Carnegie Corporation of New York, the oldest grantmaking foundation in the US, focuses on international peace, the advancement of education and knowledge, and the strength of democracy. Its education grantmaking targets strategies that support students with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions they need to thrive in communities and economies, at home and beyond.

Starting in 2011, Carnegie Corporation partnered with New Teacher Center to develop and prepare educators with clinically rich practices through coaching-based professional learning. New Teacher Center’s groundbreaking i3 Validation study demonstrated unequivocal empirical impacts for students and teachers from coaching. “It quickly enabled NTC’s evolution to expand its work now to curriculum-based and content-based coaching,” said Jim Short, program director of Carnegie’s Leadership and Teaching to Advance Learning portfolio. “It’s about coherence; it’s about connecting the dots. Ultimately, it’s about building deep relationships to support teachers with coaching for effective implementation with high-quality instructional materials that brings learning to every student.” Today, NTC builds on several years of Carnegie Corporation support for school leader and teacher development individually, to serve all educators across the school ecosystem in harmony.

NTC continued to adapt its coaching model to support educators across a school and district to learn and launch new high-quality instructional materials. Carnegie Corporation spotlights the critical need for teachers to be supported with new and different professional development engagement in the adoption and implementation process. “You can’t simply hand over the materials,” said Short. “Shifting pedagogy and instruction for rich learning experiences means figuring out how to uplift the best parts of what works in coaching and bring it to all educators.”

The Corporation’s most recent grant supports the development of a systems-level diagnostic assessment for high-quality professional learning systems, and building and testing a high school ELA curriculum-based professional learning offering in partnership with Odell Education.

Shifts in NTC’s strategic plan put a premium on coherence and multi-level work for educators across the school ecosystem. Together, we’re removing fragmentation and using coaching to build sustainable cultures of inquiry, learning, and continuous improvement that involve everyone who touches instruction. For Carnegie Corporation, it is a central question: how does curriculum-based professional learning work for teachers that results in a powerful, equity-focused instructional experience for students?

“Coherence extends beyond having the right people in the room,” said Short.

“We must have a shared understanding of not just what high-quality instructional materials looks like, but what curriculum-based professional learning looks like.”

NTC’s proud partnership with Carnegie Corporation focuses on how curriculum-based professional learning serves as a means to improve equitable instruction. Short sees NTC’s coaching as a critical way to blend technical, instructional practices with classroom curriculum that enable every student to have a voice, engage, and make meaning of rigorous content in relevant ways. Short emphasizes high-quality instructional materials are not separate from learning experiences. It supports the many ways kids participate in rigorous learning by integrating empathy, listening, and culturally responsive pedagogy.

Carnegie Corporation’s support propels NTC’s two decades of best practices in coaching to ensure every educator’s curriculum literacy is a lever for eliminating systemic inequities. “We’re trying to support teachers and leaders with professional learning that models what students experience,” said Short. “It directly takes on the hidden barrier of trying to teach in a way that hasn’t been experienced by educators in their learning journeys.”

NTC is grateful for our partnership with the Carnegie Corporation of New York and is proud to be on the leading edge of equitable, high-quality content implementation nationwide.