BUILDING COLLECTIVE TEACHER EFFICACY: SUMMER STEPS FOR SCHOOL LEADERS TO ACHIEVE SUCCESS
- Rebecca DiBuono
- Jul 11, 2025
- 7 min read
INTRODUCTION
Summer is not just a break for teachers; it is a golden opportunity to reflect and plan for a successful school year ahead. During this time, school grades and proficiency levels are officially released, allowing school leaders to celebrate mastery and identify areas of improvement. As a grade chair, I take the summer months to reflect on the team's climate for collaboration and efficiency. Some questions that guide my thinking include:
What went well that we'd like to see continued and/or handled in a similar way?
How can our team continue to grow in the upcoming school year?
How did our team face adversity and challenges?
However, as a school leader, I understand that it isn't just my personal opinion that matters, but it's the team as a whole. In order to best support my team, I am reading Everyday Courage for School Leaders by Cathy Lassiter. The text describes the types of courage leaders in today's education system require to guide and support successful teams. One of the discussion points within the second part of the text describes the need for collective teacher efficacy. On page 65, Lassiter defines collective teacher efficacy and provides a snapshot on how it can be achieved.
"Collective teacher efficacy grows from collegial trust, and trust is strengthened when collective efficacy is built. Each one serves as fuel for the other."
The idea of encouraging collective teacher efficacy may be one of the most important keys to unlocking student achievement. I furthered my research and stumbled upon the article "How Collective Teacher Efficacy Develops" by Peter Dewitt from the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) website. Dewitt describes the development of teacher efficacy as an ongoing cycle within the team. The cycle of collective teacher efficacy weaves five main elements:
co-constructing a goal
learning and finding new strategies through reading and research
trying the strategies learned in appropriate and agreed upon settings
collecting evidence to understand and evaluate impact
celebrating successes and refining set goals.
This model is typically used as teams create goals, develop strategies, and evaluate impacts of grading practices, restorative justice, or the simple idea of improving effective teaching strategies. However, I will be utilizing this process to create goals and develop ideas on how to improve collective teacher efficacy within the team this year.
REFLECTING AND CREATING A TEAM GOAL
My reflection of this past school year is unique in comparison to any other year that I have taught. In December of 2025, I transitioned from first to third grade and took on the role of grade chair in February. To co-construct a team goal, I sent a reflection survey to the team at the beginning of May. The survey encouraged teachers to reflect on the year as a whole to identify methods and strategies that proved to be successful and areas in need of improvement. By compiling the team's thoughts, a goal can be created.
Upon reviewing the survey results, I discovered that stability, communication, and collaboration are important virtues of driving a successful team. However, it was agreed that better communication and more opportunities for collaboration are needed. Our team is full of experienced teachers, offering a wealth of tried and true teaching strategies. We need to lean into this, listen, and trust each other as we prepare for the upcoming school year. With this input, I was able to form a goal with ideas to support as we approach the beginning of the 2025-2026 school year.
Our team goal for the 2025-2026 school year is to build collective teacher efficacy to improve student learning outcomes and increase staff morale. To achieve this, we will work together and collaborate during planning, participate in all discussions and decision making, and communicate by listening and sharing ideas. We will know that we have achieved our goal of establishing collective teacher efficacy when our grade level proficiency scores are greater than the 2024-2025 scores.
By creating this goal, I can set a purpose for my role as grade chair this year and encourage the team to keep the goal in mind as we move forward.
ENCOURAGING TEAM UNIFICATION
My first steps towards this goal can be completed in the summer where the stress of the school year has not yet set in. This climate provides opportunities to build trust among team members and make decisions. We began by selecting a team shirt. This was an informal process via group text and voting ballot created using Google Forms. A team shirt may seem trivial, but clothing can hold a significant weight. The uniform design strengthens the idea of a single team that can work together, while each teacher has their own color, displaying individuality.
"It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen." - John Wooden
My next steps for creating and providing resources for my team are to:
update the grade level hub
create Professional Learning Team folders
assemble a team lead binder
LAYING A SOLID FOUNDATION FOR BUILDING COLLECTIVE TEACHER EFFICACY
Our school uses Google Sheets to organize quick links. Aside from the school-wide hub, some grade levels have created their own that are personalized for that team's needs. For our team, the links are separated into categories by purpose and subject. To do this, I typed the name of the document/link in a cell, then clicked the link button in the toolbar to paste the URL and create a hyperlink. By creating a grade level hub, our team meetings can run efficiently and with purpose.
