Background
The Tripod
The legs of the “tripod” in the Tripod Project are content, pedagogy and relationships: teachers need to understand what they are teaching (content knowledge); they need multiple effective ways of communicating the material to students (pedagogy); and they need to relate to students (relationships) in ways that motivate and enable them.
Mission
The Tripod Project aims to strengthen all three legs of the tripod in ways that raise achievement for all students, while narrowing achievement gaps between racial and ethnic groups.
Background
The Tripod Project was inspired by findings from a survey of middle and high school students in the then 15 school districts of the Minority Student Achievement Network (MSAN). [To learn about findings from that survey, see Ronald F. Ferguson, “What Doesn't Meet the Eye: Understanding and Addressing Racial Disparities in High-Achieving Suburban Schools.” (PDF - 875K).]
The Tripod Project is led by Dr. Ron Ferguson who is based at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and by Rob Ramsdell who is the VP of School Improvement Services at Cambridge Education. The project is supported and operated as a partnership between Cambridge Education and Dr. Ferguson, the project’s founder. Cambridge Education is based in Cambridge, England with offices in Westwood, MA and New York, NY.