region at a glance

A Look at Teacher Collaboration in the Northwest By Richard Greenough

Surveys show that professional development activities among Northwest teachers regularly involve collaboration with peers. Moreover, four-fifths of Northwest teachers say they make a conscious effort to coordinate the content of their instruction with their colleagues. Despite those statistics, teachers and administrators across the region agree that more collaboration is needed in their schools.

Northwest Teachers’ Professional Development Activities

Regularly scheduled collaboration is the second most common type of professional development among Northwest public school teachers.

a larger, print version of this graph is here

*Excludes administrative meetings
Source: National Center for Education Statistics, 1999-2000 Schools and Staffing Survey (NWREL analysis of data)

Coordination of Instruction

Two-fifths of Northwest public school teachers “strongly agree” with the statement that “I make a conscious effort to coordinate the content of my courses with that of other teachers” and another two-fifths “somewhat agree.”

Source: National Center for Education Statistics, 1999-2000 Schools and Staffing Survey (NWREL analysis of data)

Need for Collaboration

Northwest teachers and administrators agree on the need for more effort on collaboration in their public schools.

Source: 2004 Regional Needs Assessment Survey conducted by NWREL (a mail survey of teachers and principals in Northwest public schools with more than 40 percent free or reduced-price lunch and all superintendents in the region)

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