Queens High School of Teaching: Concept Paper, February 2003

A. Introduction

The Queens High School of Teaching shares the Glen Oaks Educational Campus with two K-8 schools and forms the upper level of this innovative K-12 continuum. The school will open in September 2003 with 300 9^th grade students and 34 10^th grade students, and will grow gradually to about 1000 9-12^th grade students within four years. Included within the high school is a District 75 school with eight dedicated classrooms and teachers and one dedicated administrator to serve 96 students. Various models will be used to include, where possible, some of these students for part or all of their education, with necessary supports, in the high school. Each of the three schools comes equipped with five observation rooms/ seminar rooms located between classrooms and with one-way mirrors and speaker systems. These will facilitate the use of real classrooms as teaching laboratories.

Designed for students interested in a career in education and related fields, the high school will feature a rigorous college preparatory curriculum that will provide students with a solid liberal arts and science foundation so that they meet the city and state’s educational standards and complete the required Regents examinations. Teachers will plan inter-disciplinary curriculum which might be team-taught and will reinforce new concepts, skills, knowledge and vocabulary, and provide a wider context for students’ understanding.

In addition, students will participate in the teaching component to prepare them for their future career and education. Students will do hands-on professional activities such as observing classrooms, one-on-one peer mentoring, small group tutoring, team-teaching, and designing curriculum. The high school’s classrooms will be open-door laboratories to explore learning, and links will be made with the campus and other neighboring schools, colleges, universities, service organizations and the private sector so that students can explore apprenticeship leaning and authentic internships. Students will graduate with a teaching portfolio.

In standards-based and student-centered classrooms, teachers of excellence will give students opportunities to investigate and make sense of the world in cooperative learning groups. In these academically rigorous, mixed-ability, and culturally diverse classrooms, each student will be provided with opportunities to maximize individual potential and will learn through doing and through teaching others. There will be high expectations for all, and students will learn habits of practice that will increase intelligence and performance. Classes will be annualized and assessments will be authentic.

Students will learn in blocked classes to facilitate project-based learning. There will be a daily Drop Everything And Read slot and an advisory period.

Learning will be personalized with students assigned to one of three multi-grade small learning communities, each with its dedicated faculty that will grow to a maximum of 350 students in four years. Each student will have a faculty-advisor who meets with them in an advisory of no more than 18 students. These small learning communities will foster an intimate learning environment where students will know peers and adults well, and have their individual learning styles acknowledged.

The roles of students, teachers and administration will be more demanding, varied and complex than in traditional schools.

B. Student Admission

First priority for admission to the Queens High School of Teaching will be given to graduates of the two Glen Oaks Campus K-8 schools who are in good standing and are considering a career in teaching and related fields, second to similar students zoned for neighboring high schools at or above 125% utilization, and thereafter to Queens’s residents. Students apply through guidance counselors for this Education Option high school.

C. School-wide Practices, Habits and Behavioral Norms

School-wide practices, habits and behavioral norms will be embedded not only in teaching and learning but in all school transactions and activities. These practices will be clearly articulated and known by all. They include:

• Standards-based teaching in mixed-ability and student-centered classrooms where students will work primarily in cooperative learning groups to create knowledge and understanding

• Assessments, an integral part of instruction, will be authentic, known in advance, and standards-based. Students will be given ample time and opportunity to demonstrate what they know. Assessments might include: portfolio, performance and other demonstrations of mastery. Assessment feedback to students will provide detailed information that will enable the student to be successful.

• Technology, print, writing, writing to learn, and accountable talk will be the tools of instruction

• Advanced text-decoding and reading skills and strategies will be learned by teachers and students to enable all to make meaning from complex texts

• Descriptive rubrics and samples of standard-setting student work will guide the development of assignments

• Writing assignments and presentations (e.g. artwork) will routinely require multiple drafts, and will engage students and teachers in the feedback process

• Critical thinking and metacognitive practice will be present in all teaching

• Modeling of desired behaviors, and addressing behaviors that undermine behavioral norms with conferencing, mediation and negotiation

D. Advisory

In order to enhance the personalization of the students’ educational, social and emotional experiences, multi-grade advisories of no more than 18 students will meet for at least one-hour a week. Advisories will help foster an inclusive and positive school tone to meet the needs of all community members. Advisory is the place where:

• Teachers model and make transparent the school-wide practices/ norms and specific pedagogies, while students practice them and record/ reflect upon their experiences. Teachers model these skills daily and incorporate them into activity guides so that students practice them daily.

• Teachers prepare students in advance for hands-on teaching and related activities. Students discuss issues that arise from these activities and do reflective work to enable development.

