Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
Project Title
For a teacher-led professional learning initiative
Date
Mar. 03, 2016
Duration
17 months
Description
Educators are experts who have the professional experience and prowess to steer or accelerate positive change at the school, district and state level. However, many teachers are not provided with the platform, resources, or training to lead transformational change in education or their communities. That is, in part, why the Teach to Lead initiative was set up as an effort of the U.S. Department of Education and the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards to advance educational outcomes by expanding opportunities for teacher leadership, particularly those that allow teachers to remain in the classroom and in their profession. While Teach to Lead has engaged, supported and served as an incubator for teacher leadership ideas, teacher leaders need additional support and resources to take their action plans to the next level. A critical next step in achieving this goal is to directly fund teacher leaders’ ideas and action plans. A new program led by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) Learning Solutions, a global leader in developing and delivering innovative programs, products, and services that empower educators to support the success of each learner, will provide direct grants to teachers to fund their own teacher-led, professional learning initiatives. These ASCD “Teacher Impact Grants,” will build on the success of the Teach to Lead initiative providing the flexibility, funding, and evaluation support necessary to meet the unique needs of promising individual teacher-led projects emerging from the Teach to Lead summits, labs, and online idea platform. The Corporation will join other foundations to support this initiative to empower teachers and amplify their voices towards working on stronger outcomes for all students.