Designing Services That Work

Task: How might we scale strong teaching?

NYC has consistently been challenged by a shortage of bilingual and English as a New Language educators to support a growing population of multilingual learners. This gap puts added strain on teachers and limits students' access to quality instruction. In response, leaders in NYC Public School’s Continuous Learning Team team launched a coaching initiative to strengthen educator capacity in a network of Brooklyn schools.

However, by the end of the pilot, results were mixed, raising concerns about the program’s effectiveness and its potential to improve student outcomes.

SOLUTION

To drive meaningful progress, I partnered with the team to identify and amplify strategies from schools that were seeing success. By capturing these insights, we created a roadmap for other schools to follow, ensuring the next phase of the initiative had a stronger foundation.

I developed two case studies that served as practical guides, equipping schools with a clear framework for building professional learning systems that empower educators to better support multilingual learners. These resources not only highlighted effective strategies but also helped to foster collaboration and continuous improvement across the network.

MY ROLE: User Researcher, Service Designer, Facilitator

DURATION: 6 months, full-time

ORGANIZATION: New York City Public School's Continuous Learning Team

TOOLS: Research protocol, stakeholder mapping, focus groups, affinity mapping

RESEARCH AND IDEATING

Grounded in the Double Diamond method, my approach followed four key stages: Discover, Design, Develop, and Deliver. Using this framework, I led a research-driven process to uncover what makes professional learning systems in schools effective and sustainable.

To ensure our work was intentional and actionable, I collaborated with the team to define two critical research questions:

What training infrastructure do successful schools build?
How do successful schools sustain their progress over time?

From there, I co-designed a two-phase research plan:

Phase 1: Field Research Review – Identifying high-performing school teams using existing data and observations
Phase 2: User Research – Conducting focus groups to surface key insights from educators on the ground

DISCOVERY PHASE 1: REVIEWING OBSERVATIONS FROM FIELD STUDIES

I worked closely with teacher coaches who had spent years training and observing educators in the initiative. Together, we:

Developed an evaluation tool to systematically assess effective teaching practices
Reviewed field notes and student data reports to pinpoint schools demonstrating strong support for multilingual learners
Identified two standout schools to serve as case study models for the initiative

To build these case studies, we engaged in strategic stakeholder mapping, identifying influential teachers who could share their experiences, encourage participation, and provide valuable insights. These focus groups became a critical platform for learning and collaboration, ensuring that the initiative’s next phase was rooted in real-world success stories.

DISCOVERY PHASE 2: CONDUCTING FOCUS GROUPS

To uncover key insights from successful schools, I designed and led a structured research process that ensured every voice was heard and every lesson captured.

I created a semi-structured research protocol aligned with our core research questions and collaborated with school teams to identify the right stakeholders for focus groups. This ensured we engaged educators with firsthand experience in building training cultures that strengthened multilingual learner support.

DEFINE

After conducting focus groups, I:

Recorded, transcribed, and coded the data, ensuring accuracy and depth
Led an affinity mapping process to distill findings into clear, evidence-based themes
Surfaced eight key insights with my team that became the foundation for two case studies

DELIVERY

To honor educators' lived experiences, I co-created the final case studies with school teams, integrating their feedback to ensure accuracy and relevance. The result:

Two case studies served as blueprints for additional schools - offering practical guidance on building strong professional learning systems.

Beyond driving impact and supporting 32 schools, this work strengthened relationships with key partners and directly contributed to securing a returning client for our company.

REFLECTION

Good facilitation requires democratizing input. To create the case studies, I needed to conduct focus groups with teams of teachers to learn about their experiences. These teams were a mix of veteran and new teachers, and because the veteran teachers often played a leadership role on the teams, they tended to take up more of the speaking time. Their voices naturally carried more weight, unintentionally overshadowing the perspectives of newer teachers. This imbalance risked narrowing the insights I could gather and limiting the depth of my research.

This experience helped me to adjust the role I played in focus groups, and when working with groups in general. Now, I:

I analyze the roles within a group and consider the different levels of influence each participant holds
I craft questions tailored to each role to ensure a diversity of perspectives is captured
I actively monitor participation during discussions, creating openings for quieter voices to contribute
I offer asynchronous feedback opportunities post-session, so those who may not feel comfortable speaking in a group have another way to share their thoughts

These facilitation steps help me to prevent power from silencing certain perspectives and help me gain comprehensive servicing insights.

You can take a look at both outputs by clicking on the link below.

CL Documentation - Policy Brief Vol 1 09-17.pdf

Case study on Establishing a Culture of Improvement

CL Documentation - Policy Brief Vol 2 09-17.pdf

Case study on Establishing a Self-sustaining Improvement Team

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