Teacher Labs: Making Professional Development Collaborative每日大赛

Student-directed learning is at the heart at Birmingham Covington School, a suburban school of choice in Michigan. In a class called Thinkering Studio, students choose projects to pursue based on their passions, while in science literacy, they work in groups to research and solve real-world science problems in their community. Problem solving is interwoven into every class at this school for grades 3 through 8—instead of relying on their teachers when they need help, students turn to each other. The culture of collaboration and continual learning extends to the teachers as well—they visit each other’s classrooms and reflect on improving practice together.

• Consistently outperforms the district and state on the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress (M-STEP) in ELA, math, social studies, and science.
• Recognized as a Microsoft Mentor School in 2014.
• Students experience accelerated achievement in math, and graduates regularly place into honors geometry in high school.