Seeing Theory in Action

I was meeting with the principal at Wright Elementary and talking to her about staff development. For the past two years the district has reorganized the monthly, half day, staff development meetings so that teachers from all school meet according to their grade. Prior to this schools met at their own site and the principal and liason presented whatever topics the district wanted them to address. The principal at Wright sites this time, when the school met as a whole, as a critical part of the work she did in her first three years to pull up Wright's test scores. They did alot of work addressing poverty issues and other problems relevant to their school. The staff also covered the topics assigned by the district (at that time their was a big change in the reading program so most centered on that) but were able to do so in a way that was relevant to their school.
What I thought was the most interesting is hearing how the sense of community and team building was lost when they switched over to the staff development organization in place now. I think alot of teachers are growing more isolated in their classrooms at Wright, particularly because the staff meetings now provide very little time for interaction where teachers can discuss what they are doing in the classroom. It is interesting to hear how much this can change a schools potential for successful staff development.