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

Summary

The practice: Professional development should provide learning opportunities that relate to individual needs but are, for the most part, organized around collaborative problem solving.

• Small public school includes grades 6-12.
• School leadership is collaborative, involving co-directors, teachers, students, and parents.
• Professional development initiative fosters faculty collaboration as a route to improved practice.
• Collaborative problem solving clarifies school vision and helps to create a "culture of excellence."

The New York City Lab School for Collaborative Studies reached a crisis in its growth from a smaller school with a cohesive vision to a larger school whose faculty could no longer keep the vision coherent through casual contact. The school's co-directors, Sheila Breslaw and Rob Menken, used outside facilitation over a span of five years to establish new patterns of communication based on collegial collaboration. Teachers learned to critique curriculum plans and rubrics, to offer constructive feedback after observing each other's classes, and to grow from constructive criticism of their own practice. Together, they shaped a new school vision, creating a "culture of excellence" through collaboration.

While collaborative problem solving was an integral part of the Lab School's five-year professional development initiative, it is now part of the ongoing work of school staff. In 90-minute weekly team meetings, teachers lead each other toward improved teaching practices. They create plans to help struggling students succeed, and they also engage in cross-curricular planning, sharing lessons and ideas and designing interdisciplinary projects to build bridges among content areas. Teachers who were once reluctant to question each other's methods or to open their own classes up for examination are now willing and able to discuss and change their practice. The school's collaborative approach to professional growth has been essential to its success.

• Professional development should be primarily school-based and built into the day-to-day work of teaching.  
• Professional development should be continuous and on-going, involving follow-up and support for further learning, including support from sources external to the school that can provide necessary resources and new perspectives.  

• Fostering Independent Learning
  Students learn to design pathways toward their own futures through personalized learning plans, an advisory system, and student-led conferences. These and other strategies help them to identify and achieve personal and educational goals.

    

• Standards-Based Teaching to Each Student
  Teachers use instructional methods that allow students with different skills, aspirations, and interests to succeed in meeting standards. They develop courses that form a unified curriculum, integrating academic knowledge with real-life problems and tasks.

    

• Adapting School Organization to Promote Student Success
  Administrators distribute power among the staff and students. They also encourage the adaptation of school policies and structures to meet the learning needs of students.

    

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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