Join the conversation

Story posted July, 2008

Results:
• In 2005, 89% of students passed the Massachusetts math exam, up from less than 50% in 1999
• Now ranked in top 5% of Boston public schools on reading and math scores

In 1999, shortly before principal Mary Russo arrived at the Richard J. Murphy K-8 School in Dorchester, Mass., more than half the students failed the state math exam. Russo's mandate was to boost student achievement. To do so, she focused on establishing collaborative professional development practices that would help teachers learn from each other and work toward a common goal. With better instruction, she reasoned, those test scores would go up.

Teachers at Murphy now spend three times as many hours on professional development as the district requires. Every public school teacher in Massachusetts must create his or her own professional development plan; at Murphy, these plans outline how teachers will use and share the strategies they learn.

When new teachers and paraprofessionals arrive at Murphy in the fall, they not only participate in the district's mentor program, but also attend an orientation led by senior teachers who explain the school's approach to math and literacy instruction, discipline, and other issues. Both novice and veteran teachers get the chance to work with literacy and math coaches, who come from within the school and are nominated by their colleagues. Coaches provide one-on-one classroom consultations and lead 90-minute sessions twice a month for all the teachers from each grade. These meetings include a preparation period, an in-class demonstration, and a discussion following the lesson.

"As we think about students as learners," says Anne Marie Brochu, a literacy coordinator at the school, "we also have to think about teachers as learners." The educators at Murphy say the school's emphasis on reaching high professional standards makes their work more fulfilling, and the chance to collaborate keeps them from feeling isolated in the classroom. An emphasis on data-driven instruction also helps teachers identify gaps in student understanding that they can work together to solve. If one teacher's students did particularly well on a set of assessment questions, for example, he or she can discuss the instructional method that worked.

Russo's approach has paid off. By 2005, the number of the school's students who failed the Massachusetts math exam fell to just 11 percent. And though the vast majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, Murphy now ranks in the top 5 percent of all Boston public schools in both math and reading scores. The U.S. Department of Education named Murphy a National Distinguished Title I School in 2001, one of a host of awards and accolades the school has received.

Further details about this story can be found in our sources:
Boston Public Schools, "Richard J. Murphy K-8 School", December 2007

Joan Richardson, for The Learning Principal Vol. 3, No. 3, "Quest for Excellence: High-quality professional learning transforms two Boston elementary schools", November 2007

WGBH Educational Foundation, Panel Discussion, "Empowering Educators: Power of Teamwork in Schools", March 22, 2007

Mary Russo, for The Evaluation Exchange Volume XI, No. 4, Winter 2005/2006, "Teacher Professional Development: How Do We Establish It and Know That It's Working?", 2005

Frank Levy (MIT) and Richard J. Murnane (Harvard Graduate School of Education), for Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston of the Kennedy School of Government, "Standards-Based Education Reform in the Computer Age: Lessons from Boston's Murphy School", March 9, 2005

For additional information, please contact:
Mary Russo
Principal, The Richard J. Murphy K-8 School
murphy@boston.k12.ma.us