Bronx math teacher Samantha Cato is

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Jonathan Fickies

“I’ve been able to take on a leadership role while still doing what I love best — teaching,” said Cato, who as a demonstration teacher at IS 303 in Morris Heights has opened up her classroom to her colleagues as a learning laboratory.

Chapter Leader Megan Kenelly said that her new leadership responsibilities supporting her fellow teachers as a peer instructional coach “make me feel more invested and keep me here.”

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Jonathan Fickies

Both leadership positions were made possible by a 2012 five-year, federal Teacher Incentive Fund grant that supports the UFT/DOE career-ladder initiative now operating in 77 high-needs middle schools across the city.

The new career-ladder positions were forerunners to — and created in the same spirit as — the master and model teacher positions established in the union’s new collective-bargaining agreement with the Department of Education.

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Jonathan Fickies

While IS 303 was already a collaborative school community, thanks to Principal Patricia Bentley, it is now an open-door community where teachers feel free to visit each other’s classrooms to learn from and provide feedback to each other.

“It’s so easy to get tunnel vision without an outside perspective,” pointed out Bushra Makiya, another peer instructional coach.

Demonstration teacher Danielle Lerro opened her 7th-grade ESL class recently to all the 6th-grade teachers who, after an observation briefing session with Kenelly, observed the lesson and then shared what they saw in a follow-up debriefing session.

It didn’t matter that the 6th-grade team represented different disciplines; they all learned something about scaffolding questions to get to higher-level questioning, an emphasis of the Danielson Framework for Teaching, which is their shared lens.

Teacher Radesha Piles noted that this kind of focused, shared experience provides important feedback that has an impact on the entire school.

First-year science teacher Garrett Peck said he finds the opportunity to visit other classrooms extremely helpful. “Even if it’s a different discipline, I get ideas and learn classroom management techniques,” he said.

Lisa Pierce, a veteran elementary school teacher, came to IS 303 in September 2013 after deciding to test her comfort level by moving on to the challenge of middle school.

“In one year at 303, these leaders worked their magic,” she said. “I have so much more confidence, and I can go to my peer instructional coach every day as a professional guide and a buddy.”

Anne Williams, the senior director of teacher career development who oversees the Teacher Incentive Fund for the DOE, noted that the program “acknowledges the importance of teachers in a profound way.”

This year, IS 303 has four demonstration teachers who follow a regular schedule but allow their classrooms to serve as laboratory or model classrooms. They model and reflect on lessons with colleagues. For their added responsibilities, they receive a $6,000 annual differential.

The school’s two peer instructional coaches teach two periods a day and spend the remaining time working with other teachers to improve instruction and student learning aligned to the Danielson Framework for Teaching. Peer instructional coaches receive an annual differential of $12,000.

Donalda Chumney, the DOE’s director of implementation for the program, is quick to point out that the role of the peer instructional coaches and the demonstration teachers is not evaluative or supervisory. “It’s truly peer support, a mode of reflective coaching rather than a directive one,” she said.

The program also provides for teacher team leaders and interschool teacher development coaches who, as teachers assigned, work with staff in several Teacher Incentive Fund schools. The teacher team leader supports the peer instructional coaches and demonstration teachers in their transition into these new leadership roles by providing skill-based coaching.

“Principals must buy in and allow teachers to take the lead,” said Rosanna Bermudez, a teacher team leader and a member of the UFT’s Teachers Assigned Chapter. Working with the Teacher Incentive Fund leaders at eight schools, she said the initiative works because each school is able to adapt the program to its individual needs.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew said the Teacher Incentive Fund grant program crystallized his vision of classroom teachers as the “real education reformers.”

Building on what the Teacher Incentive Fund program had already begun, the new UFT contract provides more career pathways for more teachers that will enable them to lead from the classroom and to deepen collaboration within and across schools.

Only 200 schools have master and model teachers this school year to ensure strong implementation and to learn from this initial experience. But the number of schools with those positions should expand each year.

All career pathway positions provide additional compensation to teachers and, where needed, release time to meet the added responsibilities of their leadership roles.