An English department transformation : an interpretative phenomenological case study of a high school English department turnaround

Abstract

In 2003, North Shore Vocational High School was one of the lowest-performing school systems in Massachusetts based on scores on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exam. After many new initiatives were implemented and programmatic structures were changed, particularly within the English department, North Shore slowly began to make progress and transitioned from being one of the lowest-performing schools to one of the highest-performing vocational schools in the commonwealth.This study employed an interpretive phenomenological case study to examine, through individual in-depth interviews, a focus group interview, a computer-mediated communication interview, and a participant observer reflection the experiences and perceptions of a purposeful sample of participants who taught 10th-grade English and experienced the accountability demands of the MCAS exam throughout the last 13 years. Three individual interview themes, three focus group themes, three department head reflections, one participant observer reflection, and three conclusions suggested that, overall, the improvement was related not only to changes in teachers' instructional practices, but also to the support provided by the school system. The school implemented the necessary professional development for the teachers to enhance their instructional practice by providing specific sessions geared to the needs of both teachers and students. The professional development sessions were literacy specific based on the department's MCAS results. In addition, the school provided professional development on the practice of professional learning communities (PLCs). During this time, the teachers learned how to work together. In conjunction with this, the school was able to schedule PLC time during the school day so that the teachers could meet with each other to share lessons, assessments, and instructional innovations. 3The following recommendations were made for English departments similar to the one at North Shore Vocational High School based on the themes and conclusions of this study: (1) English teachers need to become knowledgeable in literacy-specific pedagogical practices; (2) schools need to provide literacy-specific professional development to their teachers; (3) educational leaders need to organize professional development on how to effectively function in a PLC; (4) schools need to get creative in their master schedule to create PLC time for their teachers to meet; and (5) teachers need to share their expertise, lessons, and student data to ultimately improve the results of the department and the school overall.