How does it work ?

Program faculty, staff and expert consultants will work with the cohort of educator teams from each of the participating middle schools to deliver a series of intense professional development programs through a blended delivery approach including face-to-face sessions, school-based study group sessions and online discussions, support and instructional components.  The curriculum has been designed to provide middle school team’s opportunities to develop an in-depth understanding of highly effective instructional interventions in math, science and literacy for low performing student needs and utilize teacher leadership in sharing acquired understandings with other faculty.  Study groups will be a key component used to collectively develop a vision for the implementation of the various components at their school.  The program has been developmentally designed to allow for implementation results to be extended to teachers and administrators across the entire school.  The stories, strategies, and results will be shared with other middle school colleagues and university faculty at the end of the first year. 

All teachers will participate in a 30 hour Reading Institute which includes 24 hours of reading in their content area, a 15-hour Summer Institute on a Solution-Focused Approach to Curriculum Design and Balanced Literacy, and 15 hours of professional development in Technology-Enhanced Educational Applications for Today’s Learners.  They will also have 30 hours of Discipline Specific Course Work. The administrators on the teams will also be engaged in selected sessions with their teachers and in modules specifically designed for Instructional Leaders and providing school-wide approaches to improving the learning of middle school students and recruiting and retaining quality teachers.