More than 60 educators from across the East Bay came together on November 5th at Mills College at Northeastern University for our first annual Gather. After hearing featured speakers Nikole Richardson (culturally relevant pedagogy) and...

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In this article on developing deep teacher learning, Mills Teacher Scholars' Executive Director Carrie Wilson calls for an increased attention to creating the time and support for teachers to make sense of the practices they are implementing and their impact on students.    As those of us who came to education with a social justice framework know, understanding is the pathway to agency. 21st Century Learning and the Common Core are giving greater emphasis to understanding and “deeper learning” for students. There is a refreshing insistence that students must be able to do something with what they know. Their knowledge must be deep and their understanding must be flexible. But what about teacher learning and teacher knowledge? What do teachers have to know in order to create learning opportunities for students that allow for deeper learning? And what opportunities do they need to learn this? This month Mills Teacher Scholars published two rich blog posts from Oakland Unified teacher scholars Laura Alvarez and Michelle Cascio that help us answer that question. Their Teacher Scholars' work sheds light on two important—and often overlooked—requirements for teacher learning: time and support. Teachers need both time and support to clarify their desired learning goals and to make sense of what is happening for students. They need time to think-- both alone and with colleagues.

In response to the Common Core’s  emphasis on conversations that promote learning, many of our teacher scholars chose to focus their inquiries on academic discussion during the 2013-14 academic year. Through support from Mills Teacher Scholars staff, participants looked at...