Barriers to Collaboration

In order to have an effective Problem-Solving/Response to Intervention (PS/RTI) school-wide system, a willingness by all staff members to claim ownership of the responsibilities is needed. Educators must be flexible and they must embrace the cultural changes that occur with a system change. Each staff member must be willing to change their way of thinking about educating students. The thinking must shift from merely teaching concepts to the whole class to educating each student in the grade level requirements by focusing on the whole student. For this shift to take place successfully, the school leader must build a leadership team, lead them in learning together, guide them in helping the staff to understand why things will be done differently, work with the leadership team and staff to create a plan, foster high expectations and work to gain school-wide consensus (Buffum, Mattos & Weber, 2012). It takes an innovative and progressive leader to change the culture of the school. This transformative leader would facilitate effective school-wide academic and behavior supports for students through proven actions.

The top three barriers to collaboration are helping staff to understand the reasons why a cultural change is needed, consistently communicating with stakeholders, and getting staff members to collaborate and learn together. The difficulty in ensuring that school staff fully understands the logic behind the changes arises from their comfort with the current habits. The feeling is that “well enough” should be left alone. The resistance also stems from the fact that so many efforts for reform have been introduced before, only to be replaced again. Leaders need to provide professional development opportunities that motivate staff members to take action. When a professional learning community (PLC) culture is developed, administrators and teachers can collaborate in the common effort to do what it takes to reach all students. The shift will then take natural shape and consensus may be facilitated. Developing effective procedures for collaborating and disseminating student progress information to families and the community can be difficult if staff consensus is not reached. This is because it takes a collaborative effort to communicate with families. Families need to connect with teachers, counselors, school psychologist, and all staff who are involved in providing services for their children.  Jerald (2010) stated that to achieve and sustain significant improvement in school reform, a school-wide system of support must be developed. Shared school-wide strategies and team efforts are required for school success as stated by the author. When all stakeholders are of like mind, involved, and well informed, schools have a greater likelihood of success in their efforts to develop a successful PS/RTI program and involve the families. The school leader’s practices are the major factors that determine the failure or success of the school reform.

Buffum, A. G., Mattos, M., & Weber, C. (2012). Simplifying response to intervention: Four essential guiding principles. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Jerald, C. (2010). Helping schools engage in collaborative, strategic problem solving. The Center for Comprehensive School Reform. Retrieved from http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Helping_Schools_Problem _Solving/