Teacher Powered Schools

Speaker 1 Welcome to the Human Restoration Project featuring Teacher Powered Schools Summit. My name is Chris McNutt. I'm the founder. What we do is we share progressive education thoughts with people. We host a podcast. We have resources, materials, all that kind of stuff. And I'm joined by Amy Yuni or Yuni. Sorry. I I Yep. I'm sorry about pronunciation. Fine. Yuni. Liz Cyber and Terren Snyder. I'll give you guys a second to introduce yourselves. Amy, if wanna start with you, then we'll kinda go around. Sure.

Speaker 2 So I'm Amy Yuni, and I was a middle school teacher and middle school assistant principal. And then about ten years ago, I began working with Education Evolving and started as a research project on what happens when teachers control their work. And that has eventually led to the teacher powered schools initiative and our work nationwide helping teachers use collaborative leadership models for governance and really being able to take to use some autonomy and authority at their schools as a collective team.

Speaker 4 Hi, everyone. My name is Terrence Snyder. I am a third grade teacher at the Boston Teachers Union Pilot School in Boston, Massachusetts. Our school has been around for eleven years, and I think we'll have some opportunities to talk a little bit about tonight. And I have been there for nine or 10 of them at this point. And it's a pretty exciting place to be, so I'm excited to share it with you.

Speaker 5 And I am Liz Seibert, cofounder of Wildland Science Research School, which is a seventh through twelfth grade project based learning teacher powered school in Wisconsin. And we have been open since 2005, so fifteen years, about fifteen years.

Speaker 1 Awesome. So thanks to all three of you for joining me. This is gonna be really cool, a really cool conversation. I've been excited about this for, like, weeks, because I'm both personally interested, but I know this message will resonate, with our audience. So just a few basic community norm stuff. If you could do us a huge favor, if you're not speaking at the time, if you could mute your mic, I'll be doing that here in a second after I guest start, speaking. At the bottom of your screen, if you highlight over, you'll find, like, the call button in the bottom left where you can mute your mic just so we don't have, like, random screaming or dogs, etcetera, on the recording, which leads to the second point, which is the conversation is recorded. So just keep that in mind that other people will hear this at some point. Other than that, if you do wish to speak, feel free to use the chat button in the upper right hand corner, just to say, like, hey, I wanna say something. Just get our attention in some way, and I'll invite you into the conversation, and we'll go from there. Other than that, we're really only working off of two questions today, and everything else is q and a, just organic talking about teacher powered schools, what you all do, just talking about how cool this is. So the questions relate to what teacher powered schools are, where you all are working, and then how basically people can get involved in this movement, and the rest is q and a. So let's get through that introductory stuff first, and then we'll go from there. I'm not sure. Maybe, Amy, I think, would probably be best directed at you. Do you just wanna talk a little bit about what teacher powered schools are? Absolutely. And then we'll go from there. So teacher powered schools

Speaker 2 are schools where a team of teachers has the ability to make decisions that impact student success. And that's going to look different at every school because every school gets to decide for themselves what's the right amount of autonomy and what's the right decision making procedures and structures they want in place. So as an organization, we look at 15 different areas of autonomy. So everything from, like, learning program to hiring to choosing leaders to, setting school policy and schedule. And then we also look at ways the team has collectively gained this autonomy. So how do they have authority? And in some places, it's through charters. Sometimes it's written into their bylaws. Sometimes it's part of their charter agreement. In other places, it might be from in Terrence's case in Boston, there's a pilot school system. And so teachers are able to have similar autonomies to charters, a little bit different, but similar. And it's written through there and kind of passed on to through their governance boards. Los Angeles also has a pilot system. In other cases, it's what I kind of say we call leadership goodwill, but it's really that a leader or a principal or a superintendent has this very collaborative, approach to leadership, and that naturally brings out other leaders at the school. And so it starts to become collaboratively run. And as that happens over years, that becomes the culture. And so, in New York City, for example, there were there are lots of schools that have been functioned like this for a long time. And about maybe six years ago now, they had a new program called out called PROs where all these schools could then formalize what they really have been doing kind of under the radar, and that happens all over the country. And so really what teacher powered schools does is we support these teams. So where you support teams that are just brand new, like, what is this? To we'd love to work in one, or we wanna convert our school to one, to we're already doing this and help, like, you know, it's new and it's exciting, but we're stuck here to really veteran schools that have been doing this for a long time, but it's it's never finalized. Right? It's always I always say it's in rough draft because every time you have a new group of students or a new staff member, the dynamics change and communities evolve and your students' needs evolve and our knowledge involves. And that's really exciting to see how teams can adjust to that as a team. I will say one thing. A lot of teacher powered schools have principals. So Liz's school does not and Terrence's school does not actually, but many, about 50%, do have a kind of, quote, unquote, principal, director, someone in that more traditional administrative role. The difference is is they don't do traditional things. Most of the principals that teach a powered school still teach, whether that's at a high school level as an adviser or maybe that's at an elementary level that they're, you know, in and out of classrooms, taking over for teachers to do other collaborative work. And so, really, the principal's job shifts if a team decides that they're going to have a principal. And that's, like, a very quick overview, but happy to answer questions. That's awesome. Take it on. And I would love to to introduce as well

Speaker 1 maybe, Terren next. Can I talk about your situation at a teacher powered school and what that looks like for you?

