Culture

First-grade coteachers in a dual-language immersion school facilitate an Academic Parent-Teacher Team (APTT) meeting with classroom parents to review class and individual student progress-monitoring data, explain focus academic skills for the next six weeks, set student growth goals, and model strategies for parents to use to support student learning at home...

Two teachers conduct a relationship-building home visit as part of a schoolwide initiative to improve family engagement. Following a protocol, the teachers explain the purpose of the visit, ask parents to share their expectations for their daughters, and discuss how they will communicate with one another throughout the year.

Tool designed to help schools assess and prioritize classroom-level family-engagement efforts. Indicators describe what effective classroom family engagement looks like at four developmental stages in three domains, including teacher beliefs, teacher-family relationships, and communication.

Principal outlines key leadership moves to support the implementation of two high-impact family-engagement practices: home visits and a model of parent-teacher team meetings focused on academic goal setting and strategies for supporting student learning at home. She also reflects on the outcomes of these practices and shares advice for implementation.

Videos include leadership insights on launching an initiative to close an achievement gap by building relationships with a diverse community and increasing family engagement in academically focused school activities. Two practices piloted as part of this initiative—Academic Parent-Teacher Team (APTT)meetings and home visits—are also highlighted.

Schedule detailing a charter school "culture camp," an intensive three-day introduction to expectations and behavioral rules for students held at the beginning of the school year. Teachers use modeling and other strategies to explicitly teach activities such as transitions, appropriate classroom behavior, and cultural routines such as the school chant.

Explores ways to support teachers and students to address discipline and behavior issues in a way that is mutually respectful and positive. Highlights how interventions can support struggling students and help to build relationships between teachers and students.

Articulate a personal vision, as well as assess capacity to convey school vision and achieve buy-in. Workshop includes two videos, visioning exercise, and postwork. A Visioning Graphic Organizer allows participants to define the "end state" aligned to their personal vision. (Developed for Chicago New Leaders, fall 2009)

Focuses on the practices the leadership team puts in place to define "The Bruce Randolph Way" and how they develop a plan to describe the systems, structure, and protocols of the school. Demonstrates how the school uses the "Challenge 2010" plan as a tool to define a school culture and support new teachers in successfully managing their classrooms.

A charter high school employs comprehensive, descriptive tools—including a teacher-evaluation rubric, teacher-observation guidelines, teacher portfolio samples, and a teacher self-appraisal—to judge evidence of quality teaching as part of an evaluation and promotion system.

Schedule detailing a charter school "culture camp," an intensive three-day introduction to expectations and behavioral rules for students held at the beginning of the school year. Teachers use modeling and other strategies to explicitly teach activities such as transitions, appropriate classroom behavior, and cultural routines such as the school chant.

Explores ways to support teachers and students to address discipline and behavior issues in a way that is mutually respectful and positive. Highlights how interventions can support struggling students and help to build relationships between teachers and students.

Focuses on the practices the leadership team puts in place to define "The Bruce Randolph Way" and how they develop a plan to describe the systems, structure, and protocols of the school. Demonstrates how the school uses the "Challenge 2010" plan as a tool to define a school culture and support new teachers in successfully managing their classrooms.

A charter high school employs comprehensive, descriptive tools—including a teacher-evaluation rubric, teacher-observation guidelines, teacher portfolio samples, and a teacher self-appraisal—to judge evidence of quality teaching as part of an evaluation and promotion system.

Participants in support-staff meeting brainstorm to create individualized behavior plan for student. Principal and school counselor describe goals of meeting and components of behavior plans, including providing student mentors and conducting informal check-ins. Support staff also includes nurse, head secretary, and security staff.

Chart listing appropriate accommodations and modifications (out of list of 43) for students with IEPs in sixth-grade English language arts class. Includes in-class work and assessment accommodations.

Geometry teachers collaborate to analyze data from the year's first benchmark exam and plan for several days of corrective instruction. They conduct standards and item-level analyses, identify student misconceptions, and determine plans for addressing misconceptions at the whole-class and small-group levels.

Includes plans for spiral-reviewing standards and sub-standards into homework assignments, Do Nows, mini-lessons, quizzes, and tests. Identifies whole-class vs. small-group teaching needed to address students' needs, and lists students of significant concern and instructional strategies designed to attend to their needs.

First-grade coteachers in a dual-language immersion school facilitate an Academic Parent-Teacher Team (APTT) meeting with classroom parents to review class and individual student progress-monitoring data, explain focus academic skills for the next six weeks, set student growth goals, and model strategies for parents to use to support student learning at home...

A high school teacher facilitates a chemistry lab. During small-group work and whole-group discussion he prompts students to formulate predictions, collect and analyze data, synthesize information and verbalize understanding of important concepts. He reflects on instructional challenges and strategies for developing students' sense of self-efficacy.

Chart listing appropriate accommodations and modifications (out of list of 43) for students with IEPs in sixth-grade English language arts class. Includes in-class work and assessment accommodations.

Geometry teachers collaborate to analyze data from the year's first benchmark exam and plan for several days of corrective instruction. They conduct standards and item-level analyses, identify student misconceptions, and determine plans for addressing misconceptions at the whole-class and small-group levels.

First-grade coteachers in a dual-language immersion school facilitate an Academic Parent-Teacher Team (APTT) meeting with classroom parents to review class and individual student progress-monitoring data, explain focus academic skills for the next six weeks, set student growth goals, and model strategies for parents to use to support student learning at home...

Two teachers conduct a relationship-building home visit as part of a schoolwide initiative to improve family engagement. Following a protocol, the teachers explain the purpose of the visit, ask parents to share their expectations for their daughters, and discuss how they will communicate with one another throughout the year.

Tool designed to help schools assess and prioritize classroom-level family-engagement efforts. Indicators describe what effective classroom family engagement looks like at four developmental stages in three domains, including teacher beliefs, teacher-family relationships, and communication.