Sixteen schools have won approval to join the PROSE program, enabling them to rethink old rules and come up with new ways of organizing the school day to enhance student learning, professional development and parent engagement.
The July 13 announcement by UFT President Michael Mulgrew, Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña and Council of School Supervisors and Administrators President Ernest Logan brings the number of schools in the program to 140.
“The power of PROSE is that it allows schools to develop their own ideas on what is going to move education for their students,” said Mulgrew. “PROSE has empowered teachers to come up with great ideas and put them into practice.”
The Progressive Redesign Opportunity Schools for Excellence program, or PROSE, allows schools with strong collaboration between administrators and staff to try something different: for example, an earlier start time to allow for a robotics class; early dismissal one day a week for professional development; or alternative work schedules to allow for parent engagement time. The PROSE program was created as part of the 2014 UFT contract.
“We’ll be able to initiate a teacher leader program,” said Nicole Mahool, the chapter leader at the Urban Assembly School for Global Commerce in Manhattan, a newly named PROSE school. Through its PROSE initiative, Urban Assembly is creating a weekly four-hour block of after-school time for the teacher-to-teacher professional development that is planned.
“It will provide peer coaching for the staff to improve general practices of the school,” Mahool said. “And we’ll be able to provide additional professional development in after-school hours.”
At Renaissance HS in the Bronx, Chapter Leader Mark Galante said the school will use two low-attendance days before November for professional development. “It’s for staff to discuss what’s working well and what’s not,” he said. “And it’s an opportunity for teachers to develop their leadership skills so they can have a hand in shaping professional development in the future.”
In addition to the 16 new PROSE schools, 34 schools will join the first cohort of PROSE Pathways, which will allow schools to observe and learn from current PROSE schools to help them prepare strong applications for the program.