TAG: Teacher Action Group

TAG: Teacher Action Group

by Samuel Reed III

Teacher Led School Turnarounds in Philadelphia may be gaining more traction thanks to the Teacher Action Group (TAG Philly) and the Philadelphia Writing Project (PhilWP) Inquiry to Action Groups’ (ItAGs) collaboration.

On March 28th at WHYY, TAG Philly presented at Philly SEED (Supporting Entrepreneurship in Education as an “emerging entrepreneur” competing for a prize of $5,000.

There were 12 finalist between two groups. Over 40 applications were submitted.

Of those, six presenters were selected for each group.

Emerging entrepreneurs presenters:

• ApprenNet

• Investing in Ourselves

• Lessonsmith

• PhilaSoup

• Teacher Action Group Philly

• YES! for Schools

Expanding/established presenters:

• Education-Plus Inc.’s High School: College Completion Pipelines

• Springboard Collaborative

• Startup Corps

  • the school collective

• The Student Leadership Project

• Urban Blazers

TAG Philly was seeking to win the Philly Seed award to expand and formalize its professional development offerings to support Educator-Led Turnarounds. With the Philadelphia Writing Project as its proposed fiscal sponsor, TAG was seeking funds to disseminate and expand the Inquiry to Action Groups (ItAGs) and annual Education for Liberation Curriculum Fair and Summit into Professional Development programs targeted to select schools and communities interested in incubating their internal school transformation.

Anissa Wineruab and I delivered TAG Philly’s pitch before audience of educators, policy makers and philanthropists. Although TAG did not win the Philly Seed funds, the idea of teachers teaching teachers resonated with many people in the audience.

...the idea of teachers teaching teachers

resonated with many people in the audience.

As a result of the presentation, some Teacher-Led Turnaround exploratory meetings have been set up with the Philadelphia School Partnerships, The Philadelphia Great School Compact, and with members of the School Reform Commission.

TAG hopes to continue its collaboration with PhilWP to provide professional development offerings that enhance the social capital of teachers across the city.

Samuel Reed is 6th-8th grade literacy teacher at Beeber Middle School. His passion includes arts in education, media literacy and understanding youth culture. For over 15 years he have served as an innovative educator, supporting students, parents and teachers locally and nationally and internationally using literacy across content areas.

Sam is a blogger for Philadelphia Public School Notebook, an active member of the Teacher Action Group TAG Philly, a teacher consultant with the Philadelphia Writing Project since 2000, and serves on advisory boards and committees for a number of local and national organizations.