how) people can access this material?” For example, the reading material – what is the length of the article/chapter/book, is it available in other languages, is it available in an audible format, braille, etc. for videos – is closed captioning available, are other languages available, for movement activities, what modifications could be offered for less mobile learners, etc.

I also consider, “How can I ensure all learners are personally being challenged?“.  I provide multiple resources for a variety of entry points – we call this “challenge by choice”.  I also ask “Will these resources continue to challenge or stretch the learning for those who are coming into this lesson with a lot of context, background, and skills?”

Once I know what materials I will be presenting, I then consider how to organize the presentation of the materials. I try to think through how I want the learner to experience and explore the materials – what are they going to see, hear, feel, taste, smell, etc. Visually, I aim to create the presentation of materials to be appealing, digestible, and inspiring. I consider the length, density, navigation, graphics, etc. To represent materials in a universally accessible format, we need to be as clear, simple, and concise as possible.  Once we’ve intrigued the learner into wanting to dig deeper into the materials, we then turn our attention to incorporating a variety of ways learners will engage with the materials through reading, writing, drawing, recording, listening, watching, talking, moving, etc.

Let’s build skyscrapers together! Creating passionate life long learners with limitless potential.

Access_AC_3_23_24 by Alison Celmer

Elevating Teaching & Learning

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Why is it critical that we create a culture in our schools where educators are open about errors and open to change and unlearning? And why is this critical if we are to universally design instruction?

Change is inevitable – so, let’s embrace it. Embracing change means choosing to have a growth/innovative mindset – which includes; being adaptable, flexible, and resilient. When people are provided with a clear understanding of the reason or need for change, they are more apt to accept it. Be aware of the language you choose, it can really help encourage vs discourage people from leaning in and rolling up their sleeves to make change happen. I prefer to use the phrase, “reflect to refine” because it acknowledges that we’re working on fine-tuning or tweaking the systems and practices that are already in place vs. “continuous improvement” which can feel draining – as though we’re not doing enough. When people are given opportunities to be a part of the change process, they are even more inclined to engage and embrace the change. Finding the appropriate pacing for implementing change is also important – you want to go slow enough to keep everyone on board and feeling supported, yet, people need to see some positive results to keep the momentum going.

Schools are learning playgrounds for both adults and children. When learning community members co-create an environment that is a safe place for people to explore, discover, try new things, and reflect on process and progress, lifelong learning and continuous improvement will become a natural part of the community culture. School leaders play a major role in setting the stage for healthy risk-taking, which includes modeling; being transparent when trying something new, providing clarity on the purpose, accepting feedback, owning mistakes, and celebrating successes.

As social beings, we learn best by engaging in a process of collective learning. In all effective organizations, collaboration is an essential expectation. Genuine and authentic collaboration is not merely sharing/swapping resources with your colleagues. In an effective community of practice, everyone brings their perspective, ideas, wonderings, questions, etc. to the table. We work together (co-labor) to build something new, something better, than where we started. To achieve this, it requires mutual respect, the value of collective competence, unconditional commitment, and established trust of all members. During this collective learning process, we share openly what we are doing or working on, we offer one another ideas and feedback to improve, think differently, offer another perspective, and provide support for one another. Ultimately, collective inquiry supports a balanced exchange of ideas and action research. Members of this community develop a shared practice – they put concepts into action and work interdependently because, we, collectively, realize that we are responsible for the successful outcomes of all students.

Once we put our plans into action, we can then “reflect to refine” and truly elevate teaching and learning for all. The graphics below describe how we apply the Design Process (the “D” in “UDL”), to innovate and improve systems, processes, and practices.

Elevate_AC_2_29_24 by Alison Celmer

Evidence of Teaching & Learning

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In 2010, I earned my bachelor’s degree in education. Confidently, I believed that my education on ‘how to teach elementary students’ was well-rounded. Stepping into the classroom as a brand-new Kindergarten teacher made me realize the enormous responsibility I had just been given. I was completely unaware of my lack of knowledge. No amount of classes, workshops, books, podcasts, etc., could change this fact. Dufour was spot-on when he said that we ‘learn by doing’. To truly understand what effective teaching entails, I needed hands-on experience and direct interaction with real students.

