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Race to Top Funds Prompt District, School-Level Efforts

At Middleton High School, in Tampa, Fla., teachers, from left, Elaine Gibbs, Laura Burger, David Folmer, Assistant Principal George Fekete, and teacher Karina Streeter have been using a model to improve instruction called lesson study, in which teachers review each other's lessons and discuss ways to refine them. Other schools throughout Florida will soon be using the model, with support from the $700 million award the state received through the Race to the Top program.

—Edmund D. Fountain for Education Week

Districts using aid to experiment

By Sean Cavanagh

Years ago, when he was working as an English teacher in Japan, David Folmer watched with curiosity as his colleagues spent time huddling in common areas before their classes, planning lessons. After their classes, his Japanese co-workers would often meet again to talk about what worked well, and what didn’t.

Mr. Folmer didn’t understand those teachers’ methods at the time. But now the mathematics teacher and a group of fellow educators at Middleton High School, in Tampa, Fla., are using a variation of that model, called “lesson study,” to plan and refine their daily instruction.

Over the next few years, schools across Florida will be following the example of Middleton High School and implementing lesson study. Those schools’ efforts will be funded through the federal Race to the Top program. They are part of a raft of state and local efforts financed with relatively little fanfare through the $4 billion national competition, better known for the large-scale school improvement efforts it is supporting in 11 states and...