Stretch, Bend, and Flex: The Experiences of First-Year Teachers from the Urban Teacher Training Collaborative

With funding from MetLife Foundation, JFF has explored the challenges new teachers face and their responses to those challenges, as well as how the challenges intertwine with relationships among students, teachers, and parents. Stretch, Bend, and Flex documents the experiences of first-year teachers who graduated from the Urban Teacher Training Collaborative’s Master of Arts in Teaching program at Tufts in 2002.

Tufts created this collaborative in 1999 in conjunction with two pilot schools in Boston, the Boston Arts Academy and Fenway High School. It is a school-based program that reflects the commitment of the partners to developing effective, collegial, and reform-minded teachers for urban schools.