I have a feeling I experienced the same moment of clarity that many brand-new teachers go through when they are first learning about the power of assessments. I truly believe that educators can only gain this understanding of what assessments are, how to design effective assessment tools, and how to not only administer these assessments but also analyze the results to better understand how students learn best and what actions teachers can take as a facilitator of learning to ensure all students are demonstrating growth over time by trying them out.

I used to believe assessments were solely paper tests given to all students at the end of a unit or year as a summative tool. Unlocking the power of formative assessments transformed my teaching significantly. Throughout the teaching and learning process, I obtained snapshots of students’ understanding, allowing me to make necessary adjustments to instruction. By directing my efforts toward specific skills that would advance students, I significantly improved the efficiency and effectiveness of my teaching. Realizing I didn’t have to stick to a rigid program and keep teaching things students already knew was liberating.

In my second year teaching Kindergarten, I discovered a true game-changer to add to my assessment arsenal – ESGI Software. This is an online progress monitoring tool (designed by a former kindergarten teacher) to help guide instruction proactively. This tool also helped students (yes, even 5-year-olds) get more engaged in the learning process. It provided immediate feedback to the students on what they could do, and what we were still working on. Not only was this motivating for students, but it was also encouraging for families because the software would populate individualized letters and flashcards to send home to families as well. This software had a healthy bank of pre-made assessments and it allowed me the opportunity to create my own assessments in the system. Like I said, total game-changer.

It was through the Professional Learning Community process that I experienced with incredibly talented colleagues that helped me understand the significance of common formative assessments and the value of authentic collaboration in enhancing teaching and learning for all. Designing our own assessments provided the flexibility to align better with what we were actually teaching students. We were also developing menus and rubrics of what success criteria could look like, which provided students with options in how they chose to ‘show what they know’.

When I think back to my very first year of teaching, I know it was a decent year of learning and growth for those little ones, and it was a tremendous amount of learning and growth for my teaching practice, which only further developed over time. It can feel disappointing to think “Oh, I wish I knew then what I know now – I could have done better for those kids that first year” – but we’ve all been there. You’re not alone. As much as we want to ‘nail it’ and think we have all the answers, or all the strategies to be fully prepared for teaching, the reality is teaching is an art as much as it is a science. It’s through honest reflection that we can truly master the art and science of the assessment process. This is how we can be better for those current and future students.

Be patient and kind to yourself as you explore all the benefits of effective assessment practices.

Evidence_AC_2_29_24 by Alison Celmer

A 7-Year(+) Journey Towards Establishing Effective PLCs

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I have been learning alongside two of my classroom teachers and PLC Facilitators this year through a Data Analysis course presented by Demonstrated Success. The Data Analysis Course is a year-long course that is a combination of self-paced online modules, virtual meetings, and full-day in-person sessions. The co-facilitators of this course have a wealth of experience, expertise, and resources to share with all educators – no matter your role. I strongly encourage school and/or district teams to attend their courses. Our focus during this module has been to read through an article about Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) and use the “Four A’s Protocol” to reflect on the reading and apply this information to our practice.

In the article How to Build Radically Different PLCs That Empower Teachers with Ownership and Raise Student Achievement (Jody Honaker, Deana Senn, and Shakira Fetherolf, 2022.), helped me affirm all of the intentional moves I have made over the past 7 years as a school principal to continually improve and enhance our PLC experience to be more effective.

