A Network for Instructional Improvement - by Sara Demartino & Anthony Petrosky & Glenn Nolly Hardcover

About the Book

This book tells the story of how educators in a large urban district, supported by the University of Pittsburgh, came together to tackle persistent challenges in literacy instruction. Through a powerful networked improvement approach, they transformed classrooms and raised student achievement, especially for those furthest from opportunity. This book offers actionable, research-based insights into how teachers and leaders can use continuous improvement methods to ensure all students thrive.

Book Synopsis

We face vast challenges in education, but districts and schools are full of educators ready to take on problems of practice that can't be solved quickly or alone. When we support schools and districts to become continuous improvement organizations, we create space for educators to come together as a network to understand challenges to high-quality instruction and to spread promising practice so all students benefit.

A Network for Instructional Improvement: How Teachers and Leaders Made it Work tells the story of how a community of educators in a large urban district, with support from the University of Pittsburgh, worked as a network for six years to change literacy teaching and learning for students who are furthest from opportunity. The authors take readers into the heart of the project-the classrooms, the practices, the learning walks, the deep collaborative work of continuous improvement-and show how student achievement rose as a result. Using the stories of these educators and their schools, this book shares research-based, actionable examples of how teachers and leaders centered literacy teaching and learning on students.

About the Author

Sara DeMartino began her career in education as a high school English language arts teacher in Hillsborough County, FL. She now works with both pre-service and in-service English language arts teachers as a fellow at the Institute for Learning (IFL). In her work at IFL, Sara provides collaborative content support for school-based PLCs and works collaboratively with educators in various school districts on research, curriculum development, and professional development. She has been a teaching fellow at the University of Pittsburgh's graduate School of Education where she taught graduate level methods courses and has worked with researchers from the Learning Research and Development Center (LRDC) to study secondary students' writing development and their use of peer review. Sara holds a bachelor's degree in English, a master's in English education, and a Ph.D. in language, literacy, and culture. Sara is the proud mother of two amazing children who have grown up alongside the NSI. In her spare time, Sara enjoys reading, running, and spoiling her dogs (who do not run).

Anthony Petrosky directs the Institute for Learning (IFL) at the Learning Research & Development Center (LRDC) at the University of Pittsburgh. He is a research scientist at LRDC and a professor in the School of Education. He has worked with professional learning and curriculum development in English and literacy for IFL with teachers and district leaders in the public schools across the country. He began his career as an 9th grade English teacher.

Along with David Bartholomae, Petrosky is the co-author and co-editor of five books: Facts, Artifacts, and Counterfacts: Theory and Method for a Reading and Writing Course, The Teaching of Writing, Ways of Reading, Ways of Reading Words and Images, and History and Ethnography: Reading and Writing About Others. With Stephanie McConachie, he co-authored and co-edited Content Matters: A Disciplinary Literacy Approach to Improving Student Learning.

Petrosky's first collection of poetry, Jurgis Petraskas received the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets and a Notable Book Award from the American Library Association. He has published two other collections of poetry, Red and Yellow Boat and Crazy Love.

Glenn Nolly has worked in public education for over 35 years advocating for students who have been marginalized. He started his career teaching 7th and 8th grade English. After teaching for ten years he embarked on the journey of administration where he held the positions of assistant principal, high school principal, area superintendent, director of professional learning, and associate superintendent of high schools. A highlight of his career as a high school principal was building an Advanced Placement program with an enrollment that mirrored the population of his diverse student body. As associate superintendent of high schools, he built community among a group of fourteen principals, and oversaw the implementation of teacher-led Professional Learning Communities within each high school.
Currently, Nolly is an Assistant Professor of Practice at the University of Texas at Austin and a Fellow at the Institute for Learning located in the Learning, Research & Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh. Nolly is co-author of Equity Audits: A Practical Leadership Tool for Developing Equitable and Excellent Schools.