Speaker 4 Sure. So the Boston Teachers Union pilot school, where I am, started eleven years ago, as I had mentioned. We were part of a negotiation between the school district and the Boston Teachers Union. They knew that they wanted to negotiate for pilot schools as a way to keep kids in the district when many kids were leaving for charter schools. So they came up with this idea of giving schools some more autonomy than what they had been given as traditional schools or more autonomy than traditional schools had been given in the past. So the union agreed to take on running a school as a pilot school within this negotiation. So that means that we had to put a team together. We had to hire teachers who have never had any experience in teacher powered schools and then start to create a road map, for ourselves, and I'll include myself in that even though I was not one of the founding teachers. I was observing as part of my graduate program at that time. We started pretty small. We had one class per grade from k one, which is pre k through second grade, and then two classes of sixth grade. The following year, we added one third grade and two seventh grades, and then one fourth grade and two eighth grades the year after that, and finally a fifth grade to be a full k to eight school. And then we also, since then, have added an ABA strand for kids who are primarily on the autism spectrum for k zero and k one as one class, and then k two through second grade is the second class. And our school, if you walk in, might look somewhat traditional, I guess. Kids are in classrooms. They're learning. There's a lot of, like, cross grade work happening. There are teachers meeting in teams all throughout the building, all day long, after school, before school, all the time. But the things that really separate us is we don't have a principal, as Amy said. We have two colead teachers who spend part of their time in the classroom and then part of their time doing administrative tasks. Our school is run by four committees that have ebbed and flowed over the years, but right now, our our instructional leadership committee, our school culture and climate committee, our shared leadership committee, and our anti bias anti racist committee. And then as needs arise that don't fit into those committees, we we create ad hoc teams. So that would be for hiring or budget or scheduling. So those tend to be more short term commitments rather than a committee, which is a year long commitment. We have an election to work agreement. That's something that separates pilot schools. So we follow the union contract, but we have a couple of additional things outlined in our election to work agreement, which is like an addendum to our contract based on just our school specifically. That includes all teachers being part of a committee. That includes our summer planning days. That includes our two hour faculty meetings that we have every week. So that's something we work on every year. We can revise that year to year, but that helps us to govern our school. I think that's a fairly quick overview, but there's so many facets of it that are ever changing.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah. I I look forward to learning more. It's really cool. Yeah. Thank you. Alright. And let's just turn it over to Liz, and then we'll go from there.

Speaker 5 Sure. So when Wildlands opened in 2005, we had three cofounders, two of which, Paul Tweed and Jeff Hadburn, had really put in a tremendous amount of legwork to kind of get this school up and running. I was a fresh out of college graduate and very naive to what I was getting into but loved the idea of having a job. So I was game for anything. And we didn't know what teacher powered was. We just had the trust from our superintendent to say, go for it. And when we started, we had a cohort of seventh and eighth grade students together, so 20 middle school students at seventh and eighth grade level. And then there were 20 high school students. And at the time, you didn't have to have your students full time either. So they were eleventh and twelfth grade students, and a good majority of them were part time in some way. So actually, now that I think about it, there were more than 20 because at any given time, we had 20 in the building, but we had some that were only morning and some that were only afternoon. And that was a really interesting dynamic. Within two years of opening, though, that completely changed, and we went from that split seven, eight grade and, you know, eleven, twelve to a full seven, twelve school and stuck with the 40 students total, and they were under our our roof all day long. We are project based, and so that's the vehicle that we use for students in terms of learning and curriculum. We have a lot of autonomy. We're actually off-site. So, you know, when Terren talks about walking into her school, and it looks very much like a school, you would have no idea our school is a school. We're located at a nature reserve. We are in the Citizen Science Center building. So it's just one building. You walk in, and there's a classroom on the left and a lab on the right, and that's where kids are located. There it nothing like a school at all other than there are children there, and lots of learning is taking place. And we have a bus parked out front too, so we're taking kids all kinds of places to go and learn and learn out in the field. Because we're located on a nature reserve, we utilize the outdoor for learning as much as possible, and that has been incredibly amazing for kids. One of our phrases is that students learning can take place anywhere, and so we're really making sure that students know and understand that. And given the current situation that we're in with our country, it's come in very handy so that they're used to learning anywhere and all the time. And then I don't know. It's it's just it's it's been an adventure over the years. And I think one of the other things to keep in mind, you know, as we talk about teacher powered schools and just schools in general is that we're still figuring it out, even fifteen years in. And I think that's really important for people to know and understand. And I see lots of heads shaking too, and that's awesome. But every year, you get a different group of students, and the student passion and interest is really what drives Wildlands. And because of that, we are ever changing in what is happening and what we are doing. And our staff is really adaptive to our clients or our students in our school. And that has been amazing to not have that scripted, exact curriculum that needs to be followed on this specific day or by this specific time of the year, that really we have the ability to work with our students to make learning so incredibly meaningful for them.

