When encouraged to lead, teachers lean into what they know best: their students
Brittany Stephens was on the lookout for an old-fashioned rotary phone over the summer. No stranger to kindergarteners or the classroom, Stephens is confident that having the clunky relic on hand will help kindergarten students in her classroom grasp the concepts of then and now. “Being encouraged to think creatively and find the tools I […]
New partnership empowers principals to ‘dream big’
SLPS Principal Redesign Fellows leverage existing strengths to improve outcomes.
Creating time and space for collaborative school change
Mistakes are easy to make, and often hard to accept, but sixth grader Valeria Rodriguez is getting more comfortable knowing she’s not always going to have the right answer. “When I was younger, making mistakes made me a little anxious because I thought I did something wrong,” says Valeria. “But now I know that if […]
Champion for equitable education, May honored with Ethic of Service Award
PHOTO: Victoria May, executive director of the Institute for School Partnership, is a 2022 recipient of the Virgil Ethic of Service Award. May leads Institute for School Partnership, leader in STEM education and teacher development You may not know her name, but the superintendent of your child’s school district certainly does. For decades, Victoria May, […]
Local partnerships re-envision math instruction
Successful completion of algebra 1 is the gatekeeper to higher-level math and is required for virtually any education beyond high school. That makes math education an equity issue. A 2019 article in the Journal for Research and Mathematics Education states, “It’s well documented that Black and Hispanic students are underrepresented in eighth-grade algebra courses. As […]
Partnership lays foundation for continuous improvement in SLPS STEM
Last summer, four organizations came together to launch a new program in 17 St. Louis Public elementary schools. The Institute for School Partnership (ISP), The Little Bit Foundation (TLBF), and St. Louis Public Schools (SLPS), with funding from the Bayer Fund, developed a pilot program to increase capacity for STEM teaching and learning in SLPS. […]
ISP partnership brings agriculture into Missouri classrooms
How do plants grow? Where does food come from? Who grows your food? Agriculture is the No. 1 industry in Missouri. The state is home to 95,000 farms, according to the Missouri Department of Agriculture, covering two-thirds of the state’s total land acreage, with the top commodities being soybeans, corn, cattle, hogs, and turkeys. But despite […]
Partnering with PBS: ISP and Nine Network Work Together to Educate Students Amid Pandemic
When the coronavirus pandemic shut down schools in March, it highlighted the widening digital divide for many families and students in the St. Louis region. Schools and families struggled to quickly pivot to remote learning – lacking reliable internet and access to computers. Public television has become a key tool to keep students engaged and […]
Building Pathways: The School District of University City Embraces Distributed Leadership
The School District of University City has taken a big leap in developing the next generation of transformational school leaders. Last summer, it named Jessica Hawkins and Deitra Colquitt co-principals of Pershing Elementary School. Both served as Teacher Instructional Leaders prior to their advancement. They credit the Transformational Leadership Initiative, a multi-year effort designed to […]