Running head: COLLABORATION SKILLS ASSESSMENT

Collaboration Skills Assessment

Brenton M. DeFlitch
Walden University

Dr. Tammye Turpin

EDUC-7742-2
October 23, 2016

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Collaboration Skills Assessment

Introduction
Organizational progress and improvement cannot be made by a single progressive
individual. Change is a complex process and one that necessitates multiple individuals working
toward a shared vision and goal. While lasting change happens from a groups commitment to
evolve, it still must be conveyed in a personalized manner to expedite each individuals
movements forward. Killion and Roy (2009) states, Collaborative professional learning engages
teachers in teams that work together over time to improve teaching and learning (p. 28). While
studying at Walden University, several applications to the real world prompted the group effort to
evolve the organization. Some results in individual and grade level evolutions while others
prompted organizational revisioning. Collaboration is the multiplier for the change students need
in the organization and stakeholders that provide the pathways to the future.
Grade-level Meetings
During course 7740, Qualities of Professional Development, I was still employed as an
English teacher at Northwest High School and often led meetings at different levels of the
organization. Grade-level meetings are one of the most important efforts for change. Grade-level
teams met once a week with special educators, academic coaches, and administrators to review
student data and collaboratively plan in response to the data. While these meetings can be
powerful, time is often a factor in reducing its effectiveness. Previous to course 7740, the
participants brought data on scratch paper, spending time looking through the data during the
meeting. Additionally, the structure was assumed by participants, which often prompted off-task
conversations. Leading up to the first week of April 2015, I spent time in the course reviewing
agendas and analyzing research on leadership effectiveness during meetings. I often shared these

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materials and ideas with staff and leadership, seeing an opportunity to redesign our meetings.
This aligns well with several standards for leadership, including Learning Forwards Learning
Communities and Walden Universitys Standard 5, which focuses on collaboration of
professionals. For week six of the course, my principal approved a design for a meeting agenda.
We exchanged several email drafts and even discussed the research behind some of the parts.
Additionally, we decided it would be more efficient if teachers had more clarity on roles within
the meetings, as each person took notes on their own, causing further wasted time.
The efficiency of this change aligns with several of the standards within the program,
focusing on the collaboration and work a professional learning community. The development of
this meeting structure was not without its hurdles. Good teachers are inquisitive, wanting to
know why. They consider why the change or why will we now do this specific meeting structure.
Responding to and leading this change was easy and powerful with the structure supported by
research. I found myself quoting course and supplemental text and often providing a copy of an
excerpt for the participant to read on their own. This demonstrates and correlates with NCATEs
Conceptual Framework under Standard 1, which focuses on leadership knowledge of pedagogy.
While it is a grade-level meeting, leadership still provided specific topics or issues they needed
to be covered. I began meeting with an administrator on Fridays to determine organizational
focus for our meeting next week. This helped me understand how collaboration leads to
compromise and a balancing act.
Summer School
At the end of last year, I transitioned to Academic Dean at STEM Prep High School.
Instantly, studies with Walden University, specifically course 7741, Designing Professional
Development, lead to changes as I stepped in the first day and was assigned the development of

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summer school to be used the following week. This type of project requires multiple layers of
communication and collaboration, extending from the director to purchasing to teachers. The
program needed to be successful and there was not a lot of time to meet and integrate myself
slowly. I met with and collaborated with professionals within and outside of our organization as I
talked with my acquaintances in the Tennessee Department of Education as well as
representative for several different online programs for credit recovery. For all of this to happen a
clear vision needed to be set. I met with the Curriculum and Instruction Director and the
Founding Executive to sketch out a vision for the program. That night I spent most of my time
crafting a detailed vision for how summer school grows students and our faculty. The cloudbased Google Doc was shared among all leadership that this decision impacted and I received
valuable feedback and comments digitally. This advancement is critical to evolving our
educational organizations as children do not have time for adults to wait for a scheduled face-toface or risk to the loss of a passed off paper document. The next morning, I went back to work on
the Google Doc, applying meaningful feedback to improve our vision of the program.
Implementation stems from content knowledge of pedagogy, collaboration with others, and the
strategies used to clearly outline the path to fulfillment. All of these illustrate the standards
within NCATE, Learning Forward, and Walden University. The following meetings with parents,
companies, teachers and more stemmed from our vision for the program, which would not be
possible without a strong collaborative vision setting.
Critical Friends Group
As the new school year approached, it was apparent that voice and investment was
imperative for the new year. Upon becoming Academic Dean, I started with reviewing as many
data points as available. I specifically noticed the moderately significant number of teachers who

