Improving K-12 Education

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Center for the Support of Excellence in Teaching

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Center for the Support of Excellence in Teaching

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INVESTING IN TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT:
The Center to Support Excellence in Teaching

The facts are clear: The higher the quality of the teacher, the greater a student’s progress. To improve K–12 education, investing in teachers—and their continued development—is one of the best places to start.

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Stanford is forging a model center for teacher professional development to help K–12 educators enrich their understanding of the subjects they teach and improve their mastery of strategies to engage all learners. The Center to Support Excellence in Teaching (CSET) will draw on both the deep expertise of faculty in our top-rated School of Education and the rich disciplinary knowledge that resides in the university as a whole.

Working with Stanford’s distinguished faculty, teachers will be able to explore ideas at the forefront of specific subject areas, from biology and geometry to English literature and world history. They will also be able to explore how children develop their understanding of such topics and receive the instructional guidance and sustained support they need to help all students learn to their highest potential. CSET promises to reenergize K–12 teachers and renew their passion for the subjects they teach—helping them become more effective and more inspiring in the classroom.

Professor Pam Grossman, a member of the K-12 faculty steering committee, is helping lead efforts to develop the Center for the Support of Excellence in Teaching.

Initial programs will focus on some of the most critical needs in K–12 classrooms, improving instruction in middle school math, high school humanities, and science at all grade levels, with special attention to the needs of English-language learners in each area. Ultimately, CSET seeks to offer a broad spectrum of exemplary professional development programs and rich curricular resources to support classroom instruction. Intensive summer residency programs targeting key disciplines are also planned.

Few existing professional development programs combine the critical elements that have been proven to make a meaningful difference in the classroom: a focus on subject matter and how best to teach it, sustained support and follow-up, and opportunities for collegial interaction. CSET will deliver high-quality professional development programs carefully structured to make a measurable difference in the classroom. By integrating in-depth evaluation into of all of its work, the center will also contribute new knowledge about effective strategies for teacher learning and educational change.

CSET PILOT PROGRAMS

In 2010, CSET will launch a Stanford-designed professional development program that prepares middle school math teachers to become instructional leaders, or coaches. The unique program helps teachers internalize a deep understanding of the mathematical reasoning process. They apply that understanding to formulate lesson plans and instructional practices that draw on students’ high-level problem-solving skills. They then serve as coaches, helping all math teachers in their schools adopt the approach. The program is tailored for linguistically and culturally diverse schools and provides more than two years of preparation and support.

A 2007 survey of San Francisco Bay Area schools revealed that elementary school teachers feel less prepared to teach science than any other subject and have few opportunities to improve their preparation. Tapping into the Stanford’s extensive knowledge base in the natural sciences and the Stanford Teacher Education Program’s expertise in science education, CSET aims to turn that around. Summer workshops backed by an ongoing support network will help teachers master the concepts in the K–8 science curriculum and the process of inquiry that is fundamental to scientific discovery.

For more information on Center for the Support of Excellence in Teaching contact
Pam Grossman

To learn more about how to support Center for the Support of Excellence in Teaching contact
Heather Coleman Trippel