Professional Development Teams

The school-based Professional Development Teams (PDTs) served as the core of the CLC project. Team members planned and carried out projects for themselves and their colleagues that ranged from implementing a new math curriculum, to publishing a school newspaper, to fine tuning an integrated fine arts curriculum. The PDT projects generally included both professional development activities for teachers and curricular change that directly affected students.

The CLC teams worked in a wider context of changing instructional expectations. At the time the project began, both the Illinois State Board of Education and the Chicago Public School system were in the process of developing new sets of curriculum standards and requiring that schools align curriculum and assessment to these new standards. Local schools throughout the city were deeply involved in reorganizing their own curriculums to meet the new standards. Teachers looked to CLC for support as they deepened their knowledge and worked to make instructional changes in an informed and productive way.

PDTs were organized differently in each school. In some cases teachers came together based on a shared curricular interest. On these teams, teacher leaders emerged from the group by consensus. In other schools, team membership was assigned by grade level or department and leadership was appointed by the principal. Interestingly, both forms of organization proved effective, depending on the school and its culture.

In addition, university faculty members were linked to most PDTs. Their role on the teams took differing forms depending on the needs of the team, the school, and the expertise and interests of the faculty member. A key element of the project was to facilitate a shared learning process between university and school team members.

Teams chose various models for organizing professional learning. Some found college courses, taught on-site and tailored to their needs, to be effective. Others used university partners as consultants who served as sounding boards for ideas and offered support and assistance when teachers took responsibility for making presentations to each other. Still others found grade level workshops and classroom demonstrations worked well.
NEIU music education professor shows Price teachers how to change pitch while blowing on a straw. Strengthening its arts integrated curriculum was a major focus for the Price team.

Often it took teams some months to choose a focus and develop activities. It was a difficult but important process for some teams to decide on a direction; sometimes--in a school system marked by years of top-down power relations--the key was the realization that, as part of the CLC project, they could decide for themselves. Growth in professional knowledge and professional confidence were both part of the PDT agenda.

For information about the activities of specific Professional Development Teams
click below:

Mathematics

Hay Math Their Way Team
McCosh Math Team
Wells Math Team

Language Arts

Howe Newspaper Team
McCosh Primary Language Arts Team

Technology

Hay Tech Team
Price Tech Team

Middle School Restructuring

Mozart Middle School
McCosh Middle School

Fine Arts

Price Fine Arts Team

Science

Mozart Science Team

Integrated Curriculum

Mozart Middle School
Howe Integrated Thematic Units Team