In 2013, under the leadership of a new superintendent, HF-L adopted a Plan, Do, Study, Act cycle, and embraced the belief that "we are all reading teachers and custodians." This marked the beginning of a 10-year journey toward establishing a culture of collective responsibility and becoming a professional learning community where continuous improvement, for both students and adults, became central to our mission. 

From 2013 to 2017, our school established grade-level teams and initiated collaborative discussions; however, at the time, these teams were engaged in what Mike Mattos calls "coblaboration." Teams regularly convened to explore how teaching practices influenced student achievement, yet their discussions lacked a clear focus on essential standards, common assessments, or data analysis.

In 2016, the school's principal and grade-level leaders began exploring the concept of professional learning communities, primarily with the aim of securing consistent meeting time for teams to delve into the four questions. While we achieved the goal of scheduling regular meetings, we had not yet honed our skills in using this time effectively, resulting in varying levels of commitment. 

In the fall of 2017, our principal and Director of Professional Development attended a PLC at Work Institute, marking the beginning of a renewed focus on our mission and vision. We aimed to clarify our "why," our purpose, and our proposed School Improvement Team (SIT) goals based on data analysis and identified needs. This process started gradually with an emphasis on developing a shared understanding of the professional learning community model and the practices of a team versus a group. With new found collective clarity, we established norms and commitments as a foundation for our work and began addressing Question 1. 

In July 2018, the district enlisted a Solution Tree associate's support to conduct a two-day workshop focused on enhancing our foundational understanding of PLC practices. This workshop was reinforced by on-going professional learning and embedded coaching support provided throughout the year by the associate, in collaboration with the principal and Director of Professional Development. Additionally, teacher leaders were coached through the district's Instructional Leadership Council (ILC), which initiated a study of Larry Ainsworth's book, "Power Standards" and facilitated the collaborative process of selecting essential standards using the R.E.A.L. criteria. 

By the beginning of the 2019-20 school year, we were actively implementing PLC at Work practices, propelling both our students and teachers towards greater success. In addition, our district-level Instructional Leadership Council (ILC) had transitioned its focus from essential standards to common assessments, guided by Cassandra Erkens' book, "Common Collaborative Assessments." During this time, our school was steadily gaining momentum as a professional learning community, concurrently achieving Habits of Mind School certification accreditation through our collaboration with the International Habits of Mind Institute, making us the 24th school in the world to earn this recognition. We were on a roll! 

Then, in March of 2020, COVID-19 emerged and presented an unprecedented challenge. Nonetheless, we remained undeterred, with our teams transitioning to virtual meetings, initially centered around adapting to the new digital teaching landscape. However, we recognized the critical need to address lost instructional time and subsequent learning gaps. So, we wrapped up the school year with a virtual Mind the Gaps workshop, led by Solution Tree associate, Mike Mattos. This workshop provided us with a valuable opportunity to reflect on past learning and pinpoint learning gaps for the year ahead. The workshop underscored the critical importance of prioritizing our standards. As a result, we were prepared to hit the ground running in September! 

During the summer of 2020, our district made a commitment to bring all elementary students back for in-person, full-time learning. Our goal was simple: to find a way to provide high levels of learning for all, regardless of the unprecedented circumstances we faced. Our prior collaborative work with Solution Tree and Habits of Mind laid the foundation for our efforts, emphasizing the importance of clarity and culture. 

Our journey throughout the summer of 2020 and the subsequent school year was marked by resilience, adaptability, and an unshakeable commitment to the education and well-being of our students. We understood that the road ahead might be challenging, but we were determined to find a way to provide high levels of learning for all, no matter the obstacles in our path. HF-L Welcome Back 2020

We commenced the 2020-2021 school year with an adjusted curriculum and a shared understanding that collaboration had become more critical than ever. This was particularly evident as all our interventionists transitioned to classroom teaching to reduce overall class sizes and ensure proper distancing. This transition had far-reaching implications. It necessitated a comprehensive overhaul of our intervention system since teachers could no longer share students between classes as they once did. This change spurred imperative discussions among our educators. We delved deep into instructional strategies and support mechanisms, recognizing that our students' diverse needs required innovative approaches. These discussions were grounded in critical reflection on common assessments, allowing us to refine our teaching strategies and ensure that each student received the personalized support they needed. 

