Home
   
  Contact Us
     
Mission
     
  National Center
     
  Program
     
  Upcoming Events
   
  Resources
     
  Centers of Activity
     
  Sitemap
     
   
     

 

 

 


 

NSRF Mission Statement


The mission of the National School Reform Faculty is to foster educational and social equity by empowering all people involved with schools to work collaboratively in reflective democratic communities that create and support powerful learning experiences for everyone.

adopted June 2001

The National School Reform Faculty (NSRF) is rooted in four beliefs:
  • that school people, working together, can make real and lasting improvements in their own schools;
  • that teachers and administrators must help each other turn theories into practice and standards into actual student learning;
  • that the key to this effort is the development of a "learning community" based on public, collaborative examination of both adult and student work;
  • that to create this community, practitioners need high-quality training and sustained support.

 

NSRF believes professional development for educators best takes place in learning communities and extended networks, using proven structures and practices. These learning communities, led by skilled facilitative leaders:

  • Focus on improving students’ learning and success.
  • Build trust by engaging in significant work while providing a safe environment for taking risks.
  • Make their work public (e.g. "deprivatize" their work) by collaboratively examining work done by their students and by themselves (e.g. teaching practices, curriculum, school culture issues).
  • Give each other usable feedback.
  • Encourage diversity of thought, experience and perspective.
  • Draw on the expertise of those within the learning community, as well as on the expertise of "outside" resources.
  • Engage in reflective discourse based on the ideas contained in "texts" of various types.
  • Engage in reciprocal learning, within learning communities and in NSRF as a whole.
  • Develop and share leadership within the group.
  • Are facilitated by coaches. These coaches are responsive facilitators who have received high quality training and on-going support, and who has been drawn (selected) from the immediate educational community or from the ranks of trusted outsiders.
  • Continuously challenge one another to adapt practice towards fostering educational and social equity.
  • Are accountable for continuous improvement toward helping every student to succeed in school.
  • Use, create and support structures that lead to the above outcomes.
One common format is the “Critical Friends Group,” or CFG. CFGs generally consist of 6-10 educators who meet regularly for a sustained and focused period of time to work and learn together, and who observe each others practice, examine each others work, and give feedback to each other on a regular basis. In addition administrators and teacher-leaders in the school and district work as facilitative leaders, developing good habits in colleagues by routine use of NSRF practices and tools in staff meetings, cabinet meetings, planning sessions, grade level meetings, department meetings, and other kinds of professional development sessions.




 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Harmony Education Center

PO Box 1787 Bloomington Indiana 47402 • 812.330.2702
nsrf@harmonyschool.org • fax 812.333.3435
Comments: webmaster@harmonyschool.org
last modified: