USD Magazine Summer 2013

[ a d v o c a t e ]

RESETTING THE STAGE Emp owe r i n g t e a c h e r s s o t h a t k i d s w i n d u p w i n n i n g

J

by Krystn Shrieve

ust imagine what schools would be like if teachers were in charge.

her, has become a rallying cry. “There’s a national trend to get tough with teachers, and governor after governor is tying test scores to teacher evalua- tions,” she explains. “Teachers feel they have very little control over what and how they teach.” Farris-Berg is trying to buck that trend. She studied Mission Hill, a K-8 pilot school in Boston, and more than 50 other schools across the nation where teach- ers are in charge. There, in addi- tion to teaching academic skills, the goal is to help children develop lifelong habits — such

as solving problems creatively, thinking critically and acting with empathy. The documentary film, “A Year at Mission Hill,” chronicles the school’s new approach. One year, for example, teachers decided to teach everything — from reading and writing to math and science — through a school-wide theme about bees. “We’re going to be studying honey bees a lot,” a teacher tells her class in the documentary. “We’re going to watch them fly, we’re going to watch them dance, we’re going to watch them eat,

we’re going to watch them clean.” “There’s not a single desk in any of these classes,” Farris-Berg says. “That’s just not the way the school operates.” Farris-Berg works with clients around the country that are exploring whether to adopt simi- lar approaches. She’s a frequent guest blogger and popular speaker on the topic. John Merrow, an education correspondent for “PBS NewsHour,” called her book a “must-read.” In his most recent State of the State address, California Gov. Jerry Brown’s call to action mirrored

Parents may assume that teach- ers are already, in fact, calling all the shots, but Kim Farris-Berg ’98 (BA), an independent education policy advocate, would disagree. She recently published the book, Trusting Teachers with School Success: What Happens When Teachers Call the Shots. It’s about what some call a “teacher-led” approach to running a school. For Farris-Berg, it reveals the benefits of giving teachers control — something that, for

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