Rosa Parks, a school currently focusing on better serving their English Learner and on improving learning opportunities for their African American students. Initially a group of 5 teachers planned to participate in Mills Teacher Scholars through a Pacific Coast Teacher Innovation Grant. When the principal, Paco Furlan asked if we would invite the wider staff to participate, 28 teachers – 98% of the staff—opted to research their students’ learning with Mills Teacher Scholars.

Many Rosa Parks teachers are framing their inquiry questions to support a deeper understanding of how the newly implemented Teachers College Reading and Writing Program (TCRWP) is impacting their focal students’ reading ability. At the group’s September and October meetings, teachers began to engage in the process of looking at student work in vertical groups, affording the opportunity to consider how aspects of the curriculum are spiraled through the various skill levels. Many have already commented on how much they appreciated the opportunity for collaborating with other teachers around understanding their individual students’ learning with other teachers. As one Rosa Parks teacher put it, “I haven’t talked with my colleagues or listened this long in a long time.”