Successful school turnarounds have long been elusive and have depended on finding talented teachers and leaders to engage in the transformation of school cultures and teaching norms. A newly piloted model out of Boston shows some promise for staffing school turnaround and providing career ladder options for experienced teachers. The Teacher Turnaround Teams (T3) program, a Teach Plus and Boston Public Schools (BPS) and Unlocking Potential joint venture, recruits and places groups of effective, experienced teachers in select BPS buildings, infusing these struggling schools with both a “critical mass” of accomplished teachers and a teacher-leader cadre ready to up the abilities of their peers.
The BPS website asks, “Are you an experienced, effective teacher who is looking for the next professional challenge? Are you looking for recognition as an excellent teacher? Are you looking to work with a collaborative team of like-minded peers? Are you ready to demonstrate the power of teaching to eliminate the achievement gap? If so, then applying to become a T3 teacher could be the next step in your career.” Both Boston Public Schools teachers and teachers who currently teach outside the district are eligible to apply.
At the two pilot schools participating in the program, T3 teachers–who have been chosen through an intense application process–make up about 25 percent of the teacher force. And it seems to be working. Eight months into the program’s inaugural year, T3 schools are seeing marked student improvement. But that’s not all. Along with catalyzing achievement gains, T3 offers standout teachers the chance to lead, while remaining in the classroom. T3ers run weekly team meetings with teachers in their grades and subject matters, debriefing, mentoring other teachers, and vetting team concerns. The concept is compelling: Recruit a cohort of high-caliber folks, place them in leadership roles within the teaching profession, and offer them the school-based autonomy needed to make smart shifts.
Update 11/2014:
T3 partner schools have achieved the following results:
- Attracted large numbers of excellent teachers to work in low-performing schools. More than 1,000 excellent teachers have applied and are eager to collaborate with their peers and take the lead in transforming struggling schools. Teach Plus has had 7 qualified applicants from within partner districts and around the nation for each of the Teacher Leadership positions we have filled.
- Gave a clear teacher leadership opportunity for highly skilled and experienced teachers. T3 teacher leaders have, on average, 9 years of experience.
The Data:
- During the first three years of implementation, the first six schools showed accelerated student growth in ELA and math.
- In most cases, T3 schools started with lower levels of achievement than other turnaround schools and have been able to surpass their turnaround peers:
- In math, Cohort 1 is two points away from closing the achievement gap with the district average and Cohort 2 has surpassed the district average. In both cohorts, these schools have far outpaced their peer turnaround schools in Massachusetts.
- In ELA, Cohort 1 has closed its 12 point deficit with the state and Cohort 2 has surpassed both state (by 16 points) and district student proficiency rates.
- In Cohort 1, all three schools have exited state-determined turnaround status. Two schools went from Level 4 status (the bottom five percent of schools in Massachusetts) to Level 1 status (top performing schools in Massachusetts).
To learn more, read Closing the Gap: Progress Over Two Years in T3 Schools.
