The Work of the School-Site Initiative:

Each month, from September through May, a group of self-selected teachers gather at their school site to collaboratively study their students’ learning in a particular subject matter area that they would like to get smarter about. With facilitation by MTS staff, teachers work in small groups with colleagues across grade levels who are investigating the same content area.  Teacher scholars bring student work data, observational data, interview, and other data to each work session. With the help of MTS staff and their colleagues teacher scholars analyze the data, discuss new understandings, refine their indicators of success, and chart next steps for enhancing the learning opportunities for their focal students.

What Mills Teacher Scholars Learn:

Through taking the time to look closely at student work and through thinking aloud with colleagues, our teacher scholars build competency in the subject matter of their question, in their understanding of what students know and how they are thinking, and in what teaching adjustments need to be made to enhance student understanding.

“Mills Teacher Scholars has provided a new kind of discourse for our professional learning community. They have given us a space to think together about the perplexing question, ‘What do my students know and how do I know they know it?’ This essential question is often drowned out by lesson planning and pacing guides.”  -School-Site Mills Teacher Scholar