Teacher Collaboration in Instructional Teams and Student Achievement

Abstract

This study draws upon survey and administrative data on over 9,000 teachers in 336 Miami-Dade County public schools over 2 years to investigate the kinds of collaborations that exist in instructional teams across the district and whether these collaborations predict student achievement. While different kinds of teachers and schools report different collaboration quality, we find average collaboration quality is related to student achievement. Teachers and schools that engage in better quality collaboration have better achievement gains in math and reading. Moreover, teachers improve at greater rates when they work in schools with better collaboration quality. These results support policy efforts to improve student achievement by promoting teacher collaboration about instruction in teams.

Professionalization Through Collaboration in Teacher Education – Identifying the Status Quo

“…Since the 1970s the topic is being transferred to the schooling sector and educational research. In fact, most of the research in this field accredits collaboration to support many positive outcomes such as a better school quality (Goddard, Goddard, & TschannenMoran, 2007;Ronfeld, Matthew, Owens Farmer, McQueen, & Grissom, 2015), healthier teachers (Schaarschmidt, 2005) and -for this study the most important finding -a profound, positive impact on teacher professionalization (Avalos, 2011;Vangrieken, Dochy, Raes, & Kyndt, 2015).…”

Instructional teacher job resources and student achievement in mathematics.

“…Most importantly, teacher collaboration has been positively linked to student achievement (Goddard, Goddard, & Tschannen-Moran, 2007;Kraft & Papay, 2014;Louis & Marks, 1998;Ronfeldt et al, 2015). Although hesitant to claim causality, researchers have suggested that the amount and quality of collaboration within a school corresponds with increased levels of student achievement (Goddard et al, 2007;Ronfeldt et al, 2015).…”

“…Teachers learned at faster rates working in schools where the quality of collaboration was higher (Ronfeldt, Farmer, McQueen, & Grissom, 2015), and they were found to be more eager, energized, and innovative toward teaching all students than those in lesser quality PLCs (McLaughlin & Talbert, 1993). Quality collaboration means dialogue in PLCs is regulated by group selected norms that focus primarily on student learning and provide teachers with feedback where trust and rapport are strong (Bolam, McMahon, Stoll, Thomas, & Wallace, 2005;Vescio et al 2008).…”

“…Collaboration can also focus on department-adopted curriculum addressing instructional practices and resources. A third way in which teachers may learn is more data driven, focusing on ways to address students' learning needs (Ronfeldt et al, 2015). More than infrequent PD sessions, collaboration offers teachers an ongoing and accessible source for increasing teacher learning, focusing on various ways to provide better instruction.…”

“…Although hesitant to claim causality, researchers have suggested that the amount and quality of collaboration within a school corresponds with increased levels of student achievement (Goddard et al, 2007;Ronfeldt et al, 2015). In one study, the strength of a school's professional community, defined as "shared values, focus on student learning, collaboration, deprivatized practice, and reflective dialogue" (p. 539), was found to account for as much as 85% of the variance in student achievement (Louis & Marks, 1998).…”