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Building Leadership and Organizational
Capacities in Boston Cluster 7
Project Leader(s): Gwen Jordan
Location(s): Massachusetts
How can a complex cluster of urban schools
best manage its process of reform? What can be
learned from this process of change that can
contribute to understanding urban school
reform generally? By establishing a five-year
collaborative relationship with Cluster 7 of
the Boston Public Schools, the LAB has begun a
project that develops and examines strategies
for systemic school reform in Boston. The size
and complexity of Cluster 7 make it an
exemplary urban school laboratory, affording
the LAB the opportunity to study a cluster of
schools as they engage in a comprehensive
process of urban school reform. In
collaboration with the Cluster 7 schools, the
project will generate innovations informed by
both current theory and actual "front-line"
practices. The LAB's objective is to discover
how effective urban school-change processes
can guide systemic reform policies. The work
site is a geographically related cluster of
schools in Boston, including 2 high schools, 2
middle schools, 5 elementary schools, and 1
early learning center.
Project Effects:
The LAB's participation in this collaborative
partnership is beginning to stimulate a
productive inquiry process. During the first
year of this collaboration, the LAB, along
with the Cluster leadership, engaged in a
series of knowledge-building and development
activities including: in-school observations
focused on understanding each school's unique
environment, several planning meetings with
Cluster principals, and a two day retreat for
Cluster principal's to identify the principles
and strategies that will guide the development
and implementation of their work.
The LAB in partnership with Cluster 7 is
moving the work forward through the
implementation of the following activities
that highlight special concerns for urban
school reform in Boston:
* Principals' Development: The principals
launched a Principals' Development
Program, which emphasizes independent
study groups, peer mentoring, and
reflections on their leadership role and
effectiveness in generating urban reform.
* Teaching and Learning: The Cluster 7
partnership examines teaching/learning
strategies and "best practices" to
improve student achievement and serve the
implementation of standards-based
teaching and learning. A cluster-based
study group is exploring the alignment of
state and district mathematics and
science curriculums and assessment
processes. The group's focus is twofold:
to develop instructional tools that serve
classroom teaching, and to identify
policy and practices that have
implications for improved student
achievement.
* Environments and Structures: The Cluster
7 partnership is exploring organizational
development elements that impact
classroom, school, and cluster-wide
learning environments. This year the
cluster is focused on managing
information for effective problem
analysis and decision-making in areas
such as: professional development,
school/community relationships, and
resource identification and allocation.
Project relationships to current educational
thinking, research and practice:
The LAB's work in Boston is intended to
provide new insights into how districts can
integrate site-based contextual knowledge with
current research-based knowledge to produce
innovative approaches to urban reform. The
Cluster 7 project builds upon the capacity of
"front-line" educators who implement reform on
a day-to-day basis. The project creates the
structures and builds the relationships
necessary for sharing knowledge, reflecting on
the effects of change, documenting the change
process, and interpreting the results--and
their impact on "real" students. The work of
this project will develop products and model
processes that can assist others who are
currently engaged in urban reform.
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