Collaborating

Collaborating with Faculty and Community Members

By

Pamela D. Marshall

EDD 8460

Nova Southeastern University

October 10, 2014

Introduction

This document will discuss the importance of collaborating with the faculty and community members. Collaborating is one of the most vital attributes when creating and building a successful instructional environment. Faculty collaboration occurs in a variety of settings and takes different forms, depending on the collaborative team and the goals of its members. Essentially, faculty collaboration is a cooperative attempt that involves general goals, matched attempt, and outcomes for which the collaborators share responsibility and credit. This explanation is extensive and flexible, because faculty collaboration varies in numerous ways contingent upon whether the relationship is for teaching as well as on the participants' content area, career stages, and a multitude of other aspects.

Interviews

I had the pleasure of interviewing Mrs. Mary H. L. Laurie, principal of Landry/Walker College and Career Preparatory High School in New Orleans, Louisiana. At this school she took on the challenge of being the lead administrator of a faculty that would merge two rival schools less than a mile in part. She and her staff enjoy higher academic outcomes for all of their students because of a sense of collective responsibility for student learning that exists between school leaders, teachers, other school employees, parents, and students. More specifically, she feels that collective responsibility is achieved when school administrators: promote collaboration between teachers and principals, encourage collaboration among teachers, support collaboration between school staff and parents, ensure shared high expectations for students, make group decisions about accommodations, and adequately prepare students for tests. They have these discussions every Wednesday as the entire Algiers Charter Schools Association dismisses at...