CSW and Partnering Schools to Launch Progressive Education Lab
The Cambridge School of Weston, in collaboration with three other leading progressive schools, has been named one of four recipients of an educational leadership grant from the Edward E. Ford Foundation to create a visionary program that aims to change the landscape of how teachers prepare for their profession.
The Cambridge School of Weston, in collaboration with three other leading progressive schools, has been named one of four recipients of an educational leadership grant from the Edward E. Ford Foundation to create a visionary program that aims to change the landscape of how teachers prepare for their profession.
The $250,000 grant from the foundation, along with matching funds raised, will help CSW and its partnering schools launch the Progressive Education Lab (PEL), a two-year teaching fellowship that places aspiring teachers with students in schools from the get-go and provides a dynamic, experience-based training not typically found at traditional university-based education programs.
Leaders from the four schools – CSW; The Putney School in Putney, Vt.; the Calhoun School in New York City; and The Unquowa School in Fairfield, Conn. – are expected to begin the planning of the program immediately, and PEL is expected to begin accepting applications from candidates who will enter the program in September 2012.
CSW was invited to participate in this grant opportunity because of its success with a recent, smaller grant from the foundation, coupled with the tenure of current head of school, Jane Moulding.
“Not only will the Progressive Education Lab inspire many recent graduates to enter the compelling world of progressive education and learn what it means to help students learn by doing, it will also create an opportunity for veteran teachers to share the joys of their profession,” Moulding said.
The Progressive Education Lab program seeks to collaborate with a partnering college or university with the aim of awarding PEL student teachers with a teaching credential. The education of these prospective teachers, however, would take place at all four schools initially, followed by a specialization at one of the institutions. Fellows would work directly in the classrooms, mentored and supported by veteran educators, with the eventual goal of earning placement at one of the PEL schools or at another progressive school.
The program brings together four different schools – day and boarding, upper and lower, urban and rural – and will expose fellows to a variety of teaching and learning. For example, they may learn about integrated studies at CSW, project-based learning at Putney, the city as school at Calhoun, or museum collaboration at Unquowa.
The idea for such a program was born at a symposium on progressive education at Putney last summer, where Moulding; Jennifer de Forest, the upper school director at Calhoun; Emily Jones, director of the Putney School; and Sharon Lauer, head of the Unquowa School, brainstormed ways to foster teacher training that was, at its heart, truly progressive.
Currently, a majority of traditional teacher training takes place at colleges and universities, away from the classrooms and the environments where teachers would actually teach. Oftentimes, school leaders have found a disconnect between theory and practice. They wanted find ways for progressive schools to take the lead on teacher education that would not only train new teachers but strengthen teaching at each of their schools.
The school leaders felt progressive schools offer the ideal laboratory environment for teacher education, because they demand deep subject-matter knowledge and creative child-centered and inquiry-based pedagogy. The smaller, learning environment, along with the support of mentor teachers, would help teaching fellows learn by doing, feel the freedom to make mistakes, experiment, and learn from direct experience.
The Edward E. Ford Foundation aims to improve secondary education as provided by independent schools in the United States. The educational leadership grant is the largest grant that the foundation awards each year to schools that propose a program that’s generative, transformational, replicable, includes partnerships with other schools or organizations, and addresses the question: “What is the public purpose of private education?”
“I could not be more pleased for you and your school,” wrote Robert Hallett, the executive director of the foundation, in a letter to Moulding. “Together, I am confident great outcomes will be forthcoming.”
“I could not be more pleased for you and your school,” wrote Robert Hallett, the executive director of the foundation, in a letter to Moulding. “Together, I am confident great outcomes will be forthcoming.”
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CSW—a gender-inclusive day and boarding school for grades 9-12—is a national leader in progressive education. We live out our values of inquiry-based learning, student agency, and embracing diverse perspectives in every aspect of our student experience. Young people come to CSW to learn how to learn and then put what they learn into action—essential skills they carry into their futures as doers, makers, innovators, leaders, and exceptional humans who do meaningful work in the world.