Introducing Teacher-Powered Practices
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Today, we are excited to share our newest resource: Teacher-Powered Practices — How teacher teams collaboratively lead and create student-centered schools.
This guide focuses on how innovative teachers are radically changing the ways schools are designed and run. The how here are the common practices, structures, and processes teacher-powered teams design and use daily.
The guide identifies nine common practices used at teacher-powered schools, and includes examples written by teacher-powered leaders who describe what the practice looks like at their site.
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These nine practices are built on research, the work of our Teacher-Powered Ambassadors, interviews with educators, and site visits at more than 120 teacher-powered schools over the last decade. These practices are not final or static. They will continue to evolve as teams create new and innovative ways to lead their schools.
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1. Keep Students at the Center of Decision-Making
Teacher-powered teams consistently keep their shared purpose in mind and focus on what is best for their students and community.
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2. Meaningfully Involve Families and Communities
Families and communities are intentionally involved in the design process, are actively encouraged to be present and involved on campus, and are valued as experts.
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3. Honor Student Voice and Choice
Students participate substantively in their learning—with autonomy, agency, and attention given to their individual interests, needs, skills, and identities.
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4. Cultivate a Collaborative Culture
Teams prioritize collaboration, learn collaborative skills, practice and refine these skills, and address inevitable tensions—all while modeling collaboration to students in order to create better learning environments.
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5. Embrace Transparency in Decision-Making
Teams share information and responsibilities around decision-making, document decisions made, and allow for discussion and feedback on important decisions to create buy-in and build consensus.
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6. Create Shared Leadership Structures
Teams value checks and balances, and include teachers in a wide variety of teacher leadership roles to ensure diverse experiences and opinions are present for all decisions.
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7. Reimagine and Rotate Leadership Positions
Teams rotate leadership positions to help diffuse power and build an understanding of each position’s unique responsibilities—so everyone sees the bigger picture beyond their own classrooms, subjects, and interests.
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8. Engage in Peer Observation
Teams engage in peer observation, mentoring, and coaching, a positive practice that benefits students and allows teachers to learn and grow.
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9. Take On a Learner Mindset
Teams recognize their curricular expertise, but maintain a learner mindset—investing time in improving their skills as teacher leaders as well as their content knowledge.
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Jennings Community School: A Conversation with Krissy Wright
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“I wanted to create more structure at the charter school, so every adult could handle responsibilities often reserved for traditional administrative roles... When I left the school, they decided not to hire another Director. The team saw themselves as fully capable to fulfill their duties and the needs of the school without an administrator at the top—they were all at the top.”
Krissy Wright, a champion of teacher-powered schools, recently sat down with Education Reimagined to talk education transformation and how to make change happen.
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Teacher-Powered Day
November 9
Twin Cities, MN
A day designed to improve your collaborative leadership practices, for teams both exploring and already teaching and leading at teacher-powered, student-centered schools in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
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Micro-credentials 101
October 29 | Online
From developing, assessing, and leading micro-credential pilots to guiding hundreds of educators through the process, CTQ’s Jennifer Barnett is eager to welcome school, district, and state leaders to this event.
- There are eight teacher-powered micro-credentials under the area of collaborative leadership—check them out here!
Register for the webinar & learn more.
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Independent Charter School Symposium
November 17–20 | Old Town Albuquerque
With a November 19 lunch keynote from our own Amy Junge on Collaborative Leadership for Thriving Teams, and a special session on “the teacher-powered school.”
Learn more.
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Save the date: Assessment for Learning Conference
February 11-13, 2020 | San Diego
The first ever Assessment FOR Learning Conference, brought to you by the Assessment for Learning Project. Connect with educators and system leaders who are part of the movement to fundamentally rethink assessment.
Learn more.
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Teacher-Powered Jobs Board
Teacherpowered.org shares job postings from our network of schools around the country. Check in on the board now and bookmark the page to stay in the know for teacher-powered job opportunities.
View job postings.
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The Teacher-Powered Schools Initiative is a project of
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