Thanks, Amy! This i3 project began in January 2017, and the external evaluation is ongoing.  The implementation study was completed last year, so we have those results, and the impact study will conclude next spring/summer 2020.  We are presenting often at regional and national conferences to disseminate what we are learning as we go along - our last presentation was at the Carnegie Foundation Summit on Improvement in Education in April. I would be happy to discuss at your convenience!

Hi, Kathe -

We have the same challenges in Virginia, particularly in our rural areas, and I agree that a NIC could address some of the challenges related to alternative certification. What subject areas tend to be hit the hardest in NM?

Jennifer

Hi, Julie!

We do actually have some challenges related to internet connectivity - mostly for teachers who are uploading videos to the online platform or attending webinars that we hold regularly from home. Unfortunately, the only solution that has worked for us is to be sure to schedule our webinars at different times so some have the opportunity to attend later in the evening from home if they have broadband but others have the option of attending a session at school before leaving for the day. We find that connectivity is not much of an issue in most schools, but we do often have to work with the IT departments to unblock certain sites and activities for our teachers. 

As for the problem of practice, we had to choose it in advance for this NIC due to the nature of our grant proposal and the priorities stated in the RFP. So our teachers in RMIN did not select the problem but have certainly had the opportunity to test and refine solutions along the way. We have been using Plan, Do, Study, Act cycles with small groups to test and refine the tools and processes that enable the teachers to create lesson plans, teach and video record their lessons, and then provide feedback to one another using specific rubrics. I am happy to share more details about this if you are interested. 

Jennifer,

Thanks for the details about the internet issues--sounds very similar to our project, so we are not alone!

I appreciate you sharing about the problem of practice as well, and your use of Plan, Do, Study, Act cycles. This is helpful to think about in relation to our project. Thanks so much!
Julie

Hi, Mac - 

Thanks for watching and for responding!  For this network, we started by inviting school divisions to be partners on the i3 grant application, and when we were awarded, we had MOUs signed by superintendents.  When we were ready to have teachers join, we communicated the project goals and expectations via email, website, webinars, and social media and had teachers complete an online application that helped us understand their desire to collaborate with peers and be innovative in their classroom practices, and we wanted teachers who were already pretty adept with technology due to the video recording and use of a new online platform.  We still had school administrators who did their best to hand-pick the teachers who would be involved, but we reserved the right to turn down applicants.  The main requirements for RMIN were that the teacher had to be from a partner rural school division, teaching Algebra I and/or Pre-Algebra (for the entire project period), willing/able to implement the project activities and attend all virtual and in-person meetings, and overall engaged in the network.  Since year 1, we have lost a few teachers due to changes in teaching assignments and personal issues that prevented them from implementing with fidelity.

As for norms of behavior or expectations for amount of contribution, yes, we have had to define this a bit to ensure implementation fidelity.  This usually centers around attendance in activities and numbers of lesson plans created, video recordings of instruction uploaded, and formal feedback given to peers in a given project year.  We use these deliverables/milestones to determine the stipend amount for each person as well.

Peer feedback has been a challenge for the majority of teachers because they are really not used to providing constructive criticism to other adults.  They are used to getting feedback from their administrators in the form of evaluations, but most of them have never had the opportunity to formally give the feedback to peers.  They tend to err on the side of being "nice" or giving pats on the back for a job well done rather than making suggestions for possible improvements, but we are continuing to work on this aspect of the network and will make this a focus of our two-day summer institute this year.

Again, thanks for the response and the questions! Let me know if you would like to discuss further.

Jennifer  

Hi Julie, 

Thanks for watching our video!  During the first year of the project we hosted a 4-day summer training institute for teachers and principals. Teachers unable to attend the 4-day summer institute received special training via webinars, reviewed videos of key sessions from the summer institute, and communicated frequently with RMIN network facilitators. We host a summer institute each year to touch base with teachers and allow them to collaborate in person with each other. We also continually host Academic Concepts Connected to Employable Skills (ACCESS) sessions. These sessions allow teachers to hear directly from technicians in high demand STEM-H occupations about the math used daily in the workplace. We strive to hold these sessions regionally to reduce travel distance for teachers. We have found initial face-to-face interactions supplemented with opportunities for in-person interactions throughout the project increases teacher engagement while providing clarity about project expectations.

Hi Erin,

Thank you for your interest and your questions!

The platform we use in our project is Torsh Talent. It allows teachers to upload documents and videos that they then share with peers. Teachers use rubrics to provide constructive feedback to one another. There is also a community section in which teachers can create forums for collaboration.

As far as the privacy issue, Torsh is a secure, password protected site. Teachers select particular peers to share lesson plans and videos with and to ask for feedback. We do have parental consent to record and share videos of students. 

Sandy

Hi, Rachel - 

We currently have 30 teachers from 16 different school divisions in Virginia.  When teachers agreed to participate in this i3 project, we asked them to commit to the full project period of 4 years.  We have had some attrition due to changes in teaching assignments and health issues, unfortunately, but that is to be expected.  Next year, we will expand the network and invite additional teachers to participate (after the initial evaluation period is over), and we hope that the work will be sustained beyond the USED grant period to allow rural teachers the opportunity to collaborate on other problems of practice.

Thanks!

Jennifer

Hi, Karin - 

Thank you for watching our video! Because this virtual NIC has been developed as a model of innovation in a USED grant project, we had to limit the number of teachers participating to 40 to stay within budget.  We are currently down to 30 teachers in the network due to changes in teaching assignments and health issues, but we will expand to add additional teachers next year after the external evaluation is completed.  All of the teachers are actively collaborating because we have a structure in place to ensure that they complete certain milestones related to creating lesson plans, teaching and video-recording those lessons, and sharing the videos with peers to give and receive feedback for improvement.  We are in constant communication with them to provide encouragement and support, and when we learn of challenges the teachers are experiencing, we work with them to find solutions.  

Our external evaluation team has conducted an implementation study to research whether or not the project plan was implemented with fidelity, and this year, they began the impact study to ascertain whether the network will have positive impact on student and teacher outcomes.  Please follow us on Facebook and/or Twitter or reach out to us via our website to stay in touch with us!

Jennifer

Brian,

Thank you for viewing our video and for taking the time to comment.  Certainly there have been all kinds of support networks and professional learning communities in place for quite some time, but we believe that our virtual networked improvement community is a new, innovative model because it draws upon the latest improvement science and helps meet some of the challenges faced by rural educators. We've learned some valuable lessons so far:  

• Building trust and developing relationships among the network participants is critical - we accomplished this through a combination of a few face-to-face meetings and having the teachers connect weekly through phone or video conference.
• Ongoing communication with the teachers to learn about their challenges/barriers and then working with them to find solutions has been key to progress.  We have provided training and consistent communication to their principals as well in an effort to ensure that they have support in their buildings.
• Quick technical assistance on the technology aspects of the project is very important - if participants do not feel that they can use the technology, they will disengage pretty fast.

Thanks again for your interest!

Jennifer