Noble Brigham ‘20
Almost completely unknown to students, tucked away in the back of the Middle School office, is something called the Center for Teaching and Learning. Directed by Heather Dupont, Allison Schultz, and Sara Tilles, its mission is “to provide teachers with the foundation and inspiration to maximize every opportunity for students to learn.”
The CTL was begun in 2016 at the urging of T.J. Locke, the Greville Haslam Head of School. Schultz says, “Dr. Locke posed this question to the faculty where he said, ‘What can we do to support teaching and learning at Episcopal?’”
The result was an examination of similar programs, mostly at universities like Harvard and MIT, by a small group of interested faculty. Episcopal is one of the only secondary schools to have one. They also read books like Switch: How to Change When Change is Hard, which discusses the importance of innovation to create lasting reform.
The University of Pennsylvania’s CTL has been running for about 20 years. The director, Bruce Lenthall, states the Penn CTL has three main missions. The first is “creating a culture where people are actively engaged in thinking and talking with their colleagues about ways to improve their teaching practices.” The second is “to provide direct support to teachers to enhance their teaching.” The third is “encouraging initiatives around teaching.”
Those involved with the CTL at EA emphasize that it is free from evaluation and is not mandatory. “We’re here just as an entity to help teachers. We’re not here as any kind of supervisory group,” states Schultz.
Tilles says, “I think [the biggest accomplishment is] opening up the conversations of having a culture of growth. It’s hard to be vulnerable, especially with our peers and I think we are fostering these conversations that help us get a little more comfortable with that.”
Schultz says the biggest accomplishment is “the growth from year one to year three.”
The first few years were slow. Scholium was unable to obtain a copy of the CTL’s annual report, which lists the numbers of teachers that participate in different programs. The only number provided was that during the first year 39 attended Lunch and Learns, short lunch time discussions among faculty, and that last year the number of attendees had increased to 210. However, this number counts each individual every time they attended so there are repeats. Schultz says about 50% of current faculty are involved in some way.
While much of its small budget is through the school, Locke also says there have been significant outside contributions, but declined to provide an exact number. He says, “the details of the numbers of teachers attending things or the growth there, I just don’t want to focus on that right now.”
However, he is confident in its success and states, “We don’t know as much as we’ll know over time, but we know enough to know that it’s worth having, that it’s working.”
Sarah Wahlberg, Classics Department teacher, remarks, “I appreciate that the Center for Teaching and Learning provides the opportunity for me to discuss pedagogy with my colleagues and to learn what they’re doing in other classrooms.”
Steve Schuh, History Department Chair, notes, “I have found the CTL to be very helpful to me in my role as department chair.”
But universally, the Upper School faculty do not seem to have utilized it. Locke says that “it’s unfortunate” that it ended up being located in the Middle School, but the real issue may lie deeper.
Few Upper School faculty members would make critical comments or answer specific interview questions on the record. A teacher who wished to remain anonymous says that they cannot comment because EA is not an environment that values dissenting opinions and they fear they would be in danger of losing their job.
The comments that were given on the record were cautiously diplomatic.
Rachael Nichols, Upper School English teacher, was enthusiastic about the recent addition of English teacher Heather Dupont to the CTL staff. She states, “I have the utmost respect for Mrs. Dupont.”
“It is a wonderful opportunity to sit with one’s colleagues and think about the craft of teaching. How’s that? I can say that’s true,” remarks Kris Aldridge, Senior Form Dean.
The student body is completely unaware of the CTL. “What is it?” asks Jackie Miller ‘20.
Emma Bittenbender ‘20 says, “I did not know that was a thing, but I think if they go about it in the proper way that could be helpful, but they still need to respect the teachers and the training they’ve gone through.”
The staff editorial “A Modest Proposal for Reform at EA” suggests, “If the CTL is truly helping EA in a significant way, the administration has an obligation to show the students how it benefits our community,” but those involved do not find the lack of awareness problematic.
Tilles feels that “when you talk about teaching and learning, I think for us, you can’t separate those two things because the teachers are learning about their teaching practices which affect the learning of their students.”
Locke states, “There are so many things we do as a school to make the school better that it just either wouldn’t be interesting for students or it’s not important for them to know.”