Speaker 1 For sure. I mean, that sounds amazing. Both of your schools sound amazing. It's really, really cool. And the organization that structures all this, and kind of leads the way in a sense, really offers a ton of resources. The website is absurdly packed full of materials. And as I give time for the chat or someone to start thinking about, who's here, a question that they might have for themselves pertaining to teacher powered schools, Does one of you wanna speak about, basically how your schools utilize teacher powered to stay in operation? Like, what is the the connection between your school and the organization teacher powered schools?

Speaker 4 I can jump in and share a little bit. This is year 11 for us, so we're certainly not new to the game, but we're by no means experts at it. I find myself all of the time going to the website to search for another one of the steps guides or other resources that are on the website. I reach out to Amy all the time to be like, this is what's going on in Boston. Do you know of another school here that's going through that kind of thing? Or can you help me connect to, somebody else in Massachusetts who might also be doing something like this? I'm pretty familiar with the schools in and around Boston, but there are other schools. There's the Oliver partnership, which is outside of the city, but relatively close, and they're doing similar work to us. So Amy always has the best connections to make and put together between these schools. I also find there's a group of us that meet together fairly frequently who are ambassadors for this work and are open and willing to having teachers come and visit our schools, happy to make connections between other schools with similar governance models or other schools that are run-in a similar way. So I often find myself reaching out to the team of teachers that I've gotten to know, including Liz and many other teachers around the country to be like, this is what's happening at our school. Have you ever been through something like that? Can you give us advice on what to do with this situation? And that's been a huge resource for us too.

Speaker 1 Yeah. That that key point of, teacher collaboration is huge. Absolutely. I I prepped beforehand. Amy and I watched your, conference. I think it was from, like, last year we were talking about teacher, collaboration over autonomy, the dangers of autonomy, I really I really resonated with that because it's something that, we struggle with as well. At at this point, really, we are at chat sessions. We're just going right into it. I'm gonna start off with Paul's question. Paul just asked, is there a clearinghouse for info on schools doing the most progressive work?

Speaker 2 That is a good question. I would say that there are a handful of organizations, education organizations, nonprofits nationwide that do very innovative progressive work. There isn't one necessarily that houses everything. There's Education Reimagined, which is an organization that tries to bring together multiple other organizations. So that would be, like, the one that pops in that is really focused on bringing a lots of organizations together. There's a progressive educators network that is both private and public schools, charter schools, a whole variety of schools that does really focus on what progressive education is. There's the Innovative Schools Network that Liz does a lot of work with out of Wisconsin, but also does work in other regions. You know, one thing that I think sets Teacher powered apart is Teacher powered really focuses on governance structure versus learning program, because we know that these schools and these teams already have really excellent resources in learning programs and that each school a lot of our schools are project based, and a lot of them aren't. And so it allows the school to choose whatever learning program is going to best meet the needs of their students. But where teacher power tries to focus is on what kind of collaborative leadership practices and structures can we support teachers in, in making decisions because that is an area we found that teachers don't necessarily have a lot of training in is those kinds of leadership.

Speaker 5 Yeah. Can I build off of that for a minute here, Chris? So the question before, you know, how does lands utilize the teacher powered schools network or teacher powered in general? And, Amy, you totally hit the nail on the head in that the teacher powered network really gave us the ability to communicate to people what that meant, so what those economies look like, and what were those decision making structures within our school, and how they look different from a traditional school. You know, we didn't have the language when we first opened up really at our fingertips to be able to show someone or explain to someone this is what it looks like in our school because we were just like, well, no, we don't have a principal on-site. And, yes, we're making these decisions with ex students sometimes on the fly or going all over the place, our calendar looks different. But now to be able to have that language and to be able to share with parents and community members and other organizations and whatnot has been a tremendous help as we're continuing to build our school as the years go on and communicate with people that are first learning about us and or working with other schools that have seen us as inspiration over the years and want to try something on their own, I think that having that common language within a teacher powered school structure has been incredible.

Speaker 1 For sure. I think that just just the concept of grassroots mobilization is gonna lend itself to progressive ed just because the schools are, at least in the beginning, always gonna be smaller, which means that they're always gonna be more human centered. And to address, Paul, your your second question, Human Restoration Project has thought about potentially, like, listing, like, what are progressive organizations on our website. However, as of right now, PEN, which was brought up in the CHAP Progressive Education Network, has that resource. If you go on their website, you can search for, what progressive schools exist. They might not necessarily be teacher powered schools, but you can at least see kind of like that connection and how it, relates. Moving into Keisha's question, she says, I realize that there are different points of entry. Is there a toolkit of resources to help schools who are looking at this direction?

