The Teacher Powered School

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Teacher with student in teacher powered schoolThere’s a new school on the block, so to speak. Referred to as “Teacher Powered Schools”, this innovative concept is catching on. The idea developed in 2007 when teacher Lori Nazareno and her colleagues thought to design and run a teacher powered school.

Presently, there are about 70 such schools in action in the US and they seem to be meeting their goals where other schools continue to struggle. Let’s explore this initiative.

The Teacher Powered School is built on the premise that teachers know best what students need and have enough professionalism to find ways to fulfill those needs. Teachers work collaboratively to design and implement school learning, manage the budget, maintain student discipline, select personnel, decide their salaries and benefits and more. They also agree on a system for evaluating the success of their programs. 

Sometimes, there is no central authoritative figure, such as a principal. Instead, the teachers have weekly meetings where they discuss what is happening with their students and the school to jointly find solutions. Even if there is a principal or set of leaders, final decisions at teacher powered schools are made by the collective teacher group.

Studies have found that in teacher powered schools, both students and teachers are highly motivated. Teachers feel empowered because their voice is not only heard but respected and acted upon. Students acknowledge the collaborative spirit between the teachers, know that the teachers are working as a team for their best interest and, therefore, also feel heard and respected. There even appears to be much less discipline issues in these schools as the universal atmosphere is one of teamwork and a desire to succeed.

Not only do teachers and students appear happier with this set-up but also parents get more involved. Parents recognize and appreciate the cooperative spirit generated in these schools and feel that they are valuable contributors to their children’s education. Even in under-served neighborhoods whose student bodies are made up of a high percentage of people where English, at best, is their second language, parental participation in school activities is unusually high. 

Additionally, because of the unique school structure, teachers must accept full responsibility for the accomplishments or failures of students and programs alike as they are the ones who decided what to implement. This increases the passion that teachers have for their job since they no longer must silently follow programs that they do not believe in or have to follow the same lesson plans year in and year out. In fact, teacher retention in these schools is particularly high.

With 85% of Americans thinking that teacher powered schools are a good idea and the majority of teachers wanting to work in one and student test scores on the rise even in poorer neighborhoods and even with those children with learning disabilities, this might be a ground-breaking educational program that actually works!

For Steps to creating a teacher powered school, visit: http://www.teacherpowered.org/guide

What do you think of this new approach to teaching? 

23 Responses to The Teacher Powered School

  1. Eugene says:

    the concept is not new, the result will be within three to five years they will want a Principal back to handle the public relations and accountability.

    • Tsivya Fox says:

      The impression that I received from researching for this article was that the teachers are inspired to do the best job possible because they are accountable. What will be known in 3-5 years?

    • Lil says:

      Have any outcomes been assessed yet? I would want to compare academic achievement between students of teacher powered schools and the traditional schools. Is the acquisition of knowledge and objectives comparable? Has preparedness for higher level education been measured?

      • Tsivya Fox says:

        I did a quick google search trying to find academic achievements of the teacher powered school but was unsuccessful. Please share if you find something.

  2. Joseph Smart says:

    I love it.

  3. dana says:

    I am all for it! Question: where did the statistic of 85% of Americans favoring this come from?

  4. Patty says:

    Many charter schools are set up in a similar manner where educators are on the School Board along with parents and community members.

  5. Larry Murphy says:

    My first response is our schools, at least the one I serve, is run by a teacher. That’s how I view myself considering I have 15 years of teaching experience. In my career as an administrator I have hired as my assistants only candidates with teaching experience. Also, having multiple platforms for teachers to be a part of the decision-making process is key with regularly scheduled times to meet: leadership teams, guidance meetings, faculty meetings, department meetings, curriculum review committees, professional learning committees, school councils, PTA, etc. are all ways we promote shared-decision making in our schools.

    Every organization needs to have a leader to provide the educational leadership and the management of the building to ensure that teaching and learning done by the experts can flourish. Not having someone responsible and only a team of teachers is like not having an executive branch and having only a congress. After what we see with our U.S. Congress, I rest my case for not having the schools run by the teachers alone.

  6. Harry Ballan says:

    Larry, your response is sensible from an organizational perspective and credible in view of your experience. Your background makes you an ideal commentator.

    Harry Ballan

  7. peter mojica says:

    its very easy to have a balance. a good leader takes input and incorporates teachers, parents, community and even students into the decision process. however, what you cannot have is a leaderless school that is run by a committee or group. it a boat without a rudder, when the winds and ocean swell the boat will go in every direction. at the end of the day, you can have your cake and eat it to, with a leader at the helm.

    • Tsivya Fox says:

      Hi Peter:

      I agree that it should be easy to have a balance of leadership along with teacher, parent and community input. Unfortunately, I think that too many people on all ends of the spectrum do not feel that they are experiencing that balance-thus, the Teacher Powered School. This may not be the solution though it might be a solution.

      Thanks for sharing.

  8. Mary Esposito, Ph.D. says:

    Teacher-powered schools may be a dream not to be achieved in many of our public schools.
    Principals and AP’s are observing teachers and telling them what neds to be done through 15 minute, informal observations. The power of running the school is very much with the administration and will remain that way for a long time. It is a challenge to have teacher-powered schools as any of the systems and structures in our public schools are designed to give the leadership role, or the administration, power over teachers.

    Administration still determins who the participants are on the many school committees taking place almost weekly and to release that power is only a vision in many of our schools at this time.

    • Tsivya Fox says:

      I hear you. That is why many of these schools do not have formal administrators but rather have teams working together and delegating the administrative duties.

  9. Giffin Bowen (@coachbowen) says:

    This is not a new idea, we proved back in the 1990’s that this was an effective model for teaching and learning. The problem is that the people in control are administrators and very few are willing to turn loose the control that they have for fear of losing that control. So as this idea became more effective you saw less and less of it as new leaders were moved into the school and turned it around in to the reform models we see today.

  10. Not a surprise. A knee jerk reaction to persistent failures to Engage students. Oddly enough an 18th Century paradigm is not gong to work today. I suggest though “The Teacher Powered School” may improve student Engagement for a while.

    The problem is teachers don’t have the tools to do the job of Engaging students in a modern computer society.

    Anywhere, anytime learning on any device is about engaging our brains while tricking our brains into believing we not really working. Being engaged is the key to learning. Engagement Science wants to provide educators the tools to engage their students.

    I suggest “Anywhere, Anytime Learning on Any Device”, combined with “The Teacher Powered School” will help teachers do their job! If you want be part of this experiment that could change education for ever please go to engagementscience.com.au.

    • Tsivya Fox says:

      Thanks for sharing your interesting comments and information. Perhaps I’ll soon do a blog on this topic.

  11. Don Licata says:

    I like the idea if for no other reason than the belief people preform better when they have some say in the outcome rather than just responsibility. In this case there is no finger pointing or blaming a “bad” system but instead more pride in ownership and a higher chance of constant improvement since you are involved in the process

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