During the 2020-2021 school year we also established designated "team rooms." The use of team rooms during COVID was paramount. These spaces created informal collaboration opportunities where we always had access to one another.  Almost every "lunch" that year became a working lunch; we were talking about kids, next steps, and sharing strategies.

In August of 2021, we kicked off the new school year with renewed energy and determination. To further underscore the importance of our mission and to guide us on our path, we invited Solution Tree associate, Anthony Muhammed, to lead a series of sessions and deliver a district-wide keynote presentation. These sessions were designed to reinforce the significance of building and sustaining a healthy culture within our district. By investing in our professional development and maintaining a strong focus on culture and collaboration, we aimed to create an environment where teachers were empowered, and every student could excel. 

In parallel with these efforts, the concept of a "Super Calendar" took shape. This innovative tool, developed by our collaborative teams, is a dynamic, shared curriculum calendar for each grade level, including standard focus areas, a timeline for instructional plans,  common assessments, and special events. The introduction of the Super Calendar marked a significant milestone, acting as a game changer in our pursuit of ensuring clarity and consistency for a guaranteed and viable curriculum. 

Simultaneously, in 2021, we established a Guiding Coalition, and an action research team, compred of 16 faculty members. These members engaged in a ten-week RTI at Work workshop and developed an implementation plan to address learning gaps through a systematic building-wide intervention system. Throughout this process, the team conducted research on Model PLC schools and revisited the book "It's About Time" for guidance and inspiration. 

In May of 2021, our students outperformed national and state norms on i-Ready assessments. When most schools in our area were reporting large academic gaps, Manor did not. Without the focus on essential standards, collective decision making, collaborative culture, and the continuous messaging that “all means ALL,” these outcomes would have been significantly different. 

In 2021-22, the Manor School SIT rolled out the new RTI Implementation Plan which included the return of interventionists and grade-level wide Tier 2 and 3 groupings. Interventionists met weekly to discuss student progress and took further action streamlining support for students identified as needing Tier 3 interventions. This proved to be a continuous challenge as teams did not all have clear data management systems, and although open to working across the grade level, teams struggled to create clear Tier 2 interventions.  

At this point, we also initiated a multi-year partnership with a Solution Tree associate. The associate played a pivotal role in our ongoing professional development efforts by providing valuable insights and embedded differentiated coaching support for our collaborative teams and building leaders. This partnership allowed us to further strengthen our professional learning community, refine our strategies, and ensure that we were equipped with the necessary tools and guidance to navigate complex challenges, including the challenges we faced during the development of our RTI implementation plan. In addition, we addressed specific needs with virtual professional learning sessions facilitated by several Solution Tree associates, including Nicole Dimich, Sarah Schuhl, and Ken Williams. 

Beyond the classroom, our School Improvement Team members and Grade Level Leaders found themselves grappling with a sense of overwhelm. This was largely due to the multitude of meetings, frequently featuring the same participants across various groups, including grade level teams, the Guiding Coalition, and School Improvement Team. Despite the challenges, we maintained an unwavering focus on charting a path forward. Our commitment to upholding essential standards, striving for high levels of learning, and navigating the complexities of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic remained steadfast. However, we recognized the need to address the workload of our staff to ensure long-term sustainability. This acknowledgment prompted us to explore ways to alleviate the burden on our team members, allowing them to continue their valuable work without undue stress and exhaustion. 

