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Isolation among teachers and administrators ranks as one of the most prevalent reasons gifted professionals abandon their careers. In a recent study of new public school teachers, nearly two thirds reported that they were encouraged to seek help from other educators—yet over half revealed that no extra assistance was available. In fact, many new hires find themselves initiated into a culture of professional solitude: principals spend their time tied up with administrative responsibilities, teachers struggle alone in their classrooms, and support staff like guidance counselors and technology specialists are rarely integrated into traditional instruction at all. Although academic researchers have studied this problem extensively, colleges and universities often replicate this model within their own education programs. To foster sharply focused professionals, education programs provide distinctive training tracks for prospective administrators, teachers, and support professionals. Enabling Educators Two years ago, leaders at HGSE and Boston Public Schools decided to address this problem through a groundbreaking collaborative venture. A coalition of experts, including Richard Elmore, Gregory R. Anrig Professor of Educational Leadership, and faculty from five HGSE programs—Language and Literacy, Risk and Prevention, School Leadership, Teacher Education, and Urban Superintendents—formed the Committee on Schooling (COS). Together with Boston Public Schools, the COS is creating a brand-new approach to graduate student internships.
“We had the exact same idea at the same time,” Elmore says of his HGSE colleagues and Tom Payzant, M.A.T.’63, C.A.S.’66, Ed.D.’68, the superintendent of Boston Public Schools. The new program, piloted in 2002-2003 and 2003-2004, sent teams of apprentice principals, teachers, teacher leaders, and support service professionals into a select group of local schools, with the hope of creating a widespread impact. While interns had previously worked individually in schools throughout the city, the new system provided both a common experience and a shared setting in which to discuss best practices. For the first time, teacher leaders-in-training learned about the management issues facing aspiring principals. Future principals witnessed, first-hand, what teacher leaders’ worlds looked like. This approach also enabled interns to better address the complex needs of public schools. With a broader view of the schools’ issues, interns assessed situations more accurately, helping educators to learn new approaches to literacy and math instruction, analyze children’s performance on high-stakes tests, and design whole-school improvement plans. HGSE students were also able to share cutting-edge research with the school staff—a tremendous resource to professionals who often have little time to access their field’s latest developments. Now at the beginning of its third year, the program has already begun to have a profound impact upon both educators-in-training and the public schools they serve. But there is also a third beneficiary: the future of the educational profession itself. HGSE graduates who complete this program will be better prepared to share knowledge and create communities of practice. According to Elmore, they will bring this collaborative model to the professional culture of the schools they join in the future. In 2003-2004, the Committee on Schooling extended its collaborative program to seven schools; they have hopes of expanding the project nationwide. “We want to maximize the value of educators—as interns and, ultimately, as leaders,” Elmore said. For More Information
HGSE News, Harvard Graduate School of Education
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