All teachers received staff development introducing them to the proposed program and to teaching strategies and the issues surrounding school restructuring. Teachers received training in block scheduling, team grouping, cooperative learning, writing across the curriculum, and subject integration. Training opportunities allowed teachers to react and offer input before the plan was implemented. Clusters Thurgood Marshall has seven clusters, at least one in each grade. This arrangement enables about 80 percent of the school's bilingual and special education students to attend regular classrooms.
Teachers have considerable authority over the instructional program within their clusters.
The teachers devised a schedule for their cluster in which students would have a double period of English three days a week in lieu of the regular period five days a week. The cluster structure and teacher planning periods facilitate interdisciplinary lessons and projects. In one cluster, an interdisciplinary unit on homelessness grew into a community service project for the entire school. At the cluster's initiative, the school formed a partnership with a nearby homeless shelter. Common planning time.