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View this email in your browser                                                                                                        Summer 2019

"Growth is the Expectation": How one Roxbury School creates a Culture of Achievement for Scholars and Educators


I spoke with Principal Ali Dutson of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Mission Grammar School the day after the announcement was made that her team won a national award for “Innovation in Catholic Education” from the magazine Today’s Catholic Teacher. Though she, rightly, gets a lot of credit for this recognition as the school’s leader, Ali steers the conversation to her teachers. “I’m focused on making my teachers feel proud. Teachers who feel successful are more successful,” she says.

This mantra is part of Ali’s broader vision for Mission Grammar as a school with a culture of achievement for both students—whom they refer to as “scholars”—and teachers. This vision became a priority three years ago when she did an inventory on the school’s culture as a part of her Lynch Academy Fellowship. The resulting action plan involved approaching areas like curriculum, family interactions, and hiring with a culture of achievement in mind. This is a particularly important move towards equity for a school community like Mission Grammar that is 95% students of color—research shows that students of color are often given less challenging instruction than their white peers. To combat this trend, Mission Grammar’s culture of achievement prioritizes a growth mindset among scholars and teachers, the idea that if you believe you (and your students) can achieve something, you (and they) are significantly more likely to achieve it.

Another part of Mission Grammar’s culture of achievement is making feedback a positive part of the teaching experience. The mantra is “I’ll be better tomorrow than I was today,” explains Ali.

In this spirit, Ali and the Mission Grammar team joined the Roxbury Special Education Network, an initiative of the Boston Compact that facilitates collaboration among a network of school leaders in Roxbury to improve special education. When these educators visited Mission Grammar, many were impressed by several of the teachers’ use of differentiation in the classroom to support inclusion, and wondered how those teachers could support the rest of the school in improving inclusive practices. Donette Wilson-Wood, Principal of the Haynes Early Ed. Center (BPS), noted that finding ways to provide more male role models who reflect the diversity of the students could help support growth mindset. This idea, Ali says, has pushed her team to think creatively: they are considering a program for the older boys to mentor younger boys and have reached out to another school about the possibility of sharing male mentors.

Ali leads by example by incorporating feedback like she receives from the Network into her leadership style. “The ability to strategize with other sectors has been a game changer for our school,” Ali says of the Network. “Having access to opportunities to grow and collaborate to be better…is really special. It’s part of what our kids deserve as Boston residents.”  

May 2019 School Visits

On May 13th, 25 educators from six Catholic, BPS, and charter schools joined together to learn about supporting youth who are at risk to be off track to graduate by visiting schools focused on this population. This day of visits to the Epiphany School (independent, K0-8) and Russell Elementary School (BPS, K1-5) followed a February visit to high schools with the same focus, this time looking at early indicators in younger grades. From extended learning times and personal relationship building at Epiphany, to a deep dive into using SEL across the curriculum at the Russell, teams left with exciting new ideas for better supporting these students.
From clockwise: a school team shares their takeaways; participants engage in conversation at the Epiphany School; a panel on social emotional learning at Russell Elementary School; P.E. class through mindfulness/ SEL lens at the Russell.
Opportunities

Co-Labs for Innovation: The Teacher Collaborative welcomes educators to apply for their summer and fall Co-Labs, an innovative and interactive PD model catered to participant needs. Find more information here.

DESE, Teach Plus, and the Rennie Center are recruiting for the 2019-20 MA CURATE Curriculum Fellowship, Teachers interested in deepening their knowledge of curricular quality & alignment while supporting access to high-quality, standards-aligned curriculum are encouraged to apply. Applications due July 15th.
 
Facing History and Ourselves is offering a three-day professional development seminar for teachers this summer titled "Beyond Borders: Facing Identity, Membership, and Belonging Through U.S. Immigration," which provides historical context to the U.S. immigration debate. July 9-11. For details and to apply, please visit their calendar.
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For questions or more information, please contact us at info@bostoncompact.org.
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