Book: Trusting Teachers with School Success

Posted by on November 24, 2014

A new book, Trusting Teachers with School Success, indicates that teachers given authority to make decisions influencing school success create cultures consistent with high-performing organizations, write Kim Farris-Berg and Kristoffer Kohl in Education Week. LAUSD’s Social Justice Humanitas Academy (9-12) and UCLA Community School (K-12) have established collaborative leadership cultures driven by shared purpose: functioning as learners, taking risks, assessing performance, and establishing close ties with communities. Elect-to-Work agreements ensure teacher quality, since teachers require themselves to participate in professional development over the summer, longer work hours, and activities engaging students and families. Teacher teams clearly establish collective responsibility for school management, and institute highly personalized, culturally relevant learning environments. UCLA Community School students have individualized learning plans that build on strengths. At Social Justice Humanitas Academy, teachers design thematic units across disciplines that present subjects as an organic whole. Teachers in both schools build collaboration into their management and teaching structures. Finally, both measure student and school success innovatively: creating, testing, and refining assessment processes and tools that reflect how their students learn and that consider students’ cultural backgrounds.

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/on_california/2014/11/bold_innovations_emerging_at_la_unifieds_teacher-powered_schools.html