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Samuel Mason Elementary School
Roxbury, MA
School Type: Public
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School Setting: Urban
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Level: Elementary
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School Design: Traditional
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Content Presented By:
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National Awards Program for Model Professional Development
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Summary
The practice: Professional development should involve teachers in the identification of what they need to learn and in the development of the learning experiences in which they will be involved.
- All teachers have earned dual certification in regular and special education
- Professional development activities increased from 6 to 50 hours per teacher
- Use of portfolio assessment increased from 0 to 100% over five years
Through the use of study groups, mentoring, lead-teacher assistance, and other approaches, staff members of the Samuel Mason have developed a high level of expertise in the areas that are critical to their school's success. Personal learning plans are now required for all staff at the Samuel Mason, a controlled choice school that faced the threat of closure in the 1980s due to poor performance. Principal Mary Russo took the helm in 1990 and immediately focused training efforts on enabling all teachers to become equipped to support the students before them. The results have been staggering: an enrollment that has nearly doubled and student test scores that have risen at a rate higher than those of the Boston system as a whole.
This site also exemplifies the following practice(s):
- Professional development should be based on analyses of the differences between (a) actual student performance and (b) goals and standards for student learning.
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