What do doctors making their rounds and Harvard University have to do with what’s going on in schools in St. John the Baptist Parish this year?

You might be surprised to learn that the answer is quite a bit.

Four district leaders from the St. John the Baptist Parish Public School District spent a week this summer at Harvard University studying a concept known as instructional rounds, a practice of observing teaching and learning instruction across classrooms in order to improve.

It’s a concept adopted by educators from the medical rounds used by doctors, who as a team visit a patient and discuss the best course of action for his treatment.

The process isn’t that different in education. Here in St. John, principals, assistant principals, master teachers and members of the Central Office Curriculum Team work together to observe what is going on in classrooms.

The school or curriculum team identifies a “problem of practice,” a weak spot they’d like to address. They then visit several classrooms and observe teachers and students to see what is happening across the school that might be contributing to the problem.

The observations and data are then analyzed and discussed to identify patterns and to form suggestions for improvement. The schools then incorporate the feedback into their continuous improvement plans.

So far, instructional rounds have been implemented at the district’s two largest schools, LaPlace Elementary School and East St. John High School, with the goal of implementing them at all schools by February.

During their time at Harvard, Curriculum Facilitator Shanna Beber, Curriculum and Professional Development Coordinator Jenna Chiasson, Executive Director of Assessment and Accountability Heidi Trosclair and Principal Coach and Mentor Alison Cupit trained and then applied what they learned at schools in the Boston area.

Participants in the training came from across the United States and from as far away as Australia.

By involving the entire curriculum team, what is learned can be expanded districtwide, so the best practices are happening at every school in the system.

Trosclair said the learning experience here in St. John is not only benefiting the teachers but the observers as well.

“Not only are we giving the schools great observational evidence and feedback, but the process enhances the participants’ learning as well,” she said.

The ultimate goal — much like in medical rounds — is to identify the “illness” slowing down learning and work together to find a cure.

Jennifer Boquet is the communications specialist for St. John the Baptist Parish Public Schools. Email her at jboquet@stjohn.k12.la.us.