Professional Development Academies

Introduction

Since 1998, INTASC has conducted a series of professional development academies in conjunction with the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) and Alverno College. They are designed to meet the needs of K-12 teachers, teacher educators, and policy makers who are interested in improving teacher preparation, beginning teacher induction, and district-wide mentoring programs through a standards-based approach. Experienced academy facilitators provide participants with ideas and strategies for improving teacher preparation, for assessing beginning teachers through the use of performance assessment, and for supporting teachers and improving their classroom instruction.

2004 Academies

INTASC hosted two academies in 2004:

  • Building Effective Standards-Based Teacher Mentoring and Induction Programs
  • Building Effective Standards-Based Teacher Preparation Assessment Systems

In Building Effective Standards-Based Teacher Mentoring and Induction Programs, participants developed a deep understanding of the INTASC Core Principles and how they can be used to build quality mentoring and induction programs through gathering evidence about teaching, conferring with beginning teachers about their teaching, and by recommending professional development interventions that will bring about improvement in the teaching knowledge and skill of beginning educators.  Academy participants examined and explored the components of effective mentoring and induction programs including

  • characteristics of effective mentoring
  • how to align your approach to mentoring to the beginning teacher’s needs
  • focus on K-12 students' learning
  • techniques for gathering data to analyze teaching
  • facilitating beginning teacher professional development
  • the critical issues your induction and mentoring program must address

In Building Effective Standards-Based Teacher Preparation Assessment Systems, participants learned how to use the INTASC Core Principles to build defensible teacher candidate assessment systems. Participants

  • deepened their understanding of the INTASC Core Principles for beginning teachers
  • examined samples of effective performance assessments used in teacher education program
  • learned strategies for developing an assessment plan for a teacher education program
  • learned strategies for collaborating with IHE colleagues to improve teacher preparation assessment systems

The Academies and No Child Left Behind (NCLB)

The INTASC Academies met the definition of high-quality professional development as required in NCLB by

  • giving teachers, principals, and administrators the knowledge and skills to provide students with the opportunity to meet challenging state academic content standards and student academic achievement standards
  • supporting the recruiting, hiring, and training of highly qualified teachers, including teachers who become highly qualified through state and local alternative routes to certification
  • providing instruction in the use of data and assessments to inform and instruct classroom practice (Title IX, section 9101(34) of ESEA)

Frequently Asked Questions

For answers to frequently asked questions about INTASC and the Academies, please click here. If you need more information, please contact David Paradise at davidp@ccsso.org or 202-336-7068

last updated 8/21/2009




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Printed from: http://www.ccsso.org/projects/Interstate_New_Teacher_Assessment_and_Support_Consortium/Projects/Professional_Development_Academies/index.cfm