Abstract:

Teacher teams are increasingly common in urban schools. Here we analyze teachers'
responses to teams in six high-poverty schools. Teachers used two criteria to assess
teams' "goodness of fit" in meeting the demands of their work—whether their team
helped them teach better and whether it contributed to a better school. Their responses
differed notably by school, depending largely on the principal's approach to
implementation. In the three schools where teachers assessed teams favorably,
principals set a meaningful purpose for teachers' collaborative work, contributed
structural and professional expertise for their deliberations, and established a safe
environment for teachers' on-the-job growth.

Publisher's Version