Topic: Distributed Expertise

At SPARK School at Kyrene de las Manitas, 120 students in multi-aged grade bands (third through fifth grades) work with a core team of six educators: one teacher executive designer, two certified teachers and three teacher candidates. The prototype school-within-a-school was developed during a design process collaboratively led by the Kyrene School District and ASU’s MLFTC Design Initiatives. In this resource, you’ll find out how they’re implementing a Next Education Workforce model.

In Fall 2020, Whittier Elementary in Mesa, Arizona will create two team-based learning communities with 170 students in grades four through six. Each “house” will include 85 students and will be guided by an educator team comprising three certified teachers and two MLFTC teacher candidates. In this resource, you’ll find out how they’re implementing a Next Education Workforce model.

Approximately 900 ninth grade students at Westwood High School in Mesa, Arizona are distributed across six Academy Teams. Each core team consists of at least four educators: a lead teacher and three certified teachers. Depending on students’ needs, special educators, English Language Learner educators, MLFTC residents and paraeducators may also be included on the team. Here, you’ll learn how the school is implementing a team-based model.

Host Brent Maddin shares how MLFTC is working with schools and other partners to 1) provide all students with deeper and personalized learning by building teams of educators with distributed expertise and 2) empower educators by developing new opportunities for role-based specialization and advancement.

Brent Maddin talks with Ron Beghetto, Professor and Pinnacle West Presidential Chair at ASU’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, about creativity, beautiful risks, and how we can improve education for all learners.

Riverview High School serves 90-120 students in grades 7 through 12. Many of these students have left their assigned district schools due to disciplinary reasons or are transitioning out of

Stevenson Elementary School is a Title I school located in Mesa, Arizona that takes a dynamic approach to serving about 700 students in preschool through 6th grade. The school’s Next Education Workforce model wraps teams of educators around students in grades K-6 with the goal of providing deeper and personalized learning. In this resource, you’ll find out how they’re implementing a Next Education Workforce model.

Spark Institute serves about 250 7th and 8th graders at ASU Preparatory Academy–Polytechnic. The educator team includes 10 certified teachers: three core content area teachers for 7th grade, three core

Principal of Stevenson Elementary School Krista Adams shares how taking a teaming approach counters loneliness, empowers educators, and results in a better experience for both educators and students.

Mountain View School kindergarten lead teacher Danielle Ashenbrener describes why Next Education Workforce models are great for both students and educators.

Clinical Assistant Professor and Senior Program Strategist Kelly Owen shares two pieces of advice for educators interested in adopting a team-based approach.

Professional Pathways Site Lead Valerie Roderick describes how educators can learn and grow from being members of teams that distribute their expertise. She also makes the connection between teaming and the issue of educator burnout: we can’t expect educators to be all things to all people at all times, and distributing expertise helps to make educators’ jobs manageable.

In this clip, MLFTC Resident Jordan Dick describes what she sees as the benefits of working on a team of educators with distributed expertise.

Here, Kelly Owen, Clinical Assistant Professor and Senior Program Strategist, describes the impact of Next Education Workforce models on Lead Teachers, Teacher Candidates and students.