Collaboration Is the Key to Effective Organizations

In this article in Education Week, Greg Anrig (vice president at the Century Foundation) says studies have pinpointed three common factors in hospitals that get better patient results for less cost (for example, Kaiser Permanente, Cleveland Clinic, and the U.S Veterans Health Administration):

• Highly collaborative cultures built on teamwork;
• Unusually sophisticated attentiveness to test data to monitor patient progress and respond to problems (for diagnostic, not punitive purposes);
• An orientation toward ongoing adaptation rather than rigid adherence to established routines.

A growing body of research shows that similar factors account for the success of schools with above-average improvement in student achievement. Here are the factors identified in a 2010 University of Chicago study of 400 beat-the-odds Chicago elementary schools:

• A coherent curriculum in which learning targets, classroom materials, and assessments are aligned within and across grade levels – with teacher involvement;
• Talent development that includes opening classroom doors to colleagues and external consultants;
• Strong parent and community ties with an integrated support network for students;
• Responding to difficulties students may be having;
• Leadership that gets teachers, parents, and community members to take responsibility for school improvement.

Another study of effective schools found a closely related set of factors, including:

• Teacher/administrator collaboration in developing and selecting instructional materials, assessments, and classroom methods;
• Time set aside each week for teacher collaboration to improve instruction;
• Teachers being open to being observed and coached;
• Teachers and administrators closely monitoring assessment data to identify areas where students are struggling;
• Collaboration with parents, community groups and social-service providers.

A recent book by David Kirp about the Union City, NJ schools (Improbable Scholars) says that young teachers improved “in good measure because of the informal tutelage that old hands give the newbies, the day-to-day collaboration, the modeling of good practice, and the swapping of ideas about what’s worth trying in their classrooms.” Finally, Anrig mentions the Peer Assistance and Review (PAR) program, in which master teachers coach novices and work with more-experienced teachers who are having difficulty. 

From these findings, Anrig draws a clear message: Schools need to maximize collaboration and eliminate policies and practices that undermine teamwork – for example, getting teachers competing against each other for bonuses for improved student test scores. Building relational trust and social capital is essential to success, he says, and we must stop doing things that induce unhealthy competition, suspicion, and fear and prevent teamwork and creativity from flourishing. 

“From Health-Care Reform, Lessons for Education Policy” by Greg Anrig in Education 

Week, July 10, 2013 (Vol. 32, #36, p. 40, 36), www.edweek.org 

From the Marshall Memo #494