Teaching Commission Pushes Collaborative Learning Teams

The National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, a Washington-based nonprofit, presented its findings late last week on what research and practice reveal about engaged, school-embedded professional learning teams: that teachers who collaborate in learning teams hold themselves to a higher standard, improve their practice, and lift student achievement.

The forum, "Team Up for 21st Century Teaching and Learning," focused on the critical role NCTAF sees teacher learning teams playing in the 21st century classroom in terms of career and college readiness and the closing of the achievement gap. NCTAF stressed the general need in schools for learning teams, and where, according to the group, they should be headed.

Tom Carroll, president of NCTAF, referred to the study’s call to action on creating learning teams in schools as a "once in a generation opportunity." Instead of trying to fix schools, we should create the schools that we need, Carroll explained. Professional learning teams are a pathway to accomplishing...