Reporting on the Fall 2019 School Reform Initiative Fall Meeting

Eagle Rock’s Professional Development Center (PDC) team — along with Josán Perales, our world languages instruction specialist — descended on Boston in early November to participate in the 2019 School Reform Initiative Fall Meeting.

The School Reform Initiative, or SRI, is a Denver-based organization serving educators across the country, with the objective of creating equitable and effective learning communities. To accomplish this, SRI hosts a variety of professional development workshops across the country, such as reflective learning communities institutes (scheduled for Texas, Florida, and Illinois in 2020) and two-day equity institutes (available on-demand in 2020). It also employs a comprehensive database of protocols for use in professional learning settings. The November 2019 Fall Meeting encouraged participating educators to collaborate with others, tackle pressing challenges facing their organizations, and participate in a variety professional development trainings.

To that end, Sarah Bertucci, our director of professional development, and Travis Burhart, Eagle Rock’s 2019/2020 Public Allies Fellow in Professional Development, arrived a few days early in order to attend a two-day Teacher Residency Convening. During the Convening, Sarah and Travis visited two teacher-residency programs in the Boston area, engaged with teachers involved with improvement science (to explore ways to better support novice teaching residents), and helped assess an “excavation” protocol that diffuses refined teaching practices to novices.

The rest of the team soon followed, with professional development associate Anastacia Galloway Reed devoting much of her time at the conference in support of the SRI Leadership Academy. Meanwhile, associate director of Professional Development, Dan Condon, facilitated a workshop alongside staff from the Robert R. McCormick Foundation that centered around instructional rounds.

Christi Kelston, director of our Public Allies programs, along with Josán Perales, attended tailored workshops to support their practices here at Eagle Rock. Outside of workshops, all of our team members regularly met in small reflective learning groups led by experienced SRI facilitators. During these meetings, participants shared experiences from their work in order to receive advice and support, engaged in discussions focused on equity, and learned ways to effectively serve as leaders in their organizations.

An inspiring and energizing event, SRI’s Fall Meeting is already helping our Professional Development team further focus on improving its current practices in supporting school reform nationally, as well as on our own campus. To learn more about SRI and what may be available to your organization, visit the School Reform Initiative website.