Assumptions

  • Configurations: The authors of this article made some assumptions about the configurations in schools. I’ve worked in schools where there is only one teacher per grade level, and I currently work in a school where we have 4 or 5 classroom teachers at each grade level. We also have some teachers who are generalists – teaching all content areas to the same group of students, and then we have other teachers who are content-specific. In my current school, we are fortunate to have an embedded model for Special Education which means we have anywhere from 1-3 Special Educators on each grade level team – I’m well aware this is not true in all schools. The configuration of the school should be taken into consideration when designing PLC structures.
  • Time: The authors of this article don’t specify how much time or what an example schedule would look like for PLCs, but there is an assumption that we have the time available to add PLCs to our schedules. Administrators are up against a lot of competing factors that can be barriers to supporting PLCs – and for me, it comes down to the teacher contract, scheduling needs, and a lack of adequate time that is essential when establishing and maintaining effective PLCs. I have tried a variety of different schedules over the years, and have been persistent in maintaining that PLCs are a priority, so we are now using 1 hour each week during our early-release time to ensure every grade level and department team has at least an hour to meet weekly. (Again, I know that we are unique – and most schools do not offer an early-release day for students.)
  • Terminology: The authors of this article assume that all PLC members have a shared understanding/definitions of terminology, language, and experience in PLCs – when our realities are that we have teachers that are brand new to teaching, teachers who are joining us from different districts/states, and teachers who are veterans who may have only worked in this one school or one district with limited exposure to schools beyond this school/district. There’s an assumption that there is an aligned scope, sequence, and pacing for grade level and department curriculum. In one school I worked in, they used the term “Learning Targets” as student-friendly “I can” statements that explained the specific skill the students were working on developing and how they were going to demonstrate that skill by the end of that lesson, while my current district refers to “Learning Targets” as these broad, end-of-year goals based on the Common Core State Standards.

Agreements

Reflecting on your vision for the team involves various shifts as you gradually move your team to a higher level of maturity and share more responsibility with your team.

When we first started building a structure for PLCs in my building (7 years ago), we hired an outside “expert” in PLCs to help encourage belief in the PLC potential. As this was a new format and structure for teaching teams, and I was a new administrator at the time, I approached this first year as a very hands-on (aka micromanager) to offer support, structure, consistency, and accountability. I was the facilitator for every PLC meeting, I attended every meeting, I took the notes at every meeting, I set the agenda, etc. Then, I asked for feedback. (Is anyone noticing a trend here?!?! Oye.)

The next year, I asked for one volunteer from each grade level team to become their grade level rep/PLC Facilitator for the year. I still set the agenda and made the note template (so they were consistent in all the grade levels). I also attended as many PLC meetings as I could – but at this time, we still had PLCs taking place during the school day, and they were only 30 minutes per week. We also did not have consistent data to bring to the table each week. I received feedback at the end of this year, which led to…

I was completely hands-off the following year. We still had PLC Facilitators, but I did not create the agenda, notes doc, I did not attend the meetings, etc. The feedback I received that year was that the PLCs felt like a waste of time because there was no direction, guidance, support, or purpose. Teachers weren’t showing up to meetings, they considered it a waste of time, or a joke, or the agendas focused on logistics rather than student data. Teachers were asking for more structure and support – and I needed to strike a balance between my too-tight and too-loose approaches tried in the past.

As the years progressed, we continued to have PLC Facilitators, and we would meet monthly as a vertical PLC – which has been super helpful. I attend PLCs on occasion, when asked, or when I have the time. I have access to the notes, and teams tag me in the notes if they need my response. Agendas are co-created by the PLC Facilitators and team members. Roles have been assigned to each member of the PLC team – so everyone is a little more invested in participating in the meetings. Student data is the focus at every PLC meeting, because we’ve added another meeting time weekly to go over anything else that the team would like to discuss together. Over time, our PLCs have shifted from manager-led to become more self-managing and self-designing – and, continue to be a work-in-progress. We have come a LONG way, and I am looking forward to continuing this important work with our teaching teams.

Welcoming different voices and opinions allows for the intellectual friction that drives diverse thinking.

I completely agree with this statement from the article as well – I believe it is healthy to have discussion, debate, and hear a variety of perspectives. When done with an open mind and an assumption of best intentions (genuinely), these conversations can help us all grow. I do question how to help support this with PLC members – we have teachers who are professional, respectful, and avoid confrontation or uncomfortable conversations with colleagues. We also have members who are negative, and don’t follow the norms/agreements/commitments, but the facilitators struggle on ways to bring everyone back to the norms/agreements/commitments. This is something we are working on schoolwide but would love to hear how other schools have helped overcome this in their schools.