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left the school after its founding year. While this is typical after the founding year of a charter
school that holds everyone to high standards, it still stuck with me after spending most of my
career in heavily veteran staffed schools. I saw the positives and negatives this has on an
organization as the lack of mentors impacted professionalism and efficiency while the new-toteaching staff had grit and energy for impactful change. After meeting with and discussing this
with leadership and staff who remained at the school, I noticed that teachers were urging
leadership for a system that included more teacher voice and investment. On the other hand, it is
difficult to fully release responsibilities to teachers who have been in the field less than a year or
two.
To begin the process, I submitted one of my Walden University papers to the founding
director and executive leadership, which focused on the effectiveness and impact of Critical
Friends Group. The paper utilized research and case studies to present the power this has on staff
culture and school change. After reading the research, executive leadership requested an outline
plan for the new Thursday professional development structure. The plan was presented in person,
where I also faced numerous questions about the research behind the plan. Weekly discussions
and applications during course 7741, Designing Professional Development, provided significant
background knowledge to truly master the initial implementation of Critical Friends Groups.
Furthermore, the entire leadership collaboratively provided a holistic plan and teacher-facing
presentation to unveil the new program. We now focus more on developing collaboration in
teams over individuals, as supported by Killion and Roy (2009): This further depicts a mastery of
Walden Universitys standard on collaboration as our final structure included numerous voices
and perspectives to increase the robustness of the program. The program now runs independently
and is self-sufficient, allowing teachers to collect evidence, collaborate, and suggest

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organizational improvements without the direct imperative from leadership. Empowering

teachers to collaborate can only be successful through a leadership team that also collaborates
effectively.
Innovation Configuration Maps
Growing as an individual also means taking new pathways to conveying the vision and
pathways to growth for individuals and groups. Leaderships must create, revise, and be clear
about the visions for the school. Wagner and Kegan (2006) state, If good instructionin every
classroom and for all studentsis the central focus of systematic change in education, then
districts and schools need to define goodness and come to a shared understanding (p. 37).
Throughout my career, I struggled to see the full vision of leadership and exactly how I, as a
teacher, could advance that vision. As a leader, this was an important change I sought from my
learning at Walden University. Through several courses, specifically course 7742, Implementing
Professional Development, I became familiar with the use of Innovation Configuration Maps
used in change organizations. The clarity of improvement as well as the versatility in use
instantly grabbed my attention. Braley, Boyles, et al. (2011) describe IC Maps: It identifies and
describes the major components and a continuum of implementation levels. An IC map is a tool
that describes in specific, operational terms what new practices look like (p. 4). I spoke with
executive and school team leadership about developing these for all elements of our vision for
the school. The executive founder loved the idea but wanted me validation of their impact before
expending design time on the documents. We collaborated to first create one as a pilot to see how
teachers responded to their use. If teachers responded well, we would then start a long-term plan
for the creation, collaboration, and finalization of IC Maps for our vision.

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Since I was named founder and creator of the 1:1 implementation of Chromebooks, I
decided to begin with a 1:1 IC Map for use of clarifying teacher practices and mindsets regarding
technology use in our school. I used numerous drafts, including submissions to Walden faculty
and my leadership team, to develop a well-thought out document for teachers. Coaches and
leadership then used the final version first as a reflection tool. Teachers were given time to
review the document and ask questions before reflecting on their current implementation of
technology. Staff was then coached in setting immediate goals. The collaboration on this map
created a shared vision with faculty and leadership on the technology, which without it, may not
be as far along as we are now.
Parent Academies
While collaboration with everyone is vital to the process, some positions link more often
than others. I spend the majority of time collaborating with my fellow Academic Dean. Most
recently, we began discussing how to better inform and integrate parents into the process of their
childs education. Initially, we held a digital mind mapping session, where we documented ideas
and research-backed suggestions, in our Microsoft OneNote Leadership page. I was able to bring
in an apply Walden University research, discussion, and applications from course 7742,
Implementing Professional Development. After this session, we decided to hold monthly parent
academies that work to inform parents of happenings in the school, teach them how to help their
child, and a space to ask questions. The planning for the presentation included several weeks of
working together in Google Slides, where we worked on the same document and left comments
on different slides as feedback. This process provides a single, coherent process of producing,
revising, and finalizing that is needed in schools. This further emphasized the team mentality

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and that change leadership is not an island. During the inaugural event we had over forty families
attend and the diverse event included four different interpreters for our families.

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References

Braley, D., Broyles, C., et al.. (2011). Guiding district implementation of Common
Core State Standards: Innovation configuration maps. Retrieved from Kentucky
Department of Education website: https://learningforward.org/docs/defaultsource/commoncore/kyccss_icmaps.pdf?sfvrsn=2.
Killion, J., & Roy, P. (2009). Becoming a learning school. National Staff Development Council.
Wagner, T., & Kegan, R. (2006). Change leadership: A practical guide to transforming our
schools. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.