• Students and teacher discuss school-wide, class and personal issues in an environment of active listening, diversity, trust and mediation so that they reach mutual understanding and resolution. In a listening and talking environment, students feel welcomed and know that their voice is significant.

The Teaching Portfolio will grow out of some of this work.

Each advisory will be facilitated by a teacher, guidance counselor or administrator, and these faculty-advisors will learn facilitation and group discussion skills and will be members of an Advisory Support Group.

Advisories will be gradually phased in once teachers have received initial professional development and feel a level of comfort with the work. Before that, the advisory slot will be used for academic enrichment and support, and assistance with daily organization and homework (activities that might become part of the advisory).

E. The Teaching Component

All students will participate in the teaching component, and this will culminate the Teaching Graduation Portfolio. The portfolio will tell the story of their high school experiences in education and related fields, reflect upon this, and project their post-secondary plans.

Each portfolio will be individual in content and expression, and will speak to the interests of the student. Portfolios will be presented in the student’s seventh or eight semester, and might include video, audio, and other media, and be presented electronically.

The teaching component will consist of various activities, including:

Activity	Description
Student Observations	Students will observe master-teachers in the high school and neighboring schools. They will keep an observation journal and meet with a Teaching Advisor once a week for an Education Seminar. Seminars will be supported with professional readings, journal exchanges, reflective practice, anecdotes, action research and more.
Student Mentors	Students will be assigned a younger mentee from the high school or neighboring schools. Mentor and mentee will meet at least twice a week. The mentor will keep a mentoring journal and meet once a week with the Mentoring Advisor for a Mentoring Seminar. Seminars will be supported with professional readings, journal exchanges, reflective practice, anecdotes, action research and more.
Student Writers in the Schools	Student writers will write fiction and non-fiction pieces for students in the high school or neighboring schools. With guidance from the Student Writing Teacher, students will write materials, present them to students in the classroom, meet with the Student Writing Teacher to exchange feedback, and further develop the materials.
Student Teaching	Students will work in a classroom alongside of a master teacher in the high school or neighboring schools. This might include individual teaching small group teaching whole class teaching team teaching language teaching to English Language Learners learning assistants to students with Special Educational Needs tutoring technical computer support curriculum and assessment development and more. Students will keep a teaching journal and meet with a Teaching Advisor once a week for an Education Seminar. Seminars will be supported with professional readings, journal exchanges, reflective practice, anecdotes, action research and more.
Biographical Education Research Project	With guidance from the Research Teacher, students will interview various educational professionals in the high school or neighboring schools, and, through the Distance Learning Classroom, schools worldwide. They will record and process the research data, and write a research paper complete with graphic or diagrammatic information. A process piece and bibliography will complete the assignment.
Student Apprenticeship/ Internship	Students will shadow education professionals. This might include educational paraprofessionals, lab technicians, university students, visiting professors, speech teachers, classroom teachers, guidance counselors, librarians, technology specialists, COSA, faculty developers, social workers, assistant principal, principal and more. Apprentices will meet once a week with the Apprenticeship Advisor for an Apprenticeship Seminar. Seminars will be supported with professional readings, journal exchanges, reflective practice, anecdotes, action research and more.
Conflict Mediation	Students will be trained by the Conflict Negotiation Specialist, will staff a Student Mediation Center and will keep a mediation journal. Students will meet once a week with the Conflict Mediation Advisor for a Mediation Seminar. Seminars will be supported with role play, simulation, professional readings, journal exchanges, reflective practice, anecdotes, action research and more.
Graduation Teaching Portfolio Preparation Class: Mandatory for all Students	During their high school career, students will gather materials for their Graduation Teaching Portfolio. In the seventh semester of high school, each student will spend a semester working on the portfolio. The culminating activity will be the presentation of the portfolio to a Graduation Committee of peers, teachers, parents, educational partners and community members.

F. Collaborative Programs and Professional Partnerships

The Queens High School of Teaching will develop collaborative programs with the two campus and other neighboring schools. High school students will perform internships in these schools, and cooperating teachers will be provided with orientation and regular contact with the Internship Advisor.

Professional Partnerships are currently being developed with District 75, the UFT Teachers Center, Adventures in Teaching and Counseling, the New York City Writing Project, the National School Reform Faculty (New York), and the Institute for Student Achievement (ISA). Other partners might include Bank Street College, NYU, Queens College, the New York City Math Project and more. College professors and students will work in the high school, high school students will participate in college and university programs and courses, and education courses will be offered to cooperating teachers from the campus and neighborhood schools.

Through the National School Reform Faculty (New York), teachers in the high school and cooperating teachers from the campus and neighborhood schools will be able to participate in a facilitative leadership institute that leads to national certification. Through the other professional partnerships, quality professional development will be offered to teachers.

