Team Teaching in Mesa Public Schools

Andi Fourlis, Superintendent of Mesa Public Schools in Arizona, joined me to share how her district is reimagining the teaching profession. We discussed Mesa's work on team teaching, its impacts on learning and teacher satisfaction, and the ins and outs of implementing such an innovative change. As always, I look forward to your thoughts. Paid subscribers are able to comment and exchange ideas.

The Future of Education is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Michael Horn: 

Welcome to the Future of Education. I'm Michael Horn, and you are joining the show where we are passionate about building a world in which all individuals can fulfill their potential and live a life of purpose. To help us think through that, today we have a very special guest. Her name is Dr. Andi Fourlis. She's the superintendent of Mesa Public Schools in Arizona. Andi, thank you so much for joining us.

Andi Fourlis: 

So happy to be here.

Thank you for reading The Future of Education. This post is public so feel free to share it.

Andi’s Journey to the Work 

Michael Horn:

I can't wait to hear about your story because from my reading, it sounds like your pathway to becoming superintendent, and some of the formative experiences you had as an educator, have really shaped your approach as a superintendent. Can you share some of that journey with us before we get into the work you're doing now?

Andi Fourlis: 

Yeah. This is my 32nd year in education. I'm a career educator. From the time I was a little girl, I knew I was going to be a teacher. This is a dream of mine to be able to support children in so many different ways. I started off teaching middle school and had the great fortune to teach on a team with sometimes as many as five other teachers. I've always worked in a team environment, and outside of my first two years, I realized I needed to have a team. More heads are better together. I've worked in a variety of environments, from low-income schools to affluent schools.

Kids are kids, and the more adults we can put around students, I quickly learned, made me a better teacher and got better outcomes for our kids.

Michael Horn:

It's interesting to hear you say that because it makes a lot of sense. I think people from the outside think educators like to be by themselves, but that wasn't your experience. What really caught my eye and made me excited to talk was a conversation I had with David Schuler, the executive director of the School Superintendents Association. He told me about the work you were doing with the Next Education Workforce initiative. A couple of years earlier, I had Arizona State University's dean, Carole Basile, join us to talk about the work she was pioneering there at the Next Education Workforce initiative. I believe Mesa has been one of the pioneering sites for the team teaching they espouse. Can you tell us about how this work started in Mesa?

Andi Fourlis: 

It's such an interesting journey. In 2019, I was a deputy superintendent, and I became superintendent in 2020. People always remember 2020 as a challenging year to become superintendent of the largest district in the state of Arizona. We had to invent and reinvent how we were going to do school, take care of children and their families, and take care of our employees. Throughout my career, I've been a classroom teacher, mentor teacher, and my path to the superintendency has been through teacher leadership. I've always been close to classrooms and understood that the working environment and conditions of teachers must change if we want better outcomes for our students. I've supported teachers as a director of professional development, director of curriculum, and assistant superintendent of teaching and learning. My pathway into the superintendency has always been about supporting teachers and learning.

The Future of Education is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

I've never been a principal or assistant principal, but I was always in a support role. Through that role, I quickly learned that teachers are not leaving their profession; they're leaving their working conditions. As leaders, we have the ability to change those conditions. In 2020, as the new superintendent, we had to reinvent everything. It was the perfect time to break down the one teacher, one classroom model and revisit age-old research around team teaching. This isn't a new idea, but it's new in this era of education. Over time, we've built everything around the one teacher, one classroom model because it's easy to measure and hold people accountable. In an era of accountability from No Child Left Behind, we started measuring everything, creating artificial structures, and isolating teachers. As a result, our teacher shortage grew.

As a leader, it was easy for me to reach out to Dr. Basile at Arizona State University to discuss changing the working conditions of teachers. We wanted to rethink what teaming looks like and define it for 2020 because it would look different than in the past. With the largest teachers college in America in our backyard and being the largest district in the state, it was a perfect match for us to work together.

Explanation of Mesa's Team Teaching Model

Michael Horn: 

Super interesting. Let's fast forward then. You kick off the work, and you're in it now. What does team teaching look like on the ground? How have you changed the structures that isolated teachers?

Andi Fourlis: 

We have a simple definition of what a team is: at least two teachers sharing a roster of students to co-design and construct deeper and more personalized learning. Sometimes we shorten it to two teachers sharing a roster of students, but it's far more than that. They share a roster of students to deeply understand their strengths and needs and create opportunities for students to get what they need when they need it. For example, a typical third-grade teacher with 25 kids on a team now has 50 students assigned to two teachers. One teacher could be doing small group instruction with a specific skill or content area while the other teacher works with the rest of the kids. This creates a different learning experience and opportunity for kids. When we talk about teaming, it's not just the teachers. Our definition includes every adult in the classroom as part of the team, not just an instructional assistant that comes in for 20 minutes on Tuesday. We are rethinking how we put adults and their expertise around the needs of students in different ways.

Michael Horn: 

That's super interesting. I love how your definition in the district is about making sure each student gets what they need in this new structure. With at least two teachers sharing a roster of students and that personalization, you're singing my tune now. I love this reinvention work. My understanding from David is that this is even more innovative. Not only are you doing this team teaching model and personalizing the learning, but you've also created flexibility for teachers to help keep them in the classroom. Can you talk about that? I'd love to learn more.

