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As Utahns buzzed about the opening of the education documentary "Waiting for 'Superman' " in Salt Lake City on Friday, an education expert visited Utah to deliver his own message about schools.
That message: School success is achievable through collaboration.
Alan Blankstein, who authored Failure Is Not an Option: Six Principles That Guide Student Achievement in High-Performing Schools, delivered a keynote address about collaboration at the Utah Education Association's annual convention Friday in Sandy. Blankstein is also president and founder of the HOPE Foundation (Harnessing Optimism and Potential through Education), a nonprofit organization that works with schools to develop successful leadership teams and school cultures.
Blankstein said success is not just about individual teachers' strategies to reach students.
"That will get you somewhere, but strategies for us as a group of teachers, as a principal, as a whole school, as a whole district, that will get you really far," Blankstein said. "We want the school to be in-sync and I want to give you strategies for making the whole school and the whole district in-sync."
He said excellence is already happening in schools — the issue is how to spread it.
Blankstein helped to create professional learning communities in the 1990s, a model for improving education that's now used in many schools in Utah and nationwide. Essentially, the idea is that teams of teachers meet regularly to share strategies, plan and discuss student progress. He said shifting school culture is critical to such communities' success.
UEA President Sharon Gallagher-Fishbaugh praised Blankstein's model, saying educators know it works.
"Everything he talks about isn't just the latest fad or reform or what someone outside the education community feels will make a difference," Gallagher-Fishbaugh said. "It's research-based. It's tried and true."
Andrea Harris, a fourth-grade teacher at Riley Elementary in Salt Lake City, said she agrees with Blankstein. She said sometimes teachers are private or afraid to let others see them teach. "One of the big things is getting teachers on the same team and working for the good of all students," Harris said.
Rachelle Phillips, who just moved back to Utah and hopes to get a teaching job next year, said she also liked Blankstein's ideas and she's been impressed with the collaboration between third-grade teachers at her own child's school, Moroni Elementary.
"They are on the same page with everything," Phillips said. "There's no discrepancy in what's being taught."
Six principles of Failure Is Not an Option
These principles form the basis of the process that the HOPE Foundation applies when helping schools:
Common mission, vision, values and goals
Having comprehensive systems for ensuring achievement for all students
Collaborative teams focused on teaching and learning
Data-based decision making for continuous improvement
Active engagement of family and community
Building leadership capacity at all levels