Teacher Candy: My First Taste of the Literacy Design Collaborative

District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) has been widely heralded in recent years as one of the nation’s fastest-improving urban public school districts. Most coverage has focused on the district’s strong and stable leadership and its sustained focus on educator effectiveness.

What happens when teachers trade isolation for collaboration? Teachers in Colorado and Kentucky wanted to find out so they created the Common Assignment Study (CAS) to show the positive impact of teachers working across district and state lines to better serve students.

In this open letter to teachers, I am restating my claim that teachers are the experts. I urge teachers to talk with other teachers about their practice, and raise their voice about what they need to help their students learn.