Tampa Catholic High School

Welcome Educators

Adult Learning at Parker

Parker is a school where adults, as well as adolescents, come to learn. Parker teachers learn and deepen their practice as they co-teach, collaborate in planning teams, and engage in weekly embedded professional development on Wednesday afternoons. Much of this work is facilitated using protocols developed by the School Reform Initiative (SRI).

Sizer Teachers Center

Parker shares what’s been learned over twenty years of Essential School-keeping with others. The Sizer Teachers Center, located at Parker, provides workshops, custom visits, school coaching, and consulting services to educators, schools, and districts. The theory behind the work of the Sizer Teachers Center is that schools involved in reform—whether existing or new schools—benefit most from professional development that is carried out by people engaged in and committed to the same type of work. We believe that our teachers, who are themselves practitioners committed to helping students be successful in school, can effectively provide partnership and facilitation to people in other schools involved in the challenging and sometimes complicated process of change.


Learn to Teach!

New Teachers Collaborative (NTC), which is housed at Parker, offers early career teachers a chance to learn to teach by teaching in small, progressive schools designed to foster the habits and skills of critical thinking, collaborative inquiry, and reflection, where students are known well. NTC is a cohort-based, post-Baccalureate apprenticeship. Grounded in teacher collaboration and reflective practice, NTC is an approved Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education teacher preparation program that culminates in Initial Licensure.


School Partnerships


The theory behind the work of the Sizer Teachers Center is that schools involved in reform—whether existing or new schools—benefit most from professional development that is carried out by people engaged in and committed to the same type of work. We believe that our teachers, who are themselves practitioners committed to helping students be successful in school, can effectively provide partnership and facilitation to people in other schools involved in the challenging and sometimes complicated process of change.


Historically, Parker has been involved in long-term partnerships with several schools as part of the National Mentor Schools Project of the Coalition of Essential Schools. We also work with other high schools in Massachusetts and beyond who have contracted with us for other projects, small and large.


Francis W. Parker Charter Essential School
& Theodore R. Sizer Teachers Center
49 Antietam Street
Devens, MA 01434


Please contact:
[email protected]

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