In 2022, REL Pacific introduced the Palau Partnership to Support Teacher Effectiveness, and last spring we shared that six private schools had joined the partnership efforts. These schools are operated independently under the Palau Ministry of Education and do not receive government funds like public schools. As such, private school leaders often find it difficult to provide their educators with regular professional learning opportunities, and many private schools also face teacher recruitment issues. For these reasons, REL Pacific was excited for the opportunity to support private school leaders and teachers in their improvement journeys.

To start the project, REL Pacific and the private school leaders collaboratively decided that the first step would be to establish professional learning communities (PLC) across and within the different schools, with a focus on improving student literacy outcomes, so that the leaders and their teachers could build their knowledge and skills together.

"When we started with REL, that's the first thing I tried to implement in the school—to have those PLC meetings with the teachers," explained Vice Principal Walker Umetaro of Maris Stella Elementary School. He said that it took a while for teachers, who were accustomed to working fairly independently, to become comfortable collaborating with each other. "Eventually, when we did more [PLC meetings], it started to get really good. Teachers started to work with each other and really started to listen to each other."

Pamela Swei, the principal of Emmaus-Bethania High School, reflected on her teachers' attitudes after implementing the PLC in their school. "I've noticed positive changes in our teachers' behavior due to increased collaboration and interaction with each other and their students," she shared.

Building Trust to Work Toward Project Goals

Susan Labsang, a teacher at Maris Stella Elementary School, shared that, as a non-Palauan, she tends to be more reserved when it comes to teacher collaboration, but the PLC structure has helped her to open up.

"Before, I just [would] stay in my classroom and do my work," she stated. "But with the regular PLC, I became more open. And now, we're kind of building trust with one another. The confidentiality of whatever we're sharing—it's there."

Pastor Mac Alfonso, an Emmaus-Bethania High School teacher, agreed that the PLC has brought teachers together.

"There's a great sense of unity when you have this PLC working together," said Pastor Alfonso. "And at the same time, we have this trust. We trust each other as we work together."

As administrators and teachers collaborated more in the PLCs, they developed a solid foundation to begin project work to address teacher effectiveness and foster a data culture.

To support the partnership's ultimate goal of developing a qualified and effective educator workforce well positioned to improve student learning outcomes, the first project, Coaching on Identifying and Measuring Indicators of Effective Teaching in Palau, intended to:

• build the knowledge and capacity of partnership members to identify meaningful indicators of effective teaching and associated measures.
• collect data to measure each indicator.
• use the data in rapid inquiry Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles.

Guided by continuous improvement principles, participants began conceptualizing and developing a systemic framework and approach to supporting teacher effectiveness within their specific school contexts.

"[Data] mean more than numbers."

In the second project, Coaching to Support Effective Teaching in Palau, school staff developed their understanding and use of data about effective teaching that are being collected as part of their continuous improvement efforts to impact instructional practices supporting literacy improvement. REL Pacific worked with educators to increase their knowledge and capacity to analyze (the "Study" phase of the PDSA cycle) and act on (the "Act" phase) data based on their school improvement plans.

Additionally, to promote collective learning based on school improvement plans, participants wanted to better incorporate collaborative learning structures and processes within their school contexts and across the broader network of schools in Palau. Project participants also noted their desire to learn from other schools in Palau and to share best practices.

Ms. Labsang shared that her thinking about student data became more comprehensive because of the training and coaching projects.

"Before, I thought of the data to be like grades or numbers, but they mean more than numbers," she realized. "We don't just share about students' academic performance. We also share about their behavior, their effort, their family background."

Pastor Alfonso agreed and added that both the projects and PLC have helped him expand his perspective of students.

"[The training] helps us to see the student as a whole, taking this holistic approach to help the student," he stated. "As you do the PLC together, you sometimes get other data from other people that help you see a different perspective of the student or something different about a lesson."

Data-Based Decision Making for Literacy Instruction

Currently in the third project, REL Pacific is supporting educators as they develop and pilot initiatives that foster a school-wide culture of data-informed decision making to support literacy instruction. Building on the foundation laid during the first two projects, this third project is taking a systemic approach to embed the new practices throughout the entire school community. By the end of this project in December 2026, the school teams' goal is to develop guidelines aimed at supporting and institutionalizing a school-wide culture of data use.

To connect what they're learning from project work to their school plans, Vice Principal Umetaro and teachers at Maris Stella Elementary School are collecting data to potentially use for the current data culture project. As part of a new change idea that focuses on student literacy, they are implementing a 90-minute reading block dedicated to reading comprehension.

"The team is planning to have a reading assessment for the incoming third graders so that we can make comparisons at the end of the school year for that reading comprehension change," Vice Principal Umetaro explained. "And I think it only makes sense if we have that data in the beginning and have that data at the end to compare and see how effective it is."

Participants of the Developing a School-Wide Data Culture to Support Teacher Effectiveness project in Palau, including private school educators and REL Pacific staff. (Photo courtesy of Palau Community College)

Measurable Accreditation Results
Palau private schools have made huge strides in school improvement and teacher effectiveness. Four of the private schools successfully attained or retained their Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) accreditation due to the improvements in planning and management, curriculum and instructional approach, teacher professional development, technology integration, facility upgrades, and targeted initiatives to improve literacy.

• Emmaus-Bethania High School received the maximum six-year accreditation for the first time.
• Belau Modekngei High School received the maximum six-year accreditation from its previous three-year accreditation.
• Mindszenty High School and Maris Stella Elementary School both received accreditation extensions for another three years after this year's mid-cycle visit.

Pastor Alfonso said he has learned much from his experience with the WASC accreditation. He sees the benefits and potential of going through the accreditation process and wants the larger community to be involved in the exciting growth taking place within his school.

"I really see the strong school community that we have. And we want to build on that. We want to go a little bit more out of the circle. We want to include the community, some of the board members, and even church members," he reflected. "…Through this accreditation [process], it's really helped me to understand that [the community] is our greatest strength, and we should work on that."

With two completed REL projects and the third project underway, teachers and school leaders say they have gained confidence and a strong sense of team spirit, especially through working in PLCs. They say they are motivated to continue the partnership and project work because they can see the value in continuing to deepen their capacities to work together in the PLCs to support student success.

"I am excited and positive about [the PLC]. I look at it as a tool to identify our strengths and our weaknesses so that we can better help our students," Ms. Labsang shared. "We can find ways or strategies to help them better themselves, so let's go for it!"