At the end of the 2021-2022 school year, after 10 years of service, our building principal retired and we experienced a change in leadership. The longtime assistant principal took the helm. With her exceptional clarity of building strengths and needs, she hit the ground running, building off the strong foundation that had been set. We also added a Teacher on Special Asssignment (TOSA) to lead the building-level Guiding Coalition and provide embedded coaching to support the work of collaborative teams and the vertical alignment of standards and high-impact instructional practices. PLC TOSA Interview 1 Video | PLC TOSA Interview 2 Video

The goals from the prior year were brought to our Summer Leadership Summit, and our School Improvement Team mapped out a year focused on Clarity, Communication, and Purpose. Comfortable with the four PLC questions, our SIT outlined a building structure focused on high levels of learning for ALL – including our teachers! Our teacher leadership was divided into four houses, each with a clear focus, function, and goal. These four houses were: School Improvement Team, Guiding Coalition, Habits of Mind/PBIS team, and a Health and Safety Team. We outlined any redundancy in our leadership houses (both people or function) that had caused prior frustration or confusion and created visuals that clearly defined our collaborative work and decision making as a building. Manor Committee (Houses) Hierarchy and Focus Areas

Next, we tackled building a schedule that provided not only weekly collaborative teacher team time but also a “Pathway Day,” which was a monthly meeting of all interventionists (reading, math, OT, PT, Speech, mental health, special education) to review and then remediate any students’ plan (path) that was not showing growth. Over the course of the year, these teams developed shared data files that tracked ELA, math, writing, attendance, and Habits of Mind data. This data is updated in parallel with each grade level's Super Calendar and is visible to all team members. A clear process for team discussion and problem solving for student concerns was outlined for Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3, and entrance and exit criteria for interventions were identified. We also focused on bringing fun and recognition back into our elementary school. Following this school year, Manor Intermediate ranked in the top three schools in our county for both ELA and Math. We scored at or above the district average for every single standard in the 2022-2023 NYS ELA and NYS Math exams. This is definitely an academic milestone for us! 

We began the 2023-2024 school year with a building-wide schedule that provides collaborative teacher team time for each grade level, as well as special areas. We have maintained our leadership house structure and have now included 29 out of 36 teachers in at least one of our leadership houses. We have also incorporated a new SEL assessment and intervention tool that will be added to our shared data. Our Pathway Days are scheduled, and a visual MTSS Matrix was created this year to help identify overlapping intervention services and align intervention goals across services, ensuring that WIN (what I need) Tier 3 time is as effective and targeted as possible. In addition, we joined the Solution Tree NYS statewide PLC Project, which provides ongoing professional development for our teachers and leaders, along with access to teachers and leaders from other districts in NYS that are in various stages of the PLC journey and faced with many of the same state-specific challenges.

PLC Impact Video 1

Manor has become a professional learning community with a clear purpose, student-centered paths, collaborative, standard-based products, and ongoing praise for the impact of our work (2023-2024 Budget & Goals Presentation | 2023-2024 Academic Goals | Purpose, Pathway, Praise Visuals ). At the heart of this transformation is a clear and unwavering sense of purpose. We have embraced student-centered learning paths, fostering an environment where each student's unique needs are at the forefront. Collaborative efforts and collective responsibility among educators have become a hallmark of our community (HF-L PLC Culture Video). 

All grade levels at Manor have identified and committed to essential standards for each content area. We use the Essential Standards Chart as a guide to establish collective clarity, craft student-friendly learning targets, establish expectations for proficiency, and develop common formative and summative assessments to monitor student learning. We also have vertical alignment documents for ELA, phonics and are currently working on writing, math, and science. 

One of the biggest hurdles we faced at the beginning of our journey was determining the importance of summative assessments versus formative assessments.  When we started, we couldn't see the forest through the trees because we didn't have clarity on where we were going (backwards design through summative staples of proficiency).  Now, however, we have a secure vision of where we're headed, and we wouldn't be able to function without our formatives.  The daily check-ins, both common and common formative, propel the powerful conversations of how we shift our instruction now, so we intervene before students have a chance to fail.

During Tier 1 instruction, collaborative teams use common formative assessments to monitor student learning, inform and differentiate their instruction, and respond to student learning needs on an ongoing basis. At the end of each unit, collaborative teams use common summative assessments to identify needs for Tier 2 intervention. Collaborative teams often exchange students for intervention to ensure essential standards are met efficiently and effectively. 

Tier 2 groups generally begin in October and are formed based on data from the first common assessment in any given grade level.  We also have some special area teachers who help with extension activities during both Tier 2 and Tier 3 times.  They lead extension activities such as the Stock Market Game, expert projects or STEAM projects. 

