After establishing a successful foundation of collaboration and support at a few schools within a San Jose district, Partners in School Innovation (PSI) launched a Transformation Network in the Fall of 2020. Inspired by the observable positive changes in school leadership, teaching practices, and student outcomes from previous partnerships, district leaders wanted to replicate and amplify those improvements across more schools with this network.

*Overview graphic of the Transformation Network in San Jose, indicating the district, network size, and number of students served. The network includes 4 schools and serves 1900 students.*

The schools involved in the network—including two elementary schools, one K-8, and one 7-8 school, which together served around 1,900 students—demonstrated significant achievements.

They observed notable improvements in teacher instructional practices and leadership, and students made impressive gains in English language arts (ELA) and math, with more students reaching the highest performance bands on state tests.

Recognizing the potential for a lasting impact, the district initiated the Transformation Network with PSI to empower school teams to lead professional development and improvements sustainably.

Purpose and Impact of the Network

The main goal of the Transformation Network was to empower more schools within the district with the tools and systems to independently lead their own transformations and continuous improvements. By adopting research-based strategies and frameworks developed by Partners in School Innovation, these schools would be equipped to improve educational outcomes on their own, without ongoing external support.

Network Structure and Focus Areas

Monthly Professional Learning and Capacity Building

Each school participating in the network put together a team of 4-6 members, consisting of teachers, instructional coaches, and school leaders. They participated in monthly professional learning sessions designed to help them become equity-focused change agents or leaders who can drive powerful and sustainable improvements in their school communities.

Diagram of the four focus areas for network-wide coaching in San Jose School District: Leadership & Change Management, Adult Learning & Coaching Design, Promoting Equity & Social Justice in Schools, and Facilitating Professional Learning Systems.

The monthly sessions also created opportunities for network participants to deepen their understanding of how our society’s race, culture, class, and power dynamics play out in public education and at their school specifically.

The professional development sessions were based on a Change Agent Framework developed by Partners in School Innovation (PSI or “Partners”). This framework outlines dozens of practices that effective change agents implement, and it's designed to help participants go from being successful in their individual roles to leading improvements and developing others at their schools.

These practices were grouped into five main areas, which were the focus of the monthly training:

Leadership and change management strategies
How to design, monitor, and facilitate adult learning and coaching
How to set and assess data-driven goals using a Result-Oriented Cycle of Inquiry
Designing and monitoring powerful professional learning systems
Promoting equity and social justice by deepening the mindsets of a team around equity, continuous improvement, systems thinking

Practical Application and School Community Engagement

A key feature of the Transformation Network was the practical application of what was covered in the monthly sessions. For example, the 7-8 school team that participated in the network used their new knowledge and the collaborative space to develop and discuss strategies for promoting educational equity at their school. They explored effective communication techniques to get their school community engaged in these changes.

Leaders and teachers from this school, and other schools in the network, became facilitators of their school’s professional learning communities. They applied what they learned to their school communities to create a culture of continuous improvement and equity.

Infographic outlining structure of a transformation network which includes 1) Monthly district-wide professional development, 2) School-based leaders deciding how to apply learnings, and 3) On-site coaching to support their improvement efforts.

Ongoing Onsite Coaching

The network's structure also included follow-up onsite coaching, where school leaders collaborated with Partners coaches to work on improvement efforts specific to their school’s needs. Each school focused on identifying changes they could work on implementing independently versus those that required intensive support from a Partners coach long term.

For example, the one 7-8 school in this network focused on refining instructional coaching systems in their first year. Using learnings from the network sessions, they collaborated with a PSI coach to refine their teacher coaching system to maximize the potential of both teachers and students.

By the end of the first year, a robust instructional coaching system was established, preparing them to address additional challenges in the following year. During the second year, the same 7-8 school continued collaborating with a Partners coach to refine their systems for teacher collaboration and professional development.

The Partners coach worked with the school’s leaders to form an instructional leadership team primarily driven by teachers, which not only eased the administrative workload but also made the new systems less reliant on a few individuals. This shift empowered teachers, making their roles as change agents within the school clear.

Celebrating Collaborative Results & Achievements

The impact of the Transformation Network on this 7-8 school in particular was clear. Over two years, the school showed significant improvements in leadership, professional learning systems, and instructional practices.

Infographic from Partners in School Innovation showing results and achievements in a San Jose School District. Highlights include growth in ELA and math scores, improvements in teacher development, and professional learning management.

In addition, students at the school demonstrated promising growth on state tests in English language arts (ELA) and math. Specifically, the number of students scoring in the highest performance band for ELA increased by two percentage points in just one year. The growth in math was even more impressive, with an increase of four percentage points.

The network's impact on teachers was also significant. The systems implemented for school coaching and teacher development greatly enhanced their ability to plan curriculums, group students effectively for various types of lessons, and increase student participation in classroom decision-making.

Knowing that school administrators had helped bring about this support from coaches made teachers feel better about the school leaders and made teachers want to be stronger partners in leaders’ drive to improve student outcomes.

Inspired by This District’s Journey?

If you're interested in learning more about how Partners in School Innovation can support your district’s and school's path to transformation or want to explore how our staff can empower your team to achieve exceptional outcomes, contact us today.

Driving Sustainable District-Wide Improvement Via a Professional Learning Network