Speaker 2 Probably any of us could answer. Yep. Go for it. Real quick, and then maybe Taryn and Liz can tell how to use the resource, is we do have a steps guide. If you go to the website, we think of teacher powered in five formal stages. I always include a six stage of, like, dreaming. Like, you you kind of are exploring it. There's a forming stage where where you are really learning about it, a storming stage where you're getting your team together, and all these are kind of places of entry for people and teams to join. So sometimes teams come to us and they figured out that they wanna do this, and sometimes an individual comes to us and says, I wanna work at a school like this, of which my response to them is always like, great. Go find a team because you can't do it by yourself. Right? Like, this the whole concept is team build. And then Normie, performing, transforming, as I go through those in my head, are for schools that are open, converting, kind of fine tuning it. So I know that Terren and Liz send people to those places, those resources a lot.

Speaker 4 I also send myself there a lot because I find that even when you're so many years into this work, there's always room to go back and really refine some of your practices. So for us, we started off really small, as I had mentioned, but with just a small group of teachers and only a couple of grades. And then as we were growing, we were finding that all of the decisions that we were making and all of the policies we were putting into place, in the first couple years of our school, we had never documented them. So we knew because we were the same group of teachers, but as we were growing, we were finding that there was discrepancies between hiring processes. Like, if one team was hiring for a music teacher and another team was hiring for a seventh grade math teacher, those processes might look different. So we had to do a lot of work as we were growing with really documenting our processes and refining them and deciding if those were the ones that we wanted to stick with and make true for us as we were moving forward. So I found myself really going back to the steps guides and looking at previous stages that we had already accomplished that we needed to refine as we were growing.

Speaker 5 I also think another tremendous resource that Teacher Power has spent a lot of time putting together would be discussion guides and discussion starters and all the question guides. So if it's something that you're curious about, what are those questions that need to be asked, and how do you have those conversations with your team? What does that look like from an administrator perspective? Or if you're going to visit a school that is teacher powered, what kind of things should you be looking for or questions to be asking that team? And so the the resources that are there and available, I think, have been incredibly thoughtful in terms of helping people ask the right questions that would help them guide a school that they would be interested in either creating or transforming what they have into something different.

Speaker 2 I also want to say And Oh, go ahead. I'm sorry. Was just going to say that Skyler's on the call, and he is at an amazing teacher powered school too and is definitely an expert that could answer some of these questions. So I I just wanted to, you know, say encourage you, Skyler, that you're welcome to answer these because I know that you've been involved with teacher powered for a long time. So

Speaker 3 Sure. I guess I could just quick introduce myself that so I'm Skyler Prym. I actually was at one of the schools that was part of the initial research that Amy referenced, Tago's Leadership Academy in Janesville, which is still going strong before I moved to my current school, Highmark Environmental Charter School, which is in its tenth year. It's ninth year for me. And we're a teacher powered school. We do have a principal who's actually the principal for the middle and high school in the traditional part of the building, but she really lets us do our own thing and is there to do, like, evaluations. And if there's ever, like she's there to, like, be the heavy for, like, I don't know, attendance things or, like, other, like, legal things. But for the most part, she lets us make decisions on you know, we we make pretty much every other decision. You know, I do the budgeting. We're about to hire a new teacher because, my co teacher is becoming the reading specialist. So, you know, we'll be taking the lead on that, although she'll be involved, of course. So yeah.

Speaker 1 So it's very, very cool. Skyler is also one of our best buds here at Human Restoration Project. He's our treasurer. So make sure that we have some money. So, diving at well, there's a ton of questions. I I was gonna throw it out there. Maybe you can answer this in a a further question to your your cohorts that you're hosting as well. I think it was a cool, way for people get together and talk about these things. But just to start, there's a there's a lot, which is good. Let's start with Paul. Paul asks, from the people that are really doing the work, what's kind of the the passion? Why are school why should schools become teacher powered?

Speaker 5 Okay. I'll take it. I think one of the driving reasons that I enjoy being at at My Teacher powered school is the sense of ownership. When you are when your voice is heard and you have the ability to make collective decisions and collaborate with your staff and make the decisions that are very intricate and and thoughtful when it comes to the students that you have at your school, I think it makes all the difference. Instead of being told what to do and when to do it, you get to be the one to make those decisions. And I just I can't imagine being a professional, but being told what to do all the time. And so the trust and the empowerment that comes with being a teacher powered school from everyone, from your superintendent, your district, the school board, your governance board, the parents, even the students that you're working with on a daily basis, I just can't imagine being anywhere else. In fact, there was a point in time where my husband had made a little bit of a career change, and he was driving two hours one way to go to work because I refused to leave my school. I was not working anywhere else. And so just that sense of ownership and pride and making sure that, you know, you it's like owning a business in a way because you have so much invested in it. And as teachers, that's our nature. We love to pour ourselves into our kids, and it just makes sense to me that you also get to be making the decisions that affect those kids.