Professional Learning Teams (PLTs) is the title given for our weekly team collaboration and planning meetings. A PLT provides a set time and place for the team to come together to dive deep into the collected data and make purposeful decisions on how to support students that are currently meeting grade level benchmarks and those that need additional interventions. PLTs are connected to our pathway towards collective teacher efficacy.
These meetings encourage teachers to pull from personal experience and professional developments to learn and share new strategies, discuss how the strategies were used in the appropriate classroom setting, and collect valuable data through common formative assessments to better understand and evaluate the strategy's impact.
Each year as a grade chair, I create PLT folders for my team. These folders include grade level/subject area standards with highlighted essential standards, formative and summative assessment results trackers, and pre- and post-unit planning questionnaires. This collection of resources provides a foundation for holding effective planning sessions. By housing these items in folders, team members can quickly grab the necessary materials for PLTs including an area to keep common formative assessments for data-driven discussions.
CELEBRATING TEAM SUCCESS
Several years ago, the team would celebrate successes through a raffle during our team meetings. Upon entering the meeting, teachers would write on a small slip of paper a successful moment that they had since our last meeting. The success didn't need to be school related, but something worth celebrating. By regularly acknowledging and celebrating both individual and collective achievements, positive beliefs and motivation for achieving our goal was reinforced. Before starting the meeting's agenda, a note was read aloud to the group and the team member received a small prize -- in this specific case, the team celebrated during monthly breakfast meet-ups. This time frame allowed us the luxury of a $5 gift card to Amazon or Dunkin' to the person who had their success read first. The rest of the team's success moments were read aloud and we celebrated everyone's achievements, big or small, together.
CREATING AND ASSEMBLING A GRADE CHAIR BINDER
My final preparation during the summer is to create and assemble my grade chair binder. This helps me stay organized and focused even amid the chaos of the school year. Included in my binder are undated calendars that can be used year after year, graphic organizers to plan team norms and delegate committees and projects, planning resources (as mentioned above in the PLT folders), and meeting templates. One of my main purposes as a grade chair is to be an effective communicator. It is my responsibility to ensure that the team is up to date on school-wide events and initiatives. By having a team lead binder, I can keep agenda items that are discussed during leadership meetings organized and use meeting templates to deliver important information in a timely manner.
CONCLUSION
In summary, summer serves as a crucial time for reflection and planning for the upcoming school year. As a grade chair, I assess our team's collaboration and gather feedback to enhance communication and efficiency. With a focus on collective teacher efficacy for the 2025-2026 school year, I aim to improve student outcomes and staff morale. To support this goal, I'm reading "Everyday Courage for School Leaders" by Cathy Lassiter, which highlights the importance of trust. I plan to foster unity with team shirts and celebrations, empower team members to share experiences and ideas for the success of all students, and organize essential resources like the grade level hub and Professional Learning Team folders. By preparing these tools, I am committed to leading our team effectively into the new school year.
EXPLORE MY TEAM LEAD BINDER RESOURCES AND FORMS
Are you a school leader needing to organize important documents and increase
collective teacher efficacy in your team? Unlock the potential of your classroom leadership with my comprehensive Team Lead Binder Resources and Forms product, available now on Teachers Pay Teachers! This meticulously crafted binder is designed to streamline your organization, enhance communication, and foster collaboration among your team. With templates, essential forms, and practical resources at your fingertips, you’ll be equipped to lead with confidence and efficiency. Say goodbye to chaos and hello to a well-structured approach that empowers both you and your colleagues to achieve your goals. Invest in your teaching journey today and watch your team thrive!
RESOURCES
Lassiter, Cathy. Everyday Courage for School Leaders. Corwin Press, 2017.
“How Collective Teacher Efficacy Develops.” ASCD, 4 June 2021, ascd.org/el/articles/how-collective-teacher-efficacy-develops?ssp_iabi=1684076435982.
%20(1)_edited.jpg)
Comments