In your school or district, teacher engagement in decision-making is likely an area of both opportunity and challenge. By analyzing district/school data, it becomes clear that teacher engagement in decision-making holds substantial potential for school improvement. The protocol outlined in this section offers an opportunity for school or district teams to examine strategies to increase teacher influence over policy decisions, as well as the resulting impact on teacher satisfaction and retention. Through comprehensive analysis, teams can work toward streamlining their practices while identifying areas in need of refinement or elimination.

Step 1: Set up exercise

• Excerpts from four professional articles on teacher engagement and influence over school policy are provided for you.
  You can find the compiled article excerpts in this PDF.
• Print four copies of each excerpt.
• Place copies of the articles on four different tables in the room. Each table should have four copies of the same article.

Step 2: Assign team members to tables/articles

• Divide the group evenly among the four tables.

Step 3: Read and discuss publication excerpts

• Each participant will spend ten minutes reading their excerpt and annotating their printed copy as they read.
• After ten minutes, groups will use the following discussion questions to guide a table conversation about their findings and wonderings within the text.
  • What from this excerpt resonates for you?
  • What from this excerpt gives you pause?
  • Where are some of the concepts and ideas from the excerpt already at play in your school or district?
  • What connections are there between this excerpt and the area of strength and the opportunity for growth your team identified in Worksheet 3?

Step 4: Team conversation

• Once reading group conversations are complete, the whole group reconvenes.
• Each group provides a quick overview of the article excerpt they read and shares key takeaways from the reading table conversations.
• Refer to your responses in Worksheet 3 and add your area of strength and opportunity for growth to Worksheet 4.
• As a team, discuss the following questions and capture your team’s thinking in Worksheet 4.
  • What concepts related to your area of strength and opportunity for growth emerged in the excerpts?
  • What ideas from the excerpts hold the most promise to strengthen teacher influence within policy and decision-making in your school/district?
  • What are your team’s biggest takeaways from the professional publication excerpts?