Collaborative Team Meetings: The Piece Connecting PLCs and MTSS

What Your Colleagues are Saying

Collaborative team meetings in our schools have refocused discussions on how best to support students, leading to improved outcomes for all. Schools report that these meetings are highly focused and responsive to the needs of their communities, resulting in enhanced student growth and achievement. We have also implemented CTMs at the Division level, enabling leaders to support one another and learn from successful practices.

Lynette Anderson - Chief Superintendent, Edmonton Catholic School Division, Alberta, CA

This book is a valuable complement to the Collaborative Response: Three Foundational Components That Transform How We Respond to the Needs of Learners that will support school or division leaders that are just starting on the Collaborative Response journey or looking to enhance their process during the collaborative team meetings.

Bev Cotton - Director of Learning Supports, Northern Gateway Public Schools, Alberta, CA

Collaborative team meetings have taken educators in Breiðholt, Reykjavík, far beyond 'conversations over the toaster and chatting at lunch,' moving them toward a more disciplined and focused professional practice. My research in the schools in Breiðholt shows that this robust structure not only improves meeting efficiency but also builds teacher efficacy and collective team thinking, making it the essential engine for school-wide improvement for the benefit of students.

Ingileif Ástvaldsdóttir - Teacher at Hrafnagilsskóli and Temporary Lecturer at the University of Akureyri, School of Humanities and Social Sciences - Faculty of Education.

Since adopting collaborative team meetings in our school, our time together has been purposeful, directed, and highly efficient. By leveraging everyone's collective knowledge and experience, we have created a community where shared agency and accountability are expected of everyone.

Paul Kelly - Principal, Weledeh School, Northwest Territories, CA

Our systemic focus on Collaborative Response has been instrumental in building a foundation in which collaborative team meetings anchor our processes and structures in every school in Grasslands. What we didn't expect to see was how CTMs have become a core structure at a divisional level, as well. Using CTMs as part of our school administrators' meetings and in our student support services meetings has allowed us to have meaningful and supportive discussions about key issues that exist beyond a specific school. Much like we know exemplary universal instruction is key in every classroom, we have learned that CTMs are an exemplary universal strategy across our division ensuring every student, teacher, educational assistant and administrator have a team.

Scott Brandt - Superintendent, Grasslands Public Schools, Alberta, CA

The introduction of the collaborative team meeting, as part of the larger Collaborative Response work across our system, has exceeded our expectations, impacting student achievement, teacher efficacy and system improvement. It is the powerful link that impacts the relationship between teaching and learning, bringing together, in a comprehensive manner, a systematic method to improve teacher practice and efficacy by engaging in data informed decisions. It is driving change to teacher practice which improves learning. Our system is forever changed for the better thanks to the power of the collaborative team meeting.

Kristien Holtby - Assistant Superintendent of Student Services, Wetaskiwin Regional Public Schools, Alberta, CA

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Check out the Companion Website and get access to:

• Templates and various resources shared within the book
• Additional resources not found in the book

You will be asked to provide your email address in order to access the site. This also allows us to connect with you to share any future resources and further updates that emerge past the publication of this text.

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More Praise for Collaborative Team Meetings:

We hear about PLCs all the time, but this is the first book that shows you how to bridge the gap between discussing instruction and actually seeing those practices implemented in the classroom with Collaborative Team Meetings. Drawing on their authentic principal and team experience, the authors lay out a clear meeting structure that makes collaboration meaningful instead of monotonous. This book is essential for anyone eager to facilitate meetings that lead to significant student progress and a culture where 'Everyone is an expert and a learner.

Casey Watts - Author and Speaker on Leader Clarity

Full of practical strategies, actionable tools, and thoughtful guidance, this book helps educators and leaders create collaborative team meetings that drive instructional improvement, promote equity of voice, and strengthen school culture. It’s a great resource for anyone seeking to make collaboration purposeful and effective.

