School Type: Public	School Setting: Urban
Level: 7-12	School Design: Alternative
Content Presented By:
The Education Alliance at Brown University

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Founded in 1987 as a small middle school using collaborative learning strategies, the New York City Lab School for Collaborative Studies was experiencing growing pains as it transformed into a larger middle and high school. Without a system in place for faculty and students to communicate about their values and expectations, the school lacked a clear vision and no longer provided the social and emotional support that its students needed. Concerned about these changes, the school's co-directors, Sheila Breslaw and Rob Menken, enlisted the help of outside facilitators in a long-term project to create a "culture of excellence" at the school--a culture founded on staff, student, and parent collaboration to foster personalized teaching.

This initiative has had a major impact on Lab School teachers. According to Breslaw, the most significant change has been the growth in teachers' self-awareness about their practice. In grade-team meetings, where teachers used to spend their time venting frustrations about student behavior, now the focus is on collaborative curriculum planning and strategies for approaching student problems. "The dialogue has shifted," Breslaw says, "from 'These kids are no good' to 'Let's plan curriculum' and 'How do you get so-and-so to do homework?' 'Maybe I should do that.'" Menken notes that the process of establishing norms for constructive criticism has changed the climate of the school and the willingness of teachers to discuss and change their practice. "Once teachers feel that dialogue is for the general good and not an attack, they're able to get away from that 'siege mentality' and take it as something that could be beneficial for them."

Students have also benefited from the Lab School's more open lines of communication. Through surveys during and after the professional development initiative and through their representatives in student government and the School Leadership Team (a team that also includes school staff and parents), students have helped to make the school a more compassionate place where their interests are always valued. Students were the driving force behind a Peer Alliance and Leadership (PAL) program that trains high school juniors and seniors to run advisory workshops for seventh graders. They also pushed for the addition of a number of new courses to the curriculum and the creation of teacher-student book clubs to build stronger relationships between eighth and ninth graders and introduce them to a large number of adults in the building.

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This resource is developed and maintained by The Education Alliance at Brown University. Seed funding was provided by the U.S. Department of Education. Send comments to: loom@alliance.brown.edu