Educator Expertise, Amplified: The TEAL Co-Creation Circuit
Our structured, five-week pilot partners with educators from your district to transform teacher insights into actionable policy and curriculum.
We facilitate and teachers lead.
The most powerful insights are already in your classrooms.
Top-down initiatives often fail because they lack the crucial context teachers possess, leading to low trust and stalled reforms.
Sustainable, effective change starts by recognizing educators as system-level experts, and including them in decisions that affect their work.
The Circuit is designed for shared success. It provides district leaders with a channel to incorporate their greatest internal resource: teacher expertise, while providing educators with a structured, compensated platform to apply their professional knowledge beyond the classroom. This ensures solutions are realistic and supported from day one.
THe Circuit
THe Circuit
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The Goal: Facilitate an open, constructive discussion to identify and prioritize the shared challenges that matter most to you as a teacher.
What Happens: We organize and facilitate a "Town Hall," a platform for educators to lead the conversation about their local context. TEAL does not prescribe an agenda.
For Teachers: You set the agenda. Your lived experience and concerns directly shape the circuit’s focus, and you are paid for your contribution.
The Result: A roadmap for developing a teacher-driven solution to your an issue you select that’s specific to your context.
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The Goal: Collaborate with educators to transform priorities into tangible, draft solutions.
What Happens: TEAL facilitates teacher-led working groups, called "Co-Creation Labs.” Educators apply their expertise, supported by TEAL's resources like sample policy briefs or curricular materials.
For Teachers: You are the primary designers, drafting real resources (e.g., policy recommendations, curriculum tools). Your professional expertise is directly applied and compensated.
The Result: Tailor-made draft documents (policy briefs, curriculum, outlines) that address the identified issues and are ready to present to district leadership.
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The Goal: Formulate and implement strategies by connecting teacher expertise directly with decision-makers.
What Happens: TEAL convenes a "Roundtable" meeting with teachers, administrators, and relevant stakeholders (community leaders, curriculum designers). Teachers present their co-created solutions for collaborative review and planning.
Key Methodology: For reviewing existing district materials, we use a structured "stoplight review" where teachers highlight what to keep (green), change (yellow), and discard (red).
For Teachers: You advocate for your work directly to leadership in a structured, respectful dialogue. Your participation is valued and paid.
For District Leaders: You engage in a practical dialogue with teachers, using their insights to vet, refine, and plan the implementation of more effective and realistic solutions.
The Result: Practical, vetted strategies with a shared implementation plan and increased buy-in from all parties.
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The Goal: Certify the quality of the co-created work, amplify its impact, and document the outcomes.
What Happens: TEAL certifies the outputs and provides a comprehensive report. We offer three distinct certifications to validate the work:
“Teacher Co-Created”: For resources developed from the ground up in Co-Creation Labs.
“TEAL Co-Creator”: For the individual participating teachers, recognizing their active leadership.
“TEAL Partner”: For district leadership who implements the resulting TEAL co-created resources.
For Teachers: You receive formal, professional recognition for your intellectual labor and contribution to systemic change, as well as insights into the process and the resulting resource.
For District Leaders: You receive a final report with outcomes and data, plus certified resources that carry mark of credibility and teacher endorsement for use and promotion.
Structured Democratic Voice is the unique and revolutionary theory of change which underpins our process.
What You Create Together
For TEACHERS
A “TEAL Co-Creator” certification for your portfolio
A stipend for your professional expertise
Leadership experience and a stronger peer network
Tangible evidence that your insights shape your local systems.
For Your District
A tailor-made policy brief or curriculum resource
A cohort of 10-15 engaged and invested teacher-leaders
An actionable report on teacher agency, sentiment, and insights
A foundation for future replicable collaborative work
Identify.
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Build.
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Transform.
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Identify. ✦ Build. ✦ Transform. ✦
The Co-Creation Circuit is a flexible framework.
Your cohort of teachers can apply it to the challenges most relevant to your context, with direct support from TEAL's specialized advisors.
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Potential Circuit: Developing a K-12 scope for accurate local Indigenous history and contemporary contributions.
Contributing TEAL Advisors:
Indigenous Ed Advisor: Ensures cultural accuracy, sovereignty, and respectful pedagogy.
Racial Equity Advisor: Reviews for systemic bias and representation.
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Potential Circuit: Creating a district-wide "Welcome & Inclusion Protocol" for refugee and migrant students/families.
Contributing TEAL Advisors:
Refugee & Migrant Ed. Advisor: Guides trauma-informed, linguistically accessible practices.
Multilingual Ed. Advisor: Advises on language acquisition supports.
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Potential Circuit: Redesigning school behavior policies to be restorative and practical to apply.
Contributing TEAL Advisors:
Social-Emotional Ed Advisor: Integrates SEL frameworks and skill-building.
Accessible Ed Advisor: Ensures policies are equitable for neurodiverse students.
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Potential Circuit: Auditing and redesigning systems for equitable access to technology, advanced courses, and extracurriculars.
Contributing TEAL Advisors:
Economic Equity Advisor: Analyzes barriers related to socioeconomic status.
Gender Equity Advisor: Ensures programs are inclusive and accessible to all genders.
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Potential Circuit: Addressing unique challenges like reliable home internet access for homework or connecting isolated families.
Contributing TEAL Advisors:
Rural Education Advisor: Helps tailor tech solutions and engagement strategies to rural logistics.
Community Connection Advisor: Aids in leveraging local community hubs.
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Potential Circuit: Creating an outdoor classroom curriculum that integrates science standards, local ecology, and food sovereignty studies.