Jillian Wilton - Student Services SPR, Saint John High School, New Brunswick, CA

This book is a game changer for running highly effective meetings that will improve teaching and learning at any school at any grade level. Full of easy to implement ideas with a smorgasbord of supplementary resources, this books gives leaders a simple path to establishing a collaborative culture that makes a difference.

Helene Hewitt - Principal, Sherwood Heights Junior High, Alberta, CA

"Collaborative Team Meetings" is an essential resource for teams committed to maximizing meeting time and aligning their efforts to meet student needs.

Crystal Atkinson - Principal, Griffin Park School, Alberta, CA

Every child deserves a team, but not every school knows how to build one. Collaborative Team Meetings bridge that gap, offering a clear, battle-tested structure that turns good intentions into guaranteed support. The Hewsons show us that when we change how we meet, we change how we teach. This isn’t just a book on school leadership; it’s a manual for cultural transformation. No principal should lead without it.

Michelle Sloan - Author of The Purpose-Driven Principal, founder of Sloan Leadership Solutions

Collaborative team meetings have been a game changer in how we support students at a school-wide level. The structure ensures teams come prepared, stay focused on key issues, and leave with clear, actionable next steps. As a result, staff are more aligned, conversations are more intentional, and a strong sense of collective efficacy has emerged. This process has strengthened both our collaboration and our overall impact on student success.

Kris Herbert - Principal, Roland Michener Secondary School, Alberta, CA

This book speaks to something I see in schools over and over again. We have the data and the meetings, but not a clear, simple way to turn them into action. The ideas in this book help teams move from talking about students to actually changing what they do to support them. Kurtis and Lorna have created something practical that schools can truly use.

Jessica Lane - Author and Founder, Data-Informed Impact

Kurtis was correct; after three years Collaborative Response has stopped being something on our plate, and has become the plate itself. The structures and processes we have put in place have made our meeting times significantly more effective and productive.One of the main reasons our staff have embraced Collaborative Response is its bottom up collegial mindset, particularly in the collaborative team meeting. This has empowered staff to take center stage in identifying the issues our students face and implementing the supports our students need.

Colin Bjorkman - Principal, F.G. Miller Junior/Senior High School, Alberta, CA

Although the widespread adoption of the Professional Learning Communities (PLC) process in the late 1990s and early 2000s was intended to support students struggling to meet expected outcomes, the complexity of this work often caused school teams to default to collaborative planning without a sustained focus on intervention. For this reason, I describe Collaborative Response as the PLC 2.0. The difference is the collaborative team meeting structure, which ensures a disciplined, evidence-informed, and action-oriented focus on students requiring additional support.Grounded in evidence of student learning and driven by collective responsibility, collaborative team meetings have moved our school teams beyond dialogue to more precise, timely intervention. In the Peace River School Division, this structure reflects our commitment to Learning Together – Success for All and ensures a more coherent, division-wide approach to improving outcomes for every learner—particularly those who most depend on our collective Collaborative Response.

Jeff Thompson - Superintendent, Peace River School Division, Alberta, CA

The collaborative team meeting (CTM) provides an essential, protected space for professional collaboration that transforms school culture by shifting the focus from individual issues to collective pedagogical solutions. By cross-pollinating ideas and building collective efficacy, the CTM allows leaders and teachers to authentically embody best practice while identifying emerging school-wide themes. It is a high-value structure that ensures we respond to every learner's needs through focused, intentional action.

Chris Adamson - Associate Superintendent - Learning Services, Chinook’s Edge School Division, Alberta, CA

When you think Collaborative Response, you think Kurtis Hewson & Lorna Hewson. Now in their new text Collaborative Team Meetings, Kurtis and Lorna distill years of learning, refinement, and real-world application into a practical, highly actionable guide for schools ready to deepen their collective impact. Chapter-by-chapter, Collaborative Team Meetings presents a roadmap for schools committed to ensuring that every learner truly has a team.

Glenn Forbes – Author & Education Consultant, Brisbane, QLD, Australia