Westlawn Elementary School was awarded the Outstanding Campus Professional Learning Program Award from Learning Forward Texas during the recent Texas Association of School Administrators Mid-Winter Conference in Austin.
One campus gets the award each year based on efforts to focus on results-driven professional learning programs that are designed to affect student achievement.
Under direction of Principal Taryn Chambers Givan, the school has gone from four years of Improvement Required ratings to a Met Standard campus in one year.
"Givan and her team knew that in order to be successful they needed to build a teaching staff who understood how to plan quality instruction, deliver the instruction in ways that every child learned and, when a student was not able to learn or master the content, know what to do in order to make the learning happen," according to a press release from Texarkana Independent School District spokeswoman Tina Veal-Gooch.
The spokeswoman said school staff members became immersed in the Learning Forward Standards for Professional Learning, which includes:
- learning communities committed to continuous improvement, collective responsibility and goal alignment;
- skillful leaders who develop capacity, advocate and create support systems for professional learning;
- prioritizing, monitoring and coordinating resources for educator learning;
- integrating theories, research and models of human learning (learning designs) to achieve intended outcomes;
- applying research on change and sustaining support for implementation of professional learning for long-term change;
- and aligning outcomes with educator performance and student curriculum standards.
Learning Forward Texas is an educational nonprofit association of learning educators committed to excellence in kindergarten through 12th-grade teaching and learning. Learning Forward pursues its mission through professional learning. It is the only professional association in Texas devoted exclusively to those who work in educator professional development.
The school's efforts will be recognized during the Learning Forward Texas Annual Conference in June.