Academic Response Team
What is an "academic response team" (art)?
Across the New York City Department of Education, Academic Response Teams (ART) work collaboratively with select schools to offer schools just-in-time, customized support. Each team is based in a Borough or Citywide Office (BCO) and is organized to attend to the unique communities and needs of the schools served by their specific BCO. Some of the ways each ART can support schools and leaders are:
Analyze data, existing systems and structures to identify root causes of barriers to student achievement
Create and implement an action plan to interrupt systems and structures that allow existing barriers to persist
Provide coaching to support the conditions for coherent instructional practice in both traditional and remote learning environments
Build leadership and school capacity
Provide and interpret resources to ensure success
Translate superintendent feedback and priorities into practice
Positively impact student achievement
what is the brooklyn south art's approach?
The Brooklyn South ART partners with schools during 6-8 week cycles of improvement. These cycles are designed collaboratively with school teams to empower them to develop capacity and:
Identify the needs of the school community and barriers to student achievement
Develop and implement a strategic action plan that addresses the school’s needs and aligns to the school improvement framework
Utilize high quality, tiered, evidence based strategies aligned to the strategic action plan
Engage in regular progress monitoring to assess the impact of the plan in meeting the school’s needs
Demonstrate capacity to adjust the strategic action plan to ensure that the school community’s needs are met and equity is advanced
The ART cycles of improvement are aligned to each school’s CEP goals and grounded in the text Breakthrough Principals (Desravines, J., Aquino, J., Fenton, B. 2016). This book defines five categories schools can focus on to sustain school improvement:
Teaching and Learning
School Culture
Talent Management
Planning and Operations
School Leadership
