Press

Lead by Learning published in Learning Professional: “Equity-Centered Evaluation Brings Up Emotions. That’s Ok.”

Lead by Learning Interim Executive Director, Jennifer Ahn, was published in the February 2024 Issue of Learning Forward, Learning Professional. Her article, “Equity-Centered Evaluation Brings Up Emotions. That’s Ok,” features Lead by Learning’s BIPOC Leaders Network framework. Her article supports readers to navigate equity traps that can derail the importance of evaluating equity implications in improvement.

Lead by Learning Featured in "Small Shifts: Cultivating a Practice of Student-Centered Learning" by Kim Austin

One of our own Lead by Learning teachers was featured in a new book by Kim Austin: Small Shifts: Cultivating a Practice of Student-Centered Learning. See Chapter 4 - Publish to the World - which includes a story from Stephanie Vollmer's classroom describing how she supports her students to make their learning public as part of her teacher inquiry with Lead by Learning. Senior Director Sarah Sugarman is also quoted in a chapter on putting teachers at the center about the importance of making teacher learning public.

Lead by Learning published on Competency Works: Develop a Practice of Learning Partnership Conversations to Center Student Voice in Professional Learning

At Lead by Learning, we have a question we center during every professional learning space we facilitate: “What is happening for my learners, and how do I know?” This question asks educators to take a new approach – one grounded in curiosity, not compliance – to answer this question with the support of our students. We do this through an approach that we call the Learning Partnership Conversation. It is a form of student data that creates a pathway to equity because it empowers students as partners in their education. Instead of thinking, “I feel like my students don’t want to do the assignment,” and stopping there, it supports educators to investigate further, challenge that assumption, and talk to students about what they are experiencing.

Read more on the Aurora Institute's Blog: Competency Works

Lead by Learning Featured in Street Data Pod: “Public Learning As a Way of Being”: A Conversation on Chapter 7 with Carrie Wilson and Jennifer Ahn

Public Learning, a model developed by the organization Lead by Learning, is a practice that builds awareness in educators in order to better serve their students. Public Learning is not a formula for professional development, but rather a stance and a way of being that activates everything strong educators know about teaching and learning–the need for curiosity around a learner’s experience, the role of uncertainty and complexity, and so much more. In this illuminating conversation, the founder and current leader of Lead by Learning, Jennifer Ahn and Carrie Wilson, remind us of the power of public, reflective adult learning to create a path toward equity and antiracism in schools. These brilliant leaders help us think about what teachers need to genuinely learn and grow and how to infuse a pedagogy of voice at every level of the system.

Lead by Learning's SEL Group featured in ASCD: "What's SEL Got to Do with It?"

Collaborative inquiry empowers teachers to develop both the mindsets and instructional methods necessary for addressing students' social-emotional learning (SEL) needs. In the Oakland Unified School District, teachers participate in collaborative inquiry sessions led by peers to integrate SEL principles into academic instruction. Facilitated by Lead by Learning, a group of "SEL Teacher Scholars" meets monthly to explore student learning through an SEL lens, utilizing classroom video data for reflection and improvement. Learn more about this group through Daniela's article on ASCD!

A Place for Teachers to Grow: Professional Learning Communities in Manteca Unified School District

“PLC Wednesdays give the elementary music staff an opportunity to meet as a group and discuss problems of practice that are unique to our subject area. This year we have partnered with Lead by Learning of Northeastern University to help facilitate our meetings. Our teacher-led design team works with our facilitators to create opportunities for each music teacher to explore a personal learning goal around helping students to feel safe, be engaged, and find relevancy within our music classes.”

Lead by Learning featured in Edutopia about end of year reflections

Lead by Learning Lead Program Facilitator, Nina Portugal, recently published a piece in Edutopia about taking time to reflect on the school year before heading into summer to capture and share all that was learned this past school year. Read more to learn her 4 steps to support end of year reflections, including Lead by Learning's key practice of Public Learning.

Lead by Learning featured on Podcast for Teachers with Steve Barkley

Lead by Learning Regional Director, Sarah Sugarman, and JJ Hansen, a teacher leader from the Berkeley Music Department, explore the impact of quality learning experiences for teachers. How and why do teachers make their learning visible? How do students gain from their teacher’s willingness to be vulnerable and celebratory in their interactions with colleagues? This podcast is a follow up to the piece Sarah for ASCD titled "Three Actions for Building a Culture of Collective Efficacy."

Lead by Learning featured in Teaching Profession Playbook

The Partnership for the Future of Learning in May 2021, published their playbook "Building a Strong and Diverse Teaching Profession." Featured in Chapter 3, "Effective Retention Strategies, " Lead by Learning shares how their key practices of Public Learning and Supportive Challenge are used as strategies for equity in teacher learning, growth, and development.

