About The hub
Based on surveys/focus groups with Bay alums and community partners, a need was surfaced for TFA Bay Area to act as curator of best practices/research, to “cut through the noise”, and to elevate opportunities for learning in service of helping create the conditions for equitable/excellent schools. As such, the hub is a place where alumni and other education advocates can access curated/codified research and learnings and eventually an R&D engine for schools and teachers who don’t have capacity, but want to innovate and test evidenced based solutions. Our aspiration is that the hub becomes a space that facilitates a community of learning for both our alumni community and other education advocates —a place to come together - in partnership with experts — to learn from each other and organize around the solutions most likely to accelerate culture, equity, and outcomes for students.
“there are so many resorces out there that it is hard to know what works. TFA can play the role of clearing the noise and sharing — what are people actually using and what works”
— Bay Area Alum
Learning Pillars
Each Pillar will include curated resources, external partnerships and a year-long focus area, so we can dive deep into the most pressing issues and barriers facing our students and educators today.
Whole Child
20-21 Focus: Socio-Emotional Learning During COVID: Addressing New Challenges
In a TFA Bay Area Spring 2020 Needs Assessment, educators and school-based alumni leaders noted the strong desire to meet the socio-emotional needs of students and staff given the impact of COVID on their lives and the lives of their families. Many were unsure where to turn for resources and/or training for themselves, their students and their staff. This pillar aims to fill that need.
Featured External Partnership: Child Mind Institute
Instructional Rigor
20-21 Focus: Distance Learning - How To & Best Practices
As we move from schooling as it had looked for the last 100 years to quickly shifting to virtual and hybrid learning models, many of our alumni leaders are engaging in conversations around how to sustain a rigorous bar, while supporting students & families holistically. We have an opportunity to point our broader network to ways in which our alumni leaders are beginning to define this.
Featured External Partnership:
Alumni Content Curators
Commimtment to DEI
20-21 Focus: Anti-Racism: Developing Leadership Competencies and Implementing Practices
Much like our country, our TFA community members are experiencing a reckoning and feeling further committed to building their understanding of how racism & anti-Blackness have shown up in their work, in their leadership and in their communities. They are looking to build the knowledge & skill to lead towards disruption and creation of more equitable spaces. For this reason we are enlisting partners and alumni practitioners to bring their expertise to our broader network
Featured External Partnership: TBD
School Innovation
20-21 Focus: Rethinking School During COVID + Virtual Learning
COVID has forced us all to rethink schooling. This is an opportunity to support our school partners & alumni leaders by tapping into their knowledge, skills and creativity, and connecting them with resources - fellowships, communities of practice, coaching - to re-envision how we define success and equitable outcomes.
Featured External Partnership: Transcend