Professional Development

Grant Will Help Train New York Teacher Leaders

• By Michael Hart
• 10/13/16

With the help of a new $500,000 grant, Teaching Matters will offer its Teacher Leadership Program over the next two years to teachers in New York City. The program is expected to eventually enhance the skills of 15,000 teachers.

Teaching Matters received the grant from the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning at WestEd, which is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The program, titled "Deepening and Scaling Teacher Leader Support for Common Core-Aligned Instruction in New York City," launched Oct. 1. The hope is to engage 600 teacher leaders who will take the skills and information they learn back to their colleagues in New York City schools.

The goal is to deepen and spread Common Core-aligned instruction practices with a focus on competency-based education that will measure and reward teacher leadership skills with micro-credentials.

Key components of the program include:

• A mentorship model that develops teacher leaders through exercises and feedback;
• Clear learning targets for developing peer leadership and team inquiry skills;
• A specific focus on content knowledge and teaching skills aimed at English language arts and math; and
• Recognizing teacher leader impact through micro-credentials that demonstrate improvement in Common Core-aligned instruction.

"Teacher leadership is a key lever in building strong school communities and a dynamic career ladder for teachers," said Amy Way, executive director of teacher recruitment and qualities for the New York education department.

Teaching Matters has worked with the New York City Department of Education in the past. Most recently, last year, 150 teachers were involved in the Emerging Teacher Leaders Program. This year, another 350 New York teachers will be involved in that program.