Walterboro Live
By CINDY CROSBY
Dr. Melissa Crosby, principal of Colleton County High School and Joshua Cable, director of Cougar New Tech Entrepreneurial Academy, traveled to Los Angeles, Calif., over the weekend to present “Designing and Advocating for Personalized Learning Strategies” at the Teacher-Powered Schools 2017 National Conference held at the UCLA Meyer and Renee Luskin Conference Center.
Crosby and Cable were chosen as presenters based on their knowledge and experience in shared leadership, collaborative cultures and student-centered decision making. Their breakout session centered on how teacher-powered teams can collaboratively design and implement personalized learning for traditionally underserved student populations and advocate for district leaders to adapt to these approaches. They were joined by Elizabeth Schneider, chief of staff and senior vice president for strategic initiatives for the Alliance for Excellent Education in Washington, D.C.
The conference was the largest national gathering for teacher teams working at, or interested in developing, a teacher-powered school — a trend that is believed to be transforming American public education from the inside out. In teacher-powered schools, teacher teams secure autonomy to design and run their schools by making the decisions impacting student success. Currently, there are more than 100 schools operated by teacher teams in 18 states.
Crosby and Cable toured the teacher-powered Social Justice Humanitas Academy (SJHA), which is located on the border territory of two rival gangs — yet students exceed expectations with a 94% graduation rate and are among the highest student achievement scores in the area.
Sponsored by the Teacher-Powered Schools Initiative, the conference was a collaborative project of Education Evolving and the Center for Teaching Quality. For more information on Teacher-Powered Schools, visit www.teacherpoweredschools.org.