The third core element of TEP's educational program is the school's genuinely interdisciplinary curriculum, a feature made possible through TEP's unique structural emphasis on teacher observation and collaboration.

Educational research has found that schools organized around interdisciplinary teaching and learning—whereby teams of two or more teachers from different subject areas work collaboratively to develop, deliver, and evaluate curriculum—positively impact student academic achievement [i] and social well-being [ii], especially among at-risk students at the middle school level. This research supports the notion that integrating content through exposure across multiple subject areas (e.g. using musical rhythm to build on the mathematical concept of fractions) improves understanding. Further, researchers suggest that teams of teachers, in taking on collective responsibility for student achievement, create a family-model that helps strengthen social bonds between students and their teachers. [iii]

While an interdisciplinary curriculum is a theoretical ideal, the structural reality of many schools precludes the collaboration required for interdisciplinary teaching and learning to take place. In contrast, TEP’s school structure specifically creates and reinforces a collaborative culture in several key ways: (a) The annual 6-week Summer Development Institute lays the foundation for interdisciplinary teaching as teachers collaborate in planning specific curricular changes and designing Academic Support Plans for failing students. (b) TEP’s teacher schedule has been specially designed such that every TEP teacher spends at least three periods per day observing, being observed, and debriefing/planning with a partner teacher (teacher pairs rotate each quarter). This unique structural feature provides built-in time for teachers to plan and implement interdisciplinary units with one another. (c) TEP’s teacher compensation program, specifically the bonus component, is determined by school-wide performance (not individual teacher performance). This fosters a culture of collaboration that is essential to the success of interdisciplinary planning, teaching, and evaluation.

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[i] Nancy Flowers, Steven B. Mertens, and Peter F. Mulhall, “The Impact of Teaming: Five Research-Based Outcomes of Teaming,” Middle School Journal November 1999: 57-60

[ii] Joanne M. Arhar and Jeffrey D. Kromrey, “Interdisciplinary Teaming at the Middle School Level: Creating a Sense of Belonging for At-Risk Middle Level Students,” Presented at Meeting of American Educational Research Association (Atlanta, GA, April 12-16, 1993), Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), ED364456 (10 April 2007).

[iii] ibid