Alcatel-Lucent's NJ school funding efforts featured in American School Board Journal

Getting Smarter Together: Lessons about Communities of Learners

In the upcoming Spring 2008 issue of the American School Board Journal, TPI Senior Program Officer Hallie Tamez and co-author Debra Smith from University of Southern Maine discuss the lessons learned through the corporate funding efforts of the Alcatel-Lucent Foundation on the multiyear teacher development effort in three New Jersey public school districts.

With design and management support from TPI, Alcatel-Lucent has invested a total of seven years of support for school and district based change efforts. Utilizing regular facilitated collaborative conversations focused on advancing student learning, teachers and administrators examined strategies and practice with the goal of improving learning outcomes.

Documented results of this effort to date suggest the potential for impact
requires:

1. Structured time for thoughtful dialogue; brief conversations remain superficial.
2. Stability and commitment of group memebership matters.
3. Administrative leadership is critical. Professional learning communities thrive in schools and districts where leaders actively model and cultivate collaborative behaviors and culture and maintain a vision focused on student learning.
4. Time and focus, but not necessarily large amounts of money.