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Supt. Tom Boasberg |
I am thrilled to share the news that Denver Public Schools this week was named a Great District for Great Teachers, one of just eight school districts in the nation to earn this honor.
How did we win this award? By realizing we had to fundamentally redefine roles that had been in place in our public schools for more than 100 years if we were going to attract and retain the best teachers in our schools and give our kids a shot at the success they deserve.
We know, without a doubt, that the quality of our teachers is the single most important factor in our schools in the success of our kids. Our absolute top priority is to support and help our teachers develop the complex and sophisticated skills they need to successfully reach all students.
But we knew the century-old school model of a principal being responsible for coaching an instructional staff of 20 or 30 teachers -- while also handling parent concerns, discipline, budget and building issues -- wasn't going to get us where we needed to be.
So in 2013, with the support and courage of some of our amazing teachers and school leaders, we tried something new. In 14 schools, we launched the model that is now called Teacher Leadership & Collaboration, or TLC for short.
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Grayson answered questions about Teacher Leadership & Collaboration at the South by Southwest Education Expo.
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No longer was a single principal charged with developing the instructional expertise of dozens of teachers. Instead, teachers began to learn from each other, specifically the best teachers in the building, the teachers who knew their kids and understood their challenges.
Teachers in our TLC schools now work in teams, with a teacher leader out front, collaborating with a small group of teachers, observing them in class and coaching them on ways to improve. That's the job of the teacher leader every day -- and our teacher leaders still spend half of their day teaching classes, meaning they can grow as leaders without having to leave the classrooms that they love.
These were dramatic changes, and they weren't easy. School leaders had to share and distribute responsibility so others can help lead. Teachers had to learn to work together in a new way.
Next fall, TLC will be in nearly all of our schools. It doesn't look the same in every school because we learned it works best when schools get to design a TLC model that works best for them. And I'm proud to report that 89% of teachers who work in our TLC schools rate their teacher leaders as effective or very effective leaders.
DPS was named a Great District for Great Teachers, in large part, because we shook up a system that had been designed to look like factories looked a century ago. This award belongs to our educators who were, and are, brave enough and dedicated enough to try something completely different.
Schools in our district today don't run like they did 100 years ago. And for our kids facing a future in the 21st Century, that's good news.
