A group of five educators from Maryland gathered this summer to discuss details of opening up a new school where they, not principals, would run the show.

The teachers discussed budgeting, facilities, community engagement, and curriculum without any representatives from the state education department or local school board, according to a recent article in USNews.com. The new school is expected to open in Prince George’s County, Maryland in 2015. Public teacher-led schools can operate as long as they receive a waiver from state's departments of education.

“Teachers don’t really get a lot of say in what goes on in schools,” said Dorothy Ray, director of Prince George’s County Educators’ Association’s program. “So I thought, why not then have an avenue where teachers really get to step up to the plate and decide how schools would actually operate, what the academic program would look like, and just the overall kind of structure that would give kids more engagement in their own learning?”

The expansion of teacher-led schools isn’t just happening in Maryland, the article said. Teachers across the nation are “looking to restructure their schools’ governance models and run them on their own.”

Currently, there are nearly 60 teacher-run schools nationwide in cities such as Denver, San Francisco, Boston, and Cincinnati. The article referred to a report released by Gallup in April which found teachers were the least likely of any profession to respond positively to whether they feel their opinions counted at work, and whether their supervisor creates an “open and trusting environment.”

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Article by Kassondra Granata, EducationWorld Contributor