Transforming Schools

In transforming schools - the bottom line is student achievement. The most promising strategy for sustained school improvements is building the capacity of school personnel to function as a collaborative community focused on learning using a shared mission, vision, values and goals. We can achieve the fundamental purpose of high levels of learning for all students only if we work together. We cultivate a collaborative culture through the development of high performing teams. Creating a collaborative culture is the single most important factor for successful school improvement initiatives and the first order of business for those seeking to enhance the effectiveness of schools.

If schools want to enhance their capacity to boost student learning, they should work on building collaborative culture...When groups, rather than individuals, are seen as the main units for implementing curriculum, instruction and assessment, they facilitate development of shared purposes for student learning and collective responsibility to achieve it.
-Fred Newmann

The Key to Effective Teams

Leaders foster effective teams when they help teams establish specific, measurable, results oriented, performance goals. Promoting teams for the sake of teams or focusing on team building exercises does little to improve the effectiveness of the organization. There is nothing more important than each member's commitment to common purpose and a related performance goal to which the group holds itself jointly accountable.

Have you done team building with your team?
What difference did it make? How long did the changes last?

Ultimately there are two kinds of schools: learning enriched schools and learning impoverished schools. I have yet to see a school where the learning curves of the adults were steep upward and those of the students were not. Teachers and students go hand and hand as learners... or they don't go at all.
-Roland Barth

Focus on Results:

We work with educational systems to build effective collaborative communities that are producing the results that are needed. Central to our work with schools is the highly effective program Best Year Yet™. Teams come together to create an plan for producing results. Best Year Yet has a track record of great outcomes.

=> Read our Case Study <=

Why Best Year Yet for Education?

motivates and inspires real and sustained teamwork
provides a structure for working in collaborative teams focusing on results for students
provides clear focus on measurable results
opens the door for formative assessments
supports other school improvement models
contributes to the momentum of school improvement efforts
provides collaborative team structure which encourages independent strategies
meets requirements of Federal and State mandates including No Child Left Behind and Title I

How Best Year Yet for Education Works:

Our goal is to work with whole school communities including administrative, faculty and ultimately students in order to facilitate the most effective process for school improvement. Improvement needs to occur at all levels. School improvement at one level without improvement at another cannot last. It is essential for the administration to be part of the improvement. When everyone is on board and striving to create the best year yet for the school amazing results occur.

Best Year Yet for Education is a year long improvement program starting with a two day planning meeting for each team. During this planning meeting the team has the opportunity to review the past year, celebrate the successes, identify the challenges and short falls and learn the need lessons from them all. This evaluation piece is critical in preparing the team for their new, clear focus for the upcoming year. With lessons learned the team then looks deeply at what has stopped them from achieving the success and the results they had aimed for. What were the limitations, the impediments, what stood in the way? The is another critical aspect of the transformation of the team. During these conversations team members learn from each other, new collaborations begin, deeper appreciation of each other's roles occurs and the path is created for effective planning.

Once the team does a great deal of ground work they set goals for the upcoming year. The power of goal setting as a group is the consensus on the top priorities for the team. Then each team member takes responsibility as the "champion" of a goal.

Best Year Yet has been effective with teams because of the monthly follow-up meetings. Instead of working to create a collaborative team and then leaving at the end of the two day session, we partner with you for the whole year. The program leader comes back each month to meet with the team. These meetings are critical to the team's success. During the meeting we review and score goals. Yes, score goals. We look specifically at what went right, and what is not quite right yet and what has gotten in the way. We continue to explore how to create greater success as a team. The power of the monthly meeting is in the commitment of the team to each other and the school. Coming together each month to report on what you personally had committed to work on at the last meeting is a high motivator. When people are involved in creating the plan they are more committed to carrying the plan out.

Outcomes of Best Year Yet for Education:

Decreases in student absentee rate
Decreases in staff turn over
Improvements in student performance
Improvements in collaborative work
Increased fund raising
Improved communication

Other Benefits of BYY for Education:

We will help you to meet your federal reporting requirements for school improvement plan and staff development plan through our on-line tool called PRO.
You will have a dedicated facilitator working with you at each meeting to keep you on track and moving forward.
We have the ability to work with multiple teams within a school or a district, forming cross discipline collaborative teams