What Makes Brookline Schools So Exceptional?

Recently, Dr. Jennifer Fischer-Mueller, Brookline's Deputy Superintendent for Teaching and Learning, sat down with us to discuss how the Brookline Education Foundation helps improve teaching and learning in our schools.

"Brookline's commitment to the idea of continuous improvement is a great strength. We could sit back, say we're doing a great job, never make a change, and we would be fine; but that's not okay in Brookline. The Brookline Education Foundation supports that continuous improvement and holds us accountable. We have to come back and say what we did, how it went, and how it is impacting our students," explains Dr. Fischer-Mueller, in describing how BEF Systemwide grants impact the Public Schools of Brookline (PSB).

Pilot Program: Partnering with Landmark School

"BEF grants bring more resources for systemwide initiatives, so we can do it the right way, the first time," says Fischer-Mueller. Citing the recent educational partnership between the PSB and the Landmark School (supported in part by a BEF grant) she notes, "Through this pilot program, we are able to identify and implement effective language-based instructional strategies to address the needs of students with learning differences to then be able to replicate this work effectively and efficiently at other schools."

Math and Social Studies Training for Teachers

BEF grants also provide in-depth systemwide training in new content areas, most recently in math and social studies. "As a result of the Social Studies Program Review process, there was a content shift and our educators needed to learn that new content," states Fischer-Mueller. "Without the BEF Social Studies Initiative, teachers would have had to learn that content on their own by reading textbooks written for students. This grant allowed the District to bring in experts to teach the content at an adult level. Teachers can't be creative with their instruction without in-depth knowledge of the subject matter and BEF grants provide that critical support."

A "Gold Star" of BEF support

According to Dr. Fischer-Mueller, one of the "gold stars" of BEF support is the Equity Project,which focuses on the achievement gaps that exist between students of different racial and ethnic groups in Brookline schools. "When we started the Equity Project, the District needed process support to bring community members, teachers, administrators, and outside consultants together. Because we did it correctly (with all the right people involved), the Equity Project became the way we do business in Brookline. Through the Equity Project, we learned how to look for and identify educational inequities that result in an achievement gap. We now are concentrating on identifying and removing those obstacles to student achievement. The Equity Project evolved from a project to a new core value within the PSB: Educational Equity."

One Teacher's Passion Can Lead to Systemwide Change

Some systemwide grants evolve from smaller BEF grants that originally support an individual teacher or a group of educators. "Change we can make for the system from the ground up is the change most easily adopted by teachers," notes Fischer-Mueller. "Where we have an individual teacher with a particular passion and a goal that connects to building and system goals, the BEF gives the teacher an opportunity to explore that passion. That teacher's excitement about learning gets transmitted to colleagues and can lead to collaborative grants through which groups of educators pursue similar studies. These collaborative grants may then become systemwide initiatives. An example is Responsive Classroom, which started as an individual teacher grant."

Providing the Best Education for Your Children

Finally, BEF funding allows the PSB to maximize the skills of individual teachers in Brookline. "I am unaware of a district that has the quality of the professionals that we have," states Fischer-Mueller. "When consultants come in, they always remark about our professional staff-they are smart, knowledgeable and skillful at teaching and learning, energetic and inquisitive as learners, reflective about their practice, and collaborative. When you take professionals at that level and give them the opportunity to improve their educational practice, you maximize their talent for the benefit of our children."