Arguments

This article says that PLCs should focus on a compelling purpose, instructional planning, and data analysis. Something that we struggle with in our building is trying to figure out the timing of when all 5 or 6 classroom teachers and special educators should be planning instruction throughout the school year. I hear from teachers that they are not all on the same pacing for units, which makes it challenging to collaborate on designing units/lessons together during PLC meetings. I agree that the teams should develop the lesson learning targets or intentions together and build consensus on success criteria, but then each teacher should be able to design their own lessons/student tasks to help students achieve those targets (build grade level skills). A lot of this work could take place during post-service, summer per diem work, and pre-service, if we didn’t also have to allow time for preparing learning spaces, safety trainings, school system overviews, and district initiatives. If we could answer the Q’s; what do students need to know, understand, and do this school year? AND how will they show what they know? PRIOR to the school year, then we could continue answering the next 2 PLC Q’s throughout the school year in PLC meetings; what will we do when they show proficiency?, what will we do when students are not yet demonstrating proficiency?

Aspirations

This will probably come as no surprise, that our PLC focus this year has been to expand our use of and knowledge of data analysis. To be more specific, we are continuing to work on identifying the ‘now what‘ phase of data analysis in our weekly PLC team meetings. We are collecting a lot of data, but we don’t always know what to do with that information, and how to make revisions to our curriculum or adjustments to our instruction as a collective grade level (or department) team. MANY of my teachers are looking at formative data daily or weekly and making adjustments in their own classroom with instruction and intervention.

I’d love to see our horizontally aligned (grade level and department teams) start to meet as vertically aligned PLCs to gain a better understanding of the grade level below and the grade level above the current grade level they are teaching. This will encourage deeper conversations among colleagues and build capacity for classroom teachers to meet the various learners’ needs – knowing what to do when students already demonstrate proficiency with grade-level skills and what to do when students are not yet demonstrating proficiency with grade-level skills.

Going back to the idea of the embedded model for Special Education, I’d love to see our teaching teams move towards co-teaching models, where general classroom teachers partner teacher with Special Educators, Multilingual Teachers, Speech Language Pathologists, Digital Learning Leaders, Diversity Equity & Inclusion Coaches, School Counselors, Instructional Coaches, etc. We have an enormous amount of expertise and talent in our buildings that we have yet to utilize effectively.

We are slowly shifting our culture to realize our shared responsibility for all students, where we see how we are interdependent on one another, and where we view the PLC process as embedded professional development that highlights the strengths, talents, and expertise of ALL educators (not just coaches, coordinators, leaders, etc.).

 

Universal Design for (Life ) Learning (UDL)

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The first part of changing a system is having the right mindset and belief system, but then there is a lot of work to do to build a skill set and a system that embraces variability and equity.

When my team was starting to re-enter the building post-lockdown, I had purchased each individual person a white photo frame, and printed colorful posters that said, “We can do hard things.”. I hand-delivered

them to every classroom teacher, special educator, essential arts teacher, school counselor, interventionist, office member, etc. I was immensely proud of the work we had accomplished together through one of the most traumatic shared experiences we’ll ever encounter. We also proved to ourselves, and our community, that we can rise to the challenge and we’re not afraid of doing what it takes to support all of our students.

I was not prepared for the varied responses and feedback I received when I delivered these framed posters to individuals. Some were appreciative, some were moved, some were proud, and some were irritated and frustrated. When I asked for more detail about why the poster made them feel frustrated, they said “I don’t want to do hard things anymore, I’m exhausted. I don’t know how much more I have in me to keep up with the additional responsibilities and demands that have been put on educators. When I look at that poster, it makes me realize that our work is never done, and there will constantly be new challenges that we are expected to overcome.” Whew.

The mental, emotional, physical, and social shift that the pandemic has exposed is real, and three years later we’re still learning how to adjust. What that teacher expressed was her honest, raw, and real state of where she was at in that moment. And I so appreciated hearing it from her, because I know that others are feeling that way too, but she was brave enough to name it out loud for me. I needed to hear that because that is not how I think, feel, or act as an educational leader.

My teaching team has heard me passionately talk about Universal Design for Learning and Multi-Tiered Systems of Support for about 7 years now, and initially, I thought the way to get people to listen and put these elements into practice was to explain how beneficial it is for ALL students – because that is our common denominator afterall, right? The students. We do this hard work for the students – we keep showing up for the students. The teachers need to see how the system supports them, in addition to the supporting the students. We need the adults to recognize how UDL and MTSS, benefit the adults, who are caring for our students. We have developed an interdependent system that relies on layered supports and services to help all students show growth toward or beyond proficiency.

