Our work over the past three years has shown that there are three facets of organizational support. The first facet is alignment. In Cambridge, we aligned Project ASSIST to the reform mission and goals within the district, as well as to the mandates of IDEA '97 (see alignment chart). More specifically, within this context, the ASSIST approach was aligned to ongong science reform, inclusion of students with disabilities into the general education curriculum, a technology integration initiative spearheaded by the district's Director of Technology, changes in assessment using portfolios and embedded assessment, ELLI (The Early Literacy Learning Initiative), and the ATLAS Communities Project (one of the New American Schools Break the Mold Projects).

The second facet is providing useful resources in response to the needs identified by the action reflection teams. Teams may need money for copying the action reflection tools, teacher binders, science notebooks, and technology tools. In some settings, funds might be needed for teacher stipends. We have found that Project ASSIST allows administrators, in collaboration with teachers and specialists, to make wiser decisions about allocating resources in a coordinated and productive way.

In addition, principals, adminstrators, and other leaders have important roles to play in order to ensure that the action reflection team meetings are held on a regular basis. They need to provide the motivation, address logisical issues, and carve out the time for regular meetings before, during, or after the school day, and provide coverage for teachers' classes if the meetings are held during the school day.

Here are some strategies that have worked in Cambridge schools.

The leaders also need to find ways to identify and support emerging facilitators who play a key role in introducing and leading the action reflection process. For example, the leaders could bring facilitators together to debrief, use vignettes for problem solving difficult situations, and deal with emerging problems as they arise.

Facilitators create a safe environment for collaboration based on the principles of "no fault" and consensus. Specifically, the facilitator convenes the action reflection team meetings, ensures that people are prepared by bringing student work, adheres to the protocol and the timeframe, makes sure that the conversation is documented, encourages everyone to participate, sets priorities, and suggests alternative ways to address issues after the team meeting. The facilitator communicates with the principal and district leaders about the successes and challenges of the group.

The facilitator must be a troubleshooter who solves emerging problems (such as the ones in these vignettes) to maintain the integrity of the meeting time and the purposefulness of the work.

Potential facilitators might include staff developers, lead teachers, outside consultants, principals, technology specialists, and special educators. The following chart identifies the benefits and challenges of having people from different positions assume the role of faciliator.