Goldenberg received the award in December at Learning Forward's Annual Conference in Atlanta with co-authors Bradley A. Ermeling, Ronald
Gallimore, and William M. Saunders. They were honored for their recent studies, “Increasing Achievement by Focusing Grade-Level
Teams on Improving Classroom Learning" and "Moving the Learning of
Teaching Closer to Practice."
The researchers studied 15 Title 1 schools to examine the
impact of professional learning communities on student achievement and teacher
instruction. They found significant gains in student achievement and improved
teacher instruction after nine schools converted routine meetings into
professional learning teams guided by an explicit protocol that encouraged
initiative.
The team combined these findings with data collected
from 20 districts and 200-plus schools to identify five keys to creating
effective learning teams. They included job-alike teams of teachers, protocols
that guide the team's improvement efforts, trained peer facilitators, stable
settings dedicated to improving instruction and learning, and perseverance for
progress on student performance indicators.
Both studies are available for free on Stanford School of Education’s
Open Archive at http://openarchive.stanford.edu/.