Friday, June 27, 2014

Trusting Teachers With Collective Autonomy | Education Evolving

Trusting Teachers With Collective Autonomy | Education Evolving:



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Trusting Teachers With Collective Autonomy

Motivating students and personalizing learning is necessary to improve student achievement. This is bound to enlarge and to change the teacher's role. Inside school the teachers know the students best, and should be free to adapt and innovate according to their students' needs.
This runs against much current thinking about standards and accountability, which wants to script and restrict what teachers do, narrowing professional discretion. This discourages teachers and makes it hard to attract and retain talent. It is important to have better-trained teachers. But it is also important to make teaching a better job and a better career.
Motivation matters for teachers, too. Motivation increases when teachers cancontrol their work, as professionals can in most other white collar occupations. In return for autonomy, they will accept accountability for school success.
The formal Teacher Professional Partnership arrangement is proving to be a viable way to organize a school. There are also other arrangements in use around the country. The most import element of any arrangement is thatteachers collectively control what matters for school success

The Seattle Times: Education

Education Lab Blog

If teachers ran the schools, what would be different?

When kids misbehave at the Mathematics and Science Leadership Academy in Denver, they don’t get sent to the principal’s office because there is no principal.
At this public school, every decision — from the length of the day to the color of chairs — rests with the teachers.
As such, the academy — along with 60 other teacher-led schools around the country — provides an interesting window on what educators would do if they had full control to design a program themselves.
To wit: Classes at the K-5 academy in Denver are capped at 25 students each; parents volunteer daily; and lesson plans can change on a dime.
“I have yet to meet a teacher who has not dreamed about what it would be like to open their own school,” writes Kim Ursetta, a kindergarten teacher there. Where teaching has become a rote practice in many places, she says, at the Academy educators choose their own textbooks, oversee student conduct and answer for the school culture.
“In exchange,” says Urbetta, “we embrace higher accountability and increased collaboration.”
While the thrust of education reform has focused on scrutinizing educators and blaming them for lackluster results, the Math and Science Leadership Academy — founded five years ago with support from the teachers union — stands at the forefront of an intriguing new wave.
Many teacher-led schools are charters, but not all. In Washington, Phoenix High in Kennewick qualifies, according to website Education Evolving.
Last month, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan visited Denver and spoke with Math and Science Leadership Academy teachers, who work both in the classroom and as peer trainers. He called it “an interesting example” of the power in this hybrid approach. And he continued:
I think this is where the country needs to go, and you guys are probably a couple years ahead. I really want to learn from what’s working and what’s not here.
Ninety percent of kids at the academy are low-income — many of them non-native English speakers — and teachers say that having the freedom to adjust lessons as needed is a key to keeping students engaged.
The appeal is similar for staff. The Denver Classroom Teachers Union says the academy receives 30 applications for every vacant job.
“It’s not top-down,” said Pamela Yawn, who works there. “I can change my practice that day, for that student, for any particular learning.” As a result, she told Duncan, her teaching has improved dramatically.

You can filter the schools by one of the following fields (leaving the other two as "Any"), or you can filter by two, or all three.
Titlesort descendingInterview?StateAutonomy Arrangement
Academia de Lenguaje y Bellas Artes (ALBA)YesWICharter and MOU
Another Course to CollegeYesMAPilot Schools
AvalonYesMNSchool Charter/Bylaws
Boggs SchoolNoMIUnknown
Boston Arts AcademyNoMAPilot Schools
Boston Day and Evening AcademyYesMAPilot Schools
Boston Teachers Union SchoolYesMAPilot Schools
BRICK Avon AcademyNoNJUnknown
Chrysalis Charter SchoolYesCASchool Charter/Bylaws
Civitas School of LeadershipYesCAPilot Schools
Community High SchoolYesWICharter and MOU
ConneXions Community Leadership AcademyYesMDSchool Charter/Bylaws
Denver Green SchoolYesCOMOU + state waiver
EdVisions Off CampusYesMNCharter-TPP Contract
Escule VerdeNoWISchool Charter/Bylaws
Esteban TorresNoCAPilot Schools
Explore Knowledge Academy SchoolYesNVLeadership Goodwill
Fenway Pilot High SchoolYesMAPilot Schools
Green Isle Community SchoolYesMNCharter-TPP Contract
High Marq Environmental Charter SchoolYesWISchool Charter/Bylaws
High School in the Community Academy for Law and Social JusticeYesCTLeadership Goodwill
High Tech HighYesCALeadership Goodwill
Highline AcademyYesCOLeadership Goodwill
Howard C. Reiche Community SchoolYesMEMOU
Hudson County Schools of TechnologyNoNJUnknown
Hughes STEM High SchoolYesOHCollective Bargaining MOU
Independence School Local 1YesMDSchool Charter/Bylaws
Individualized Developmental Educational Approaches to Learning (I.D.E.A.L.) Charter SchoolYesWICharter and MOU
KornerstoneYesWILeadership Goodwill
Laurel Tree Charter SchoolYesCASchool Charter/Bylaws
Mathematics and Science Leadership AcademyYesCOMOU + state waiver
Minnesota New Country SchoolYesMNCharter-TPP Contract
Mission Hill K-8 SchoolYesMAPilot Schools
Monarch Community SchoolYesCALeadership Goodwill
Naytahwaush Community SchoolNoMNCharter-TPP Contract
Nerstand Elementary SchoolNoMNCharter-TPP Contract
New CenturyNoMNCharter-TPP Contract
New School for Community ServiceNoWIUnknown
Northern Lights Community SchoolYesMNCharter-TPP Contract
Northwest Passage High SchoolYesMNSchool Charter/Bylaws
Other Belmont, Kennedy, & Sotomayor Zone of Choice SchoolsNoCAPilot Schools
Phoenix High SchoolYesWALeadership Goodwill
Pierre Bottineau French Immersion SchoolNoMNSite-gov. Agreement
Professional Learning Institute (PLI)YesWICharter and MOU
Professional Preparatory Charter SchoolYesNYSchool Charter/Bylaws
Renaissance CharterYesNYLeadership Goodwill
River Heights Charter SchoolNoMNCharter-TPP Contract
RiverBend AcademyYesMNCharter-TPP Contract
Sage AcademyNoMNUnknown
San Francisco Community SchoolYesCASite-gov. Agreement
Southwest Baltimore Charter SchoolNoMDSchool Charter/Bylaws
Tailoring Academics to Guide Our Students (TAGOS Leadership Academy)YesWISchool Charter/Bylaws
The Alliance School MilwaukeeNoWICharter and MOU
UCLA Community School (UCS)YesCAPilot Schools
Valley New SchoolYesWISchool Charter/Bylaws
Whittier ElementaryNoWICharter and MOU
Wildlands SchoolYesWISchool Charter/Bylaws
Woodland Hills AcademyNoCASite-gov. Agreement