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Critical Friends Groups

What is a Critical Friends Group (CFG)?

 Critical Friends  is a professional learning community consisting of approximately 8-12 educators who come together voluntarily at least once a month for about 2 hours. Group members are committed to improving their practice through collaborative learning.

How did the idea of Critical Friends develop?

In 1994, the Annenberg Institute for School Reform designed a different approach to professional development, one that would be focused on the practitioner and on defining what will improve student learning.

What are the purposes of a Critical Friends Group?

Critical Friends Groups are designed to:
  • Create a professional learning community
  • Make teaching practice explicit and public by "talking about teaching"
  • Help people involved in schools to work collaboratively in democratic, reflective communities
  • Establish a foundation for sustained professional development based on the spirit of inquiry
  • Provide a context to understand our work with students, our relationships with peers, and our thoughts, assumptions, and beliefs about teaching and learning
  • Help educators help each other turn theories into practice and standards into actual student learning.
  • Improve teaching and learning


For more information about Critical Friends, contact Eve Rifkin of the Tucson Small Schools Project and City High School: (520) 623-7223.  

For information about our summer training for K-3 Critical Friends Group: contact Voices for Education,  (520) 324-0881 or contiveros@voicesforeducation.org