As local students and families prepare for two early release days in March, four principals from Federal Way Public Schools explained to the school board on Tuesday what exactly happens during those mysterious days.

For 90 minutes spread throughout eight days in the year, teams of educators answer four corollary questions and develop goals for student achievement. Those questions include: What are you learning? How will you know if they learned it? How will we respond if they don’t learn? and how will we respond if they already know it?

Julie Ray, principal of Lakeland Elemantary, said an example of a goal for fourth-graders would be whether a student can analyze opinion writing by understanding style, word choice and content in introductions and conclusions.

Every one of Ray’s teams developed “SMART” goals at the beginning of the year, specifically centered around a problem of practice. She said looking at multiple data pieces for her school, the district and the state helped them define what they needed to do to improve practice.

“At the very beginning, [teachers] took the time to develop a curriculum map, which really took a look at all the Common Core standards and allowed those teachers to really focus on what is important throughout the year,” said Lakota Middle School Principal Craig Tutt. “Student learning is built similar to math, so that by the end of that year, they’re able to move on to the next grade level.”

Tutt said that as Lakota’s teachers worked through the second question – how will we know when they’ve learned it? – staff has the opportunity to talk about “what it looks like, what it sounds like, and then turn that over to students and say, ‘hey student, this is what it looks like, this is what it sounds like; grapple with that, learn that, master that.’

“That was really important to us, and having that time to get together as staff to be able to discuss those problems of practice and really look to learn best practices in terms of teaching our students,” Tutt said, adding that it’s not uncommon for his English language arts and algebra teachers to collaborate on crossover skills students can learn.

Kent Cross, principal at Rainier View Elementary, said teachers at his school really value the time spent with their colleagues.

“I learn from them every time we meet – whether we are helping one teacher solve an issue with a particularly difficult student, sharing ideas about how to better teach a concept or reviewing data to see what our next steps will be to help our students move forward – we are learning together to help our students achieve,” said a Rainier View first grade teacher and Federal Way Education Association representative.

Rainer View currently has 550 students enrolled, 50 percent of whom are new since last March and 75 percent of whom are on free and reduced lunch. Cross said his students, 140 of whom are also active English language learners, require significant intervention.

“We have a need at Rainier View to really understand what the data is,” Cross said, adding that knowing that data will help them focus on the question, “How do we respond if they don’t learn?”

At the high school level, Decatur High School Principal David Brower said the Professional Learning Community early release days are “so critical” for the work his teachers are doing because graduation is always on the horizon.

“Our work in Professional Learning Communities is essential to that work of knowing our Gators and improving our learning,” Brower said. “Obviously, the early dismissal days aren’t the only time that our teachers collaborate in Professional Learning Communities, and I think that’s critical to understand, but this time allows us to turbocharge that work. It allows us to do things that we can’t do at other times.”

Things such as meeting with the entire staff, not just teachers, to train and collaborate on issues impacting student achievement.

An example of that collaboration was when Brower’s math teachers discussed best practices for teaching certain concepts by looking at data and grades for that concept.

“For me, what was interesting is the idea that you’re able to compound the learning opportunities across teachers by knowing what a student is needing, and so I always understood the benefits of collaborating to get the best practices but I never thought of it in terms of all the teachers understanding the needs of a student and working to get together to help that student out in areas of need,” said school board member Hiroshi Eto in response to the presentation. “That’s really great to hear.”

School board members Carol Gregory, Liz Drake and Claire Wilson also expressed positive feedback about the Professional Learning Communities.

“I’m very excited to hear just how much similarity and yet just how much difference there is,” Drake said. “If we’re going to model what we’re talking about, where every student is an individual with individual needs, then we need to model it with our teachers, and I really sensed that modeling taking place and it’s going to make a difference in how our students learn.”

Collaboration time in the form of early release days are new to the Federal Way Public Schools calendar this year, according to district spokeswoman Kassie Swenson.

And while Professional Learning Communities are not new to Federal Way, implementing them during the early release days is. The time allows teachers and staff to participate in “data-driven dialogue” around student work.

“The early release time is the district’s approach for a more focused and systemic implementation of Professional Learning Communities across the district to improve student outcomes,” Swenson wrote in an email. “The district provided Professional Learning Community training with principals and teachers last summer to sharpen the focus of Professional Learning Community work. Teachers come together in grade level or department teams to look at classroom-based assessments, aligned to standards, to make intentional plans to extend learning opportunities and support students who have not yet met standards.”

Board President Geoffery McAnalloy said he was grateful that educators have the time to dedicate for the Professional Learning Communities, as there was some initial struggle in determining when this time would be scheduled. The district had originally made the time by having three-hour late starts but changed course after community feedback indicated early dismissal days were preferred.

“As we go forward with the strategic plan, we’re going to have goals,” said Superintendent Dr. Tammy Campbell. “We’re going to need time for our staff to learn and be focused on those goals. So imagine how much more targeted, focused and leveraged that time can be when we’re using it to accomplish the goals in our strategic plan.”

The next early release days for Federal Way Public Schools students will be on March 16 and March 30. For more detailed information, visit www.fwps.org.