In this video, we see how a network of seven small New York City public high schools collaborates on professional development in order to strengthen teaching, leadership, and school performance. The network’s professional development activities captured on this video focus on instructional practices in the academic subjects, assessments of students’ work, school-wide accountability, and school leadership development. The range of activities featured includes curriculum dialogues, inter-school visitations, and collective inquiry for whole-school improvement. This video highlights the ways teachers and administrators in participating schools learn from one another to strengthen their schools instructionally and to enhance their capacity for internal accountability. This valuable resource will help educators interested in forming collegial networks to support small school development and to improve teaching and leadership.

Features:

• Authentic images of professional development activities in science and literacy, including cross-role school teams working together.
• Depiction of a “critical friends review” where teachers give feedback on each other’s techniques.
• Interviews with teachers and administrators on the collaboration’s unique and effective implementation in their schools.

National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools, and Teaching (NCREST), established at Teachers College in 1990, supports restructuring efforts by documenting successful initiatives, creating reform networks to share new research findings with practitioners, and linking policy to practice.