Peer Networks and Sharing Best Practices: The Transatlantic School Innovation Alliance

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Teachers and principals crave the opportunity to talk in depth with colleagues about practice and policy. But the spread of “best practices” is difficult, particularly in New York City public schools, where the competitive model focuses heavily on meeting accountability mandates — leaving little time for instructors to transfer knowledge among their peers.

The Transatlantic School Innovation Alliance (TSIA), a partnership between the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, New Visions for Public Schools in New York City, and the Department for Education in the United Kingdom, was launched four years ago with a grant from the Annenberg Foundation. By building and supporting learning communities across the Atlantic — in London, New York City, and other cities in England and the US, TSIA enables participants to identify, adapt, and implement effective practices to improve curriculum content and relevance and to raise literacy achievement to meet standards.

TSIA’s work is more timely than ever, given England’s experience with national standards and the implementation of national literacy and numeracy strategies and New York City schools’ recent adoption of common core standards. The project sheds light on what it takes to support standards-based teaching and underscores the desire to share effective practices across teachers and school heads, here and across the Atlantic.

Annenberg Institute researchers have documented TSIA’s work through interviews, document review, observations, and surveys (the first of a series of reports on the findings is scheduled for release in early 2011). Two staff members from the UK’s Department for Education — Wendy Parmley, TSIA Programme Lead, Joint International Unit, and Robert Briscoe, Expert Advisor, reflect on what this research shows about the program’s impact and on their experiences with TSIA:

Benefits for Practitioners

Practitioners and students have made it clear that TSIA has created a structure that allows teachers and principals to talk deeply about practice and policy — with minimal judgment or preconceived ideas about “what is expected,” due to TSIA’s international character.

An important part of this partnership are twice-yearly study visits. Practitioners from New York and London spend four to five days in their partner schools, teaching in each others’ classrooms, discussing US and UK standards and accountability policies, and developing action research plans. Comments from both practitioners and students suggest that these visits have been enormously helpful. For example, teachers have reported that the visits serve as a catalyst for schools to develop a range of innovative projects that are rooted in the reality of what participants have seen working well in host schools. One teacher said,

I know my practice has benefited enormously from the opportunity to reflect and evaluate what I do in the context of our education system in comparison to what our American colleagues do in the context of theirs.

Teachers also found the study visits useful for helping them to tackle difficult discussions about school underperformance. According to one teacher,

This project has helped me immensely...[as I] was worried about how I would adjust my practice to meet the needs of this particular [bottom set] class. The work I have done with TSIA has really helped me to reflect on my teaching of this class and to explore their attitudes to learning.

Benefits for Students

Data suggest that the study visits have had a positive impact on participating students. A number of students have expressed their appreciation for new skills and experiences that have come with the study visits. One student said,

I've learned a lot of new skills — for example, how to behave in group work and how to do research. I really could not have got so far [without TSIA]. I was scared, now I've got confidence, now I work more independently -- and I'm more motivated. My speaking and listening grades have gone from E to A, and my written work is now at B grade.

Teachers also echoed these sentiments, with one teacher saying,

The TSIA work has really helped the class to respond better. They have developed the ability to work in groups.... Now they assume leadership roles and take responsibility.

Informing Policy and Practice

In the UK, English national education policy strongly advises every school to have a least one international partnership. Our work with TSIA reinforces this value placed on peer-to-peer learning. It also provides a window into how policies play out in practice. As US and UK policy-makers continue to adapt and adopt each others’ ideas — from charter schools to quality reviews to school report cards — keeping windows like this open can serve to improve our understanding of what works on the ground and how to support it.

PREPARED BY 

Prepared by Joanne Thompson, Research Associate, Annenberg Institute for School Reform with perspectives by Wendy Parmley, TSIA Programme Lead, UK Department for Education, Joint International Unit, and Robert Briscoe, Expert Advisor, UK Department for Education