Our MTSS team has created entry and exit criteria based on essential standards and K-5 vertical standards alignment documents to establish clarity on grade level expectations. Our vertical alignment documents help us identify “foundational skill gaps” compared to grade level gaps that could be addressed with spiraled Tier 1 teaching or targeted Tier 2 instruction provided across grade level teams.  

A building-level MTSS team, called a Pathway Team, meets monthly in collaboration with grade level teams to identify students in need of a Tier 3 remediation to address foundational academic, behavioral, or social-emotional skills that are barriers to a student’s success. We use prior year academic and social emotional data along with data gathered through our “boot camp” days in September.  During these days, students new to our school, students who received Tier 3 in the prior school year, or students who scored in the bottom 5% of our Tier 1 iReady September testing, meet 1:1 with our interventionists to gather more targeted comparison data. The MTSS team then meets to determine an individualized pathway.  All interventionists are involved in determining an “at risk” students’ path during our WIN time (this is our Tier 3 intervention and extension time provided for all students each day).

This year we began incorporating our special areas teachers (library, art, tech, and music) into our WIN blocks, so students have access to more diverse experiences for enrichment/extension.

Building a Healthy Collaborative Culture - If culture eats strategy for breakfast (Peter Drucker) then we need to start with creating a healthy elementary school culture that models trust, connection and effective communication from the Principal to the custodian. The Principal spends time during each faculty meeting building teacher efficacy through identifying and celebrating effective teaching practices.  The administration also drops into classrooms frequently and posts pictures of effective teaching practices.  Teachers are released from class to observe other teachers on their team or on other teams that show more effective teaching practices based on common assessment data. In addition, at least one member from each team at Manor is represented in our leadership houses, this includes secretaries, special area teachers, paraprofessionals, and facilities team members. 

We have found that leveraging clear process focused visual organizers (Committee/House Heirarchy | Manor Help Line) which are posted in team rooms has helped with clarity and communication.  Our principal and assistant principal work from mobile carts which make access to daily support and encouragement a part of our culture. Teachers can schedule time to observe each other any time they need assistnace and our building administrators will either provide a substitute or teach the lesson.  

As a building, we create opportunities for team building and finding joy. Finding joy has become part of our culture at Manor. Staff and students enjoy school-wide special events throughout the year, including "Very Harry Potter October", "Soup-er Bowl Showdown", staff-wide holiday breakfast and embrace new additions to the Manor family with school-led wedding/baby showers, etc.

Building Effective Teaching Practices – Our district offers on-going PD and embedded coaching support focused on topics such as essential standards identification and reevaluation, common formative assessments, standards-based grading, co-teaching, science of reading, and social-emotional health. 

Each teacher team has norms and posted agendas for their collaborative work.  All collaborative teams have roles such as timekeepers, take away summarizer, whine stopper, and sparkle spreader.  These roles, norms and agendas help keep teams focused on the work needed to keep the team moving forward.  Teams are very comfortable looking at data across classrooms and sharing the teaching strategies used in classrooms with higher standard based scores. 

The following points were generated by the leader of our Guiding Coalition/TOSA to respond to this question: 

Essentials that Shifted our Capacity: 

2019 - Manor Awarded HF-L EdFundGrant  - this is a $25,000 grant from the local business foundation for the schools' work with the Habits of Mind 

2020 - Manor Intermediate was awarded “International Habits of Mind Learning Community of Excellence” in the Fall of 2020 

• https://mhflsentinel.com/manor-school-awarded-habits-of-mind-learning-communities-of-excellence-distinction/ 

2022 - Art teacher CindyZauski from Manor Intermediate wins the Golden Apple Award  

• https://www.rochesterfirst.com/news/golden-apple/golden-apple-congratulations-to-cindy-zauski/ 

2023 – Band Director Kim Brienzi from Manor Intermediate wins the Golden Apple award 

• https://www.rochesterfirst.com/video/golden-apple-congratulations-to-mrs-kimberly-brienzi/8711596/ 

Spring 2023 – Principal Joelle Weaver received the Cougar Pride Award, nominated by Manor teachers.

• Cougar Pride Award Nomination