Children First Intensive and Inquiry

Children First Intensive and Collaborative Inquiry

Children First Intensive

Children First Intensive (CFI) Institutes are monthly forums for professional learning designed to support the rollout of the Common Core State Standards in NYC schools, with the ultimate goal of readying students for the college and career demands of the twenty-first century. The CFI Institutes provide professional learning opportunities for instructional leaders at the cluster and network level—as well as Quality Reviewers three times per year—which can then be adapted or adopted for use at Cluster Institutes attended by network instructional leaders. In turn, each network offers professional learning opportunities to school leadership that meet the objectives of the activities developed centrally. Common themes of these events include aligning curriculum and classroom tasks with the rigor required by the Common Core State Standards, leveraging teacher teams engaged in collaborative inquiry as vehicles for this alignment, and exploring the implications of the new standards within all subject areas.

What is Collaborative Inquiry?

Collaborative inquiry is a sustained process of investigation and action by a group of educators that empowers teachers to improve student achievement and close the achievement gap. Collaborative inquiry can look very different in different contexts, but there are some common threads across all teams, mainly that teachers evaluate the effectiveness of their collective work through the lens of student work and data.

Collaborative inquiry is:

Focused on student outcomes, using a systematic, data-informed approach.
Conducted by teams of teachers with a focus on small groups of students, paying close attention to those who are struggling while supporting the learning of all students.
Designed to develop and deepen rigorous, research-based instructional strategies and frameworks.
Structured to promote distributive leadership, which in turn leads to systemic and sustainable change

Using an inquiry approach can improve student outcomes, develop teacher capacity, and build school capacity by:

Organizing teachers around the learning of a select group of students for whom they then share responsibility.
Building upon and deepening the work of existing teacher teams.
Creating a "learner-centered school" where administration, faculty and students are continuously studying their own work and exploring new ways to be more effective.
Focusing teachers on aligning assessment, curriculum, instruction, and professional development to generate school-wide improvement.
Establishing and/or deepening collaboration and communication between school and home where parents/caregivers are partners in supporting their children's growth.
Supporting the sharing of work within and across schools.

	Children First Intensive and Inquiry Children First Intensive and Collaborative Inquiry Well Developed Blog: Protocols for Looking at Student Work CFI Activity: Standards for Mathematical Practice and Teacher Inquiry Children First Intensive DOE Page Collaborative Inquiry Community in ARIS Connect CFI Monthly Institute ARIS Connect Community Children First Intensive Children First Intensive (CFI) Institutes are monthly forums for professional learning designed to support the rollout of the Common Core State Standards in NYC schools, with the ultimate goal of readying students for the college and career demands of the twenty-first century. The CFI Institutes provide professional learning opportunities for instructional leaders at the cluster and network level—as well as Quality Reviewers three times per year—which can then be adapted or adopted for use at Cluster Institutes attended by network instructional leaders. In turn, each network offers professional learning opportunities to school leadership that meet the objectives of the activities developed centrally. Common themes of these events include aligning curriculum and classroom tasks with the rigor required by the Common Core State Standards, leveraging teacher teams engaged in collaborative inquiry as vehicles for this alignment, and exploring the implications of the new standards within all subject areas. What is Collaborative Inquiry? Collaborative inquiry is a sustained process of investigation and action by a group of educators that empowers teachers to improve student achievement and close the achievement gap. Collaborative inquiry can look very different in different contexts, but there are some common threads across all teams, mainly that teachers evaluate the effectiveness of their collective work through the lens of student work and data. Collaborative inquiry is: Focused on student outcomes, using a systematic, data-informed approach. Conducted by teams of teachers with a focus on small groups of students, paying close attention to those who are struggling while supporting the learning of all students. Designed to develop and deepen rigorous, research-based instructional strategies and frameworks. Structured to promote distributive leadership, which in turn leads to systemic and sustainable change Using an inquiry approach can improve student outcomes, develop teacher capacity, and build school capacity by: Organizing teachers around the learning of a select group of students for whom they then share responsibility. Building upon and deepening the work of existing teacher teams. Creating a "learner-centered school" where administration, faculty and students are continuously studying their own work and exploring new ways to be more effective. Focusing teachers on aligning assessment, curriculum, instruction, and professional development to generate school-wide improvement. Establishing and/or deepening collaboration and communication between school and home where parents/caregivers are partners in supporting their children's growth. Supporting the sharing of work within and across schools.