Private School Equitable Funding Grant

Building on our prior experience with private schools, we are excited to continue serving existing partners and to expand services to newly participating private schools through the Private School Equitable Funding Grant. Please see below for important dates and services.

We are DESE certified to provide PDPs for completion of programs in the following categories: Curriculum and Instruction, Leadership/Administration, College and Career Readiness, Comprehensive Health, and History/Social Science.

Content Areas Approved for Services Outlined Below:

• Co-Teaching/Inclusion
• ELA/Literacy
• English Learners (see asynchronous course description below)
• History/Social Sciences
• Math
• Science/Technology, Engineering
• Sense of Belonging and Relationships
• Social-Emotional Learning
• Students with Disabilities

Instructional Coaching Services
We offer 1:1 and group coaching to novice teachers and experienced teachers as well as to teacher teams. Our instructional coaching areas of focus include the following: Classroom Culture, Instruction, Assessment, Student Engagement, Student Support, and content-specific goals in history/social science, ELA/literacy, mathematics, science, SEL, co-teaching/inclusion. Our coaching supports educators in administering and using high-quality, curriculum-aligned assessments to monitor student progress, identify learning barriers, and differentiate instruction to meet the academic, social-emotional, and behavioral needs of diverse learners.

Leadership Coaching Services
We offer 1:1 leadership coaching to school leaders or leadership teams. Our leadership coaching areas of focus include the following: Planning Effective Instructional Meetings, Conducting Instructional Rounds, Building a Safe and Supportive School Climate, and Developing Effective Supervision. Leadership coaching emphasizes building sustainable instructional systems and inclusive practices that support both educator growth and student success.

Workshop Series/Courses
We offer workshop series and courses to promote excellence in teaching and leading and to foster safe and supportive learning environments. All workshops are customizable and grounded in culturally responsive, curriculum-aligned, and evidence-based practices that can be implemented immediately by educators.

• Workshop series topics include the following:

  • Classroom Management

  • Integrating Social Emotional Learning and Academics – Sample topics include Igniting Student Motivation, Teaching Perseverance, Teaching Effective Communication, and Improving Student Collaboration.

  • Team Facilitation

  • Transformational Leadership

  • Designing Professional Development

  • Instructional Leadership

  • Lesson Design

  • Investigating History curriculum implementation

  • Civics Projects Design

• Workshop series topics facilitated by our content-specialist team:

  • Launching High-Quality Instruction with the OUR / Illustrative Mathematics Curriculum with Zane Ranney

  • Designing and Facilitating Integrated, Problems-Based Mathematics Using Harkness Pedagogy with Zane Ranney

  • OpenSciEd curriculum or other applied science learning implementation with Dr. Sarah Vendetti

• Programs available on a per-seat basis (applicants should indicate the number of seats requested):
  • Elevating Strengths: Supporting Multilingual Learners Facing Adversity with Dr. Debbie Zacarian (Asynchronous. Registrants may complete this self-paced, six module course any time in the delivery window).
    This course equips educators with research-based insights, tools, and strategies drawn from Teaching to Strengths: Supporting Students Living with Trauma, Violence, and Chronic Stress by Zacarian et al. Through real-world examples, reflective exercises, and implementation planning, participants will learn to create strengths-based, responsive learning environments that promote safety, belonging, value, and competence both in school and beyond.
    • Registry of the MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education approves this course and participants earn a certificate of PDP upon completion. Course participants will be responsible for purchasing the accompanying book, Teaching to Strengths.
  • Summer Institutes for either Investigating History or Open SciEd. August 19-20, 9-3. Southborough, MA.
    • Participants of the Summer Institutes for the Investigating History curriculum or the Open SciEd curriculum will have the opportunitiy to internalize the design of either curriculum, both of which are rated as high quality applied learning programs and are freely available. Take advantage of this opportunity to build the skills and confidence of your social studies and science team in community with other teachers from around the state.
    • Investigating History is a comprehensive, authentic, inquiry-based curriculum that is fully aligned to the 2018 History/Social Science Framework — developed by DESE in collaboration with teachers, history scholars, and organizations across Massachusetts and provided at no cost to schools for students in grades three through seven. Learn more on our Investigating History page or explore the curriculum.
    • Open SciEd is a an open source, standards-aligned phenomena-based science curriculum available at all grade levels. Explore the curriculum.

Learning Walks
We provide learning walk programs for faculty and/or school leadership to improve instruction, assessment, and/or school climate. Learning walks are structured to build shared understanding of effective practices while strengthening professional trust and collaboration.

Consulting Services
School partners can extend the progress and impact of the work above through the engagement of hourly consulting work. Potential consulting work can include the following: Designing Curriculum-Related Scope and Sequence, Schedule Design, Building out Documentation for School Instructional Vision and Practices and for an Approach to Student Support, Creating a Strategic Plan, Conducting Data Analysis, and Creating Advisory Programming.