An in-school Professional Library and Teaching Suite will host a variety of professional partnerships.

G. Teacher Selection and Professional Development

The Queens High School of Teaching will teach future teachers, thus its own teachers must be teachers of excellence and must model reflective practice. During teacher selection, priority will be given to teachers who are able to demonstrate evidence of:

• engaging in regular faculty development. This might include: active membership of a faculty development organization, reading professional journals, journal writing, peer coaching, critical friend group membership, visiting peers’ classrooms to learn best practice and give supportive feedback, sharing pedagogical strategies and team-teaching to stimulate reflective practice and pedagogical development

• creating a standards-based and student-centered heterogeneous classroom where cooperative group work is the primary instructional approach, technology is infused, and where English Language Learners and Special Educational Needs students are included through differentiated instruction

• collaborating in an interdisciplinary team that writes thematic curriculum using a planning backwards model and assessing student effort and learning habits through authentic assessment models and real life activities in place of timed testing of knowledge retention

• teaching more than one subject and/ or level, and/or taking responsibility for aspects outside of the classroom

Selected teachers will be expected to:

• adopt an open door policy and provide opportunities for students to observe and actively participate in the educational process

• perform as faculty-advisors and participate in the advisory support program

• demonstrate sensitivity to issues of gender, disability, sexual orientation, language, and cultural background

• support student literacy through a daily reading program

• demonstrate the school-wide practices, habits and behavioral norms

• teach more than one subject and/ or level, and/ or take responsibility for an aspect outside of the classroom

• join a school-based Critical Friends Group

• participate in regular professional development

In the first year of the school, teachers will be hired by committee that includes UFT, CSA, Queens High School Superintendent’s Office and parental representation. Applicants who have made a favorable impression on the selection committee will be asked to invite the project director into their school to observe a standards-based student-centered lesson.

In subsequent years, hiring will be by an SBO committee that includes UFT, CSA, parents and students.

District 75 and professional partners such as the UFT Teachers Center, Adventures in Teaching and Counseling, the National School Reform Faculty (New York), and the Institute for Student Achievement will work closely with the school to design continuous faculty development. All teachers will be part of a Critical Friends Group facilitated by trained CFG coaches.

8. Small Learning Communities by Design

Small learning communities are essentially different from large schools and should not be confused with smaller large schools. Small learning communities are best suited to professionals who value relationships and team work, and who are rethinking traditional concepts of education and their own practice. In these communities, everyone is known well and students should not “fall through the cracks”. These communities create trust and respect, both essential conditions for effective student learning and social and emotional development.

Small learning communities create special challenges that are best met by versatile, well-educated and resourceful teachers who have a generalist perspective in addition to their subject specialty. Teachers will be highly skilled within their own subject area and will receive professional development to enable them to perform additional duties. Most teachers will teach their subject or a related subject for three or four periods, be a faculty-advisor with an advisory class, and do one other assignment. The latter might be: advising in the teaching component, internship coordinator, dean, programming, LAB/ESL coordinator, conflict mediation coordinator, C.O.S.A., and peer coach etc. Additional duties will be assigned with teacher participation and will acknowledge special skills, qualifications, and interests. One small learning community will have one 10^th grade class in addition to three 9^th grade classes, and teachers assigned to that community will teach four subject classes plus one advisory. Teachers in this small learning community will receive a stipend for assuming additional responsibilities.

In the first two years, the small learning communities might need to “share” some teachers, and teachers will have to teach more than one subject and/ or level. By the third or fourth year, each small learning community of about 350 students will have a dedicated faculty of about 24 members (teachers and guidance counselor) and an assistant principal. Some teachers might need or prefer to continue to teach more than one subject and/ or level. While most faculty members will be dedicated, a few positions, like librarian, and art and music teacher, might be school-wide.

Teachers will work primarily within the small learning community and will be members of inter-disciplinary teams that will:

• Discuss and become familiar with individual students and their needs

• Design curriculum and authentic assessments

• Participate in a peer coaching/ Critical Friends program

• Develop the advisory program and be a faculty-advisor

Teachers will also be able to meet with subject specialists across the small learning communities.

The principal will establish structures for regular faculty conferencing and for other forums that include all stakeholders, and initially will assume a major facilitation role. The principal will build trust and respect through sharing information, making sure that the many voices are heard, and advocating for the best interests of the child. The principal will train APs and teachers who are interested in developing facilitation skills so that they will eventually assume distributed leadership roles. In time, the principal will evolve into the coordinator of the spiraling leadership stands and the person who makes sure that the many aspects of the school remain in good communication with each other.