Contributing TEAL Advisors:
Regenerative Education Advisor: Provides frameworks for ecological stewardship and project-based learning.
Community Connection Advisor: Helps partner with local farms and environmental groups.
Indigenous Ed. Advisor: Ensures curriculum respectfully incorporates acknowledgement of Indigenous knowledge regarding land stewardship.
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Potential Circuit: Auditing and redesigning a core unit (e.g., a book study) to be fully accessible, using multiple modes of engagement, representation, and expression.
Contributing TEAL Advisors:
Accessible Education Advisor: Guides UDL principles and ensures materials are equitable for all learners.
Teacher Engagement Advisor: Helps design the process for peer review and adoption of the UDL resources by other teachers.
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Potential Circuit: Filling ELL curriculum gaps by co-creating grade-level supplemental units and designing clear, translated protocols for family-teacher partnerships.
Contributing TEAL Advisors:
Multilingual Education Advisor: Guides culturally responsive curriculum development and language acquisition frameworks to address specific instructional gaps.
Community Connection Advisor: Helps tailor family engagement strategies and communication tools to build strong, accessible partnerships with multilingual families.
Teacher Engagement Advisor: Ensures protocols work cohesively with teachers’ pre-existing workload expectations.
Explore Examples of potential circuits!
Meet the facilitators
Jon Hudson
Jon earned a BA in TESOL and French, with a minor in International Affairs. Afterwards, he taught ESOL in South Carolina and France, before acting as a researcher for the Florida Center for Reading Research’s Emergent Childhood Literacy curriculum project. He holds an MA in Comparative Education and International Development from the University of Edinburgh where he led a critical discourse analysis of pedagogical end education policy documents.
Jon is passionate about localizing education and using schools for community building.
Lillian Purich
Lilly earned a BS in Early Childhood Education and Teaching and taught Pre-K/2nd grade for over seven years. While at a bilingual charter school in Chicago, she earned an English Second Language endorsement. During her MA in Comparative Education and International Development, she led a collaborative research project with local teachers on curriculum implementation policy.
Lillian is passionate about multicultural, inclusive curriculum development, social-emotional learning, and arts education.
Your Investment
Engages up to 25 teachers for less than the typical annual PD cost for one (NCTQ, 2024).
Total Investment: $18,000
Bring the Co-Creation Circuit to Your Schools!
Share your details below, and our team will contact you to discuss how this teacher-led process can address your district's specific goals and challenges.
Your Questions, Answered
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The active phase involves four core sessions over one month: one Town Hall, two Co-Creation Lab working sessions, and one Roundtable. The total time commitment is approximately 10-12 hours. Teachers are paid a stipend for their participation in each step.
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TEAL facilitators provide structure, resources (like sample policy briefs), and expert guidance.
Furthermore, our specialized Board of Advisors (e.g., in Multilingual Education, SEL, Accessible Design) is available to consult on specific projects, ensuring you have access to examples and further guidance.
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This is a professional certification awarded to each participating teacher.
It formally recognizes your contribution as an active co-creator of policy or curriculum, serving as a valuable portfolio piece that highlights your expertise beyond the classroom.
For Teachers
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The total pilot investment is $18,000.
This comprehensive fee includes all facilitation by TEAL leads, project management, pre- and post-pilot data collection/analysis, the final report, and direct stipends for 25 participating teachers ($300 each). It also covers materials and logistical support.
This represents a strategic investment, engaging a cohort of 25 educators for less than the typical annual professional development cost for a single teacher (NCTQ, 2024).
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The active "Circuit" takes five-weeks. Key district commitments include:
An initial alignment meeting with TEAL facilitators (1 hour).
Support in communicating the opportunity to staff.
Participation of relevant leaders (e.g., curriculum director, principal) in the final Roundtable session (1-2 hours).
Designating a primary liaison for scheduling and logistics.
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We partner with your district's liaison to craft a recruitment message and application process.
We recommend opening applications to all teaching staff, helping us select a cohort that represents a diversity of grade levels, subjects, schools, and experience.
This ensures the solutions are grounded in a wide range of classroom realities.
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The Roundtable is specifically designed for collaborative refinement.
The primary goal is to establish a new, structured dialogue between teachers and leadership. The value lies in the co-creation process itself, which builds trust, buy-in, and a shared understanding of challenges.
The output is a vetted, realistic starting point for adaptation.
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This program is designed to meet the federal definition of allowable professional development under Title II‑A and Title IV‑A.
Our circuit’s focus on high-quality professional development, curriculum creation, and teacher retention directly aligns with allowable uses of Title II (Supporting Effective Instruction) and Title IV (Student Support and Academic Enrichment) funds.
We can provide guidance on framing the pilot for these funding sources, as well as alignment documentation to support your Title II‑A and Title IV‑A funding justification and state review.
For District Leaders
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TEAL offers certifications that validate the teacher-led development process.
A "Teacher Co-Created" seal means educators were the primary authors.
A "Teacher Revised" seal means an existing document was reviewed and approved by educators.
This certification adds credibility and signals that the resource is grounded in real classroom experience.
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The report synthesizes both qualitative and quantitative data, including:
Analysis of pre- and post-pilot surveys measuring shifts in teacher professional agency, career commitment, and perceived efficacy.
Themes from interviews on the experience of participating in a structured democratic process.
Documentation and analysis of the co-created solution itself.
Recommendations for next steps and implementation.
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The pilot culminates in a final report and certified resources delivered to your district.
Your district can use this as a springboard for implementing the co-created solution, scaling the process to other schools, or applying the collaborative model to new challenges.
TEAL can discuss ongoing partnership options wherein your cohort will tackle another one of your priority issues.
Process & Outcomes