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The New York City Lab School for Collaborative Studies
New York, NY
School Type: Public
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School Setting: Urban
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Level: 7-12
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School Design: Alternative
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Content Presented By:
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The Education Alliance at Brown University
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Design and Implementation
At the New York City Lab School for Collaborative Studies, the staff embarked on a long-term professional development initiative to create a culture of excellence where student voices were consistently valued. Although consultants from Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound (ELOB) provided Lab School educators with a structure for examining and improving their school culture and teaching practice, the educators themselves collaborated to identify appropriate directions for improvement. Once they had come to a consensus about their primary goals for the Lab School, educators began the long process of realizing these goals.
IMPLEMENTATION STEPS
- Year One: Staff members identify the school's collective vision of excellence by examining each other's curriculum plans and rubrics, observing and conferring about each other's classes, creating a collage of their impressions, and soliciting students' perspectives on what excellence means. They examine the degree of congruence between their own views of excellence and those of their students, sharing their conclusions with a team drafting the school's statement of philosophy. Parents also provide input on the mission statement.
- Year Two: School staff members collaborate to determine what they value in the classroom and how clearly they are conveying these values to their students. After mapping their curriculums, they identify the core ideas and best pedagogical practices of their subject areas and submit this information to the School Leadership Team for inclusion in a book entitled Theories and Practices. Weekly "Portfolio Lunch" workshops begin; teachers examine student work together in collaborative assessment conferences and also critique each other's curriculum plans.
- Year Three:
School directors organize a series of staff discussions around James Stigler and James Hiebert's The Teaching Gap. Teachers examine different models of assessment and continue to revise their practice. Portfolio Lunches and the compilation of Theories and Practices continue.
- Year Four: Grade teams and departments continue to collaborate, with curriculums becoming more integrated and coherent. Portfolio Lunch program continues, and staff choose another shared text for regular discussion: Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe's Understanding by Design. In the second semester, staff discussions focus on adolescent literacy.
- Year Five: School staff members replace ELOB facilitators as leaders of Portfolio Lunches and other workshops on teacher practice. In weekly grade team and departmental meetings, teachers plan curriculum and discuss strategies for helping struggling students. Observation pairs also visit each other's classes regularly and provide feedback about particular areas of concern. Working from the vantage point of Understanding by Design, the staff reshapes their course overviews with the Lab School Philosophy Statement as a centerpiece. All curriculum designs consider elements of collaboration, diversity and pluralism, academic rigor, and compassion.
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