City doubles Learning Partners program and gives some principals a raise

Chancellor Carmen Fariña is expanding her signature school-collaboration initiative, doubling its ranks and giving some principals a larger role.

Ten principals in last year’s “Learning Partners” program are getting $25,000 raises to work with groups of up to seven schools next school year in what the city is calling “Learning Partners Plus,” officials said Thursday. A total of 146 schools will participate in one of the two programs starting this fall, up from 73 schools last year.

The expansion underscores a larger shift underway at the Department of Education since Fariña took over more than 18 months ago. Fariña was critical of the school ranking system that the Bloomberg administration had used for its accountability system, which she saw as discouraging schools from working together. Under Fariña and her Learning Partners initiative, the department has pushed principals and teachers to visit other schools to learn what works there, like a new curriculum or teacher leadership models, and bring those ideas back to their own buildings.

“It is the purest form of collaboration and sharing of practices,” said J.H.S. 088 Principal Ailene Mitchell, one of the 10 principals chosen for the “plus” program. “There’s no more secrets.”

Learning Partners launched last April and expanded to 73 schools at the start of the 2013-14 school year. The schools were organized into groups of three or four led by “host” schools, whose staff visited the other schools and met regularly.

The department is evaluating both programs, officials said, but it is too early to know if they will move the needle on student achievement, with even one year’s worth of state test scores and graduation rates not yet released. Participants in 2014-15 said their school had made “positive” changes and that they feel better-connected to colleagues outside the school because of Learning Partners, according to an internal survey.

The lynchpin of the new program are the 10 school leaders, Fariña said, who are among the first group to be named “master principals” since the positions was created in the city’s new contract with the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators. In exchange for their salary boost, they will be required to coordinate visits among up to seven schools and provide other principals with monthly training. The program will be partially funded through grants from the Wallace Foundation.

“Learning Partners Plus recognizes strong leaders in our schools and utilizes them to help improve student outcomes,” Fariña said in a statement.

The master principal raises are different from merit pay bonuses that the city gives to principals and assistant principals. Those bonuses, which have gone to administrators of schools with top-ranking progress report scores in the past, are still part of the CSA contract, although Fariña is tasked with deciding how to rank the top schools in upcoming years.

As with last year, the Learning Partner cohorts in both programs are organized by grade levels. Of 35 groupings, 13 are only high schools, nine are only middle schools and seven are only elementary schools. Two groups include prekindergarten programs and the rest include schools with mixed grades. (Complete lists of schools for both programs are available below).

Most of the Learning Partner Plus host schools will be paired up with at least one school they worked with last year, although Mitchell said principals said they had more say in deciding the groupings this year. She said she was particularly excited about working with P.S. 230 in Windsor Terrace, where many students in her middle school come from.

“Now those teachers can plan with my sixth and seventh grade teachers,” Mitchell said.

All 148 of the Learning Partner schools will be able to have up to three model teachers, which are leadership positions that require extra work and come with a $7,500 raise, a department official said. The 10 host principals in Learning Partner Plus schools will be allowed to promote more teachers.

Ed Tom, principal of the Bronx Center for Science and Mathematics, said having model teachers was a highlight of last year’s program and is promoting an additional five teachers to the position this year.

“I think the biggest gains for our school community is model teachers,” Tom said.

Nearly 100 schools will be new to the programs this fall. Of the 73 schools that participated last year, 50 will be involved a second year, with some moving onto the “plus” program. Learning Partners Plus will consist of 71 schools and Learning Partners will consist of 75 schools.

Over 260 schools applied for the programs, city officials said on Thursday.

Fariña’s vision for collaboration has expanded beyond the Learning Partners programs, too. An entire office at the department is now dedicated to helping schools work together, absorbing the existing the Middle School Quality Initiative and launching Showcase Schools, a group of 17 schools that hosted tours and shared ideas directly with the department.

A complete list of Learning Partner Plus schools below. For a list of Learning Partner schools, click here.

P.S. 112 Jose Celso Barbosa, host 
P.S. 57 James Weldon Johnson
P.S. 206 Jose Celso Barbosa
Dos Puentes Elementary School
P.S. 132 Juan Pablo Duarte
Professor Juan Bosch Public School
P.S. 163 Alfred E. Smith
Samara Community School

P.S. 249 The Caton, host
P.S. 161 The Crown
New Bridges Elementary
P.S. 49 Willis Avenue
P.S. 208 Elsa Ebeling
P.S. 268 Emma Lazarus
P.S. 276 Louis Marshall

P.S. 214, Bronx, host
P.S. 109 Sedgwick
P.S. 143 Louis Armstrong
P.S. 106, Queens
J.H.S. 052 Inwood
Global Technology Preparatory
Ronald Edmonds Learning Center II

P.S. 321 William Penn, host
P.S. 009 Teunis G. Bergen
P.S. 282 Park Slope
Academy of Arts and Letters
The Maurice Sendak Community School
Sunset Park Avenues Elementary School
Riverdale Avenue Community School
Riverdale Avenue Middle School

I.S. 034 Tottenville, host
I.S. 075 Frank D. Paulo
I.S. 051 Edwin Markham
South Richmond High School I.S./P.S
I.S. 061 William A Morris
P.S. 001 Tottenville
P.S. 6 Corporal Allan F. Kivlehan School
P.S. 042 Eltingville

J.H.S. 088, host
Corona Arts and Sciences Academy
I.S. 5 – The Walter Crowley Intermediate School
Sunset Park Prep
I.S. 392
P.S. 230 Doris L. Cohen
Bronx Writing Academy

School for Global Leaders, host
M.S. 267 Math, Science & Technology
J.H.S. 383 Philippa Schuyler
The School for the Urban Environment
J.H.S. 210 Elizabeth Blackwell
Middle School for Art and Philosophy
Life Sciences Secondary School 

J.H.S. 216 George J. Ryan, host
P.S./M.S 042 R. Vernam
I.S. 254, Bronx
The Forward School
J.H.S. 185 Edward Bleeker
Village Academy

Bronx Center for Science and Mathematics, host
Bronx Leadership Academy High School
Bronx High School for Law and Community Service
Belmont Preparatory High School
Pelham Preparatory Academy
Theater Arts Production Company
Bronxdale High School

East Brooklyn Community High School, host
Brooklyn Frontiers High School
High School for Excellence and Innovation
Brooklyn Democracy Academy
Brooklyn Bridge Academy
Green School: An Academy for Environmental Careers