2011-12 Teacher Professional Development Grants (9-12) Recipient

Creating a Professional Learning Community Through Content Focused Peer Coaching 

Lansdowne High School, in Baltimore, MD is seeking a grant to encourage professional learning communities within the Math Department. The use of Content Focused Peer Coaching will support our efforts to create more opportunities for professional conversation outside of the classroom setting. The conversations will enable teachers to create more diverse lesson plans to meet the needs of all students. This will also enhance student learning by encouraging teachers to learn best practices from colleagues. At Lansdowne, we have had a 31% pass rate for first time takes on our High School Assessment. This means that all teachers are involved in the remediation process to build missing skill of the 69% of the students that have to retake that assessment. The average SAT Math score at Lansdowne High is 435, which is 85 points below the national average. Our objective is to increase student achievement in all areas of mathematics through using teaming, data driven decision making, continuous reflection, and peer observations. Funding in the amount of $2960 is requested for staff training and materials that go along with the training.