Teachers

Working with leading local private-sector institutions, The Community Foundation supported the New Teacher Project to assess the policies of the New Haven Public School system related to the recruitment, training, evaluation, promotion and compensation of teachers.

An excerpt from the Yale Daily News:   

The phrase “It takes a city” is all over New Haven — on buttons with red-and-white lettering handed out at press events, on bumper stickers displayed in the offices of New Haven Public Schools employees, even hanging above the Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School on College Street.

It is the catchphrase of the city’s new comprehensive school reform initiative, an ambitious undertaking by Mayor John DeStefano Jr. that made national headlines after the teachers’ union and city agreed on a ground-breaking four-year contract in October.

Hailed by national leaders from President Barack Obama to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan as a momentous step forward, the program is, nevertheless, still in its infancy, and crucial components still need to be determined.

The contract may lack specifics, but it forces administrators and educators to define the subjective judgments that must be made about student progress and teacher performance. If the city’s reform efforts succeed, the effects could be felt in school districts around the country that are trying to overhaul struggling school systems. New Haven could be a model for how to turn a school system around.

Read the full article on the New Teacher Project from the Yale Daily News