The Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute has launched a national initiative to improve classroom teaching in U.S. public schools. The effort, which is being underwritten by a $2.5 million grant from the DeWitt Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, seeks to duplicate in other cities the successful professional development program Yale started 20 years ago in partnership with the nearby New Haven schools.
The Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute was established in 1978 to improve teaching in New Haven schools. Studies have shown that over the past two decades the institute's professional development programs have helped public school teachers improve classroom preparation, heighten expectations of their students, raise morale, improve teacher retention and enhance student performance.
The program stresses that teachers from Yale and New Haven are professional colleagues with a strong common interest in the teaching and learning of their students, explains James R. Vivian, founding director of the Teachers Institute. Teachers poll their colleagues to determine seminar topics they are interested in, and Yale faculty members who are experts in the proposed topics are invited to serve as seminar leaders.
On admission to the program, New Haven teachers become fellows of the institute and members of the Yale community, with access to University facilities and resources. Fellows attend five-month spring and summer seminars on the topic of their choice and pursue individual projects that culminate in the creation of curricular material.
About 80 teachers are currently participating in seven seminars on topics ranging from "American Political Thought" to "Contemporary Astronomy and Space Science." Over the years, 435 teachers -- or over one-third of all current New Haven middle and high school teachers -- have taken part in the program.
"The Teachers Institute is truly one of Yale's jewels and an impressive example for other cities and universities around the country," says President Richard C. Levin.
Gerald N. Tirozzi, assistant secretary of elementary and secondary education in the U.S. Department of Education, concurs: "The Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute has been a beacon of hope for what is possible when a significant partner and an enlightened school district commit to working closely and cooperatively together to enhance teaching and to improve the teaching-learning process.
To launch its national initiative, the Teachers Institute has selected five universities to receive $20,000 planning grants. Each will work with local public schools to develop a demonstration project based on the Yale model. The grant recipients are: Carnegie Mellon University/Chatham College; the University of California at Irvine; the University of California at Santa Cruz; the University of Houston; and the University of New Mexico. All five universities will be eligible for three-year implementation grants ranging from $300,000 to $500,000, which will be awarded in December.
M. Christine DeVita, president of the DeWitt Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, notes: "As a grantmaking organization focused on improving education opportunities for young people -- especially for those growing up in low-income communities - the key to our work is finding ways to share exemplary programs and ideas with other places that have similar needs. This project is an opportunity to see if the lessons developed over the years by the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute can be successfully used by other school districts to make improvements in teaching."
Vivian says: "The support the DeWitt Wallace Reader's Digest Fund has awarded for the Teacher Institute's national demonstration project will guarantee that the fruits of our experience are not limited to New Haven, and that the seeds they contain are planted and cultivated in other cities across the country. The fund has made a strategic and timely grant to ensure that educational partnerships of this type will play a leading role in strengthening teaching and learning in urban public schools that enroll a high proportion of students from low-income families."
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