School Improvement Teams

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One way that state education agencies assist chronically low-performing schools and districts is by using school support teams that work as external facilitators of improvement. The basic role of these teams is comparable across states, but titles, qualifications, and functions vary.

This REL Northwest study, What are the characteristics, qualifications, roles, and functions of school support teams? An examination of survey data for four Northwest Region states, uses existing survey data from the Northwest Regional Comprehensive Center to analyze the characteristics, qualifications, roles, and functions of 91 school support team members in four Northwest Region states in 2009/10. Among the findings:

• Across the four states 66 percent of school support team members are women, 72 percent are between the ages of 56 and 64, 80 percent are retired, and 58 percent were most recently employed as school or district administrators before becoming a school support team member.

• School support team members are highly educated and hold multiple certifications: 99 percent hold teaching certificates, 88 percent hold administrator certificates, and 21 percent hold superintendent certificates; 96 percent hold master’s degrees, and 19 percent hold doctorates.

• The top areas of self-identified professional expertise are professional development for adult learners, literacy, math, school reform, change management, and leadership.

• School support team members work primarily in schools, directly with school principals and leadership teams. The two most common functions were meeting with administrators about school improvement planning and implementation, and communicating with stakeholders.

• While engaging in similar functions, school support team members across the four states reported spending varying time and energy on the activities that supported these functions.