Through our work in Salem and Lawrence, we have strengthened our resolve to serve students with diverse learning needs. One of our core learnings is that in order to do that, we must give the adults in schools the time, the space, and a set of rich experiences that enable them to reflect on and improve the structures, systems, approaches, and practices that will best serve students who learn in non-traditional ways. Toward this end, we are launching, in 2018, the first cohort of the Essex County Learning Community (ECLC), a cross-district experience that will bring together leadership teams and teachers from five school districts in the county. New Profit is partnering with the Center for Collaborative Education (CCE) to facilitate the Learning Community. The goal of the ECLC is to use a community of practitioners approach to lift up and scale systemic approaches that enable schools to better serve students with diverse learning assets and needs.

The key components of the learning community are the following:

• Expert Interdisciplinary Faculty: Guiding the ECLC is a faculty of nationally-known experts in such specific areas as learning disabilities, learning and attention issues, social and emotional development, cultural competence, and trauma. The faculty is acting as a design team and serving as presenters and coaches as appropriate. As needed, we will also invite other members of the Reimagine Learning Network both to share their expertise with participants and to establish relationships for potential future partnerships with school districts.
• District Lead Teams: Each district has formed a Lead Team, consisting of the superintendent or assistant superintendent of curriculum (or equivalent), director of special education, school principal, special education teachers (2), and mainstream/inclusion teachers (2). These Lead Teams are expected to meet monthly upon network launch. Each meeting will be 2-3 hours and will include presentations and discussions with faculty, sharing of effective practices, engaging in consultancies about dilemmas in implementing effective policies and practices district-wide to better serve students with disabilities, and team planning.
• Cross-District Topical Groups for Teachers: Mainstream and general education teachers from each district team will meet monthly to engage in collaborative inquiry cycles and professional development. The topical groups should be expected to engage in three types of discourse:
  • Consultancies and inquiry cycles about classroom, school, and district dilemmas;
  • Shared professional development; and
  • Identification and changing of district and school systems and policies
• This cross-district learning is intended to open up a new space for teachers to be vulnerable in front of their peers. The teachers are in close enough geographical proximity to continue to be resources to one another as they grow their skill base, even beyond the period of formal engagement in the community.
• Two-Day Summer 2018 Institute for Up to 50 Teachers/Staff: The Summer Institute will be focused on further inquiry into identified problems of practice that have emerged through topical groups, enabling teachers to continue to delve more deeply into specific areas of effectively teaching students with diverse learning needs and assets that have surfaced. Teachers within the topical groups will provide recommendations to help shape the institute agenda.
• District Plans: Based on Lead Team discussions and topical group recommendations, each district Lead Team will create an action plan to improve services to students with diverse learning needs. Lead Teams will meet together in November 2018 to present individual plans to one another using a structured protocol, gain feedback, and determine revisions to be made.
• Showcase of Learning: In December, each team will have an opportunity to present their plans to their peers from other districts at a final celebration, and teachers will have an opportunity to present model lessons. Other stakeholders, including parents, philanthropists, policymakers, and business leaders may also be invited to attend the Showcase of Learning.