The Learning Teams research base comes from nearly four decades of research and replication studies conducted in the classrooms and schools of low-income urban communities. With research findings published in several peer-reviewed journals, Learning Teams is one of the few programs that has been able to scientifically isolate the positive effects of teacher collaboration on student achievement.
When implemented well, Learning Teams leads to improvements in overall school culture, including wider distribution of leadership, more effective team meetings, higher expectations, and positive attributions for student outcomes.
The Learning Teams model was initially developed during a six-year, prospective case study of a single elementary school. From 1990 to 1995, the case study school shifted from lowest achieving to surpassing district averages on both standardized tests and performance-based assessments (Goldenberg, 2004).
In a 5-year comparison study, student achievement in Title 1 Learning Teams schools rose by 41 percent overall and 54 percent for Hispanic students, gains that were significantly greater than those made by demographically-matched comparison schools (Saunders et al., 2009).
According to an independent value-added analysis of Learning Teams in middle and high schools, after just one year of program implementation, schools with at least one well-functioning workgroup showed higher growth overall on state achievement tests than demographically matched comparison schools in most subjects, and impressively higher growth in three high school subject areas (Daley 2008).
Findings from an external evaluation of Learning Teams schools indicate that teachers assume more academic leadership roles in their groups, enjoy more distributed leadership, and experience a heightened sense of professional responsibility (McDougall et al., 2007).
Multiple evaluations and replication studies of the Learning Teams model indicate that when teachers engage in structured, collaborative inquiry in job-alike teams, grade level meetings become more focused on instruction. This instructional focus emerges from deliberate planning around instructional goals and student outcomes, resulting in "meaningful instructional changes" in teacher practice (Ermeling, 2010; McDougall et al., 2007; Gallimore et al., 2009).
Research indicates that teachers in Learning Teams schools express higher expectations for student learning and are more likely to shift attributions of improved student performance toward “specific, teacher-implemented, instructional actions” and away from external factors such as student traits or other non-instructional explanations (McDougall et al., 2007; Gallimore, et al. 2009).
In a 5-year comparison study, achievement in Learning Team schools rose by 41 percent overall and 58 percent for Hispanic students, relative to a comparable group of schools that did not deploy teacher teams (Saunders et al., in press).
“The #1 goal is improving student achievement… We’re getting a change in the conversation in our schools, better lessons for our youngsters, teachers to reexamine practice. We’re getting results for students. It is all translating to student performance.”