CONNECTICUT

Jonathan Budd, Redding
9th to 12th Grade Teacher
Joel Barlow High School
Partners: Cheryl Horton, Mary Pat Hrebin, Thomas Kilbourn, Ashley Nichols
The tenth-grade English teachers at Joel Barlow High School examine best practices for enhancing their students’ writing skills. These group members analyze student work to identify problematic areas in student writing and develop instructional and assessment tools to foster creative and analytical prose in their students’ work. The writing curriculum and assessment tools the team develops serve as a model for other disciplines throughout the district.

LOUISIANA

Cindy Rushing, Pineville
Pre-Kindergarten Teacher
J. S. Slocum Elementary School
Partners: Amy Carter, Brenda Tullos
Ms. Rushing is leading a study group for elementary teachers at each grade level to examine and improve reading instruction. Group members use Star Early Literacy, a computer-adaptive diagnostic assessment and database reading program, to disaggregate data on students’ reading skills and use that data to inform instruction.

MAINE

Kayanne Levesque, Washburn
1st Grade Literacy Teacher
Washburn District Elementary School
Partners: Heather Bragg, Diane Fizpatrick, Jennifer Langille, Christine Skinner, Cheryl Wark
Each month, Ms. Levesque and her study group partners learn research-based phonics instruction. Group participants evaluate data on student assessments and reflect on methods to enhance literacy instruction to increase student achievement.

MARYLAND

Wanda Newman, Fort Washington
Interpreter
Friendly High School
Partners: Torre Torrence, Joyce Williams
Ms. Newman, Ms. Torrence, and Ms. Williams research and develop prototypes of paraprofessional portfolios, including a sample electronic portfolio. These portfolios provide a model their colleagues can use to demonstrate their qualifications in improving student learning and guidelines for assembling the best evidence of proficiency. After preparing these prototypes, the team assists other paraprofessionals in creating their own portfolios.

MINNESOTA

Kim Norton, Chaska
7th to 8th Grade Technology Teacher
Chaska Middle School West
Partner: Sarah Burnett
Ms. Norton and Ms. Burnett study effective models for creating electronic student portfolios in Chaska Middle School West. These teachers visit schools that have successfully implemented portfolio assessment, and begin testing and developing their own model in a pilot class. Based on what they learn in the pilot program, the team refines the model and expands its implementation throughout the school.

NEW YORK

Jonathan Scott, New York
Assistant Professor of English
Borough of Manhattan Community College
To address the unique learning needs of the student population and provide instructional support to part-time faculty teaching English 101, Dr. Scott—director of the composition program at the community college—has designed several workshops for new faculty members who teach this course. These workshops provide a forum for developing instructional strategies that address the learning needs of the rapidly changing, mostly immigrant student population.

OHIO

Karen Ansberry, Mason
Curriculum Leader
Mason City Schools
Partner: Linda Sutphin
To improve the teaching of science in middle school, Ms. Ansberry leads a study group on designing and managing inquiry science in the classroom. Study group members examine the Japanese lesson study model, and visit Ohio schools using this model to observe their successes. The team shares its inquiry-based science lessons with middle-school teachers throughout the district.

VIRGINIA

Berthica Rodriguez-McCleary, Falls Church
4th to 12th Grade ESOL Specialist
ESOL Dual Language Assessment Center—Devonshire
Partner: Dena Sewell
After recognizing that their World English (WE) students—from Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Nigeria—are being inappropriately placed in English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) classes, Ms. Rodriguez-McCleary and her team explore alternative programs that meet the special needs of WE students. The team collaborates with university researchers and community resource groups to investigate effective instructional strategies. This results shape the county’s policy on WE instruction and improve services for WE students.

WASHINGTON

James Everett, Everson
8th Grade Teacher
Nooksack Valley Middle School
Partner: Tim Scott
Using hand-held computers, Mr. Everett and Mr. Scott pilot a program that provides colleagues with immediate formative and summative assessments. One third of the middle-school teachers use assessment data to create individual rubrics designed to differentiate instruction and meet each student’s learning goals. Mr. Everett and Mr. Scott share the result of the pilot with other colleagues throughout the district.

Sherry Schaaf, Forks
K to 8th Grade Science Coordinator
Quillayute Valley School District
Partners: Tracy Keene, Cari Rohrer
Ms. Shaaf leads a group of elementary- and middle-school teachers in learning to integrate inquiry-based science with reading and writing. The group participates in a National Science Foundation program that teaches them instructional strategies for implementing inquiry-based science curricula. The teachers share this pedagogy with their colleagues.

Elena Stowell, Kent
10th to 12th Grade Science Teacher
Kentwood High School
Partners: Leslie Armstrong, Gabrielle Duhamel, Barb Genger, Susan McCauley, Jana Jo Uhlendorf
Ms. Stowell and her colleagues form a study group to examine peer coaching as a means for improving their students’ reading, writing, and mathematics skills. After studying literature on peer coaching and observing each other’s teaching, group members coach their colleagues and model these new strategies to teachers throughout the school.