The principal and assistant principals will provide resources such as quality faculty development, time for critical friends to visit classrooms and meet, text-based discussion groups, protocols for reflective practice, classroom demonstrations, articles, professional portfolio supports, and one-on-one conferences to facilitate professional growth. They will make connections with the many professional partners so that students and teachers receive a variety of supports. The principal and assistant principals will have a presence in the school, being visible in hallways and classrooms daily, demonstrating activities, giving supportive feedback, making possible maximum benefit to all from the open door policy, guiding curriculum development, assisting with authentic assessment, initiating peer coaching, and performing as teachers, learning coaches, and faculty-advisors.

The small learning communities will explore different ways of working with students, for example two, three or four year looping whereby the teacher “rises” through the school with her students. They will explore innovative ways to include our District 75 students.

Classes will be annualized so that teachers will know their students well and design curriculum and assessments over a ten month period. These authentic assessments will be designed so that students who have not fully mastered a given topic will be able to demonstrate that mastery at a later date. This will require specialized after-school and summer initiatives to replace the traditional summer school where complete courses are “taken over”. Initiatives might include immersion in the topic(s) not yet mastered. Multiple opportunities will be provided for students to demonstrate mastery. Mastery might be demonstrated from skills that a student has developed in another subject area or in a later class in the same subject area. Traditional memory-based high-stakes timed tests will rarely be used for student assessment.

Each small learning community will occupy its own dedicated classrooms that will be clustered around one of three stairwells. Some educational areas, like the art studio, music room, distance learning lab, auditorium or gymnasia, will be shared.

Over time, each learning community will develop its own distinct flavor that will reflect the strengths and enthusiasms of the students and adults within it.

I. Parental Partnerships

Parents are being actively involved in the school design and faculty selection. Parental partnerships are being developed with an emphasis on two-way communication so that parents’ voices are heard and parents are informed. The school web site will post up-coming events and significant dates, together with a parent page. Faculty e-mail addresses will be posted to facilitate communication. Training will be provided for parents who wish to learn how to use computer technology.

The Parent Coordinator, teachers and administration will work with the PTA to host discussion forums that will focus on issues such as personalization, equity, home support of the educational program, school support of parents and students, standards-based and student-centered classrooms, authentic assessment, Regents assessments, the educational component, college preparation, and more.

Parents will be invited to join a Parents Critical Friends Group where they will be able to look at student work using protocols and develop an understanding of school-wide practices, habits, and behavioral norms. This will prepare parents to give supportive feedback to the Teaching Graduation Portfolios, and to work effectively to guide their own children’s academic endeavors.

Parents will be invited into the school to be part of the educational process, for example introducing a career or topic of interest and knowledge to groups of students, being interviewed by students, or demonstrating skills they have developed as parents. Parents will benefit from the open door policy and will be able to visit classrooms.

Parents will assist with the selection of faculty and will be part of the SBO hiring process.

Through the School Leadership Team, parents will have the opportunity to shape the school as it evolves during the early years.

J. Special Education and District 75

All special education students will be included in mainstream classes and a number of pedagogical models, such as team-teaching, will be used to support these students. Special education teachers will participate in professional teams and facilitate the sharing of knowledge from student IEPs and teach strategies designed to make special education students and their mainstream teachers successful. They will assist with the preparation and modification of curriculum, teaching materials and assessments, and will be active partners in the classroom. This will include working specifically with special education students, working with mixed groups of all students and, on occasion, teaching the whole class thereby freeing the mainstream teacher to work closely with the special education students and mixed groups.

The school is barrier free and has eight classrooms dedicated to District 75 students and their teachers. Some of these students will participate in mainstream classes and activities (performances, lunch, assemblies etc.) with appropriate supports. District 75 faculty developers will work with mainstream teachers to facilitate best practice inclusion. District 75 teachers and students are full members of the Queens High School of Teachers, and District 75 teachers will be full members of the professional teams.

11. Schedule

• Periods 1, 4 and 7 are common planning times – one for each SLC

Queens High School of Teaching Block Schedule

Times	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
8:15-9:15	1	7	4	1	5
9:17-10:17	2	6	5	2	8
10:20-11:20	3	8	3	8	Advisory
11:20-11:30	break	break	break	break	break
11:30-12:00	DEAR & Attendance	DEAR & Attendance	DEAR & Attendance	DEAR & Attendance	DEAR & Attendance
12:00-12:40	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch
12:43-1:43	5	2	6	3	6
1:45-2:45	4	1	7	4	7

Note: Some students will have lunch 11:20-12:00 while others will have break/ DEAR 12:00-12:40.