FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tues., Oct. 19, 2004

CONTACT: John Schuster Miami-Dade County Public Schools 305-995-1126

MIAMI-DADE SCHOOLS, FDOE, UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI LAUNCH $3M PARTNERSHIP
TO BOOST EDUCATORS' IN LOW-PERFORMING SCHOOLS

MIAMI &endash; Teachers and principals in Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) will improve their capacity to plan, teach, assess students' progress, and refine instruction through a unique, $3.18 million partnership announced Tuesday by the school system, the Florida Department of Education and the University of Miami.

The partnership, called Continuous Improvement for Classroom Impact, will target 39 schools in the M-DCPS School Improvement Zone with intensive training and coaching for educators. The professional development effort will be based on a continuous improvement process that merges the private sector management practices developed by Edward Deming and the Effective Schools research of Ron Edmonds.

"Every principal, every teacher who wants actually to do this work well should be given ample opportunity and support to do it," said Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent Rudy Crew.

The partnership was described Tuesday to the State Board of Education, which held its Oct. meeting in Miami. The School Board of Miami-Dade County will be asked to approve the partnership at its monthly meeting on Wednesday.

The 30 Zone schools were identified in August based on chronically low academic performance across all schools in a community. By focusing on the Zone's feeder patterns, the new partnership will create hubs of activity in delivering strategies and tools to schools. M-DCPS organized the Zone schools to allow for extensive, on-going, on-site training and coaching for teachers and principals.

"This partnership offers the training, tools, the time and the working environment that teachers need to focus on student achievement," said Florida K-12 Public Schools Chancellor Jim Warford. He predicted that Dade County "is going to see historic results."

The university's role will be to guide schools in identifying the most effective instructional practices, to place prospective teachers in Zone schools, and to evaluate the effort. Other institutions of higher education in Dade County also will take part in supporting the Zone schools.

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