Speaker 4 I would agree with that. I had observed at my school, and then I had done a full year of student teaching at my school as part of my master's program before getting my first job, which was actually at a charter school also in Boston. And then finally, I was able after a year to move back to my school, and I've been there ever since. But in my year at the charter school, I was teaching in a third grade inclusion class, and we were one out of seven third grade classes there. And we were held to the same pacing guide, as every other class. And it was administrators who were three or four levels out of the classroom who were telling us, no. You have to be on that that lesson at that day, and it doesn't matter if your kids don't get it. Just keep moving. And it felt so unnatural to me to have somebody who didn't know my kids and who had maybe spent all of a half an hour in my classroom total for the whole year telling me what I should be doing with them when I was spending every single day with them, pushing them and really getting so much growth out of them. It just didn't feel right to have somebody who didn't really know them make those decisions. So being in a teacher powered school, you're the one who's working with the kids. You're the one who is making the decisions for what's gonna work for them and for the school, and that's been huge. And one example I can think of in my time at the BTU school, the math curriculum that we had started the school with just wasn't the best one for us and for our kids. And our lower school teachers came together during one of our Thursday faculty meetings. Like, this is what it looks like in third grade, and this is what it looks like in fifth grade and in first grade, and it just doesn't really seem to make sense, and the kids aren't connecting the concepts from the curriculum with the work that they actually need to be doing. And just as a lower school, we were like, we're not gonna use this anymore. We're gonna start using this different curriculum that we think will better suit our kids. So in a a traditional school, my guess is that you would probably have to go through several layers of administration to have that kind of decision be made. And in ours, it was just a conversation during one meeting, and we all chose the the newer curriculum that we wanted to use.

Speaker 1 That's amazing. I think just alone, the elimination or at least reducing bureaucracy is a huge part of this Definitely. Because it just because you directly write to what you need to do. Amy, did you have something?

Speaker 2 I was just gonna say that I think that you do lose some of the bureaucracy, which is helpful, and but you gain a much better sense of accountability because the teachers are actually making the decisions, and so they own those decisions instead of this kind of some principals or leaders like to force this quote unquote buy in, but it it doesn't feel authentic. But when teacher teams are treated as professionals and make decisions and, you know, have that sense of autonomy and authority, they absolutely own the decisions that they make. And I know, Skyler, you I think I just saw you wanted to jump in on that too.

Speaker 3 Yeah. Well, one thing I was gonna say is exactly what you just said, Amy, is that, yeah, it it it's, there's accountability, and I think it makes it more easier to, like, fish or cut bait. You know? Like, you're you know, if something's working, great. If something's not working, it's there's because there's fewer layers and because you have more autonomy and control, you're able to say, okay. This isn't working. Let's put our heads together and find something that's gonna work, and, and move from there. And I also just think that just, to echo, what the others have said that, you know, by being teacher powered, it's not that the and I think Liz said this in the podcast episode that it's not it doesn't mean that, like, you're ignoring kids. In fact, it's you know, you're you're the one who's closest to the kids, and so you're best able to, I think, serve their interests.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah. Let's let's talk a little bit then about the the structural side of things. We got a few questions here from Tracy, which I think are really good. The first one being, if you're trying to do this, the biggest hurdle, and I agree, is probably funding. I mean, I guess the first hurdle is gonna be finding a group of people that have a very similar, pedagogical understanding to you that actually wanna commit to it. But the big hurdle once the school gets up and running is, like, how do you build it? So what's like, where do you even start when it comes to funding, when it comes to this connection?

Speaker 2 So I think that teacher power doesn't cost any more than a traditional school costs. So if, for example, people are start looking to start a new school and they're going to go to charter route, you would use the same type of funding that is available to other charter schools. So there's a federal charter program, and then there's state charter programs. And because state because education codes go by state, it varies a lot by state. So what's where you know, what is available in Wisconsin might not I live in California. It might not be available in California. And but for states that have the charter opportunity, that would be the first place to look for funding is through the local charter charter organizations. If a group of teachers is looking to do it through a district model, now we certainly support independent private schools, like, they're welcome to use our resources. They're welcome to be part of things, but our main focus has always been on public schools, whether they're in the public charter sector or in the district sector. Typically, either in a chart or in a district sector, there might be a conversion process. So there's already a school. It might not be doing very well or there needs to be a leadership change or the school just is really looking to reimagine what their school can be. In that case, you already have a school that has district funding, that has, like, the regular per pupil amount that they're going to be getting. And so it's a matter of switching resources, but it's not a matter of raising extra money for this. We have over several years offered what we call ignition or booster grants, small 3,000 to $5,000, but that is just used for kind of like team collaboration money to cover subs or cover childcare for teachers or, you know, gives teachers space to do retreats. It's not about actually running the school. There are sometimes, like in the pilot schools, where districts create these opportunities for innovative schools. They're called, like, innovation zones in some states. Some districts do it that way, alternative schools. And so teams can submit proposals. And that is another way that teacher teams have kind of been able to start schools. But in that case as well, the funding is really already there through the district or the state. Teacher teams aren't create or, like, fundraising in that sense.

