Professional Development

The Enhanced Assessment project is a federally funded 18-month project that supports New England states in their development of large-scale assessments that address the needs of students with disabilities and English-language learners.

CLLC is working with New York City’s central mathematics office to develop what is being called a “Student Work Toolkit.” This toolkit will help Regional Instructional Specialists support coaches in their efforts to influence the practice of teachers.

Yes-2-Technology (Y2T) is a physical, life and earth science, IT and workforce development project for teens at the St. Louis Science Center. Funded by NSF’s ITEST program, the goal of the project is to provide disadvantaged teens with the opportunity to broaden their STEM and workplace skills and encourage them to consider further education and careers in IT or STEM.

CSE is working with the Massachusetts State Science and Engineering Fair to help design and develop a sustainable, scalable model of teacher professional development in inquiry-based learning. The goal of the one-week course is to enable middle and high school teachers to imbue their science curricula with inquiry-based activities that will help students develop science literacy, prepare them for college majors in science and technology, show high achievement on MCAS science tests, and acquire workplace skills such as critical thinking, communication, teamwork, and perseverance.

SmART Schools uses the arts as a core academic subject in the regular school curriculum and strengthens the use of high-quality arts in other academic subjects. This grant allows FSC to expand and enhance the standards-based, whole-school change SmART Schools model in diverse, high-need settings; refine the model’s tools, materials, techniques, and processes so that they are adaptable to various contexts; conduct a rigorous third-party evaluation of the program; and strengthen dissemination efforts so that the model can be replicated throughout the U.S.

Project Reentry expands and supplements services offered through the Department of Justice Affairs to recently released youth offenders. Services include academic, employability, life, and occupational skills training. EDC provides technical assistance to the project that focuses on program design issues. EDC assesses curriculum provided by partnering institutions, researches and reports on best practices of similar projects, and provides recommendations for program modification based upon surveys of participants and community stakeholders.

CLLC is working with New York City’s Office of English Language Learners (ELLs) to develop and deliver a series of professional-development sessions with school teams focused on improving mathematics achievements of ELLs. The sessions are intended to develop a handbook for middle-grades teams which will help them use student work analysis, summaries of research on learning mathematics, and structured lesson planning to improve mathematics instruction for ELLs.

CAE edited and managed this international peer-reviewed journal, which was an initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Last Acts Task Force on Institutional Innovation. The journal reached more than 8,000 health care providers each month and featured thematic issues that highlighted promising practices and expert commentary.

The Hidden Sparks Fund is dedicate to helping children with learning differences reach their full potential by developing and supporting professional development for educators in Jewish day schools. This project evaluates a professional development program aimed at improving teachers and administrators understanding and support for a wide range of learners.

At a time when young adolescents need to read complex texts in all content areas, many students continue to have difficulty with the reading process. Yet, although good models of elementary reading instruction are available, middle schools have few models or resources to meet the needs of their growing numbers of struggling readers.