George Lucas Educational Foundation

Creating Opportunities for All Teachers to Grow

When grade-level teams of teachers work together on skills and strategies to help them improve their practice every week, everyone benefits.

August 9, 2023

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At P.S. 249, in Brooklyn, New York, educators have leaned into an innovative professional development model called “lab sites” to help each other improve their teaching practice. Once a week, during PD time, teams of teachers get together to explore specific teaching strategies or activities they need help with. Teachers hone their skills by working with a small group of students who volunteer to stay after school, while their grade-level colleagues observe. Having students be part of the teachers’ experience allows them real-time teaching and learning interactions, while the students get extra academic support. After the students leave, the group provides feedback to the teacher who was being observed on what went well and what still needs work. Teachers implement what they’ve learned in their classrooms later in the week and return the following week to let everyone know how it went.

The teachers at P.S. 249 were first introduced to lab sites in a Teachers College workshop about seven years ago, and they loved working with their peers and the students so much, they adapted it and made it part of their regular professional development. The low-stakes practice builds on the strengths of all teachers and gives new teachers, especially, an opportunity to grow and learn from their peers in a safe, supportive environment.

Schools That Work

P.S. 249 The Caton School

Public, Urban

Grades PK-5

Brooklyn, NY

At P.S. 249 in Brooklyn, New York, about half of the student body are from Spanish-speaking countries—but what might be considered a language challenge for some has been turned into an opportunity here. The school’s dual-language Spanish program starts in kindergarten. Nearly every teacher is trained to teach English as a second language, and consistent with best practices in ELL, standards remain high despite understandable gaps in language comprehension. Through a robust math curriculum, engaging science days, and a new way of doing professional development that frames classrooms as teaching labs, the neighborhood school not only brings out the best in kids—it has become a high performer over the past decade.

Earned an America’s Best School Award from the National Center for Urban School Transformation in 2023.
Received a Blue Ribbon Award for Exemplary Performance from the U.S. Department of Education in 2021.
Named a Reward School for 2 years in a row (2018–19) for high academic achievement—with no significant gaps between subgroups—by the New York Department of Education.