For the past four years, teachers in New Haven have been trying to improve student learning inside their classrooms. It's part of the city's plan to improve its school system.
Teachers ratified a contract last week that expands upon the work they've been doing and adds even more professional development into the school day. Now, they're taking it a step further, thanks to a $1 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
“It helps us move frankly more to something like a residency model of training like you see from many doctors, many lawyers go through that training, business students go through that training, being in the experience and learning through that,” said New Haven School Superintendent Garth Harries.
The new program is called Empowered Effective Educators, and it centers around teachers working together to share their knowledge of what works best inside classrooms. Meetings are led by teacher-facilitators who encourage peer collaboration.
“We're trying to embed it more coherently in the day-to-day work of a teacher so that every day is about growth and that growth is meaningful to teachers and its meaningful to the students in their classrooms,” said Justin Boucher, a teacher at Hill Central Career High School.
Ultimately, the goal is to make students successful, and that can only happen if teachers are getting the support they need.
“With my own team, we meet every two weeks. We bring to the table our issues. It's not judgmental, it's not evaluative, it's all about providing that feedback that we all need if we're going to become great educators,” said Gretchen Gurr, a teacher at Hill Central Career High School.