As educators, we’re all lifelong learners, so I simply took off the word ‘students’ and was explicit and intentional about highlighting the benefits of UDL and MTSS for ALL (including adults). This has been a game-changer for quite a few of my faculty and staff members. We are fortunate to have an embedded Special Educator Model in my building – which means we have one special educator on every grade-level team. We started incorporating what used to be individual accommodations to universal best practices ie flexible seating options, we started shifting to more of a push-in intervention model (with some pull-out services), we began doing more guided group work and fewer whole class lessons, etc. Teaching teams are recognizing that it might take a bit more effort and energy initially, but they see that the results are worth it, when they see the increase in student engagement, participation, and application of learning. This reframing has shifted our mindset and belief system, which enabled us to establish a highly effective multi-tiered/layered support system within our school. (More on this in a future post.)

UDL is a framework for designing learning experiences, so students have options for how they learn, what materials they use, and how they demonstrate their learning. When implemented with a lens of equity in a multi-tiered system, the framework has the potential to eliminate opportunity gaps that exclude many learners, especially those who have been historically marginalized. If we want all students to have equal opportunities to learn, we have to be incredibly purposeful, proactive, and flexible (Novak, 2021).

Another (more current) experience that has helped people open up to the idea of Universal Design for Learning has been our recent influx of newcomers and multilingual students joining our school community. We welcomed 29 newcomers (mostly from Africa) within about 2 months, into a community that had 96% of the population identifying as English-speaking Caucasians. This caught some of our educators off-guard and they felt underprepared to support these students in their general education setting. We have an incredible three-person Multilingual Department (ML) that supports students within the classroom and has offered UDL suggestions to teachers such as ‘add more visuals’, ‘label materials’, ‘move posters to student eye height’, etc. We brought in outside guest speakers to offer ML trainings (which also brought up ways to incorporate UDL), but teachers only attended if they currently had a student who was working with the ML dept. It wasn’t until we provided an opportunity for a few of our teachers to visit another school in our state (not in our district) that has a well-established ML Program for newcomers, and they got to see UDL in action. That’s when the light bulbs started turning on…those teachers are now seeing how putting UDL elements in place in any classroom will benefit all students (and themselves) because they would already be prepared to welcome any student into their classroom, any time. I am confident that this experience is what will be the catalyst for our school system to start embracing variability and equity using the Universal Design for Learning Framework. Below, is a two-page coaching guide I created for an administrator or coach to share (or use to develop professional learning experiences) with an educator as they start to design inclusive learning experiences for all.

Now, if only I could get my district’s facilities and finance department to see the power of investing in some significant facility upgrades – we could really be more welcoming, accessible, and inclusive. We’ll get there, eventually. (I’m pretty persistent!)

TheExperience_AC_12_29_23 by Alison Celmer

Embedded Professional Development

acelmer

DIRECTION:

I’ve had 2 focus areas for our professional growth this year; PLC’s and UDL.

Realizing the need to get creative in how we explore and experience Universal Design for Learning this year, trying to satisfy the requests for relevant, purposeful, and differentiated PD, and wanting to get into classrooms on a more regular basis, I think I’ve come up with a mutually beneficial approach.

COMMITMENT:

You will start to see me in each of your classrooms multiple times throughout the rest of this school year to embed personalized PD during the work day – in real-time, and individualized for you!

I’ve started conducting 5-minute walkthroughs using Katie Novak’s Universal Design for Learning (UDL) look-fors as a reference guide. I’ll note the day, time, activity, a few noticings, and highlight the elements of UDL best practices for inclusive instruction that I see/hear during that 5-minute observation. You will receive a photocopy of the form/notes within 24 hours. This is not evaluative – it is for your personal reflections and professional growth. I’m more than happy to debrief my observations, discuss the notes/form I share with you, or help you dig into the UDL elements that are not yet highlighted (and keep in mind, these are super short snapshots – please don’t expect to have everything highlighted each visit) – just use my calendly link in my email signature to set up a time to touch base.

ALIGNMENT:

I’ll be looking holistically at the trends that arise throughout our K-4 classrooms, share them with the K-4 learning community, and use that to help us determine the next steps in our UDL exploration.

I’m really looking forward to seeing all of you ‘in action’, doing what you love – teaching and learning with, from, and for students!