Public School Teachers Complete Yale Program
Yale National Fellows Lead Professional Efforts for Their Communities...
Fifty-seven public school teachers from sixteen school districts in nine states have completed national seminars and an Intensive Session as part of the Yale National Initiative to strengthen teaching in public schools®.
Thirty five of the Yale National Fellows came from school districts that are planning or exploring the establishment of a new Teachers Institute for the Bay Area, CA; Chicago, IL; the Diné Nation, AZ and NM; Pittsburgh, PA; Richmond, VA; San José, CA; and Tulsa, OK. Other National Fellows came from existing Teachers Institutes located in Charlotte, NC; New Castle County, DE; New Haven, CT; and Philadelphia, PA. Overall, more than half of the Yale National Fellows were participating for the first time.
The purposes of the national seminars are to provide public school teachers deeper knowledge of the subjects they teach and first-hand experience with the Teachers Institute approach to high-quality professional development. This increases their leadership in an existing Teachers Institute or prepares them to lead the development of a new Teachers Institute. Each teacher writes a curriculum unit to teach his or her students about the seminar subject and to share with other teachers in their school district and, over the Internet, with teachers anywhere. The curriculum units implement academic standards of the teachers’ school districts and assist the teachers in engaging and educating the students in their school courses.
The 2014 seminars, which began in early May and concluded in mid-August, were:
- "Understanding History and Society through Images, 1776-1914," led by Timothy J. Barringer, Professor of History of Art;
- "Playing with Poems: Rules, Tools, and Games," led by Langdon L. Hammer, Professor of English;
- "Immigration and Migration and the Making of a Modern American City," led by Mary T. Y. Lui, Professor of History and of American Studies;
- "Eloquence," led by Joseph R. Roach, Sterling Professor of Theater and Professor of English, of African American Studies, and of American Studies;
- "Place Value, Fractions, and Algebra: Improving Content Learning through the Practice Standards," led by Roger E. Howe, Professor of Mathematics; and
- "Microbes Rule!" led by Paul E. Turner, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
Participants, who lived on the Yale campus during the two-week Intensive Session in July, included the Yale National Fellows and also college and university faculty members from institutions that are partners, or prospective partners, in a local Teachers Institute.
A National Fellow served as the Coordinator of each seminar. The Coordinators were Carol P. Boynton and Crecia Cipriano of New Haven; Sydney H. Coffin of Philadelphia; Barbara A. Prillaman and Nancy Rudolph of New Castle County, Delaware; and Valerie J. Schwarz of Richmond, Virginia.
Between July 7 and 18 Fellows attended ten two-hour daily meetings of their seminars and conferred individually with their seminar leaders. Between July 7 and 10 visiting faculty took part in a four-day program for individuals who have led or may lead local Teachers Institute seminars. They observed national seminars and learned about faculty roles within an Institute. They met with national seminar leaders about what they observed, and with other experienced seminar leaders about the seminar and curriculum unit writing process.
The teams from each location that is planning or considering a Teachers Institute conferred with the Director of the Yale National Initiative, James R. Vivian, about the potential for establishing a local Teachers Institute and other ways their experience at Yale might assist them and their school district. At the conclusion of the Intensive Session, seven Fellows were named their districts’ teacher Representatives for the coming year. The Representatives, who have responsibility for planning and implementing Initiative activities locally and nationally, are:
| Cheree M. Charmello | Pittsburgh Public Schools, PA |
| Molly A. Myers | Chicago Public Schools, Chicago, IL |
| Valerie J. Schwarz | Richmond Public Schools, Richmond, VA |
| Jolene R. Smith | Kayenta School District, Diné Nation, AZ and NM |
| Sara Stillman | Emery Unified and Brisbane School Districts, CA |
| Vanessa Vitug | East Side Union and Mt. Pleasant School Districts, San José, CA |
| Krista B. Waldron | Tulsa Public Schools, Tulsa, OK |
Superintendents and other local school officials will accompany the National Fellows when they return to Yale for the Annual Conference on October 31-November 1.
The Yale National Initiative to strengthen teaching in public schools, now in its tenth year, is a long-term endeavor to influence public policy on teacher professional development, in part by establishing exemplary Teachers Institutes for high-need schools in states around the country. Following the approach developed in New Haven and implemented in other cities, it builds upon the success of a four-year National Demonstration Project.
Teachers Institutes are educational partnerships between universities and school districts designed to strengthen teaching and learning in a community’s high-need public schools. Evaluations have shown that the Institute approach exemplifies the characteristics of high-quality teacher professional development, enhances teacher quality in the ways known to improve student achievement, and encourages participants to remain in teaching in their schools.
Yale National Initiative®, Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute®, and League of Teachers Institutes® are registered trademarks of Yale University.