Speaker 1 That makes a lot of sense. And I appreciate the commitment to the to public education as well, making sure that we like, as many kids as possible can get a free, strong public education. And then Tracy also had another really good question pertaining to, special education. Particularly, she's talking about ABA therapists being allowed in the classroom to, like, teach the teachers about interventions. But more broadly too, how does that work? Because at least where I work and many teachers that I would know, they the administration is the one that typically takes care of, like, special education and compliance and all the different things that go in with that. How do you ensure that every single student has access to those resources?

Speaker 4 Sure. I think the question was maybe asked in relation to the AVA classrooms that we started just a couple of years ago. But the resources for that classroom are primarily funded by the district and provided by Boston Public Schools. We do have an ABA with us three days a week, I believe. And then those classrooms have a tremendous amount of day to day support as well. So there's a classroom teacher. There are two full time paras in each of those classrooms. There I think our cap on that on those classrooms is 12 kids, and they're usually at 10 or 12, roughly. Our speech and language pathologists, our physical therapist is in there a lot, but those are all our occupational therapist is in there a ton. But all of those resources are provided by the district. So it's not people that we have. Well, some of them we have full time at our school, but others are just with us two or three days and then balance their workload with other schools in the district as well.

Speaker 2 I I will say from my experience with other schools is the schools that have budget autonomy are then able to make decisions about our students need an ABA therapist, so we're going to spend our money on an ABA therapist versus a technology person. Like, maybe that's the trade off they're making there. Or we need a social worker at our school. We don't need extra librarian hours. And it is always a trade off. It's not that one it's whatever that school needs for that school year based on those students. And so I think that that has allowed many, many of our schools have higher than average special education, enrollments, and that's often because they are getting a more student centered learning experience at their site, because the teachers are able to make those decisions without

Speaker 3 kind of all these layers.

Speaker 4 I think Boston is in a unique position as well just due to the number of teachers who are available and looking for jobs and wanting to work in Boston public schools that mostly they're hiring teachers who well, all teachers have to have a master's, but then they also ensure that you have your gen ed license, your special education license, and your ESL license. License. So they very rarely will hire teachers who are don't have all of those licenses to teach.

Speaker 1 Well, that's that's really impressive. That's, like, really strange in comparison to here. That's good, though. It's a very good thing. And I I like the fact that because teachers are the ones making these bureaucratic decisions, it's not really bureaucratic, but these important decisions, we know best what students need the most help and where to best allocate those resources as opposed to someone just looking at data on a page, which might tell, like, faux stories. Let me just double check and make sure. I would Oh, go ahead. I would just supplement what you said there, Chris, with that. Also,

Speaker 3 we know we we see when that need changes as our kids change and our and and, recognize when the need is to reallocate or to shift resources, instead of just continuing to go with the status quo because that's what the system says to do.

Speaker 1 For sure. For sure. I think that makes a lot of sense. And while I wait, we have about fifteen more minutes here for questions or so, so feel free to type in some questions. Amy, do you wanna talk about, the cohort side of things, like how people can dive deeper into teacher power that are interested? Absolutely. So we have recently started before the pandemic, but

Speaker 2 well, we had the idea before the pandemic, but then it has turned out to be very timely, that we have started these virtual learning collaborative cohorts. And the idea really is that small groups, six to eight, nine people, will get together on a monthly basis, led by one of our ambassadors and have a chance to dive into one topic per month based off the teacher powered practices. So we look at teacher powered practice we look at nine teacher powered practices. Skyler's in the group as well, so maybe he can tell you about your experience this month. But April kicked us off. People can still join. It's not registration isn't closed. It's going to be, like, available on an ongoing basis. And people can choose their preference. Do you wanna be with others in the same geographic region? Would you like to be with others at the same grade level? Would you like to be with others at the same type of school? And we can't, you know, guarantee everything, but we do our very best to kind of create balanced groups. And so this month, they talked about keeping students at the center of decision making and how other teacher powered schools do this. What are some of the challenges? What are some suggestions they're getting from others? So I don't know. Skyler, you wanna share about your group? I haven't I mean, I've heard from your leader, but I haven't heard from Yeah.

Speaker 3 Yeah. So our first meeting was last week, and I signed up for it originally because I thought it would just be a good experience to kinda have thought partners from around the country. But then, yeah, with the pandemic, it became even more helpful. Then with knowing that I'm gonna be hiring a new we're a two teacher school. I should have said that earlier. So hiring a new teacher is a, like, really big deal. So knowing that I'm gonna have this group to kinda process some of that with over the course of this calendar year is also really helpful. My group is grade I think grade level was how I chose. We're spread all over the country, and that was really that was really cool. We all had very similar values, but very different schools. I think I knew one or two people in the group already just from the teacher powered movement, but the rest were new. And one person is, like, interested in or is just starting on the journey, and others are farther along. And so it's just a very it was a nice diverse group, to talk to, and, it was I don't know. It was a really great conversation last week. I was, you know, these days of teaching remotely are exhausting. I'm sure that I speak for the other educators that, you know, staring at a screen, being on a video conference all day long, pretty much is exhausting. And I was part of me was like, another one of those. But it was really it was very worthwhile. I would highly recommend signing up.

