Services
student-teacher Dialogues to make class more compelling
Through our Student-Teacher Dialogues, teachers bring small groups of students each week into their instructional planning during or outside class. Our Dialogues are based on cogenerative dialogues, a critical pedagogy backed by 25 years of urban schools research at City University of New York. Our Dialogues support classrooms in grades 5 to 12.
offerings
10 Week Dialogues Introduction Cycle supports a teacher team to establish dialogues practice and experience initial classroom shifts.
15 to 30 Week Dialogues Transformation Cycle supports a teacher team to develop a dialogues practice they can sustain and experience broad classroom shifts.
Dialogues 1-2-3 Starter Workshop introduces our Dialogues protocol that teachers can practice on their own.
Impact Highlights:
At JHS 123: The Bronx Urban Community Magnet School, we implemented Student-Teacher Dialogues from Winter 2022 through Spring 2025.
Between Fall 2022 and Spring 2023, students reported a 30% increase in listening to their peers in class and a 26% increase in their teacher asking difficult questions.
In Spring 2023, 10 out of 10 teachers reported that they positively adjusted aspects of their teaching, felt more supported when teaching, and developed deeper relationships with their students.
chronic absence support to make Attendance more compelling
While real barriers prevent some students from high attendance, most students who regularly miss school are not experiencing its purpose in their lives. We help you make class not just a credit students need, but a space they want to learn.
Having implemented a wide range attendance strategies over the past 10 years, we understand steps you can take that will reduce absenteeism.
offeringS
"Creating First Period FOMO" 1-2-3 Workshop is a two-part workshop in which teachers experience and test a Dialogues protocol that shows how attendance norms can be reset at any time in the year.
“Creating First Period FOMO” 6-10 Week Dialogues Cycle supports a teacher team with small groups of their students, to adjust their first period lesson structures so class becomes more compelling. This program supports classrooms in grades 5 to 12.
Through our Attendance Team services, we partner with schools grades K to 12 to:
Identify root causes of absenteeism that can be shifted
Build effective attendance strategies and protocols
Create intuitive trackers to record and manage progress
Train school teams, developing sustainable capacity
Impact highlights:
Since Spring 2020, we have partnered with A-Tech High School and their lead CBO, Counseling in Schools, on a range of programs to improve student outcomes and build school capacity. Some highlights:
Attendance Improvement: In collaboration with school leadership, we developed tiered attendance outreach strategies, created a dashboard to enable monitoring and continuous improvement, and facilitated attendance team meetings. We concurrently developed school capacity to manage the teams and strategies. A-Tech’s attendance has increased from 78% to 93% and its chronic absence has decreased from 41% to 15% between 2021 and 2024.
Success Mentor Team: In collaboration with Counseling in Schools, we developed a Success Mentor protocol to build trusting relationships with students and families who have experienced chronic absence. We trained mentors, facilitated team meetings, and supported with a progress tracker. The school continues to successfully manage this program on its own.
Student and Parent Needs Escalation: In collaboration with school leadership, we designed an escalation process and progress trackers to expedite student, parent, and tech needs, and resolve them in a systematic way. The school continues to successfully manage this program on its own.
OTHER SErvices: program Design & progress tracking to ensure School teams clearly impact students
For any school-based program, we help leadership clarify desired student outcomes and determine daily actions that tap into student and adult motivation. We pair this with progress trackers that are intuitive, informative, and interactive. The result is more effective programs, that your school can sustain. Some programs we’ve supported: Attendance Team and Success Mentor Team protocols and trackers, and Student and Family Needs Escalation.
Services
We can partner with you to:
Clarify desired student outcomes
Build and train school teams, developing sustainable capacity
Identify underutilized talent in your building who can support key programs
Where We Work
We have extensive experience working with New York City DOE community schools, renewal/receivership/turnaround schools, and magnet schools. We are open to working with schools of any type and location.
In NYC’s Community School District 8, Verdant Learning has been supporting JHS 123: The Bronx Urban Community Magnet School, Grades 6-8, since January 2022. In April 2022, JHS 123 was awarded the 2022 Secondary Magnet School of Merit Award of Excellence by the Magnet Schools of America.
In Community School District 14, we have been supporting A-Tech High School since Spring 2020. Previously, we supported IS 71 Juan Morel Campos School of the Arts, Grades 6-12, from 2016 to 2020, PS/IS 157 Franklin Magnet, Grades PK-8, from 2018 to 2020, and MS 582, Grades 6-8, from 2016 to 2018. In Community School District 13, we supported Park Slope School 282, when it served Grades K-8, and MS 266 Park Place Community School, Grades 6-8 in 2014-15.
Verdant also partners with Counseling in Schools, to support their community schools. We have been supporting Brooklyn Collegiate High School in Community District 23 since 2024 and PS/MS 007 in Community School District 4 since 2023. We partnered with PS/IS 288 in Community School District 21 from 2022 to 2024, and PS 398 in Community District 17 from 2023 to 2024. Previously, we partnered with Grand Street Settlement as a Community School subcontractor, and with Center for Supportive Schools as a consultant on program development and innovation.
