Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Overview
In Milwaukee, the
initiative focused on intensive professional development for teachers in 20 low
performing schools. The schools formed Learning Teams consisting of the
principal, the literacy coach, the math teacher leader, the curriculum
generalist, and other classroom teachers, who met weekly to analyze data,
develop the school’s Closing the Gap Action Plan and lead professional
development within the school.
Key Strategies
The initiative is an
outgrowth of the Milwaukee Partnership Academy, a school-improvement
partnership that includes leaders from the district, the teachers’ union, the
business community and—significantly—higher education. These leaders meet
monthly to plan and design the initiative and establish work groups on such
topics as family literacy, teacher/principal quality, mathematics, and
literacy.
Results
A comprehensive literacy
and mathematics initiative was developed and implemented. The district observed the positive impact of this initiative in student performance at
schools where the program was implemented. Average test scores of tenth
graders on the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examination rose by eight
percentage points. Also, high school graduation rates, which were 70 percent at the time, grew four times faster than the rest of the district.