Speaker 2 Yes. It is. Zoom fatigue is definitely real, and we really didn't know what we were gonna get. Right? Like, you don't know who's gonna sign up when you open these opportunities. And one thing that I love about the cohorts is how diverse they are. And intentionally try in everything we do to highlight the diversity among teacher powered schools and that there isn't one way to do this, and it looks different for every team. And we have teachers and teams in, you know, the middle of Los Angeles and New York and Boston, and then we have rural teams, and they seem to connect just as much to each other because they do have these shared values and this love for their communities and their students. And that's exciting, and I think that people value that.

Speaker 5 I also think it's important to know that you're not in this alone. And so having that group of people to connect with that maybe you wouldn't normally connect with because of where you're located geographically or whatever. You know, like, Skyler, you said you maybe knew a couple of people, but you're also meeting more. It really is, like, strength in numbers when it comes to getting involved and participating in things. So I think they're they're amazing. The idea is amazing, and they're going to continue to be amazing. And, Skyler, thank you so much for signing up and encouraging people to do so, and we hope that more people will.

Speaker 1 Awesome. Awesome. Let's get into, another question from Tracy, which is how do you get parents to then buy into the concept of a teacher powered school? Or even, like, to expand upon that question further, how do you get the students like, so you you got the funding. You're starting the school with just teachers. How do you, like, even get enough kids to join the school in the first place so that you have a class?

Speaker 5 Sure. I'll start with this one because I don't know. I think when I think about this, Tracy, the fact of being teacher powered really is a big deal, but the second half of the teacher powered motto is student centered, and that's the bigger deal. And it doesn't take much to get parents to buy into the fact that their kids are at the center of the school and they're at the center of the decisions that you make. So like Skylar just talked about, the very first cohort meeting was talking about keeping students at the center of the decision making process. That's always in your mind when you're a teacher powered school. And so having the students have voice and choice in terms of what's happening and then having all of the staff members being heard and parents also being an incredible, integral part of that journey, that connection, that learning that's happening, it's not hard to get them to see and understand what's going on. I think the the phrase teacher powered maybe could come across as, like, oh, we're, like, really powerful. But when you put it with student centered learning, it softens it so much and in just the right way that it's easy for people to understand what's happening.

Speaker 4 When we first started, we had so many teachers register their kids or put rank our school for their kids, in the BPS lottery, and it still tends to be that way. We have a lot of families who are educators, and I think it's really because they're fascinated by the whole teacher powered piece, and they believe in the expertise of excellent teachers. That's a really big draw for them. And then I think because our staff has turned over so little, they know exactly what to expect from each grade and there's already a level of trust with those teachers. And I think the thing that keeps teachers and families there is that together, we've created this community that really is the very best community for kids. I think that really keeps people wanting to stay there and bring their kids there.

Speaker 1 I mean, I I imagine as long as the message is communicated clearly, I mean, in comparison to school as usual, this has to be an amazing opportunity for so many students.

Speaker 2 Go ahead, Amy. I was gonna say, I think it's a shift for students, parents, and teachers that all of us you know, I won't say all, but most of us grew up in these very traditional schools and structures. And so and teacher prep programs don't teach anything about this kind of collaborative governance. And so we all go in having to unlearn some traditional things and traditional mindset. And it's it really is a growth opportunity for all of us because it's everything from a student is having some behavior troubles. Who do you send them to? Well, you you have that power and that authority and that autonomy, and there isn't necessarily a principle to to deal with that. Or it's who's ordering the toner for the copier. You know? It it's like these these things that that everyone is in this, and it's a learning it's a learning curve for everyone, and it's constant.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I I I see, like, a almost like a adventure side of this, which seems really fun. In addition to obviously impacting students and doing, like, cool things. From a teacher's point of view, it just it kinda mixes things up. It's something cool to go down a road of that you've never done before, and it gives you a lot of new opportunities for, like, network. I mean, there there's just so many other, like, side things that also happen. Do you see a potential with, kind of taking the the light side of COVID nineteen of being able to, like, reach out and try new things with your organization now that schools are really gonna have to change?

Speaker 2 Absolutely. So I think COVID nineteen has brought to light a lot of inequities in our system and a lot of challenges and spotlights a lot of maybe what's not working, but it also spotlights teams that are working well. And there have been some excellent schools and excellent teacher teams and even some systems that have responded in very powerful ways that have benefited communities and families. And so one thing we really strongly believe in is this positive, highlighting the positive. Right? Highlighting who is doing this well and what can we learn from each other. And not necessarily in the sense of that program worked well. Let's take it and make it art. Like, you need to take it, imagine it for your community, and make adjustments. Not nothing is like this one size fits all, and I think that that's been super clear through the pandemic, both in terms of individual students, how are individual students learning? Some are learning really well on a distance learning medal, maybe shining in a way they didn't in a classroom. And some who might have done really well in the classroom are struggling. And sometimes that's about access to technology or what's going on at home or, you know, a variety of support issues. And sometimes that's about learning style. And so I think that schools, as they are really rethinking what is learning and how do we really move kids forward still, we'll have to tackle some of these questions. And really, we're not gonna get there without looking to the teachers. The teachers know the students best. The teachers know how to teach. They know what, you know, what's going on. They're going to have to be part of those conversations or it's not going to work. And so, hopefully, this will be an opportunity to really value teachers as professionals and their experience.