The Perpetual Student. Effective leaders must be constant learners

We are excited to share that our article “The Perpetual Student: Effective leaders must be constant learners” was just published in the National Association of Secondary School Principals' magazine Principal Leadership! In the article, Lead by Learning Director of Network Partnerships Jennifer Ahn and Program Associate Nina Portugal share how to foster learning mindsets in leaders.

How to ‘Read’ Students During Remote Learning Featured in Edutopia

One of Lead by Learning's key practices is using data to make the learner's experience visible. In this article, Lead by Learning explains that "by engaging our students and creating space to listen to them, we are not only building our own awareness, which is essential to equity, but creating a learning environment that is student centered."

Public Learning Featured in Edutopia

Our core practice of Public Learning was recently featured in Edutopia, in "A Strategy Teachers Can Use to Learn Together." In this article, Nina Portugal, Program Associate at Lead by Learning, explains, "Unlike the typical teacher presentations that highlight best practices or share perfect pieces of student work, public learning is a structure that spotlights the messy but productive thinking that guides educators to those best practices."

Teacher Scholar Inquiry Featured in Edsource

Adaptive expertise is a key outcome of teacher led inquiry and one that is featured in "Getting to 100% student engagement in distance learning." In this article, Jessie Welcomer, a teacher scholar at Montalvin Manor K-8, explains, "Teachers are adapting to this new form of education at a rapid pace, and collaborating with one another benefits all of us. My school has partnered with Mills Teacher Scholars in order to facilitate rich collaboration during both in person and distance learning."

Supporting the SEL needs of Adult Learners for Improvement featured in PACE

Entering into summer after an abrupt transition to distance learning in the Spring of 2020, Lead by Learning Executive Director Carrie Wilson's article "What Comes Next for Professional Learning in the Time of COVID-19: Addressing the Social and Emotional Work of Improvement" discusses setting the conditions for adult learning to support improvement for student outcomes. Wilson reminds us that "Now is the time to give attention to the social and emotional capacities and conditions that make adult learning and improvement possible.

Mills Teacher Scholars' Social Emotional Learning Partnership Featured in Edweek

Our partnership with Oakland Unified's Social and Emotional Learning Department was recently featured in Edweek, in "Teachers Weave Social-Emotional Learning Into Academics." In this article, Carrie Wilson, Executive Director of Mills Teacher Scholars, explains, "Our theory of action is that in order for adults, teachers, and principals to be able to provide certain types of learning experiences for students, they have to be able to have those experiences themselves."

Two Ways to Lead: Educational Leadership Magazine Features Mills Teacher Scholars

Our partnership with OUSD's New Highland Academy was featured in Educational Leadership Magazine, with a focus on how we support our teacher leaders' capacity to lead and sustain collaborative inquiry with their colleagues. This article poses the question: "How are teachers constructing their roles as leaders in schools today? One popular model is to identify certain teachers as particularly successful, and then have others learn from them. But there is another way, a way that looks at leadership as a quality that we all have and can develop."

Documentation and Inquiry in the Early Childhood Classroom

Mills Teacher Scholars is excited that one of our partner sites, Burbank Early Childhood Center, is featured in a chapter of a recent book by Mills College School of Education professor Linda R. Kroll and San Francisco State University Professor of Elementary Education Daniel R. Meier. Compiling underrepresented inquiry stories from practicing teachers and administrators in early childhood (0-5) classrooms in the San Francisco Bay Area, this book highlights the power of the community in supporting professional development for early childhood educators and the education of young children. Important elements addressed include teacher learning, children’s curricula, parent and community communication, and equity and social justice for teachers, children, and families.

Mills Teacher Scholars' Conference Presentations

Mills Teacher Scholars and our participating teachers are proud to have presented our work at the following convenings: American Education Research Association, National Science Foundation, Bay Area Writing Project, The Collaborative on Academic and Social Emotional Learning, New Teacher Center, Teachers for Social Justice, California School Library Association, Inventing our Futures, Grant Makers for Education, Bay Area Science Project, and the Urban Teacher Education Consortium

The Teaching Channel Features Mills Teacher Scholars' Partnership with OUSD Teachers of Newcomers

In partnership with Mills Teacher Scholars, a cross-district group of OUSD teachers of newcomer English Learners used collaborative inquiry to support their students in developing their academic language. This Teaching Channel video shows how Mills Teacher Scholars supported these teachers to interrogate multiple sources of classroom data that made their students' learning visible. Over time, they developed an inquiry stance and learned to derive their own solutions to problems of practice.