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Critical Friends Group
As teachers we make difficult instructional decisions while we juggle informal data and questions with evidence about what students know
and what must be taught.
Think about the ways we are expected to navigate quickly and effectively through the changing tides of our
classrooms.
Since student work is the real window into our classrooms, let's think of collaboratively looking at student work as the anchor
needed on a regular basis.
The Consortium for Policy Research in Education reports four elements are needed for successful school reform: clear ambitious goals
matched with the high standards of student achievement, change in instructional practice, intense professional development and
accountability that focuses on measurable increases in student learning.
MCES works with high schools in each of these four areas.
Teacher collaboration impacts student achievement and, in particular, collaboratively looking at student work improves student achievement.
MCES aligns school change with the state School Improvement Framework by strengthening or creating a schoolwide professional
learning community that collaborates, inquires, and reflects about teaching and learning.
The major thrust of Reading Apprenticeship (RA) is to create communities of inquiry among teachers and students across all content
areas.
Each discipline has its own specific reading processes.
When teachers become aware of their own mental processes used
to make sense of text and can converse out loud, they can help their students do the same.
Teachers then see themselves as valuable
resources in the teaching of reading and overtime students begin to see themselves as independent problem solvers with text.
MCES follows the model from the National Network of Partnership Schools at Johns Hopkins University on school, family, and
community partnerships, directed by Dr. Joyce Epstein.
This model aligns with the Strand IV of the Michigan School Improvement
Framework.
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Smaller Learning Communities