Speaker 1 Amazing. It's this is such a cool opportunity. And for those that are listening in that kinda wanna take something away from this, they're ready to go, they wanna hit the starting line. We have about five minutes left here. You stated that the first step is really forming that team. What suggestions do you have for teachers that wanna form this team in addition to, obviously, the resources that you have and cohorts, for teachers that maybe find themselves stuck at a traditional school, maybe they're like the only teacher doing, like, weird stuff in their, like, geographic area that they know of, where do they find like minded folks?

Speaker 2 So I'll let Liz and Terren jump in in a second. I will say that one of the first things I suggest is that they if you're starting really small, like, start with a book club, choose progressive education book and invite people to be part of it. That teacher powered is a spectrum, and some schools, you know, have all 15 autonomies and they're, you know, they're totally a flat leadership structure. And some have two or three or four autonomies, and they start there. And that's what works for their team. And one isn't better or worse. It's just what works for their team. And so you don't have to take all of it on at once. Some teams want to, and great. We are here to support that. And some teams need to start with learning program or setting the schedule or slowly building that in. I will also say that what has worked for lots of teams is to take a year of exploration, is often what we call it, where they formally say, we are going to explore what this would look like, but in the meantime, we are keeping our traditional structure. And so then that gives people space to experience that, visit other teacher powered schools, connect with people. That'd be where I'd start. But I know Liz and Terren have good suggestions as well.

Speaker 4 I'm just gonna say similar things, but, we have regional networks as well. So I am very well connected with a lot of the New England, people who are in similar positions to wanting to start something. We host school visits all the time. We shortly before things closed down, we had a team of teachers from Providence coming to visit. So I would say, look on the website and see which schools are relatively close to you geographically. I know all of the people I've connected with through teacher Howard work have been incredibly welcoming for having people come to visit. And I would really try to visit some of them because it it's super inspiring to see how different they all are and then to pick the pieces that would work for you and your team and the things that you wanna really be thoughtful of and consider for your own model as you create it.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I'll echo that 100%. Tracy, I think you had asked earlier if Wildland School has visitors. We do, and we love visitors, and we love them all the time. And so I highly encourage you to go and visit schools and not only talk to the teachers, but I think especially if you can talk with the students, kindergarten through twelfth grade, the way in which kids are able to articulate what is happening in school is incredible because they see their involvement in what's going on and how the decisions are made and how that affects them as a learner. And Skylar can probably speak to this too with the size of your school and how involved your kids are and what's happening daily. It's just incredible. And the more schools you can visit, the more opportunities that you can pull from. You don't know what you don't know. And so taking that year of exploration or more is incredible to gather all of that information and, as a team, continue to have those hard conversations about what would this look like, what does it need to look like for our kids, and then also be open to change every year because you have maybe a cohort of students that will stick with you. You know, we've got seventh through twelfth grade. Ninety five percent of them end up staying from year to year, but you still get those new kids that are coming in or things change or personalities change or whatever it is. And so it can't be a rigid program. You have to build the framework, build the structure, but be willing to redecorate every year with the kids that you have.

Speaker 3 I I really like the way you put that, and that's that's one reason why I'm super excited. You know, I'm disappointed. Well, not disappointed isn't the right word, but it's gonna be hard to go into a new school year with a brand new co teacher after eight years of teaching with Amanda. But I am really legitimately excited about what it's gonna mean for the school to bring in a new personality with new ideas, and we specifically made the job description so that it wasn't just a description of Amanda. You know? It was it was plenty of freedom for that person to make this role their own and to help our school grow and change to fit their ideas. And I think that's really exciting, and that just makes coming to work every day, you know, worth doing, even when I'm not actually going to work, I guess.

Speaker 1 Yeah. The opportunity is immense. As Keisha just wrote in chat, concerning high turnover, schools, Amy, you had you had written just for the the podcast, that overall teacher powered schools have lower teacher turnover, which is the key is finding the right people. And I think too, a lot of places that have high turnover, see a lot of fault with, like, administration or the way the school is operated and not necessarily with the kids, in which case they probably shouldn't have been there anyway. So, it kinda works out. So, again, thank you so much, Amy, Liz, Taryn. This is really cool. There's a lot of great questions. I can't wait to share this with even more people. Audience was great. Loved all the questions. If you wanna learn more, you can visit them at teacherpower.org. You can visit us at humanrestorationproject.org. And, again, thanks.

Speaker 6 Thanks for checking that out. Remember to like this video and subscribe to our channel where you can find videos of our past summits, podcasts, and other resources as we try to restore humanity together.