"Education is an enterprise that happens by, with and through people. It doesn't happen any other way."
- Anthony Alvarado,
Former Community School District #2 Superintendent.


"Building a Learning Community:
A Portrait of NewYork City's Community School District #2"
(Download PDF v.)

"Building a Learning Community:
Professional Development"
(Download PDF v.)

"Building a Learning Community:
The Mathematics Initiative in Community School District #2".
(Download PDF v.)

"Building a Learning Community:
A Portrait of Public School 51 in New York City's Community School District #2".
(Download PDF v.)



"BUILDING A LEARNING COMMUNITY: A PORTRAIT OF NEW YORK CITY'S COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT #2"

  • How does a school district that holds 22,000 students from 100 countries spanning every economic background rise from eleventh to second out of 32 districts across New York? The answer rests with a dynamic and strong learning community who understands that the education of children requires scholarship, support and accountability across the board, from students to teachers to principals to administrators. This first video in the series of the High Performance Learning Communities Project highlights the comprehensive plan District #2 has undertaken in their solid commitment to education. The video overviews the District's continual engagement with professional development as well as their design and implementation of the Balanced Literacy Program and New Standards Initiative.

    Community School District #2 recognizes the vital role of every individual in the district, focusing all members of the learning community around instruction, teaching and learning. One critical component of building their learning community is the implementation of a Professional Development system. This video profiles their strategies, which include placing Professional Developers inside classrooms to work with individual teachers and schools toward an accountable learning environment. The video also introduces several other successful strategies, including the Balanced Literacy Program and the implementation of New Standards. These programs embody the District's overarching aim: getting students to think in more powerful and rigorous ways by raising the expectations and performance of all students to a "world class" level. District #2 believes the learning process is never over, that a true learning community always sets their goals to the highest level attainable.



    • "BUILDING A LEARNING COMMUNITY: PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT"

  • This second video in the series of the High Performance Learning Communities Project overviews the development, strategies and techniques of the Professional Development system. The video discusses the basic tenets of District #2's professional development program as it relates to constructing a comprehensive, unified management strategy for this initiative as well as reflects on building the knowledge and skills to raise the level of education to superior standards.

    The "learning is everyone's job" attitude that is the backbone for the Professional Development program underlies all aspects of this video. From the discussion of basic off- and on-site strategies such as formal Inter-school Mentoring, to the more explicit methods of Guided Reading instruction, "Building a Learning Community II: Professional Development" reveals one of the crucial components that has brought District #2 to its world class level.



    • "BUILDING A LEARNING COMMUNITY: POWERFUL LITERACY INSTRUCTION IN COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT #2"

  • The third video and accompanying text of the High Performance Learning Communities Project Video Series explores New York City Community School District #2's content-driven reform efforts through its implementation of the Balanced Literacy program. The video and text overview in some detail the components of the Balanced Literacy program, including guided reading, read aloud, shared reading and independent reading. Through the overview emerges a complex whole that provides one model of what content-driven reform can look like. In addition, it identifies the larger administrative, district-wide support structures that have grown up around the Balanced Literacy program to make District #2's reform efforts a success.