What is a Collaborative Learning School?

As a Collaborative Learning School, Maxfield will partner with the University of St. Thomas School of Education to prepare teachers, develop and apply best practices for teaching and learning, and provide professional development to create incredible student-centered learning environments.  

How has this approach helped elsewhere, do you have examples?

Collaborative learning schools are popular in many bigger cities. Educational improvement efforts have often been driven by policy makers, researchers, and other individuals distant from the day-to-day experiences of teachers and students, or centered on the needs of a singular type of student. By entering into this collaboration, St. Thomas and Maxfield Elementary will learn from each other. Bringing the expertise of St. Thomas faculty and Maxfield teachers together, to not only implement known best practices, but to jointly observe, learn and co-design new best practices that serve the students at both institutions. These are the leaders of our future community.

What does this mean for Maxfield students? How will they benefit?

Better teacher preparation leads to better student outcomes. A close relationship with the university means that Maxfield teachers will have access to the most current best practices in the field, and St. Thomas will have access to a partnership deep enough to allow agile and timely development of best practices in teacher preparation. This will lead to students being served by excellent teachers who allow them to grow and meet their full potential. There will be innovative programming for students, such as the rational numbers project. The partnership will also lead to increased support for math and reading literacy in the forms of after-school tutoring, whether one-on-one or in a group, and summertime instruction.

Why Maxfield? 

Maxfield Elementary has a long history of serving the students and families of Saint Paul’s Rondo neighborhood. Maxfield has a strong leader in Dr. Leslie Hitchens. 

What do you hope this collaborative learning school does for SPPS and UST?

By working together, we believe this innovative model will enhance our students’ ability to think critically, pursue their dreams and change the world. Additionally, our shared work is to train teachers, develop and apply best practices for teaching and learning, and provide professional development to create incredible student-centered learning environments. One of the best things about this partnership is that it will help us develop and hire more teachers in the coming years. This will benefit not only Maxfield Elementary, but students and educators across the Saint Paul Public Schools district.

Is this the first such relationship for SPPS?

Saint Paul Public Schools has worked with a number of colleges and universities over the years to enhance student learning and develop highly effective teachers.