Transatlantic Alliance

UK & US Educators Launch Transatlantic School Innovation Alliance

Education organisations in the United States and the Department for Children, Schools and Families in England have formed a partnership designed to develop a network of schools in London and New York City.

The goal is to incorporate the best thinking about urban education systems to create demonstrably better outcomes for students, parents and communities, according to Robert Hughes, the President of New Visions for Public Schools, a New York City-based education organisation that is co-directing the Alliance in the United States, along with the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University and Mike Gibbons, Lead Director for the Innovation Unit funded by the Department for Education and Skills in London.

The Transatlantic School Innovation Alliance (TSIA), in its third year, links two schools. Bow School is linked to the Academy of Language and Technology in the Bronx, New York. The project involves: Lead Teachers from the two schools who have been jointly planning and co-creating a common scheme of work and lessons for students to develop adolescent literacy and communication skills; School Senior Leaders from the two schools who have been working on whole school strategies to improve learning; and pupils who have been developing a) their literacy skills through using photo montages and b) student voice through video conferencing and completing and presenting research.

As part of the Student Voice activities, students from both schools participated in a videoconference at the US Embassy in London, to speak about Barrack Obama's new education policy, their role models and their community participation.  In their research project, students have investigated topics of interest and presented their findings to schools at the Institute of Education.

The Alliance has created a virtual learning environment where both students and teachers' learning, planning and sharing best practice that can become the Virtual School for Alliance members as well as create a wider international network of participating schools.

• An important shared priority is to develop strong curricula and extended learning supports that motivate students to engage in post-secondary learning and the world of work, in addition to taking on civic responsibilities within their own community and in the virtual learning space.
  

"Every Child Matters" and "No City Left Behind"

• TSIA is the product of a series of conferences held in 2004 and 2005 in the U.S. and the U.K. known as "No City Left Behind". The conferences brought together practitioners and university researchers from both countries to explore issues of common interest and to seek possible solutions.
• "London and New York face similar challenges," said Mike Gibbons, Lead Director of the Innovation Unit funded by England's Department for Education and Skills. "They both have ethnically diverse populations with a large number of first languages spoken. Both cities have high levels of poverty next to areas of extreme wealth. And both cities strive to find innovative ways to invest in education to improve achievement and contribute to long-term economic wealth".
• The over-arching idea that emerged from the conferences was to establish schools in London and New York that would develop in parallel and share key features. In early 2006, the lead organisations selected the initial schools to participate in the "twinning" phase of the project to prototype the ideas being generated and began planning and preparing professional development exchanges for educators from both countries.

To help ensure that the Alliance contributes to educational improvement in both countries, the lead organisations are committed to documenting the work over time and engaging an independent evaluation. Findings from the documentation and evaluation efforts will be disseminated widely.

TSIA is supported by the Annenberg Foundation.

For more information, visit www.annenberginstitute.org/pdf/TSIA_two_pager.pdf