Topic: Distributed Expertise

Skills-based student groupings are groupings based on formative student learning data. This planning protocol is an opportunity for team members to explore how you might leverage your team of educators to differentiate instruction for learners. In it, you’ll identify the objective(s) of your choice, draft a check for understanding and work together to plan team deployment for skills-based student groupings.

Hear from Stevenson Elementary School principal Krista Adams about educator teams’ dynamic approach to supporting students.

Mountain View School kindergarten lead teacher Danielle Ashenbrener describes how a team-based approach has helped her to get to know her students better and to target student learning to meet individual students’ needs.

hat’s normal in education is broken. Nationally, teacher preparation programs have long seen declining enrollment. Teachers switch careers or retire early. They receive less pay and enjoy less social status than many other professionals. The job is hard in specific ways that inhibit success. That’s not good for educators. It’s not good for learners. And it’s not good for communities. In collaboration with school and community partners, Arizona State University’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College is working to change that. 

In an effort to shift the ownership of learning from educator to student, SPARK School at Kyrene de las Manitas has implemented a system for students to reflect on their learning and progress, identify the academic support they need and schedule time to meet with the appropriate educator(s). This resource guides educator teams through steps to implementing student-selected support.

The educator team at Kyrene de las Manitas Innovation Academy co-plans project-based units that support deeper learning. The 10 tips appearing in this document are drawn from their approach to planning. To get started, consider how your team might implement these tips.

Next Education Workforce team-based structures can strengthen the project-based learning instructional approach. This unit planning template takes educators through the steps of designing a PBL unit, while also planning for how to maximize distributed expertise.

The Creighton Academy in Phoenix, Arizona serves about 300 students in grades K–6. Every student is a member of a covey: a multi-age group of 55–60 students. Students work with educators specific to their coveys and educators who work across coveys. Here, you’ll learn how they’re implementing a team-based model.

Hear from MLFTC Dean Carole Basile about the relationship between deeper and personalized learning and teams of educators with distributed expertise.

Elementary instructional blueprints suggest ways teams of educators with distributed expertise might deploy themselves to better deepen and personalize student learning.

In this resource, you’ll find several recommendations for how all-remote teams might deploy their educators to best meet the needs of students.

This clip features four educators from SPARK School. In it, they describe the impact of teaming with distributed expertise on both educators and students.

Several times a week, for a 20-minute period, SPARK students engage in Student-Selected Mindfulness Time. In this clip, a fourth-grade SPARK student and an MLFTC teacher candidate describe the activities students engage in and how they make their choices.

At SPARK School at Kyrene de las Manitas, 120 students in multi-aged grade bands (third through fifth grades) work with a core team of six educators: one teacher executive designer, two certified teachers and three teacher candidates. The prototype school-within-a-school was developed during a design process collaboratively led by the Kyrene School District and ASU’s MLFTC Design Initiatives. In this resource, you’ll find out how they’re implementing a Next Education Workforce model.

In Fall 2020, Whittier Elementary in Mesa, Arizona will create two team-based learning communities with 170 students in grades four through six. Each “house” will include 85 students and will be guided by an educator team comprising three certified teachers and two MLFTC teacher candidates. In this resource, you’ll find out how they’re implementing a Next Education Workforce model.

Approximately 900 ninth grade students at Westwood High School in Mesa, Arizona are distributed across six Academy Teams. Each core team consists of at least four educators: a lead teacher and three certified teachers. Depending on students’ needs, special educators, English Language Learner educators, MLFTC residents and paraeducators may also be included on the team. Here, you’ll learn how the school is implementing a team-based model.

Host Brent Maddin shares how MLFTC is working with schools and other partners to 1) provide all students with deeper and personalized learning by building teams of educators with distributed expertise and 2) empower educators by developing new opportunities for role-based specialization and advancement.

Brent Maddin talks with Ron Beghetto, Professor and Pinnacle West Presidential Chair at ASU’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, about creativity, beautiful risks, and how we can improve education for all learners.

Stevenson Elementary School is a Title I school located in Mesa, Arizona that takes a dynamic approach to serving about 700 students in preschool through 6th grade. The school’s Next Education Workforce model wraps teams of educators around students in grades K-6 with the goal of providing deeper and personalized learning. In this resource, you’ll find out how they’re implementing a Next Education Workforce model.

Principal of Stevenson Elementary School Krista Adams shares how taking a teaming approach counters loneliness, empowers educators, and results in a better experience for both educators and students.

Mountain View School kindergarten lead teacher Danielle Ashenbrener describes why Next Education Workforce models are great for both students and educators.