چکیده (انگلیسی):

This article focuses on effective professional interactions of teachers and administrators as
faculty-study groups in school improvement practices and educational reform to improve
instruction and learning. The emphasis on practical approach promises to create conditions for
continuous systemic change and academic improvement. The author incorporated current
knowledge of effective practices and innovative strategies into the faculty-study groups to improve
teaching, learning, collaboration, and meet high academic standards. In faculty -study groups,
research-based best practices for teaching excellence and learning, in addition to continuous
focus on effective collaborative group efforts on “data use” in the decision making process for
school improvement are shared among members and colleagues. Working together allows
faculty-study groups to examine formative and summative students’ data reports and to determine
priority agenda goals. Coming together as a focused study group, faculty members collaboratively
identify students that are at risk of meeting standards on state assessment tests. The study groups
seek ways to implement appropriate intervention strategies or accommodations in their plan to
meet the individual needs of students. Not only these, faculty-study groups are able to prepare,
revise and/or establish new goals for the school improvement plan and develop an implementation
and evaluation rubric for the plan. Moreover, the groups assist the school improvement
leadership team to promote school improvement practices throughout the school. Creating a
culture of accountability, showcasing success stories, providing a monthly update to the Sc hool
Improvement Leadership Team (SILT), and evaluating the faculty improvement plan on the goals
set forth, is another role performed by the faculty-study group. This article offers several views on
how the responsibilities of faculty-study groups are identified and implemented in two middle
school environments in a large school district on the east coast of the United States of America. A
survey distributed to thirty-two participating members of each group provides insight on how the
study groups feel about their role in school improvement. The expected outcomes of the facultystudy group are to improve the skills and practices of all faculty members, continuous
participation in professional development efforts, and show how study groups can make a positive
impact on school improvement and student achievement.
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