Andi Fourlis:

Absolutely. Our larger teams, if there's a team of four, have a team leader who is a classroom teacher with leadership responsibilities. We pay an additional stipend for their leadership duties. They serve on the instructional leadership team of the school. The goal of our teams is to become self-improving teams, constantly reflecting and asking, "What do we need next?" They chart their professional development plans and address needs as they arise. For example, a team I met with recently saw an influx of refugee children and didn't have the skill sets to communicate with their parents or assimilate them into their classrooms. The team leader reaches out to our district office to request the necessary training. This coordinated effort brings resources to the teachers so they can better serve their students.

Michael Horn: Wow. Okay. So now that creates a structure in which teachers suddenly have some authority to actually, when you say co-design, you really mean co-design because they're saying, "This is the set of expertise I need. This is the support we need. The student needs this." How many schools are doing this today? Is it throughout the district? What does that evolution look like?

Adapting teacher roles and school infrastructure

Andi Fourlis: 

We have 84 schools, from preschool to high school. We are a comprehensive K-12 unified school district in Arizona. I set a goal that by the end of this school year, at least 50% of our schools would have at least one team working within their school. We've accomplished that goal, and they are all at different places because every team is unique to their context. This is across Mesa Public Schools.

For example, we have a Montessori school where collaboration and multi-age teaming are inherent. They have formalized those roles and what that looks like. But we also have back-to-basic schools, which our community requested many years ago. Teaming doesn't fit their philosophy, so I don't expect that to happen in those schools.

Our goal of 50% is to look at each context, the desires and talents of teachers, and think about where to get started. Some schools started with a kindergarten classroom, others with a fifth-grade team that felt they could work better together. We have 91 therapy dogs across our district. In our teaming schools, therapy dogs are part of the team. They are used very intentionally to support students when needed, and teachers orchestrate the use of the therapy dogs. 

We have a feeder pattern of elementary and junior high schools that feed into one of our large high schools with a huge STEM focus and engineering program. We have a strong partnership with Honeywell Aerospace Division, whose industry mentors join our teams within that feeder pattern. They serve as mentors and project coaches. Students will ask their teachers, "Can I please FaceTime my engineer right now?" when they need coaching and support. When we talk about a team, it’s about expanding the expertise within our schools and communities to support student learning.

Michael Horn: 

Wow. Okay, so talk us through this. I imagine the Montessori school was already set up for this sort of thing from an infrastructure perspective. But other schools, did you have to retrofit them? How have you made the buildings work? How does that play out?

Andi Fourlis: 

What is most important is proximity. If you have a third-grade team, and many of our teams have become multi-age, the students need to be in close proximity because they are constantly moving around, and the teachers are moving around. In some schools, the biggest ask was to be together. They generally meet for a morning meeting, set their learning intentions for the day, check the health and wellness of their community, and outline the day. 

A principal requested doors opening between classrooms so kids aren’t going outside to the next classroom. We installed large opening doors with frosted glass that can be propped open during the day. That has been our most needed solution, creating interior doors that allow kids to freely move between classrooms. We have also installed some garage doors at our high schools.

Evaluating the impact on teachers and students

Michael Horn: 

Gotcha. Very cool. Okay, so talk to us about impact. What have you seen? How are you measuring it? How are you thinking about the impact so far from these changes?

Andi Fourlis: 

Our original intent was to focus on the working conditions of our teachers. We've seen higher retention rates for teachers on teams, longer career plans, and increased satisfaction. Teachers prefer coming to work, have fewer absences, and often don’t need substitutes because the team comes together. If they do have a substitute, it’s generally not for teaching but for other tasks.

Michael Horn: 

No more movie days with the substitute. We’re not sure where we are in the learning. That’s really cool.

Andi Fourlis: 

One thing we pay attention to is how much instructional time we are capturing. Teachers on teams have higher evaluation scores. A particular study of one of our elementary schools showed at least a 1.5-month gain in English language arts. In our high schools, we see higher Algebra I scores, especially among girls, which we attribute to the collaborative environment.

Michael Horn: 

Huh.

Andi Fourlis: 

This has to change instruction. If we use the same old boring, non-relevant instruction in a team, we won’t get better results. The power is in teachers working together, each bringing their unique skills and strengths. If you’re on a team, you have a team of experts wrapped around you. 

We also have excitement in our Ed Professions courses, our high school career technical ed courses for students interested in becoming teachers. They join a team and do their practicums in a team. Some have a half-day schedule and work as instructional assistants for the other half. They have both a student ID and a Mesa Public School employee ID, building teachers to work in teams from high school.

Michael Horn:

Wow, that’s really cool. I love the point you made about having the best lesson because you have a math expert on the ground in the elementary school, making it coherent with science and social studies. What has been the reaction of parents and students to the changes?

Parents' and students' feedback on changes

Andi Fourlis: 

It’s interesting. Parents initially wanted one teacher to call. When they realize their children are on a team, they quickly understand that their child has a better chance of connecting with an adult, even if it’s not the assigned teacher. They see their children have more opportunities to connect and share passions with more adults. We have requests from parents to expand teaming to other grades. 

Our teachers stay longer because they never have to do hard things alone. They never call a cranky parent by themselves; someone is always on their side. Parents know the teacher is well-supported, which means they are getting a better product for their kids.

Michael Horn: 

Wow, that's a phenomenal set of changes. It sounds like you’re riding a nice wave of momentum at a time when a lot of other districts are trying to find their footing. These changes have really led to reinvigoration across the district. Andi, thanks so much for joining us.

Andi Fourlis: 

Oh, my gosh. It’s my honor. I’d love to talk to you more at another time and for you to talk to our kids about their experiences.

Michael Horn: 

Let’s find a time to do that. I would love it. Thanks so much for joining us on the Future of Education. For all you tuning in, check out what Mesa Public Schools is doing and stay tuned for next time.

The Future of Education is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.